Beautiful Mosaic Wall in Jacmel created by students!

Detail of Mosaic by Laurel True, Nancy Josephson, Erin Rogers, and the phenomenally tenacious and creative teachers and students at Art Creation Foundation for Children. Source: Mosaic Art Now Blog (get there here or in the link below!)

Do yourself a FAVOR. There is no way you can read this and look at these pictures and not feel your spirit lift! GO to this blog and be amazed with me at the phenomenal artistry of the children, teachers, artists and community of Jacmel, Haiti coming out of the earthquake. Be sure to scroll ALL THE WAY UP to the top of the page once you've gotten there. You don't want to miss ANY of it!

A Baby Girl Gets a New Life in Jacmel

Three month old Seinthia (adoptive name Marie Judy) was abandoned at Hopital St. Michele in Jacmel. She received life saving surgery for her hydrocephalus this week from Project Medishare's pediatric neurosurgery team. Photo by Jennifer Browning.
Source: http://projectmedishare.wordpress.com

This past weekend marked the Mother's Day celebration for mothers in Haiti. I can think of no more fitting a story than this incredible miracle of microsurgery that came out of sheer persistence in post-earthquake Haiti.

About a month ago, I started receiving emails from Judy Hoffman, founder of Art Creation Foundation for Children with updates about an abandoned baby girl who had water on the brain. On the Project Medishare website, Jennifer Browning had this to say about it:

"At the end of April, Judy Hoffman, President of Art Creation Foundation for Children (ACFFC) visited Hopital St Michele in Jacmel to see the sister of one of the kids at the foundation who was ill. A doctor approached Judy to ask if ACFFC could help with a baby who had been abandoned there.

“ 'There was this beautiful tiny little girl lying in a crib, clean and cared for, but alone. They showed us where her head was bulging [due to hydrocephalus].'

"A Haitian doctor told Judy that he hoped ACFFC would take her because the baby was going to die and there was nothing the doctors at St. Michele could do."

Usually, the type of surgery required to relieve Marie's condition (a shunt) isn't performed in Haiti, and most children who need such a surgery can't get help and often die. Project Medishare was able to perform MICROSURGERY, no need for a shunt, and confirm with tests that so far, Marie is showing NO SIGNS of neurological damage usually created by her condition.

Judy later wrote to me that on top of this amazing event and all the incredible people who pulled together and overcame obstacles to make it happen, the students at ACFFC saw, first hand, that sometimes, when you don't take no for an answer, and you absolutely refuse to give up, miracles happen!

Please visit the Project Medishare blog to read the FULL STORY and learn about what this phenomenal group of people are doing to improve health in Haiti!

http://www.projectmedishare.wordpress.com

Updates from Jacmel

"For ACFFC, art is a necessity. The group decided to paint the exterior walls of our building.
Beautiful - and amazing, considering the rubble around them."


Here is an update from Judy Hoffman, founder of Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel, Haiti

May 21 2010 I spoke with everyone yesterday ... they are doing well but are traumatized by the earthquake - our logic is that if a building is standing now, it is fine - those who lived through the earthquake see it otherwise; can be another earthquake and the building can come down.

As I mentioned previously, nothing is changed, but for rubble being cleaned up. Despite the fact that many government agencies are pulling out of Haiti, declaring the emergency over, it is far from over. Rainy season is upon us. Shipments are getting held up in customs which makes relief supplies that much more difficult to send/obtain.

And the need becomes all the more great. We are fortunate that our children are back in school, eating and all are sleeping in tents, rather than under woven banana leaves and bedsheets. However their extended families and neighbors are not and this troubles them, and us. (Thanks to friends, we have 20 more tents headed down to Jacmel in the next week or so.) They are distracted and absolutely terrified at the idea of sleeping indoors. The cost of food is skyrocketing. Cases of typhoid, diphtheria, and malaria are being reported. And tension is building.
So please do not forget our children, and do not forget their reality. Help them to be the hope for Haiti that they are. They are trying so very hard."

Today is Flag Day in Haiti

Today is Flag Day for all of Haiti. The holiday was created in 1930 by (then) President Estime to annually commemorate the original day the Haitian flag was created in the very early 1800's. In case you didn't know, the people of Haiti, in 1803, were the only group of human beings on planet earth to ever liberate themselves from slavery!!
Forced to live under French colonial rule, plantation-based slavery on the western 1/3 of this Caribbean island was some of the most brutal on the planet. San-Domingue (as Haiti used to be known before the revolt) produced 40% of the world's sugar and was the most profitable territory for France in the late 1700's. But the astonishingly tenacious people who had been brutally forced to leave Africa and work in the sugarcane fields on the island Columbus "discovered" joined with free people of African descent and threw off colonial rule to become the world's first Black republic!

