You helped us raise $1226 at last nights LGCCA Pub Nite! We had a great time. Congratulations to the raffle prize winners, the successful auction bidders and also Carey M. for winning the 50-50 – which she then very kindly gave back to us!! Every cent we raised will help the kids on La Gonave Island. Thank you all so much!
GREAT PRIZES FROM:
Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium
Call Ailsa at 604 563 7994 or buy your tickets via Paypal on this site!
It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we tell you Pastor Jean Elie Alcero passed away in Anse-a-Galets, La Gonave Island, Haiti on 31st May 2014 at 2pm following a sudden illness. Pastor Alcero was a very active member of ASHOG and a wise, kind, wonderful man who will be missed terribly by his wife and family, his congregation, all of his many friends including ASHOG and LGCCA, and his community. He faced many difficulties during his life including the devastating loss of his oldest son two years ago in an accident. He battled ill health with grace and courage while giving comfort to others who were suffering. He was very highly respected and greatly loved by many people and we will miss him dearly. Most certainly taken too soon.
Rest In Peace.
Pastor Jean Elie Alcero
10 February 1956 – 31 May 2014
Ailsa Young, Jean Rony Toussaint, Dieune Simonaire, & all members of LGCCA & ASHOG
Roche Campe, La Gonave Island, HAITI
6 June 2014
WE HAVE MET OUR TARGET OF $5600 CAD for the Roche Campe well! Thank you so much to everyone who donated in support of this well for one of the poorest places in Haiti. The drilling will probably be delayed due to washed out roads and the new mosquito-borne virus which is sweeping through Haiti right now, called chikungunya. But the team will be back to work there as soon as conditions allow and we hope to see Roche Campe with their own clean water supply soon!
Years ago Roche Campe had a drinking water well but it caved in and now they have to walk a very long way to get fresh water. The community is really struggling, they cannot grow crops or keep livestock due to the lack of water. LGCCA visited there in February of this year and the children and elderly in particular are extremely malnourished. We need $5000 USD! For this a US company will drill up to three times, when they hit water they will create the well and install a pump. There is a high chance that they will hit potable water because a well existed there before.
The company who is willing to do it can do it in May 2014 but we need the funds to pay them. There is not much time! Please click on the link below or donate via the donate page on this web site. Thank you so much!
http://www.gofundme.com/wellforlagonavehaiti
If we do not get enough funds for the well by the end of April we will continue to fundraise and the same company will drill for Roche Campe next year. But these people should not have to struggle for another year!
My visit to Haiti and La Gonave Island was very good. Jean Rony Toussaint of ASHOG and I managed to get a lot done including arranging for a large chicken coop to be built at ASHOG Orphanage. The eggs will feed everyone at ASHOG Orphanage and the surplus will be given to the Poor House.
Ailsa Young, LGCCA with Roseberline and Berry at ASHOG Orphanage.
Our biggest immediate problem is finding funding to support 2 little girls who will be moving to ASHOG Orphanage soon. Their father died recently leaving their mother destitute with 5 young children. Rosemitha know we cannot take all of her children in but asked that we take the two girls, ages 6 and 7 as they are most at risk. This is going to be a big challenge for us financially so please, please consider making a donation, even a couple of dollars will help.
We are now planning a Well for the community of Roche Campe on La Gonave Island and are also starting some agricultural projects which will help support the communities most in need. This little one from Roche Campe is suffering from malnutrition, as many children and adults are. The lack of fresh water is crippling the community, no water means no crops and no livestock.
The Morne Augustin children. Thanks so much to English Bay Dental Center for donating 200 toothbrushes! Only 7 of the 44 children are living in the orphanage due to lack of funding, the others survive as best they can in the community.
Donations of multivitamins, clothes, school supplies from supporters in Vancouver, BC. Thanks so much!
Jean Rony Toussaint with Pastor Elouhode of Morne Augustin Orphanage and School. LGCCA sends money monthly to provide food for 7 children at the orphanage.
Thanks for all your support, please continue to help us help them!
Ailsa Young, LGCCA
LGCCA video by Shirley Mayoux. Many thanks to Shirley who volunteered her time and skills to put this short video together for us while on a volunteer vacation from France!
September 15 2013
Just back from a short trip to La Gonave Island to see the children at ASHOG Orphanage … they are doing very well and are healthy and happy. Wonderful to see what great care they are getting from Melene and Claud! Now we need to increase the numbers of needy children we are caring for in this home. Two rooms have been completed in the home for the children and are being painted as I type this, furniture is being made and things are progressing nicely. We really need more regular donors though to ensure that we can continue to provide for these 3 children and they others that will follow them. Every cent helps!
