It is a beutiful morning in South Florida. Danyiel just returned from her work out, I am poise and focus since my return from Muscatine, IA where I taught an IBM business process management Proof Of Technology. I have created my project plan for the remainder of the calendar year for our non-profit school in Pompano Beach, fl
http://www.greenchildrenshouse.com, and ready for the challenges that will come in the cut throat business climate as a WebSphere Technical Professional where revenue and cost containment has been the a laser light focus.
We eat breakfast and tea every morning and this
day we unaware that my our life is about to change forever.
Since I had to finish my annual performace review with IBM, I decided to (work from home) WFH. These are the days that my wife hates as when she returns she says that I have worked all day in the kitchen eating all the snacks and leaving a mess behind for her to clean up after a long days work at the school.
At approximately, 5PM I get a note from my aunt in Haiti who posted a message on her FB.
" je ne sais pas ce que je vais faire pour le moment j attends de voir il faut d abord voir denain ce que vl on peut faire a cahaque jour suffit sa peine" She explains that there was a terrible earthquake and that she is ALIVE!! I immediatly put in on CNN, call my boss @ IBM to let him know that I need to go to Hiati and then make some fresh tea made with lemon grass from my back yard to help calm me down.
I am glued to the TV for the next 5 hours and realise that I probably can use some of my contacts and work with some of the parents from Green Children's House who have no lack of passion for a great cause when children are impacted.
I write a letter and send out a mass e-mail everyone in my address book from GCH before going to sleep.
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Dear Friends and Members of the community,
I would like to take a brief moment to thank you for your tireless support of Green Children's House. Through fundraisers, parent-teacher meetings, school shows, after-school activities, and everything else that happens in the course of a school year, many of you have shown your commitment to giving our children the best possible education. As we partner with you for the education of our children, I want you to know, that your commitment does not go unnoticed.
It is partly because we care for our children and the world around us that we work so hard to make a difference at Green Children's House. As you know, Haiti was hit by a major earthquake of 7.0 today that has left many of the people in great distress in an already poverty stricken nation. It is simply devastating. This disaster hits home especially because I am Haitian-American with several family members living in Haiti. Also, because Ms. Sandra’s mother just traveled to Haiti yesterday and we have not heard if she is ok. Please keep her in your prayers.
Three weeks ago, I took a trip to Haiti to explore the possibilities expanding our mission in developing countries to provide literary to children. The nation was beautiful and I saw so much possibility in this developing country. There was so much progress and potential that it is shocking for me to learn about how much more poverty really exists in Haiti.
Tonight many people are in the dark, under rubble and debris. The rescue mission will be critical and life saving so many people. We are planning on doing our part in helping the people of Haiti. My wife and I are going to raise as much funds as possible to be a useful resource in providing relief in Haiti. We will be going to there to help the people in anyway possible but with a laser light focus on the children. We want to also invite others that may wish to join the effort and especially who may have a background in the medical profession to join us when we go to Haiti. Haiti is not equipped to deal with a disaster of this magnitude. They lack equipment, financial resources and food to say the least. They need all hands on deck.
How can you help? Please donate to GCH Foundation – Haitian Relief Fund. You can do so via check or paypal at
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=11137306 . Also, we are collecting Blankets, clothes, shoes, medical first aid kits, gloves, vitamins, formula, diapers etc. to ship to Haiti. You can bring in your donations to Green Children’s House.
I want to end this letter by thanking you again. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Whether you are able to give or not, know we deeply appreciate your dedication to our mission.
Please forward this as you wish.
Sincerely,
Dominique Louis
Next day, I check my e-mail with a viral response to the e-mail for help. People from all over had begun donating and bring in material into GCH. We had to send a second note to explain that we needed to focus on the medical needs during this first phase of the mission. I was positivly overwhelmed with the amount of generosity and friends calling me that I have not heard from in decades.
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