One of the many
activities undertaken by the Christian Light Foundation in Haiti is a
project to help some of the poorer citizens of Haiti find employment.
As we have discussed in our WigJig newsletters in the past one of the
tasks has been training Haitians to make jewelry by hand using among
other tools our WigJig tools. This project seems to be
successful as they have just received an order for 750 sets of
earrings and necklaces. The sets of necklaces can be viewed
below.
If anyone would like to donate to the jewelry workers, they can contact Lynn Bowen. Her address is Lynn Bowen; P.O. Box 350821; Jacksonville, FL 32235 and her e-mail is llbowen@bellsouth.net. Contributions to this effort are not currently tax deductible. You can also purchase sets of this jewelry by contacting Lynn. Lynn also encourages people to consider tax deductible contributions to the missionary who started this project among others. You can read about the efforts of this missionary in Lynn's own words: "If people want to contribute, I would like them to contribute to the missionary who got the whole thing started. Her name is Sherrie Fausey. Tax deductible contributions can be make to Christian Light Foundation, P. O. Box 16791, Jacksonville, FL 32245-6791. Just put her name in the memo section so they know which missionary the money will go to. I have known Sherrie for about 17 years. She took early retirement from teaching and went to Haiti about 5 years ago (or has it been six - time flies) to teach missionary children so that they would not have to leave their parents and go to the US in order to get a good education. She did this for a year or two, and at the same time learned some of the language and the culture, made contacts with local pastors and generally fit into the community. She then realized that her call was to the Haitian children, and she started a school. She rented a house in a slum area and set up the first class there. (In Haiti, you pay rent in advance for the whole year! How many Americans could do that?) She and a pastor in the neighborhood selected 20 children to start pre-school. The ladies of Parkwood Baptist Church in Jacksonville made 3 sets of uniforms for each child. One of the ways cultures can deny education to the poor is to make requirements that cannot be met. If you barely make enough to eat, how can you afford a uniform? And everyone going to school in Haiti must wear a uniform. Each year Sherrie has added a grade level, and now has pre-school through 2nd grade with all Haitian teachers. All children are taught English, and in 1st grade the instruction is entirely in English. Knowing English will give them a better opportunity to get a job when they are adults. They will be taught French in 3rd grade, because French is the official language of Haiti. The language at home is Creole, which is based on French, but often quite different. The curriculum used is the ABeka Christian home school curriculum, which is quite demanding. The children are receiving 2 sets of uniforms now because of the great expense. They also receive immunizations and daily vitamins. Some have received dental care for rotten baby teeth. They are given breakfast before school starts, and lunch. Some Americans had sent a lot of packages of macaroni and cheese and cans of Spam and other brands of lunch meat. So when I was there in December, Sherrie decided to use up some of it because Haitians wouldn't know what to do with the boxes of macaroni and cheese, and the Spam would be a good protein. So I made up the macaroni one day for lunch and the spam the next day. Whew! Because it was unfamiliar food, some of the children would not eat it, but even more amazing was that some of the teachers wouldn't eat it either! I had to laugh at them for that! Just running this school would be enough for most people, but Sherrie has expanded her ministry over and over again. She has a feeding program for children too young to come to school. They come to the school yard and play for an hour with toys they would never otherwise see, or color with crayons, etc, then they get lunch. That group leaves and another group comes and eats first and then plays. Sherrie built a shelter in the yard for them to sit under to eat. Another program she has started is a visiting nurse program. A young Haitian woman wants to be a nurse, and Sherrie is training her in this program. She takes prenatal vitamins to the pregnant women in the neighborhood, and teaches them about hygiene and baby care. When the baby comes, she provides vitamins and other help (including milk from dry powder) to the mother. They don't just give the mother a supply of these items, because they just don't know and understand enough to use them right. If one drop of vitamin in the milk is good, then 10 or 12 might be even better - that kind of thinking. They also tend to make pudding from the dry powder instead of milk, and it tastes terrible when it is that thick. In addition, Sherrie teaches 2 classes in English to adults Haitians, and has started literacy training in Creole for adults in the neighborhood. This is all in addition to her Bible studies and other teaching. If a person wants to sponsor a child in school where they would get a picture and samples of their work and letters once the child can write, the cost is $35 per month. If they want to sponsor one of the children too young for school, the cost is $25 per month. Of course, any amount and one time gifts are welcome. Sherrie comes to the US in the summer and is available for speaking engagements in churches or to civic groups. You can e-mail her directly at fausianno@yahoo.com. Of, if someone wants to call me, my phone is 904-993-1890." Our WigJig family contributes to a different charity every
month. We have chosen this effort to be our charity for the
month of March 2005. |
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