One of the greatest thing about our Britsionary program, in my opinion, is the fact that not only does it build homes for those in need here in the area around Be Like Brit, but it builds lasting friendships and bonds between volunteers, and helps to develop a love and an interest in Haiti and in helping in whatever way one can. As a result of these bonds and this love-affair with Haiti, many of our Britsionarys are returning for a second, third, or even seventh time since we opened the doors at BLB as a home for children! Being the only American working for Be Like Brit in Haiti on a full-time basis, it's nice to be able to develop relationships with our Britsionarys, and having familiar faces visiting BLB certainly helps in some of those longer, more stressful weeks! This week was an example of old friends coming to visit!
We have friends and supporters from all over the world, though this week's group was made up of what I believe to be our "northern most friends". The group hails largely from Canada, and we are so grateful to our friend and champion Jill for being such an ardent supporter of our work in Haiti. Jill has been to Be Like Brit a total of 3 times as a Medical Britsionary, and has worked to spread awareness and attention to our work in her home of Halifax. We actually learned this week that Jill tells people about BLB while grocery shopping back home; telling people all about the work she does as a nurse here and recruiting others to check us out and to come to Haiti right along with her! It's wonderful to know that we have friends north of our borders, too, and we're so grateful to Jill and everyone else from Canada for making the long journey down to Haiti! Here's Jill taking a break from touring the local hospital in Grand Goâve, noting the ingenuity of the wheel chair she found in a hallway there...
We are so grateful to all of our Britsionarys, and this month, we welcomed the first two long-term volunteers of 2016! Dr. Mark Bloomberg and his wife Judy Bloomberg traveled to Haiti with this most recent Britsionary group, prepared to spend a month working at BLB to help in two very important areas of our programming. Mark, as a physician, will be conducting a full assessment of our medical clinic, including a mapping out of sorts of local medical resources and services, in order to help us in the strategic development and planning of expansion for our own medical services. One of the key pieces to being effective and efficient in Haiti (we believe) is to work as partners with other organizations in the area who are providing similar services, and knowing how to best share resources with each other. This is important to avoid a duplication of services or a redundancy in an area where medical care can be so difficult to find. Mark got to visit several places this past week, and spent a full morning at Haiti Arise clinic, while our own medical Britsionarys worked a clinic with the local Mission staff.
Judy brings with her a career as a school teachers, and is here to help our staff with educational strategies and initiatives designed to enrich our current curriculum and programs. Judy is a real go-getter, and wasted no time jumping in with both feet as soon as she arrived in Haiti. In her first week here, Judy was able to visit both of the schools our children attend to get a sense of the classroom environment and dynamics. In order to best assess and understand the challenges our children may face in school, it was important that Judy get a good look at the day to day reality for our children. Things like class size and even (as we saw this past week) political and civil unrest have an effect on school performance. We're thrilled that Judy was able to do this and start her assessment of our children so quickly, and are excited for what's to come of her working with our staff and children more closely!
We pride ourselves as an organization on our commitment to the local community, and the Britsionary program is a great way to connect us as an organization to our friends and neighbors in the area around us. This does not happen only through the home-building project which takes up the first half of each day while a Britsionary group is here with us, but in the afternoon outings where we venture out to a variety of places to connect on a more personal level with our community. This past week, we traveled to the very elevated, very beautiful area up above Grand Goâve, a place called St. Martin. Father Brice of St. Francis of Assisi here in Grand Goâve has just finished building a church on the mountain, the replacement to that one broken during the earthquake over six years ago.
We were thrilled to get the opportunity to play a game of soccer with some of the children there when we visited. For weeks, every time we visit this area, we notice a small group of children playing soccer with a very rugged, very worn soccer ball. We take note of that each time, and tell ourselves to bring a new soccer ball up for these boys and girls to play with. We finally remembered this past week, and the result was priceless!!!
It was an incredible week to be in Haiti, especially so because not only did we bring many friends together from Canada and the USA, but our good friend Gama and his family celebrated the inauguration of his own Mission, Tree of Hope Haiti, which they have been working to complete over the course of the past few years. I know that Len and Cherylann are so very proud of Gama, and are so grateful to him for the work he's done here at BLB for them and for Britney's memory. It was such a pleasure for our group and a group of our children to be able to attend this very special event. Be Like Brit looks forward to working together with TOHH helping the children of Haiti in the future.
We also want to thank you for your thoughts and your prayers in the passing of Len's nephew, and Britney, Bernie, and Richie's cousin, Tommy. He fought a courageous battle for more than 9 years, and is now at peace. We know that Brit was there to welcome Tommy.
Until next weeks, keep your thoughts and prayers with the people of Haiti as we watch with careful eyes the events around the political situation. Thank you for helping us help the children of Haiti at Be Like Brit!!!
