April 2017: Milestones

Thank you for making April a success at Tree of Hope Haiti in Grand Goâve! We are very excited to share with you all that has happened in the last month!

Evando loved his cake and gift from his sponsor, Melissa!

Each month, we have several children that celebrate their birthdays! This month, we celebrated Evando, Diacle, David, Didine, Waljince, and D'Haity!

Waljince is so happy to celebrate his birthday!

The children came to our TOHH Guesthouse in Haiti where they sang "Happy Birthday" (in English and French!), ate cake, and opened a present.

Didine thanks her sponsor, Chelle, for her present!

In Haiti, children may not know their birthday and, if they do, it is not celebrated. Thank you for allowing us to celebrated our sponsored children's birthdays!

Happy Birthday Flantorge!

Happy Birthday Kattia!

This month, we also had some staff and missionaries celebrate birthdays, including Kattia (our kitchen manager), Flantorge (Haiti Side Sponsorship Coordinator), Cassandra (our summer camp coordinator), and Alicia (the missionary teacher)!

(Left to right): Mama Jo, Angela, Nyah, Gama, Papa Drex)

We love having visitors at our TOHH Guesthouse in Haiti! This April, Mama Jo and Papa Drex came to visit! Gama and Angela lived with the at the MOHI Guesthouse in 2013, while were building the Hands and Feet Project.

The two barrels are on their way!

We are also so grateful for the all those who support our mission stateside! A huge thank you to the Erving Evangelical Church for shipping two barrels to Haiti!

Gemima (and her mother) are
so excited that Gemima is sponsored!

Laurie Lianna comes to our
office to learn she is sponsored!

Each time a child gets sponsored, we are so excited! As the children come to our TOHH office in Haiti to sign up for the sponsorship program, we learn their stories, the challenges they are faced with, and their hopes for the future. We love what we do everyday, and that we are able to call children to our office to tell them that they have been sponsored to continue their education. Just in the past month, sixteen children were sponsored to continue their education! The children's names are Gemima, Wilda, Cherlie, John Peter, Johnsley, Woodeline, Wideline, Christina, Wadley, Stephanie, Louidemia, Onèse, Gilberta, Ecclesiaste, Taloundia, and Julien. Thank you!!

Cassandra frosts the
cupcakes for our celebration!

A special thank you to Charlie's Project for sponsoring eleven of these children! Thanks to you, we have officially reached 100 sponsored children! We announce this milestone during our (first ever!) Facebook Live - check out the link here: http://www.facebook.com/
Treeofhopehaiti/videos/632007643667384. We even made cupcakes and juice for the occasion. We are so happy about this milestone, and we are very excited for what the future holds for our child sponsorship program!

Taloundia, our 100th sponsored child!

This April, we were also able to give food to families in need.

The first child to receive food was Mirlanda. We met 14-year-old Mirlanda when she attended the women's conference that Team Good News held in the mountains. She does not have any parents, and she has been living with a different family member each time we visit her. She dropped out of school two years ago after sixth grade. Now, she is able to continue her education. Not only this, but Mirlanda's sponsor sent food for her this month. We are so grateful for our TOHH Child Sponsors, that care so deeply about their children.

Mirlanda is very grateful for her sponsor!

Taking the food home!

Next, we distributed food to Delcom, the mother or one of our sponsored children, Steph Dony. Delcom is severely malnourished, and the only adult caring for Steph Dony. Each month we have been weighing her and finding that she has not gained weight, despite being given additional food. This month, we gave her vegetables, butter, Magi (spice), and beans for protein. We hope this will help her gain weight and strength.

Delcom and her son, Steph Dony with their food.

We also gave food to the Jelin Family this month. As part of their sponsorship and school tuition, the children receive one meal each day at school. This may be the only meal they eat during the day. Since the children have school vacation in April, some of them may go hungry. This family has ten children, and their parents are often not around.

These kids are so happy to receive food! The will have full, happy bellies when they get home!

