What an incredible week! For those of you who have followed along closely on facebook, you will have seen that not only did we have our friend and Board member Eileen on hand last week, but our Medical Director Susan has been with us for the past two weeks, Len, Cherylann, their youngest son Richie, and a Britsionary Group to boot! With so many hands on deck, it seems the options for exciting summer activities with the children at Be Like Brit have been endless! We're proud of and declare many successes every day here in Haiti, but this past week, with the help of our Britsionary group, we've been able to tackle one of the tasks we have been pushing for for a long time! Swimming lessons!
Our Britsionary groups always come to Haiti with the task of either building a home or fixing an existing structure as the primary focus of their work. As we have grown over the last twenty months, we've been working hard to try to find ways to better tap into the skills of the group who visit us here in Haiti and take better advantage of having a dozen or so more people along for those efforts! With Papi Len and Richie in Haiti for a while, we decided it would be best to pile into the bus each day with a group of children so that we could get them better acclimated to the water with one-on-one supervision.
We were so happy that the group was able to build a home for one of our employees, Yranie. Yranie was one of our first hires as a teacher, and after her first day on the job, came to us and told us quite honestly that she didn't think she had the ability to do what we wanted her to do. It's not often that you find someone honest enough to come forward and essentially tell you that they shouldn't be working for you because they felt they didn't have the skills we thought she did ~ After talking with her more we decided that someone of her integrity deserved a position, and she became our first support staff, in charge of keeping all of the children's clothes in order, ironed, sewing on buttons, repairing tears, and teaching the girls important life lessons they will need to know once they are grown and outside the walls of Be Like Brit. My heart was happy when I went down to meet Yranie's family and felt the joy and the love they so overwhelming exemplified. What a wonderful gift to a wonderful woman and family...
These daily outings turned out to be a Britsioanry favorite, and most of the group raved about how great the experience was! Not only did they get to enjoy the beautiful beaches that Haiti (really and truly!) has to offer, but they got to build trust and confidence with the children as they went from unsure, and sometimes downright terrified about being in the water to being brave, playful, and conquering their fears proudly with an audience of 20 or so of our friends! What a wonderful week for our Britsionarys and what great memories for our children!
As part of our Medical Britsionary program, we were so fortunate to have on hand this past week Mike and Michelle, a husband and wife team, both physicians, working alongside our own medical director Susan to be sure that our children are in good health and receiving all of the medical attention, prevention, and other needs to ensure their optimal health. Susan was instrumental in getting every one of our children and staff tested for TB, obtaining vaccinations per the World Health Organization standards and protocols, and administer preventative medications for other types of illness we don't necessarily have to think of back in the United States. Because of their hard work our children are in the best position possible to be sure they are safe, happy, and healthy!
We were so fortunate to have on hand the experts from the local hospital who wanted to come up to Be Like Brit to tour the facility and to meet all of our children! This connection was made back in January 2013 when Susan came down to Haiti to help Jonathan set up the medical clinic. Here, the charge nurse Marjorie, Susan, Dr. Anna Mirtha from Cuba, Rosenie, and Dr. Josy Morin from Port au Prince post in the clinic here at Brit's Orphanage! These great local connections are key to our successes, along with the support of our friends and followers, too!
Amanda has been off to a very busy start, too! Here's what she was up to this week at Be Like Brit
We have been very busy this week with lots of different activities for the kids. All of the donated computers from Kid Orange Tech in Boca Raton, FL have been set up and connected to the internet. With them, we can access the ABCmouse.com program that was donated to us by Peter Smith. This is a fantastic education program that I used in my classroom in the states and am very excited to be using with the children here at Be Like Brit. Through the use of this program, the children will be able to learn English and develop other academic abilities as well. Since it is computer generated, the studies have shown that the children should have very little accent when speaking English. Giving our kids the ability to speak English will not only give them a huge leg up in Haiti and make them more marketable to find jobs, but will also allow them potential opportunities worldwide in the future. We have great hope for a bright future for our 45 kids!
That being said, if we had more accessibility to the program for our kids then we would be able to allow more opportunities for the children to use the program. With only 7 computers and 45 children that need to use the program, not to mention meals, naps, and other activities and of course school also built into the schedule, we need to find a way to allow for the children to use the program more. We have previously mentioned that a great way to use the program would be on an iPad or another tablet or portable device. This would also allow for the computer room to be full and more children could go work in another room simultaneously. So if you are upgrading your current iPad or tablet and just don't know what to do with the old one, why not donate it so our kids can learn more and have more accessibility to this program that whenever they see me they say, "Amanda, ABCMouse?" so eager to have their opportunity to play! The excitement I see in each face that excites me and I would love to be able to say, "yes" to everyone who asks! Any donations in this area would be greatly appreciated and would allow me to be able to say "yes"!
We can't say enough how appreciative we are to all of you who continue to help us help the children of Haiti at Be Like Brit! God Bless, and have a great week!
