| The Alliance of Christian Athletics of Haiti |
| Internally Displaced Creole Fund |
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AACH, Inc.
610 Lewis Keith Rd.
Monroe, VA 24574
434.384.4920
haitisportsoutreach.net
info@haitisportsoutreach.net
610 Lewis Keith Rd.
Monroe, VA 24574
434.384.4920
haitisportsoutreach.net
info@haitisportsoutreach.net
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| Internally Displaced Creole Fund Restoration Project - Haiti |
| Using the universal language of sport to take the Hope to the cities, towns and provinces and on to the ends of Haiti. |
Rising From The Rubble
On Saturday, Feb 13, 2010, AACH was asked to come to Washington DC to meet with
Wilson Louis, the Mayor of Citi Soleil. One of Port Au Prince’s major boroughs, Citi Soleil
houses many of Haiti’s poorest of the poor. There are very few multistory buildings in this area,
so the quake did not deliver the same level of devastation here. However, the unchanged
situation for Mayor Louis’s municipality is still more desperate than most could imagine. Those
in attendance were: Mayor Louis and a small delegation, Ian Moore, AACH CEO, Noelle Funk,
AACH Treasurer, and Haiti’s Ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph. Also present
was a logistics management firm working with the US Southern Command, and Patrick
Edeline, a possible appointee for Haiti’s Recovery Czar and nephew of Georges Edeline, AACH
Coaching Director.
Ambassador Joseph gave a summary of his short tour in Port Au Prince on the one month
anniversary of the earthquake, in which he saw an immediate need for shelter and the growing
concern about the impending hurricane season. The Ambassador also bemoaned the fact that
a month after the quake no one seemed to be in charge. Many entities, including the United
Nations, the Red Cross, and many foreign nations, seemed to be in competition instead of in
concert causing the back log of aid at the airport. For instance, just the day before a large
percentage of the rice that was stored at the airport was made unusable by rain. Mayor Louis
reiterated that the primary short term need was food and the whole assembly was horrified at
the loss. Adding insult to injury, it was divulged that the World Food Program had set up a
feeding center in Citi Soleil, a city of hundreds of thousands of people, to serve 1700 a day and
sadly it is now closed. It was heartbreaking to hear of the slow progress, however progress is
being made.
Haiti needs everyone and everything the world can muster to its aid, but various aid
agencies must talk to each other. No longer can we create “in our own image” our own little
piece of Haiti. It is imperative to Haiti’s future that we enable her to carve out her own destiny
and resist the urge to re-colonize. Before the earthquake, Haiti’s church was alive and vibrant,
her economy was finally moving and her government was fairly stable for the first time in
decades, even centuries. Haiti can rise from the rubble better than it has ever been if we, the
well intentioned, stand behind her and not in her way.
Clinic Up and Running - 2-8-10
Opal Golden, Pastor Gedeon Augustin the director of AACH's Internally Displaced Creole
Fund and a group of our partners in Haiti worked over the weekend to set up and supply a, tent
based, medical clinic in Port Au Prince. The facility is in a small vacant lot and consists of a
large circus type canopy that serves as the waiting room and a smaller, "outfitter’s" tent for a
treatment room. Her group arrived on Friday to help re-establish the clinic that is run by Dr.
Patrick Jeudy, who was in practice long before the quake. However, his building had been
made unusable and he had been forced to operate under a tarp.
The new facility, while far from idea, allows for some pretence of sterility that will combat the
plague of infection that is haunting Haiti’s medical community in the aftermath of January 12.
The supplies we delivered will be used up in short order and we will need to resupply soon.
This kind of ministry is now to AACH so please pray that God guide our steps supple our needs.
Pastor Gedeon opened the facility Sunday evening with a small worship service and it
seemed very fitting that we opened by addressing the spiritual needs of the community before
the first patients began to line up Monday morning. Praise the God for his provision!
On The Ground - 7:00 a.m. 2-5-10
The AACH administrative team made of Opal Golden, Rob Benjamin and Ron Moore just
crossed into Haiti from the Dominican Republic. The have with them about 500 lbs of medical
supplies and tents, including: a large outfitters tent to serve as a medical center, an autoclave
to sterilize instruments, and various medical instruments, bandages, and medicines. We were
also able to send four mini computers to aid in communication and mini projectors for outreach
opportunities.
Ron left from Ft Lauderdale and arrived in the DR at around 6 and Opal and Rob flew out of
Philadelphia where they meet Ian Moore with a van load of supplies to add to the van load they
already had. In the Denny’s parking lot everything was unpacked prioritized weighed and
repacked. They rushed off to the airport, checked in and made it to their gate with about 10
minutes to spare.