Nathan is so happy to receive peanut butter!

Thanks to your donations of non-perishable food items, we were able to give them pasta, chicken, canned chili, tomato sauce, peanut butter, jelly, and Magi.

Pete and Claude carry their food home.

We visited their house shortly after we gave them the food, and found everyone with their bellies full!









During their school vacation week, we also had an Easter Program with the children!

During the first day of the program, we invited the sponsored children to the TOHH Guesthouse for Easter activities. The kids sang, listened to the Easter story, and tried to guess what which items were in Easter eggs, based on the story. Lastly, the children did an egg hunt! We hid Easter eggs outside, and had the children find them all - they were so excited to find the eggs and the candy inside!

Nathan takes his eggs home.

On Good Friday, we invited the sponsored children, as well as some community children, come decorate eggs! This is something they have never experienced before. They were mesmerised by the tablets of dye dissolving in the vinegar. Some of the kids got creative and even tried making their eggs multi-colored!

Berlandie's eggs match her dress!

After dyeing the eggs, the children were allowed to choose toys to take home! These toys were brought to Haiti as donations, and many of them were on the box truck that arrived at the end of March. The kids were so happy!

Choosing new toys!

As part of the Easter Program, we also held a movie night for the children where we showed an Easter film.









The kids always love when we give out popcorn during the movie!

Albidus untangles his kite.

During Easter weekend, many people in Haiti also fly kites!

Our staff made their own kites!

We found some of our sponsored children flying kites outside. Our staff also made some beautiful kites!










We're also getting ready for our 2nd Annual TOHH Meet and Greet! This event is open to the public, and we'd love to see you there! 

Our 2nd Annual TOHH Meet and Greet will be held June 9th, 2017 from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. It will be held at the Hope Chapel in Sterling, MA. RSVP on Facebook here: https://web.facebook.com/events/141098696421471/

Come meet with Gama and Angela as they share the progress TOHH has made in the past year and our vision for the future! We will have food, info booths, an annual presentation, raffles, and an opportunity to hear about how TOHH has impacted the lives of those involved with our mission. We will also be sharing how you can get involved whether it be through coming on a mission trip, sponsoring a child, building a home, helping fund a water project, or partnering with TOHH through monthly support.  

Thank you for an incredible month! Stay updated on what's happening in Haiti and in the US by following us on social media:

TOHH Website: www.treeofhopehaiti.org
Facebook: Tree of Hope Haiti
Twitter: @treeofhopehaiti
Instagram: @treeofhopehaiti
To donate to TOHH, please click here: http://treeofhopehaiti.org/donations/

TOHH ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Would you like to come on a mission trip to Haiti?

We would love to have you volunteer for one week (or more) at TOHH in Grand Goâve!

Holiday Sponsorship Trip 2017:

December 27, 2017 - January 3, 2018

We currently have spots available on the Holiday Sponsorship 2017 Team! This team will be doing a variety of activities with the sponsored children! These include home visits to the children's homes, crafts, baking, a holiday party, a hike, a trip to the beach, and a possible home improvement project (additional cost, to be discussed at pre-trip meetings).

This team will have pre-trip meetings before traveling to Haiti. The cost of each trip is as follows:

$125 - Deposit (includes the cost of a TOHH shirt that we request you wear on travel day)

$450 - TOHH Guesthouse Fee (includes three meals/day, housing, transport to and from the airport in Haiti, and operations costs)

Flights - Purchased by each volunteer at a pre-trip meeting

If you'd like to join the trip, please fill out an application form here: http://treeofhopehaiti.org/volunteers/application

For more information about preparing for a trip to Haiti, follow this link: http://treeofhopehaiti.org/volunteers/preparing-for-a-trip/

Would you like to lead your own team to Haiti? 

Are you a church or school group? TOHH accepts missionary teams of 6 - 24 people. One you have a team forming, contact us to request dates and begin preparing your team for Haiti. To submit your request for a one- to two-week trip, please email us at info@treeofhopehaiti.org.