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O U R F O C U S
Caribbean Children’s Foundation (CCF), a tax-deductible organization, was founded as a means for people to help children living in the country of Haiti. Our goal, in the years to come, is to expand our programs to include poor children of other Caribbean nations. Help for children living in the Dominican Republic is on the horizon!
Our six main areas of ministry are
1. EARTHQUAKE 2010 - New housing is now being constructed for 27 orphanage children
One of our sponsored orphanages (Children of Israel Orphanage) sustained damage to their building during the earthquake. Our efforts now include the construction of a series of cabins for the children who have been living in temporary housing! One cabin is now home to 14 girls! As of Spring 2012, two more cabins are well underway to house the boys who remain in temporary housing.
We are seeking funds to build the homes AND volunteers to help with the construction of those homes!
2. Sponsorships for orphanage children
Orphanage sponsorships make it possible for children residing in specific orphanages to have food, clothing, shelter, limited medical care and an education. The funds also help to pay small wages to the caregivers of the children, - which include persons to do the laundry, cook meals, clean the orphanage, give first aid treatment, assist with school lessons and tend to any of the other basic needs of the children.
EARTHQUAKE 2010 resulted in many more children needing a home! Additional sponsors are desperately needed!
3. Tuition assistance for elementary, secondary, professional training and university students
Very few schools in Haiti are free. With the average income of a Haitian being less than $1 a day, most families in Haiti cannot afford to send their children/young adults to school because of the costs of uniforms, books and tuition. Since education is a means to alleviate poverty, our goal is to make education a possibility for many more children. We are currently sponsoring students in Jacmel, the greater LesCayes area, Grann Plaine of Ile-a-Vache and most recently Pointe Est of Ile-Vache.
4. Construction of a school
Our focus is on a remote community on a tiny island off the southwestern coast of mainland Haiti. This small community on Ile-a-Vache previously only had education up to fourth grade. Many children did not attend school because their parents were too poor to send them. A school construction fund is changing all that!
5. Opening of a new orphanage
Following the earthquake of January 2010, the tiny island of Ile-a-Vache (off the south-western coast of Haiti) saw a flood of children appearing in the homes of next-of-kin. These children had lost parents in the earthquake and were sent to their only known family members, some of whom they had never met. On an island where families struggle to feed their own children, a cry went out from the community to open an orphanage for these children. God answered their prayers. A new orphanage (GRACE Orphanage) opened in November 2011. The children are housed in unfinished rooms of a school, A permanent home for the children is nearing completion!
6. Assistance in obtaining medical care for critically ill children
The health care system in Haiti is less than adequate when it comes to serious and complicated illnesses and diseases. Many of these conditions are not treatable in Haiti. Thus, CCF works toward obtaining medical treatment for children who can not find the appropriate care in their own country. We seek doctors, nurses, hospitals and labs in the United States who are willing to offer free care for these critically ill children. We seek host families to welcome these children into their homes and to care for the children during their recovery.
To assist in all of the above listed areas, the Executive Director of CCF currently lives and works in Haiti. She serves as a valuable liaison to be certain that the funds that CCF receives are appropriately used and that other goals of CCF are adequately met!
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O U R H I S T O R Y
Haiti, located a mere 700 miles southeast of Florida, is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Due to disease and malnutrition, the average life expectancy of an adult is less than fifty years of age.
It is said that 300 children are orphaned every day in Haiti. With the average income being about $1 per day, the intact families that do exist cannot properly care for their children.
One cannot travel to Haiti without being touched in one way or another. Maybe you would be repulsed by the smell of urine, the piles of trash or the overwhelming sights of poverty. Maybe you would be thrust into a “How can I help?” mode by the sights of dirty, hungry and abandoned children.
The latter was what happened in the hearts of four friends, all of whom had traveled to Haiti and were personally compelled to help make a difference in the lives of children living in Haiti. That is how CCF began... four friends of Haiti wanting to help. In 2003, a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible organization was born with the initial purpose of obtaining sponsorships for children living in orphanages of the Caribbean!
Since that time, additional needs have come to our attention. We now, also, work to obtain sponsors for the education of children and young adults and for medical care for critically ill children. We are helping to build a new campus for an orphanage damaged in the earthquake. We are also working in a remote community to construct a school and an orphanage.
On the horizon is assistance to children living in the bateys of the Dominican Republic. Bateys are communities of families working as slaves in the sugar cane fields. Their housing is inadequate and substandard, many times on the cities' dump sites. A majority of the community consists of illegal Haitians attempting to eek out a living for their families back in Haiti. As a result, children suffer from lack of food, lack of education and lack of medical care. Sponsors will make it possible for us to launch a program to help the children of this community.
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