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Let it grow, let it grow, let it grow

Hands Together's agriculture and farming projects continue to expand and improve. 'In the 3 short months since my last site visit I've seen rapid growth and advancement at the Clarke Farm project and agricultural programs in Bassen attached to our Catholic Center for Agriculture and the Environment. Honestly, I was amazed. Our goal is to create a framework of good staffing and teaching, combined with methods for increasing the variety and the yield of crops planted by each village. We're just rying to produce a simple mechanism to help farmers all around Haiti be proud of working the land and be able to live a decent life that way," remarks Doug Campbell on his December 7 site visit to the agricultural projects.

Farmers harvest peanuts - Clarke FarmClarke Farm Progress -

Only a 16 months ago the land that now bursts with green and trees contained dusty cacti and small shrubs. Dozens of rural farmers come early each morning to work on their experimental crops and teachers from Earth Universtiy help them determine the best strategies for their paritcular plot of land. It seems like each month, more and more people want to join the work at the farm and we are excited about our plans for cultivating not only crops and produce, but cultivating vocations in agriculture as well.

Here are some of the recent highlights"

December and Christmas in Haiti - 2011

All of us at Hands Together wish our supporters and friends a most holy Christmas! May the peace of our Lord and the great hope that now fills the universe because God came to us as one of us, be part of your Christmas and inspire you to be a bright light in this world. We pray that God blesses you and your family!

In the true spirit of Christmas we held a special mass for the elderly and our Becky DeWine students and Fr. Tom encouraged everyone to "see Jesus in the face of those all around us." Modest gift bags filled with rice, beans and oil and some linens and towels brought great joy and smiles to more than a 1,000 elderly. Thanks once again to the DeWine family and their friends, who donated belts, make-up kits, beanie babies, toy cars and lots of nice, individual presents for students of all ages, we could throw a little Christmas party at each of our eight campuses.

"I'm always very moved whenever we give a small present to the children and elderly and see how pleased they are that someone thought of them and cares about them," said Fr. Tom. "We made an extra special meal with more sardines in the sauce and larger portions of rice and beans and they clapped and sang. Then as they were leaving they lined up and received their food kits and blankets. Some of the elderly could barely carry the stuff they are so weak, but all of them were beaming and signing and thanking god and Jesus. It certainly captures the real spirit of Christmas."

November 2011 - Improvement in Becky DeWine School and Steel Buildings

School began on October 3rd and finally we can say that things seem to be moving in the right direction. Our summer program -- filled with extensive personnel training and hiring and ongoing administrative formation, left us much better prepared for the school year.

"We hired an educational consultant who demonstrated a very good grasp of how to interface with the Haitian system. His biggest contribution came from his evaluating training and recruiting staff. We really needed this. Last year we averaged 8-10 daily teacher absences at the HS and this led to a complete breakdown in teaching and discipline. This year, however, every classroom is managed by a specially trained INSTRUCTOR who accompanies the students everywhere during the school day. Classes are taught by Professors who are experts in their fields, and then our INSTRUCTORS review that material with the students," says Doug Campbell. "Essentially, we've doubled our faculty. This is a huge investment - - we are spending nearly $20,000 more per month just for staff, but it was sorely needed. There is better discipline and there are better qualified teachers."

We've also implemented many of the objectives we outlined at the end of last year:

Symphony of Hope to Benefit Hands Together

Our good friend, Chris Lennertz, who grew up knowing Fr. Tom through his Father, Dr. Jim Lennertz , who teaches Political Science at Lafayette College, performed the impossible: he gathered dozens of the world's most famous composers and musicians to create a beautiful symphony to benefit Hands Together.

Here are the details on the album and the DVD, and the links to order it form I-Tunes and Amazon. Every cent generated from the sale of the album goes to HandsTogether.

"A SYMPHONY OF HOPE: THE HAITI PROJECT" -- TO HELP PEOPLE OF HAITI, YEAR AFTER EARTHQUAKE

Available on iTunes September 27 and CD On Demand (Amazon) October 4

(Los Angeles, CA) – Oscar®, Tony, Grammy and Emmy-winning composers have completed "A Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project," a musical collaboration to benefit the victims of last year’s earthquake in Haiti. Produced by Christopher Lennertz and Steve Schnur, the album features the unique musical voices of 25 composers, in addition to 90 musicians and a 60-person choir. Composers include Marvin Hamlisch (The Informant, A Chorus Line, The Way We Were) John Debney (The Passion of the Christ, Bruce Almighty, Iron Man 2), Christopher Young (Spiderman 3, The Grudge) and Dave Grusin (The Milagro Bean Field War, The Fabulous Baker Boys). All proceeds will go through partner charity, Hands Together.

"A Symphony of Hope" is available exclusively on iTunes beginning September 27 and at CD On Demand (Amazon) October 4. A short trailer on the project is available on the site at www.haitisymphony.com

August 2011 - Getting it All Ready

Only four weeks remain before we open our Becky DeWine school on September 12^th, and we are furiously working to prepare our campuses and staff teams for opening day. Thankfully, we completed most of the post-earthquake repairs and rebuilding, but we are a long way off from being ready to receive students on September12th.

“There is just so much that needs to be done, and we have only a small, reliable team that we can turn to,” says Fr. Tom. “One of the things we now realize is that the earthquake wiped out many of the college students who were training to become teachers and nurses etc. It is so hard to recruit qualified high school teachers now – especially when we tell them that our school is in Cite Soleil. “

Here’s a summary of our efforts to get ready for the 2011-2012 school year: