Monday, March 30, 2009

All Aboard

Well, things are starting to pick up. Hopefully, I'll have a couple of presentations lined up to drum up support in the near future. That's a piece of cake. I've also got my first donation all packed up and ready to go! See my helper at work again.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Up and Running

Yesterday, I unveiled my plan via e-mail to my friends and family. I began getting responses back immediately. Isn't that great!?! I know we are in a recession right now; however, there are people worse off than we are in other countries. We don't have to look far to find them either. Haiti is right off the coast of FL and the need there is so great. So, a special thank you to all that stepped up so quickly with no hesitiation. That's love!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Some more Interesting Facts

  • Maison de Naissance is French for "House/Home of Birth".
  • The US Foundation office is in Kansas City, MO. They fund the programs of Maison de Naissance through private donors, family foundations and grants.
  • Because of the economy, donations has been slow for the last 2 months, and January-February typically are more slow than other times during the year.
  • They average about 125 new patients/per month; 303 Return Prenatal Visits per month for a total number of visits of 425/month; Family Planning visits about 25-30/month (women), and 45-40 deliveries per month. The MN Zone of service includes about 25,000 persons. They also screen ~ 150 patients for HIV/month. Well baby visits = ~125/month (includes exam and vaccinations).

My First Donation


Today, I was straightening up my daughter's room and starting putting together my first donation. I want to mail it soon because some of the items have expiration dates. I'm happy that I'm able to send 3 diaper bags, some formula, baby clothes, and a maternity gown (all brand new). We are so blessed and those items were just laying around. My daughter didn't use any of the formula samples, so I must send those before they go bad. Plus there are so clothes that we both received as gifts that were not worn. Included in the diaper bags are all sorts of samples for mom and baby. I'm sure they will be much appreciated because they are being sent with love. See my little helper (bad hair day)!
By the way, Happy Birthday DAD, you're #1 in my book!

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Getting to work

Today, I'm going to work on my contribution letters, personalizing them all. The goal is mail them out by next week. I'm sending e-mail follow ups as well.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Maison de Naissance, Birthing home


So, here's where I am. I have contacted a Birthing home, Maison de Naissance and told them of my intentions.
Please visit their website: http://www.maisondenaissance.org/
Here's some information I got from Cindy Obenhaus, Program Director, Maison de Naissance Foundation (abbreviated),

"Thank you so much for your open heart and willingness to help MN's mothers and babies!

1. Of course, we love $$$ as this goes directly to operations at MN to provide the maternal child services that are needed there.

Just to give you an idea, the programming costs of Maison de Naissance including patient care, transportation, salaries, etc per month = ~$50,000! It is a great misconception that Haiti is a cheap place to do mission work. Inflation has been as high as 45% in recent years, yet the average income per year is about $400-500 US.

Family Planning visit, Prenatal Visit, Welcome Kit for Baby all cost ~$50 (includes the lab tests, medications, etc)
Vaccinations: $10 for one baby visit with vaccination, $100 supplies all the recommended visits and vaccines for one year. *These are approximate costs

2. A couple of ideas for donations: (we no longer accept used baby clothing or equipment, only new)
Newborn to 12 months baby clothing: such as onsies, diapers (cloth w/ pins), t-shirts, lightweight sleepers, bibs, hats, Baby blankets, Diaper bags, Gifts for mothers such as toiletry kits, nice lotions, hair brushes, mirrors, etc

3. Arts and Crafts supplies for our mother's clubs: jewelry kits, beading kits, flower making kits

These are all great things to collect as many Haitian mothers and babies never get new cloths or items as everything seems to be hand-me down, used clothing from the US that is sold in markets. We like to be able to give our mothers and babies nice, new items because they deserve it and they appreciate it so much."


So, there is definitely a need.
I also created a logo for the project, >>>>see it to the right.

Where do we begin, at the beginning


Hi friends,

Thank you for visiting my new blog site, so let me tell you what it's all about.

Lately, I've had this yearning to "go big" in doing something for someone else with my greatest inspiration being my daughter(pictured). I prayed about it, and lo and behold, this idea came to me in a dream. Why not collect baby clothes for the women of Haiti?!? Brillant.

Since my husband is from there and we are now parents, I had been paying more attention to their issues and have much sympathy. Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, and just recently got ravished by hurricanes. The people have next to nothing. My idea was to simply collect baby clothes and products and send it to the new moms. I now know first hand how tough it is as a mom when you “have”, so I can’t imagine those who don’t. I know those women would be so grateful.

So my plan is to just pool together the resources I already have sorors, line sisters, nursing moms group at the hospital, Mocha Moms, the church, etc. I didn't want to reinvent the wheel, so I found something that already existed to donate to them. A special thanks to Marie Arnode Thelemaque for getting me the information. And now here we are.