Traditionally, this holiday is celebrated with parades, cultural events, and of course, the flying of the flag. Haiti's "revolutionary congress adopted the flag in 1803 by taking the French tricolor and ripping out the white part. Red and blue banners declaring 'Together we will remake Haiti' were hung along the road from the capital Tuesday." (reported 5/17/10 by the A.P.)

Today is the first flag day after the horrible earthquakes of January 2010. There were celebrations in Haiti today along with protesters calling for the current president (Preval) to step down. In a public speech he agreed to do so next year. Many Haitians want the President-in-Exile Aristide to return to power. Post-earthquake conditions may spell real difficulty for holding an election on time in Haiti this November.

Hope Haiti--Music Love and Art helping the students and community in Jacmel, Haiti! Pass it on!!!!

Thinking of Jacmel. Grateful for my home.....

Jump Rope in Jacmel, Haiti. Photo Credit: Judy Hoffamn www.artforhaitianchildren.org

Photo Credit: Judy Hoffamn www.artforhaitianchildren.org

Home. Jacmel, Haiti. Photo Credit: Judy Hoffman, founder of ACFFC. www.artforhaitianchildren.org

The Home of one of the Students from Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel, Haiti. Photo Credit: Judy Hoffman, founder of ACFFC. www.artforhaitianchildren.org

Good Morning Everyone. In my little corner of the world this morning, I am very aware of the gratitude I feel for my safe neighborhood, my employment, the new shoots in the the veggie garden and the beautiful sunny sky and cool breeze outside. My Gratitude was only deepened when I looked at some poignant photos this morning that were taken by Judy Hoffman on her phone when she was visiting Jacmel, Haiti recently to spend time with her beloved students (family!!) at Art Creation Foundation For Children. These pictures speak louder that anything I could think to write today.....Please scroll back up and take the time to really look at at them.

Did you look??

Want to help???

Visit www.artforhaitianchildren.org and click the yellow Just Give box on the left hand side. It is an absolutely secure donation. $10 = more than one week's pay for someone working full time in Haiti (and you can bet their "full time" is more than 40 hours a week...)

If you are in the Baltimore area, pay a visit to the American Visionary Arts Museum (www.avam.org) where you can purchase the ceramic Hearts for Haiti made by the Patapsco Middle School art students for only $1.00 each! Visit www.sideshowbaltimore.com to buy an original Haitian Drapo (sequined flag) and 100% of the proceeds will go back to rebuilding the arts communities in Haiti!

Wishing you gratitude for the many good things in your life today!

top picture: me with the tin of hope hearts. bottom picture: holiday hope heart ornaments with fun beads and ribbons. picture credits: Mike Mitchell

Hello everyone! Here are a couple pictures I found on the desktop from winter time! The ornaments that are hanging from the bicycle wheel all sold for $5 each at holiday time 2009. We added pretty wire, ribbons and a cool assortment of glass beads. The hearts were much bigger and were painted silver and gold. My students and I liked the "metaphor" of $5 as the average weekly pay in Haiti and other areas of they world where our brothers and sisters on this planet live on or under the Universal Poverty Line for the cost of these hearts . I am happy to report that ALL the big ornaments sold, and quickly too! So far, at last count, these little hearts, handmade by kids in Maryland to benefit kids in Jacmel, Haiti, have raised over $1,000.00!!

I just received a NEW email from Judy Hoffman, founder of Art Creation Foundation for Children. She just returned from Jacmel where she got to spend time with her beloved students and bring all the love and supplies she could. She said the children are still living in tents, suffering from the sadness and destruction of the quakes and bathing from bowls of water with no privacy. However, on the day she called Ted at the Visionary, she said that, "their clothes are clean, they are coming to school and we were all very happy to see each other." To that, she added a message to me in an email that greatly encouraged my students:

You have no idea how much this (the support) means to our children in Haiti at ACFFC ... somehow, post earthquake, 16 kids showed up and so now we are at 76 ... they have seen the hearts on line and are so pleased. www.artforhaitianchildren.org