When the earthquake hit Haiti this past week, a man from our church was there. Steve Smith heads up the Haitian Islands Ministries and was down there this week for that reason. He is safe and actually arrived home last night!
I wanted to share because I think a lot of us want to help but aren't sure how, don't know which organizations are a hoax, etc. This ministry is heavily supported by our church and we personally know the Smith family as well as others who are involved in running the ministry. Last year a group of teens from our church went down to Haiti on a missions trip with Steve and stayed in the guest house......the guest house is in crumbles now.
Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know that this is a safe avenue if you are wanting to help. 100% of the money given goes to Haiti.
Below is a link to Steve's story that aired on Fox 2 this morning. There is also some more detailed information about the ministry from our friend, Melissa, who is part of the ministry. They are wonderful people!
Fox 2 Story about Steve Smith and Haitian Islands Ministries
A summary of the ministry from Melissa:
... founded in 1994. Provide medical care, feeding and vitamin programs. We also support 6 schools/churches (2 in Port au Prince, the others are a bit further north). Sponsorhip refers to people (here) sponsoring the education of children there (my program). Basically, people pay $25 month to send a child to school. It relieves that burden from the family and often helps more than the actual child being sponsored stay in school. We try not to turn away students and parents are asked to pay what they can. Our goal (in brief) is to keep students in school and keep salaries to the teachers. So having just a handful of sponsored students makes keeping the teachers employed possible. It takes more than that to keep the schools running but, it works itself out with the ability of some Haitian parents to pay a little and other giving to the ministry.
Steve is actually a physician's assistant so medical care is where he started with the ministry. The rest evolved from there. Having the schools/churches also gives him a regular place to go back to each time to conduct medical clinics for the kids and the people in the villages where the schools are. He's been caring for many of our students since they were born. For the majority of the people in the villages outside of Port au Prince where we work, he is the only medical person they have access to. There is no welfare system there so if you can't pay for medical care, you don't recieve it... period. He is able to provide his services for free so as you can imagine, he's helped a countless number of Haitians. We conduct our feeding programs at the school for the children 3 to 7 days a week, depending on money available to buy the rice and beans.
If people want to help, the best avenue at this time is prayer and financial support. Without a charter plane or money to send over a freight box, you can't take a lot into the country. Steve is very resourceful and makes sure that all of the money he gets for the mission goes right back into the hands/bodies/businesses of Haitians. If people would like to contribute, the ministry is a 501c3 tax deductable, not-for-profit organization. We write tax receipts for every check we get. The ministry's address is:
Haitian Island Ministries
P.O. Box 616
Wentzville, MO 63385
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