Dear Friends of the What If? Foundation,

It’s been 6 months since the devastating January 12^th earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  I’ll never forget that Tuesday afternoon and the shock and grief we all felt with the news that poured in about the tremendous destruction and the 300,000 people who lost their lives.  While there was an exhale of relief and a feeling of tremendous gratitude when the news came in that our Haitian partners and those we serve in the Tiplas Kazo neighborhood had survived, there was such deep sorrow for the extraordinary suffering being experienced throughout Haiti’s capital.

Since that time, I wish I could tell you that things are getting better for the majority of people in Port-au-Prince, but that is not the case.  Lavarice Gaudin, our program liaison, has been in Haiti since the earthquake and tells us that signs of clearing the rubble and rebuilding are difficult to find. The National Palace is still slumped on its side, and almost all the buildings that were reduced to piles of concrete and twisted metal by the earthquake remain untouched.  Little has changed since my visit to Haiti in April (click here to see photos from this trip).

There are now more than 1,000 camps in the city, where an estimated 1.5 million displaced Haitians live without electricity, without adequate sanitation, without any reliable sources of food and water.  There is pressure to relocate the camps, since most of them are on private property.  But there is no place for the people who live in them to go.  The hurricane season has started, the rains are coming, and children and their parents and grandparents are living in the mud, under leaky tarps and tents.  The conditions are horrendous, as you can imagine.

But in the Tiplas Kazo neighborhood, where the food and education programs we fund take place, there is hope thanks to the 3,000 hot meals that are served out of the St. Clare’s rectory each weekday to children and adults (many of whom live across the street in a tent community).  And you cannot imagine how important the 200 school scholarships and the upcoming summer camp are to the children who have endured so much since the earthquake. They cannot wait for camp to start in August!

Thank you for holding Haiti in your thoughts and prayers over the last six months and for your generosity in supporting these programs in Port-au-Prince.  We are so grateful for all we have been able to do to help so many since the earthquake, and we could not have done it without the help of you, our donors and friends.  On behalf of all the children and adults in the Tiplas Kazo neighborhood, Meci Anpil.  (Thank you so much!)

With love,  Margaret