Tag: Haiti Life

Haiti Happenings & Visiting New York

Haiti in the News

You have probably seen Haiti in the news more than usual recently. The news is causing quite a stir as more people see the conditions around the Port au Prince capital region. We have heard many reports about people being evacuated from the country by various methods. This is giving us more opportunities to share about the work that we continue to do in Haiti with the Hands and Feet Project.

The current news you see and hear about Haiti is still primarily concentrating on the activities around the capital region, in and around Port au Prince. Outside that region it is still relatively peaceful, although it’s sometimes difficult to find fuel and supplies. In March 2024, inflation increased to an annual rate of 23%. Some sources report it as high as 34%. As a comparison, the US annual inflation rate is currently only 3.5%. Despite the ongoing challenges, we continue to find all the resources needed for the children in our care, and for the families we help in the community. Please continue to pray that peace will be restored across the country.

Road Trip to New York

It’s time for a trip to Rochester, New York again to see friends, family and our faithful supporters. On our way north over the weekend, we saw 92 degrees in Georgia. But it was cold and rainy for our layover in North Carolina, and it’s about the same in New York. We’re just hoping we don’t see snow!

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Haiti Adventures and Activities

Travel Plans to Haiti

Working in Haiti is always an adventure. There are unexpected things around every corner. For example, I expected to be writing this note from Haiti! We have shared that we were looking for opportunities to get back into Haiti for the last several months. Flights were booked to head in, only to be postponed and then rescheduled due to conditions within Haiti. Sadly, now the trip was canceled.

The day we were scheduled to fly in was a day the protests in Haiti ramped up. The small airport we were supposed to fly into was closed due to protests. We are so thankful we did not end up in the capital waiting to see when the small commuter planes would resume flights to Les Cayes!

The protests culminated in many roadblocks across the country, and people gathering to march in the streets. Some of the roadblocks were quite impressive!

So what were they protesting? Primarily, they want the current acting Prime Minister to step down. He’s been the sole, unelected government figure since the presidential assassination in June 2021. There have not been any elections since then. And frankly, fair elections would be difficult given the growing gang problem across the country.

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Haiti Trip Report – Summer 2023

God is so good. We are thankful for a good visit to Haiti for Randy and a few coworkers. Randy returned from Haiti last week. Here is a brief trip report of how things went, and about the current conditions in Haiti.

Trip Highlights

Haiti Made Staff

It was great to visit with many of the kids on our campuses. We also spent time with some of our current staff and met new staff members. Hands and Feet Project is increasing efforts to reunify children with family, and we have new staff in both Jacmel and Grand Goave to help facilitate that process. We are excited about the progress being made, but it takes time to form a lasting relationship. We also talked with our talented Haiti Made staff as they were working to complete some recent orders. It’s great to see that business continuing to thrive and to see the amazing hand-crafted good that the team creates.

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McGarvey Ministry Update: Haiti News – Summer 2023

It’s another hot, humid summer in Haiti, and in Florida! Here’s an update about what is going on in Haiti, our activities with the Hands and Feet Project (HAFP), and what is happening with Denise and Randy McGarvey.

Haiti in the News

Conditions in Haiti continue to be challenging. There are very few news reports about conditions in Haiti. There is a general consensus from news agencies around the world that outside help is needed to resolve the issues in Haiti, but nobody has stepped up to lead it. Talks continue on many levels about possible next steps. We continue to pray for a solution to restore peace and improve the situation for Haitians and ministries that support families and communities. Here’s a link to find recent news about Haiti.

We continue to thank God for providing the means and methods to care for the kids and the communities that Hands and Feet Project supports in various parts of Haiti. Despite all the daunting circumstances people face, schools have finished for the year, graduations have been held, and summer has begun!

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Spring 2023 Haiti Update

What have you heard about Haiti lately? There hasn’t been much good news reported from the usual news sources as they try and explain the current situation and how Haiti got to this state. We’re here to update you with some good news about Haiti.

Good News!

We are happy to share that Hands and Feet Project continues to provide food and supplies for the children we’ve been entrusted with, and the many families that we’re helping to support in some way. We’re so thankful that God continues to provide the means and the methods to obtain food and supplies needed.

What other good news is there? Here are a few things you should know.

