Promoting a global culture of solidarity with the poor - in Haiti, Africa, and beyond. - for a more just and sustainable world . . .
These children are bright, playful, full of love and affection. Their families work hard every day, but despite their hard work they cannot earn enough to provide adequate food for their children. The parish is providing for these children who are at "high risk" for chronic malnutrition.. Together with Marlene Shaw YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF THESE CHILDREN!
Make your contribution to the Skip a Lunch fund at the DONATE NOWpage!
One Person’s Solidarity CAN Make a Difference!
Following a June 2002 Rich in Mercy “reverse mission pilgrimage” to Haiti, Marlene Shaw, of Republic, PA, created the RIM Skip a Lunch, Save a Child fund to provide financial support for a nutrition and early education “head start” program founded by Sr. Eileen Davey and continued by Holy Union Sisters in the St. Louis de Montfort parish in Port au Prince’s Delmas section. Supporters of the Skip a Lunch program contribute $5 a month to provide a daily, nutritious meal, structured play, and various formative educational activities for approximately 100 “at risk” children.
These figures fail to tell the entire story of children’s struggle for survival in Haiti. Chronic malnutrition is more often an indirect cause of death among children ages 1-5 years. Because these children don’t get enough to eat, they have less natural resistance to disease. When they get sick, as all children do, they may recover, but it usually takes them longer than it would if they were well fed. The next time they get sick the recovery may take longer still. Eventually children who never get adequate nutrition succumb to illnesses that other children are strong enough to overcome.
Hunger: A Silent Epidemic at Our Doorsteps
Children in Haiti are born into some of the harshest conditions anywhere on earth. Nearly all are seriously disadvantaged in terms of growth, development, and potential to thrive. Malnutrition rates are among the worst in the Caribbean. Nearly one-third of all Haitian children under five suffer from stunted growth and three-quarters of children aged 6-24 months are anemic. [World Bank, Demographic and Health Survey, 2005]