New Updates

Dear Friends and Benefactors,


Beginning today, June 6 2022, we will send frequent brief updates about our work in Haiti. We will number each one so we can reference a particular one if needed.

God bless,


Fr. Tom
Doug Campbell
David Darling

Remembering Dr. Paul Farmer

Hands Together is extremely saddened to hear about Dr. Paul Farmer's passing. During the many decades of working in Haiti, we have encountered very few people that we would consider colleagues and fellow Haiti humanitarians. However, Dr. Farmer was undoubtedly a person we consider a friend and colleague who shared our mission of helping the very poor. 

We saw his footprints all across Haiti and Cité Soleil -- Especially is work with the Haitian Aids Crisis saving thousands of lives. Hands Together saw firsthand in its schools and clinics the life-saving work Dr. Paul Farmer had left behind. He was a man ahead of his time; he truly put the needs of others ahead of his own. 

Much of Dr. Farmer's work followed the mission statement of Hands Together, to always get involved with people at a local level. He would live among, eat with and learn from the people he served. As a result, he grew a single-room medical practice in Haiti to 16 medical centers with over 7000 Haitian employees. 

We are truly blessed to have known Dr. Farmer and to have worked with him. His loss is devastating to everyone, but his message and work will live on for eternity. We are grateful to God for his life and hope to continue to do some of the work he started. Everyone at Hands Together extends our sympathies and prayers to his wife Didi Bertrand Farmer and their three children. 

God Bless,

 

Hands Together

Shipping Container Bridge Construction Finished!

We have finished our bridge construction made out of a shipping container, donated from Holy Family! Here is a short video showing the road map and progress of the bridge.

Live Update From Haiti

A live update from Haiti with Father Tom, Doug, and our Haitian workers. Learn firsthand about the dire situation in Haiti how your prayers and support can help Hands Together. Click the video below to play:

New School Latrines

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Here are the new latrines for our St Ann Campus. Students will plant flowers and a variety of plants around them. A locker room with showers was added here for our multiple soccer tournaments throughout the year. These are an incredible improvement from our older latrines, improving hygiene and privacy for the students.

Barefoot Kids School Program

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Yesterday I met with the parents of over 100 kids have never gone to school, some who are as old as 14. These students will be integrated into our schools and divided into the classes by age. We will work with our current students to help tutor these students to allow them to catch up. “While speaking with these parents, I saw a look of hope and gratitude in their faces. They no longer have to watch their students be looked at from below from other kids their age, and be condemned to a future of unemployment and gang life. I was extremely moved, many parents spoke to me sharing their guilt of not having a job to pay for their kids education

We accepted 1100 students into the Becky DeWine Schools and integrated them into the class appropriate for their age. After witnessing the regular students looking down upon these students when we held special classes for them, we have elected to remove that stigma and put them in the regular school population. We will choose students to mentor them, making their educational progress a part of their peers efforts. Its an excellent way to teach that we all possess the same value and dignity which comes from God and that we are responsible for the well-being and success of those around us. Our students learn that they do not exist for themselves, but for others.

Fort Dimanche Prison

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After several visits to the Ft. Dimanche Prison which was known to be the worst and most cruel prison in the world, we decided to try and preserve the building as is as a memorial/museum honoring the thousands of lives that perished there under great misery and pain. Thousands of people, many of who were never tried and found guilty were crammed into this tiny two story building that at best could hold several hundred people comfortably. At any given time there would be thousands of prisoners living without food (other than what their families could bring). They would sleep “peel sou peel” a creole term meaning intertwining limbs on your side to maximize ground space. Its reported that they would maim, torture, and kill people for sport. Among the people at the prison was the famous soccer player Joe Gaetjens who was taken to the prison in 1964. I have spoken with a younger girl who remembers the screaming throughout the night, and animals eating the corpses. We at Hands Together are trying to make the prison a museum and memorial to be open to the public to remember those who died and suffered such great misery. - Doug 11/19/2020