PHOTO BY LIA VAN DE DONK  The refugee camp on the soccer field in Jacmel following January 12 earthquake. An eyewitness to the devastation reported: "There is no local rescue plan or capacity. No emergency food, water, blankets or medicine. The Hospital in St. Michel collapsed. I joined 3,000 others to sleep at the airstrip last night. You could hear the howling of people crying in town. Nightmarish. I never could have expected the ferocity of this quake." |
On January 13, 2010, Sue Schmitt began e-mailing the Messenger with updates on the situation in Haiti, specifically in Jacmel, a provincial town 25 miles south of Port au Prince, Haiti, where she and her husband Martin, founders of We Can Build an Orphanage, sponsor the Kay Angel orphanage. The following sequence of e-mails provide an inspiring portrait of the emotional rollercoaster that the Schmitts and others associated with the orphanage experienced during the first anxious days following the devastating earthquake of January 12.
Date: January 13, 2010 2:20:42 PM PST
Subject: Our Orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti
We will be launching an e-mail campaign to fundraise for yesterday's heart-wrenching disaster. At the moment we are awaiting word on whether our orphanage and the staff and children are safe. Many Topangans are ready to reach out and offer help and we can use their donations in the coming weeks.
– Thank you, Sue and Martin Schmitt
Date: January 13, 2010 11:32:20 PM PST
Subject: Our Orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti
More of our team are posting updates … with new information. One of them, Jeannette, may be heading to Haiti shortly.
There hasn't been a lot of coverage on the city of Jacmel which seems to be as devastated as Port Au Prince, but not getting much press. Many buildings have collapsed. We have heard that the kids' kindergarten collapsed. Fortunately, school was already out for the day, so no one was there. But we are all on edge here, not knowing if any of our staff or kids are safe.
Support is flooding into our website. Holly Korbonski a teacher at Palisades High wasted no time in getting donations from kids and parents at school. In one hour she raised $1100, and a matching grant [doubled] the amount.
We have spoken with a contact who is the grandson of a former president of Haiti; he is going there to help maintain security and do triage. He is worried about the lawlessness that can emerge in the days to come.
I keep scouring the Internet looking for newsfeeds and photos, and hoping that I will spot our director, Lia van de Donk, in tow with 13 kids, safe in some stretch of the crumbled city, or at the airport landing strip, where many are taking refuge.
Lia has been like an angel and a mother to each of these kids and loves to send us photos of the three girls that came to the orphanage at the same time. She calls them the triplets and seems to be beaming through her e-mail accounts of each event: the girls in their matching ballet tutus, or giddy on their first day at the beach, or decorating their first Christmas trees. The most recent e-mail with photos showed the kids getting to fly a kite. She was so happy to have offered them this rite of childhood.
We recently changed the local name of the orphanage. She suggested Kay Schmitt (House Schmitt in Creole). We tried to persuade her to let us name it after her, Kay Lia. She is far too modest and we settled on Kay [rhymes with high] Angel. I was happy with this, because I felt it was still named after her, whether or not she realized it.
Our U.S. coordinator, Gala Calisto, and volunteer Jeannette Weinstein, were in Haiti in the last few months and are trying all their contacts, but are unable to reach anyone who knows anything.
That's all for now, one last look for news, twitters, anything about Jacmel.
Date: January 14, 2010 8:00:53 PM PST
Subject: Our Orphanage in Jacmel, Haiti
Our co-founding partner, Luke Montgomery, is heading to the Dominican Republic on Sunday. He hopes to be in Haiti on Monday. The airstrip in Jacmel seems to have been cleared of refugees and is free to land planes. The refugees are now at the nearby soccer field. We hope that Luke can easily get to Jacmel, although I can't imagine anything will be easy there. He will be bringing medical supplies, nutritional bars and anything else he can pack to help.
Gala came in this morning to work and looked bedraggled. "Did you sleep last night?!" I asked. "Yeah, I fell asleep on my computer at 2:30 a.m.; the e-mails just kept coming in." She has been relentless in chasing contacts in Haiti, and helping fundraise.
We contacted Lia's brother in Holland who found someone on the ground in Jacmel to go out into the streets and try to find her, the children and staff. We sent a list of all the names.
I found one orphanage that Martin visited last September, called Hands and Feet who came up on Facebook with updated postings on the situation from Jacmel. I e-mailed them to please help find our people, but no reply yet. Martin called their local offices here. They know Lia and said they would put the word out. They are five miles from our orphanage.
Martin contacted some news desks asking for help. I e-mailed a friend who worked for NBC. Nothing.
A woman at the U.S. office of FOSAJ (an arts program for children), recounted to Martin how she was on the phone with her school director speaking about the 45 kids who at the moment [of the earthquake] were making art in the studio. The phone went dead as the earthquake hit and she hasn't heard a word since. The studio is in a concrete building. She said she would send word if she heard about Lia and the others.
We go from feeling dark clouds of despair to hopeful. I have decided to spend my energies on the latter. I imagine having to take care of 13 kids (some with special needs) in a devastated city, with no food, water or blankets. No phones, or Internet, easily accessible. It would be hard to get out word that I was safe. When Martin is in Haiti and I am here with our two healthy kids, charging through our daily schedule, I often hit the ground running in the morning and collapse at night wiped out from the pace of our days. I can barely work in a call to him in the differing time zone with functioning communications. Lia's situation must be like that ... times ten thousand right now.
The phone is ringing off the hook from friends and supporters. Concerned faces and voices meet ours on the playground at school pick-up. We shrug; we have no news. Luke has taken to calling us and starting the conversation with "No bad news...," so our hearts don't skip a beat with the possibility of words we don't want to hear.
My kids are telling me that my computer time is up for the day, so one more quick search for new news, and then a good night's sleep.
Date: January 14, 2010 8:12:03 PM PST
Subject: Fwd: School Uniforms
Here are some lovely photos of the "triplets" in their school uniforms. Read on and you will get a sense of Lia's wonderful spirit with these kids...
They're Safe!
Date: January 14, 2010 8:39:04 PM PST
Subject: Sorry to inundate you...
The phone just rang, and it was Luke (see my other posting). He didn't start the conversation with "No bad news...," just burst into reading an e-mail to us, that basically said that Lia and the 13 kids are fine!!! They are all together and sleeping on the street. The orphanage is destroyed, but they are okay. Will send the e-mail that he got as there is more news about the city.
Gala called near tears on the other line while Martin was on with Luke. She just got word from another source that the house was destroyed and she was about to tell me the worst possibility. I stopped her cold and shouted, "They are okay, they are okay! All of them!" Tears of relief burst across the phone lines.
All of them should have been in the house at 5 p.m. When there is an angel around, miracles can happen!
Now we need to get them help!
- Sue
Just received this message!!!!
Yes!!!!she is ok!!!
From Andrew Madda...
LIA is fine! her orphanage is destroyed and her 13 kids sleeping on the street. but they are fine and all together.
Date: January 19, 2010 10:03:58 AM PST
Subject: Re: Haiti
Right now, our co-founding partner, Luke, is on a Navy carrier with a carload of medical supplies. He is with five other NGOs, but we are the only ones bringing medical supplies. These others are bringing water and tents, also much needed.
He cleared out a pharmacy in Santo Domingo of all the pain killers, antibiotics and prescription drugs that he could get (no prescription was needed in this case). His SUV rental is packed with medical supplies. We have no idea how he got an SUV, or found his way to the Navy carrier. He will have stories to tell soon!
Luke will be in Jacmel for six hours and then will return to the Dominican Republic for another supply run back to Jacmel.
We pray for his safe passage through the roads.
Date: January 19, 2010 5:02:28 p.m. PST
Subject: Arthur Murray...and other notes of generosity!
… is having a dance fundraiser for our orphanage and presenting us with a check at a dance at their Woodland Hills studio at the Westfield Promenade on Saturday night. One of their instructors from Haiti lost a son in a collapsed hotel in Port Au Prince. Another instructor is releasing a book and is committing to giving 80% of profits to Haiti, including some to our organization. Word is spreading, and [communities] near and far are reaching out. My cousin's daughter in Texas is offering to do family photography for hire and will donate all to us. Two girls in my daughter Jensen's fourth-grade class (Rebecca Goldman and Maeve Gilleran) are selling wallets. Parents at school (Dawn Rhodes and Shani Hiland) are planning a fundraiser that is based on non-profits helping non-profits (Topanga Enrichment Program (TEP) is helping our organization). Jill Williams and Michelle Hagn coordinated a hot chocolate/coffee concession stand at the Abundant Harvest pickup last Saturday with their children, holding out "Honk for Haiti" signs at the corner. We raised over $200 and 160 honks! Another friend, Adrianna, sold t-shirts for our orphanage donated by the Briskman family. Kodi and Company, located in Woodland Hills at Alan Edwards Salon, is having a store sale and donating proceeds. Martin has received 1000 e-mails of support. The support is astounding!
Where To Donate
A number of readers have suggested organizations where people can donate to the rescue effort in Haiti. For those who want to check out organizations before donating, Ellie Light suggests the following two organizations and provides her short list of charities.
•Charity Navigator: provides information about all aspects of a charity's finances (www.charitynavigator.org).
• Better Business Bureau Giving Alliance focuses on a charity's financial transparency and accounting practices. (http://www.bbb.org/us/charity/).
Short List Of Charities Involved In Haiti:
• Direct relief: www.directrelief.org/
• Save the Children: savethechildren.org
• Mercycorps: mercycorps.org
• Americares: americares.org
• International Relief Teams: irteams.org
• World Hope Int'l: worldhope.org
• Oxfam: oxfamamerica.org
• Mennonite Central Committee: mcc.org
Dorothy Reik suggests the following:
• Kevin Pina, kp@teledyol.net, heads the Haitian Information Network.
• Haiti Emergency Fund: haitiaction.net
To donate to Kay Angel Orphanage:
• wecanbuildanorphanage.com; Blog: kayangel.org
• Doctors Without Borders: donate.doctorswithoutborders.org
• Partners in Health: PIH.org
• Karla Morrison is coordinating a wine and cheese fundraiser on February 6.
• Gala obtained support from: Aveda hair salon in Calabasas will donate proceeds from Haiti Haircut-a-thon; Deborah of Abuelita's will donate proceeds from a music night; flyers and collection cans were placed in the Canyon and Valley.
• In February, Jane Donaldson and 13 of her students at Sew Topanga, will exhibit 13 quilts, one for each of the child in the orphanage at Pine Tree Circle. Visitors can sponsor a quilt.
Let's keep our local firefighters in mind for their efforts in rescue and recovery in Haiti and here year ‘round.