Arriving in the DR at 10:30, they were met by Ron Moore and the three of them went to their
hotel, if you could call it that, and watched the clock until 2:00 a.m., when their ride to the USAID
bus was to pick them up. They made it to the bus and after leaving Santo Domingo at 3 they
crossed into Haiti at 7:00 and should be in Port Au Prince by 10. The medical supplies we sent
should be in use within hours after they get into the Capitol.
Doing What We Can Do
"Sometimes I feel like I cannot do this anymore, the bodies of children, even babies lie
discarded in the road. I go to my house to pick up some things but I am over come as I
realize how many of my neighbors and friends are no longer, but then I drop to my knees
and I am given strength. I was told to make sure I get some rest and take care of myself,
but when I stop I have to accept the horrors of this new reality. So, I keep moving, offering
what I can offer, helping where I can help and doing what I can do."
Pastor Gedeon Augustin
Director - Internally Displaced Creole Fund
AACH, Inc.
Gedeon is my friend. We have worked together since 2003 when we first experimented with
sports outreach together. Like Opal Golden, another AACH confounder, Gedeon is a middle
school teacher and now, a pastor. He has been the primary force in the development of our
Christian education and evangelism programs and now in the aftermath of January 12th he
has stepped into the position Director of the Internally Displaced Creole Fund.
To date the fund has under its direction a medical clinic in Port Au Prince, a small but ever
expanding refugee community in Les Cayes and is helping to oversee family reunification
efforts being made by Haitian radio stations.
We would like to one day get back to writing Bible school lessons and sponsoring soccer
teams, but that seems like such a long time ago when that was our concern. Our reality is
different now. Seven years ago Gedeon help us build a ministry, now it is our turn to help him
rebuild his people.
In Him - For Haiti,
Ian Moore,
Cofounder/CEO
AACH, Inc.
Hurricane Season and Post-Quake Haiti
There is a growing fear among those of us who have th luxury of not struggling the day to day
for survival that hurricane season is fast approaching and 3 million without shelter are in its
path. On the surface, our little organization cannot hope to be even a drop in a bucket compared
to the scale of this issue. However, it is because of the scale that every drop counts. AACH has
been on the front lines with and as part of the displaced people in Haiti. Because this is our
problem it is ours to solve. Immediate needs are shelter, even temporary is better than none.
Next, before the rains come in the fall, more permanent structures that can endure the gale
force winds and heavy rains. Finally, investment must be made to address Haiti's
environmental integrity. Over 90% deforestation makes attention to the environmental concerns
a ligament focus of long term humanitarian efforts.
www.restorationprojecthaiti.org
On Saturday, Feb 13, 2010, AACH was asked to come to Washington DC to meet with
Wilson Louis, the Mayor of Citi Soleil. One of Port Au Prince’s major boroughs, Citi Soleil
houses many of Haiti’s poorest of the poor. There are very few multistory buildings in this area,
so the quake did not deliver the same level of devastation here. However, the unchanged
situation for Mayor Louis’s municipality is still more desperate than most could imagine. Those
in attendance were: Mayor Louis and a small delegation, Ian Moore, AACH CEO, Noelle Funk,
AACH Treasurer, and Haiti’s Ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph. Also present
was a logistics management firm working with the US Southern Command, and Patrick
Edeline, a possible appointee for Haiti’s Recovery Czar and nephew of Georges Edeline, AACH
Coaching Director.
Ambassador Joseph gave a summary of his short tour in Port Au Prince on the one month
anniversary of the earthquake, in which he saw an immediate need for shelter and the growing
concern about the impending hurricane season. The Ambassador also bemoaned the fact that
a month after the quake no one seemed to be in charge. Many entities, including the United
Nations, the Red Cross, and many foreign nations, seemed to be in competition instead of in
concert causing the back log of aid at the airport. For instance, just the day before a large
percentage of the rice that was stored at the airport was made unusable by rain. Mayor Louis
reiterated that the primary short term need was food and the whole assembly was horrified at
the loss. Adding insult to injury, it was divulged that the World Food Program had set up a
feeding center in Citi Soleil, a city of hundreds of thousands of people, to serve 1700 a day and
sadly it is now closed. It was heartbreaking to hear of the slow progress, however progress is
being made.
Haiti needs everyone and everything the world can muster to its aid, but various aid
agencies must talk to each other. No longer can we create “in our own image” our own little
piece of Haiti. It is imperative to Haiti’s future that we enable her to carve out her own destiny
and resist the urge to re-colonize. Before the earthquake, Haiti’s church was alive and vibrant,
her economy was finally moving and her government was fairly stable for the first time in
decades, even centuries. Haiti can rise from the rubble better than it has ever been if we, the
well intentioned, stand behind her and not in her way.
