CASEGHA relief efforts for Haiti
An earthquake devastated country Haiti on Tuesday, January 12, 2010. CASEGHA reacted that same week by calling a special Board meeting on the 16th of January, and an extraordinary general meeting took place on Saturday 24.
Note of the editor: CASEGHA (Association des Anciens Scouts et Guides d’Haiti) is a group of 100 enthusiastic adults from Haiti but living in the state of New York, USA. They are members of ISGF via Central Branch.
It was decided to have a fundraising among all members, and we planned another fundraising and a big patriotic rally in February on the occasion of our 35th anniversary and Thinking Day instead of a special feast which was postponed. From our meetings in January, the money collected has been donated to:
- The National Guide Association of Haiti,
- Friends of Montfort; a support group for the school. Institute Montfort in Haiti, is run by the Daughters of Wisdom. This Institute has over six hundred deaf and deaf/blind children in three locations in Haiti, the majority are in Port Au Prince
- J.A. Clermont Foundation; engages to develop, implement, and manage a residential center for homeless adolescent by providing shelter, food, education, health care and vocational services,
- Enfant Haïtien, Mon Frère; an orphanage and daycare center located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was established in 1969 to provide meals, education, medical care, and room and board for children who have been abandoned or who otherwise have fallen through the precarious safety net that has long existed in the country.
Two of them founded by some of CASEGHA members, the last one by Father Jean-Claude Lespinasse killed in the earthquake.
On March 20, CASEGHA had a special day of prayers followed by a mass in the intention of all people (especially Father Lespinasse, and the Scouts and Guides of Haiti) who died in the terrible tremor.
The flea market organized on April 17 and 18 was a success. On Sunday, April 18, the President of the National Association of Boy Scouts of Haiti visited us. The profit will enable us to send goods to the Scouts of Haiti (clothes, shoes, school supplies etc) at the end of May. We have put in our calendar another flea market some time during the month of July.
The job has not been finished; we will continue to support Haiti through the Scouts and Guides throughout the year.
CASEGHA appreciates the quick response and the solidarity of the ISGF via their International Project Team and the Scouts and Guides all over the world who did a tremendous job by giving a big hand to Haiti through the Red Cross, Catholic Charities, and so on.