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Hands and Feet Project – Helping Haiti – Building the Kingdom

We are working to bring you all more information about the organiation that we are a part of, Hands and Feet Project (HAFP). The organization newsletters, videos and Facebook posts often share updates about specific children in our care. They give you more insight into life in Haiti. Some of these are about their life stories (Mercidieu, Daniella and Joel), health care updates (Darbens), and reunifications (Kerby). There is information about campus events, along with videos documenting power upgrades, new furniture and conditions in Haiti. The video below (also available here) is an update about the organization and what we are doing to help children and communities in Haiti.

We encourage you to follow Hands and Feet Project on Facebook and subscribe to the HAFP newsletter if you would like more details about the organization and the impact we are having in Haiti. These resources provide additional information about what we do and the impact that we’re having.

2022 in Review – Hands and Feet Project

It’s a new year. Welcome to 2023! As we make plans for the year ahead, we wanted to review what Hands and Feet Project (HAFP) accomplished in 2022 as we all continue following God’s call to care for those in need in Haiti. This information was shared in a recent HAFP newsletter.

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! Here’s a year-end update about how things are going in Haiti and how we’re able to help keep programs moving forward.

Haiti Status

We’re really thankful that things are opening back up in Haiti. It started with restoring power on our campus. We had a system malfunction in September that disabled our power system, and it took a long time before the repair guy was able to come from Port au Prince to assess the damage and begin repairs. Then internet was recently restored and we can finally have our Haitian team working in the spreadsheets, documents and communication tools we all use every day. One of our big challenges while systems were down was getting financial information. We had to use photos and text messages to get vital information while power and internet were out. We’re so thankful we can move forward and try to catch up before the year-end finance reports are due! I have taken on a much bigger role in finances while I also train our new Haitian bookkeeper and bring him up to speed.

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McGarvey Fall Update 2022

Haiti News

James 5:16 reminds us that, “The prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve.” (James 5:16 CEB) In this season of challenging times in Haiti, there is always hope on the horizon through our prayers and actions. There is talk of international aid to improve the security for the Haitian people, but there is also a segment of the population that does not want outside assistance to deal with the powerful gangs, ineffective government officials and outmatched police force. It is certainly a challenging situation that continues to evade a clear solution. Haiti needs the prayers of the faithful to resolve the issues and restore peace across the nation.

Haiti Flag

We are thankful that God continues to provide for the children and families in our care during these tough times. Food and fuel are scarce, leading to a huge increase in those in desperate situations. We’re still able to communicate with our Haitian staff on a fairly regular basis and help them deal with the challenges.

Travel Update

In travel news, we had a great visit with our kids and some old friends in Arizona. We had some rare downtime and enjoyed our time away. Now we’re in Rochester for a week to visit with more family and friends before heading back to Florida.

For those in the Rochester area, we have scheduled our next Open House at Panera Bread in Penfield for this Friday from 5-8PM. We would love to see as many of you as possible! If you’d like, you can RSVP on our Facebook event page, or you can just stop by any time between 5 and 8PM to say hello, and perhaps grab a drink or a bite to eat. Here’s the address:

Panera Bread Company logo

Panera Bread
2152 Fairport Nine Mile Road
Penfield, NY 14526

We hope to see you there! If you can’t make it to Panera and want to get together, let us know! We would love to see you!

Fall is Here, But Schools Have Not Started in Haiti??

It’s still summertime in Haiti…sort of

We had a great time of fun activities, events and entertainment for all of our kids in Haiti over the summer! On top of regular activities and events with the kids, we also had a week-long Vacation Bible School with huge help from our older kids. The program for this year was “Christmas in August”, and the children got to experience the love, joy, and peace of opening the Bible and learning more about Jesus and why He came.  The VBS program included lesson time, skits, creative crafts, snacks, and games.

We had plans for our annual Village Values weekend celebration, but that was canceled due to protests that prevented a team from the US from coming in, and also prevented safe transportation in and around Jacmel and Grand Goave.

Schools in the USA have all started a month or more ago. The school year was supposed to start in Haiti on September 5th, but the government pushed back the official start of school until early October due to protests regarding ongoing fuel shortages, insecurity, massive inflation and government inaction. Now the gangs have said that they won’t allow school to start until Prime Minister Ariel Henry steps down. We heard similar demands about the former president stepping down that were never met, and protests eventually let up. We hope and pray that those funding protestors run out of money soon so things can stabilize for the people of Haiti. There are still many issues surrounding the control of the country that still need to be resolved.

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