HAITI SERVICE PROJECT 2008 AND 2009 REPORT

In 2008, the chapter at USF had weekly meetings each month and volunteered at a local nursing home every second Saturday of every month during the school year. During the weekly meetings we discussed ways to help the community, especially the nursing home. During our monthly visit at the nursing home we were able to do arts and crafts programs, reading, and visitations.

During the school year we had two sisterhood ceremonies. The first one was between Jewish, Christian and Muslim students and women. The second was a multi-racial ceremony.

In the summer of 2008, 15-30 June, we had a service project in Port-Au-Prince and Cap-Haitian, Haiti, to bring unity between the American and Caribbean students. The service project's mission was to promote deeper understanding, to improve and heal relationships among the two counties. This was done by the working in partnership of university students of Haiti, which was able to bring new hope to the island, and the young people of the Youth Federation who had opportunities to share ideas that would benefit Haiti and work towards the inner restoration of the island. In partnership and support of Dr. Richard Sapp we were able to accomplish the project with great success.

The service project in Port-Au-Prince consisted of the painting of a government school. Usually these types of schools are neglected after they are built. This project was able to get the school ready for the students for the next school year. While we painted and cleaned the school, the people within the community and associated with the school came and participated. This service project opportunity moved the heart of the community so greatly that they came together for this work effort.

The next service project was in Cap-Haitian which was focused on medical service. We went to the main hospital in Cap-Haitian. We visited the dental ward where we gave toothbrushes and toothpastes to the patients. The dental items were donated by Dr, Richard Sapp of IRFF.

In 2009, we are 24 members strong. We continued to have our weekly meetings each month and monthly community service at the local nursing home. In addition, we also had fund-raisers which included a "Benefit Night for Haiti" where we invited students and reviewed the 2008 service project and introduced our chapter to new students. WFWP at USF participated in many events sponsored by the university to expand the membership.

Currently, we are working on our second service project in Haiti from 14-29 June. We will be in Les Cayes, Haiti in a humanitarian effort to serve and show support for the people of Haiti. There will be two parts of the service project just as the year before but it will be an agricultural project as well as a medical project. The agricultural project will consist of the planting of Moringa trees. We will plant 1000 Moringa tree seedlings in the area of Chantal. These seeds were donated by Dr. Sapp of IRFF. These seedlings which will eventually turn into 15 ft. trees in one year will help reverse the negative effects of deforestation which has happened throughout the island due to the people cutting down trees to make charcoal to sell to make a living. The Moringa tree leaves and pods are highly nutritious and can be consumed by children and pregnant mothers as well as starving adults who are malnourished. The tree leaves have many more vital and valuable uses that we will educate the populous about during this service project.

In the second service medical project, we will be working with and supporting the ALMEDHA medical team in their effort to provide health care and over the counter medicines to people without sufficient health care, people with no access to clinics or hospitals, in Chantal, and several nearby locations such as Belle Fontaine.

Our hope is strong for 2009 and 2010, we look forward to adding more local community projects which will include the adding of gleaning projects in which we will collect extra foods left by farmers and distributing them to the needy.