I managed to take along a lot of donated items such as vitamins, clothes, school supplies and some much needed solar lamps. Thank you very much for your generosity! Was able to give the children at Morne Augustin some supplies and also to buy a little food for the Poor House residents. Had a very helpful meeting with Michel Samuel of www.aaenfants.org regarding agriculture on the island – thanks Sam.
Very much looking forward to my next visit which will most likely be in February 2014. Thanks for all your support! Please click on the video link below to see more…
Ailsa Young, President, LGCCA
Well, we had a blast!
Lots of tickets sold for the event and then people bought even more tickets for the raffles, 50-50 draw and more…Thanks so much for coming to support us and thanks to those of you who did not attend but gave us a donation anyway. The money will be used to provide care for the children – food, water, shelter and school transportation.
Please consider becoming a monthly donor – for as little or as much as you choose! Regular donations are essential to providing stability for the children and allow us to care for more children and plan ahead.
Thank you so much!
The LGCCA committee.
Young Mattias Bello receiving a certificate of appreciation from Ailsa Young, President of LGCCA on May 28 2013. Mattias donated his birthday money for the 2nd year to LGCCA kids…thanks so much for your generosity Mattias, you’re awesome! The $120 will help to provide food, water and shelter for some needy children on La Gonave Island, Haiti.
I was very happy to back on La Gonave Island this March. Jean Rony Toussaint of ASHOG (www.helplagonave.org) finally got the 3 children who had been living in terrible circumstance at the Poor House in Anse-a-Galets into a new home – ASHOG Orphanage. LGCCA is send a monthly stipend to provide their food, water and transportation to school. The home they are in now marks the beginning of ASHOG Orphanage in Anse-a-Galets.
Berkendy (4), Berry (7) and Roseberline (12) with Ailsa Young (LGCCA)
Melene and Claude have opened their home and their hearts to take the children in and will be able to home up to 10 children. Eventually there will be a new orphanage built for them just outside of Anse-a-Galets but for now they are safe and secure in this home. There is no electricity supply at the home and the only lighting is from 2 solar lamps. Water has to be taken from one of the town pumps and as the dry season progresses they have to go further and further for water.
ASHOG Orphanage
For the first 3 months there will only be these 3 children in the orphanage to allow time for any teething problems to be worked out and to ensure there is adequate funding available for their care from LGCCA. Once we get sufficient donations we will gradually move more children into the home. There are several little children on the short list who urgently need a safe place to live.
These are the 3 children your support is helping to home right now.
Berkendy (age 4) has living relatives but they are unable to provide for him.
Berry (age 7) is an abandoned child, his family story is not known.
Roseberline (age 12) has living relatives who cannot provide for her. She is Berkendys aunt.
Dieune (ASHOG member and my interpretor) with the children
They are all going to school and Jean Rony reports that they are doing very well in their new home. He says that ‘their faces are changed and they are so happy now’. Melene and Claude are taking wonderful care of them.
Unfortunately life on La Gonave is more expensive than on mainland Haiti. Food costs significantly more there. With the cost of clean drinking water and the washing water needing to be delivered to the home during drought season, plus the cost of transporting the children to school (on motorbike) we need to provide $100CAD per child per month. (5% ($5) of each childs stipend of $100 is being kept aside for emergency medical costs – there is no free health care on the island). In the future when the new orphanage and school are built these costs should be significantly less per child. More children = bulk buying of food = money saved. We hope that ASHOG will be able to grow crops on the land once a water supply has been established.
Jean Rony Toussaint (ASHOG) with a little girl who is on the short list to move into ASHOG Orphanage. She is an orphan and lives with her frail grandmother in a shack, her grandmother cannot provide for the child (or for herself) and asked Jean Rony if the little one could move into the orphanage. It was very difficult to say no but we do not have enough donations at this time…
Jean Rony (ASHOG), Meline and Claude (foster parents)setting up the childrens beds
Berry liking his new bed
Melene and Claude do not receive any payment for fostering the children from LGCCA. The mayors of Anse-a-Galets have promised to provide a small monthly payment for Melene as she is the main childcare provider. Claude works in construction but there is no work for Melene on the island and she would have to go to Port-au-Prince to find work.
Melene, Claude, Berry, Berkendy and Roseberline
We will post monthly updates on the children on the website.
Please consider becoming a MONTHLY DONOR so we can keep providing for these children and get other needy children into this safe haven.
You can donate through Canadahelps, just follow the instructions on our Donate page.
Many thanks to Pastor Alcero who came to bless the house on the night the children moved in. Also a big thank you to Pastor and his wife for being my hosts while I was on the island again this year – mesi ampil!