Clinic Up and Running - 2-8-10
Opal Golden, Pastor Gedeon Augustin the director of AACH's Internally Displaced Creole
Fund and a group of our partners in Haiti worked over the weekend to set up and supply a, tent
based, medical clinic in Port Au Prince. The facility is in a small vacant lot and consists of a
large circus type canopy that serves as the waiting room and a smaller, "outfitter’s" tent for a
treatment room. Her group arrived on Friday to help re-establish the clinic that is run by Dr.
Patrick Jeudy, who was in practice long before the quake. However, his building had been
made unusable and he had been forced to operate under a tarp.
The new facility, while far from idea, allows for some pretence of sterility that will combat the
plague of infection that is haunting Haiti’s medical community in the aftermath of January 12.
The supplies we delivered will be used up in short order and we will need to resupply soon.
This kind of ministry is now to AACH so please pray that God guide our steps supple our needs.
Pastor Gedeon opened the facility Sunday evening with a small worship service and it
seemed very fitting that we opened by addressing the spiritual needs of the community before
the first patients began to line up Monday morning. Praise the God for his provision!
On The Ground - 7:00 a.m. 2-5-10
The AACH administrative team made of Opal Golden, Rob Benjamin and Ron Moore just
crossed into Haiti from the Dominican Republic. The have with them about 500 lbs of medical
supplies and tents, including: a large outfitters tent to serve as a medical center, an autoclave
to sterilize instruments, and various medical instruments, bandages, and medicines. We were
also able to send four mini computers to aid in communication and mini projectors for outreach
opportunities.
Ron left from Ft Lauderdale and arrived in the DR at around 6 and Opal and Rob flew out of
Philadelphia where they meet Ian Moore with a van load of supplies to add to the van load they
already had. In the Denny’s parking lot everything was unpacked prioritized weighed and
repacked. They rushed off to the airport, checked in and made it to their gate with about 10
minutes to spare.
Arriving in the DR at 10:30, they were met by Ron Moore and the three of them went to their
hotel, if you could call it that, and watched the clock until 2:00 a.m., when their ride to the USAID
bus was to pick them up. They made it to the bus and after leaving Santo Domingo at 3 they
crossed into Haiti at 7:00 and should be in Port Au Prince by 10. The medical supplies we sent
should be in use within hours after they get into the Capitol.
Doing What We Can Do
"Sometimes I feel like I cannot do this anymore, the bodies of children, even babies lie
discarded in the road. I go to my house to pick up some things but I am over come as I
realize how many of my neighbors and friends are no longer, but then I drop to my knees
and I am given strength. I was told to make sure I get some rest and take care of myself,
but when I stop I have to accept the horrors of this new reality. So, I keep moving, offering
what I can offer, helping where I can help and doing what I can do."
Pastor Gedeon Augustin
Director - Internally Displaced Creole Fund
AACH, Inc.
Gedeon is my friend. We have worked together since 2003 when we first experimented with
sports outreach together. Like Opal Golden, another AACH confounder, Gedeon is a middle
school teacher and now, a pastor. He has been the primary force in the development of our
Christian education and evangelism programs and now in the aftermath of January 12th he
has stepped into the position Director of the Internally Displaced Creole Fund.
To date the fund has under its direction a medical clinic in Port Au Prince, a small but ever
expanding refugee community in Les Cayes and is helping to oversee family reunification
efforts being made by Haitian radio stations.
We would like to one day get back to writing Bible school lessons and sponsoring soccer
teams, but that seems like such a long time ago when that was our concern. Our reality is
different now. Seven years ago Gedeon help us build a ministry, now it is our turn to help him
rebuild his people.
In Him - For Haiti,
Ian Moore,
Cofounder/CEO
AACH, Inc.
Hurricane Season and Post-Quake Haiti
There is a growing fear among those of us who have th luxury of not struggling the day to day
for survival that hurricane season is fast approaching and 3 million without shelter are in its
path. On the surface, our little organization cannot hope to be even a drop in a bucket compared
to the scale of this issue. However, it is because of the scale that every drop counts. AACH has
been on the front lines with and as part of the displaced people in Haiti. Because this is our
problem it is ours to solve. Immediate needs are shelter, even temporary is better than none.
Next, before the rains come in the fall, more permanent structures that can endure the gale
force winds and heavy rains. Finally, investment must be made to address Haiti's
environmental integrity. Over 90% deforestation makes attention to the environmental concerns
a ligament focus of long term humanitarian efforts.
www.restorationprojecthaiti.org
| Medical Clinics Refugee Ministry Family Reunification Long Term National Restoration |
