By Karen Wienberg | Chair, Board of Directors
As we move toward the end of another school year - and look forward to options of continued learning through Summer School and Summer Vocational training - we celebrate our most recent Vocational and Skills training graduates! It was exciting to shop for tools for three of our youth who graduated from vocational skills training program to work in specialized construction areas. We have also had a recent graduate with a diploma in ‘Windows for Computers’ - at his graduation ceremony, Juno’s teacher spoke to his work drive and wise temperament. Then Juno gave a speech to thank LFBS for supporting his progress through all of his learning!
A group of 8 youth that we've been encouraging and working with, were able to join alongside our construction team and help build a family a home! It is not only a learning experience for these young men but also an opportunity to help others. The homes are built where the family lives…even if that is up remote mountainsides and requires carrying all of the building materials, tools, ladders, cement, paint, etc up steep rocky trails! The confidence and new found self-esteem from learning what you can do, can change everything.
New crops, new market business! Our agronomist has been working to make parents of children in our programs more self-sustainable. This former street child is now able to help his mother sell cabbage produced in their own garden! We are thrilled to see the parents in our business start up program having such success! This is definitely a program we need to continue to grow - most children are abandoned into orphanages or end up on the streets simply because their parents don't have the economic stability to care for them. So empowering that these parents can help protect their children!
Sustainable nutrition is also the focus of our Agronomist as he works with families across the southwest villages. With crops once again growing following the devistation of Hurricane Matthew, we have been able to reintroduce livestock to our families there. We are so grateful for our committed staff who worked long hours over weekends to ensure families in the Grande Anse region received pairs of goats and the children had their school fees paid for the remainder of this school year! In April, we were thrilled to provide several reunited families in Pestel region with sheep. Once the animals have babies, the youth who received them will share their livestock with other families!
Medical supplies arrived in time to restock our small pharmacy. Medical patients of all ages are supported through our Outreach program to pediatric wards of local general hospital, home visits from our medical team and LFBS Medical Outreach Clinics. Along with the children in the villages and those in our care, we have children referred to us by IBESR (Haiti Social Services), Terre des Hommes, Ministry for Women's Rights, foreign doctors volunteering in the hospital, etc.
Ensuring continued team and capacity building, we undertook a brief trip to Ile a Vache for LFBS staff. We were able to visit, firsthand, the Business Start-up Program our partners Haven Organization have created on the island, and also had the chance to do some team bonding and appreciate mother nature's beauty of their country. Additionally, 7 LFBS staff members attended Train-the-Trainer Micro Finance workshop to further strengthen their capacity in the Outreach work they do for small business start-ups and family self-sufficiency and sustainability guidance.
Always happy to share LFBS work and inspire others around the world, LFBS Head of Operations, Morgan, and one of our Haitian staff traveled to Canada in April. While in Whitehorse, in Canada’s far northern territory of the Yukon, they met with supporters, spoke at Rotary Club meetings and schools and the videography team that will be producing a full feature documentary. Then on to Vancouver, British Columbia where Morgan was a key note speaker at Rose International Conference. The conference theme was Maintaining Compassion in a Fractured World. Morgan also led two breakout sessions focused on Cultural Competency and Sustainable Empowerment. Morgan was then key note speaker at Rotary District Conference in Michigan, where the organizers of that event noted that “We’ve never seen a speaker touch so many hearts as Morgan did today in all the years we have been attending conferences”.
Thank you, our supporters and team members, for making this possible! Whose lives will you touch and change through your support and care? Follow us on Facebook at 'Little Footprints, Big Steps' and on our website at www.littlefootprintsbigsteps.com.
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