Women's Handicapped Camp Party

The Fondation L'Enfant Jesus (FEJ) has a program for handicapped women in Haiti. The program was aiming at helping women who have become amputees due to the January 12, 2010 earthquake. The program was suppose to last only a year, but it has been a year and a half now. It was created as an emergency response to the earthquake disaster. There have been three rotations of women who have stayed at the FEJ Lamardelle Campus for three months at a time. This is where they learn how to take care of themselves, their children and how to cook. They also receive regular physical therapy and psychological therapy. A micro-financing program is also set in place, where the women can make arts and crafts to sell for a little bit of profit. The mission of HAMA is holistic: to provide each amputee who enters the program the tools necessary to lead an active, productive, and independent life. That is the ultimate goal we are achieving for.

The most important part of the program is the part in conjunction with the Haitian Amputee Mothers Alliance (HAMA) project. This project was founded to provide leading-edge prosthetic limbs to women and mothers who were the victims of the earthquake. In partnership with the Village of Vision Haiti Foundation, the amputees of the HAMA project will receive a custom prosthesis designed especially for their specific needs and built to withstand the harsh Haiti environment. There have been teams of rehabilitation doctors, nurses, therapists, and teachers completely volunteering their time from Salt Lake City, Utah USA. The teams come for three to ten days at a time to do fittings for the women in the camp and bring the molds back to the U.S. to make the actual prosthetic limbs. I had the pleasure of meeting some of the teams that came to Haiti and I have got to say they are people with big hearts. They are doing wonderful work for the women and it is so great to see this kind of compassion in people. They are dedicated professionals that are making a huge difference in the women's lives here. After the prosthetic limbs have been finished, another team will bring them back to Haiti to make the final adjustments for the women at the camp. It takes about three months of time for the whole entire rehabilitation process to be completed and the women leave at the end of the session with their brand new prosthetic limbs and a brighter outlook on life. 


So today was marks the end of the third group of women and also the program as a whole. There's good and bad news. The good news is that there is a party for the women today to celebrate their three months with us in the program and all the progress they have made over the months they've been here. Bad news is that there is a problem with funding issues in the U.S. (as you all know, with the recession setting in and all), so we are not sure if we can get the prosthetic made or not. It completely stinks the situation, because all the women have been fitted already and promised of their new prosthetic. There is a group of people in the U.S. desperately trying to fund raise for more donations so we can get enough money to get the prosthetic made for these women. It is quite a large sum and we need all the help that we can get. I pray everyday that we can raise enough money to get what these women need to continue surviving here in Haiti. There have been so much work and effort put into this program and I would hate to see that end on such a sour note. So please spread the word to others, because one person cannot do it all, but a group of individual can make a lasting difference! 

So despite all the challenges and bad news, we all celebrated tonight. With music and good food! Laughter was in the air and we all said our thanks and goodbyes under a starry sky. Please help us keep the hope alive for these women. They have already gone through so much, we can't let them down again! 

Please help by visiting the site and make a generous donation if you can! 
There have been some issues with the donation site. I will keep you updated as soon as I find out where you can make secure donations to the project! Thank you.