News from Matènwa

What a gift it was when Johanna wrote to me to express her desire to help Matènwa after Hurricane Matthew. She had already started a GoFUndMe page and was planning a series of other events. Thanks to you and all your hard-working friends for putting together a…

Dear friends of Matènwa, It has been nearly a month since Hurricane Matthew ripped through Matènwa, but the aftermath of destruction remains. From massive loss of crops to piles of rubble where homes once stood, the devastation is brutal for those who are lacking…

The Matènwa Community School is using your donations to turn the hurricane disaster into an opportunity to show our neighbors how to use the ever mounting trash of plastic bottles to rebuild their walls. This technique is successfully being used in many countries as a…

Mèsiyis is a bit beside himself after the hurricane. Quietly distressed, he starts talking about himself in third person. As an elderly man, there is no work for him to acquire the money it would take to buy some cement to add to his mix of limestone and rocks. I know…

I am proud to share that LKM opened its doors today,, giving their students a sense of normalcy today. They also had a meeting with several of the other school directors from our 40 school network on Lagonav. Already our partners at Beyond Borders have started to fund…

The neighbors around the Matènwa Community School do not have much. And now they have even less. The nation that liberated themselves from slavery, this great black nation, continues to suffer because of the history of greed and colonization. Did you know that Haiti…

As one walks around Matènwa they feel the wind has settled, the land is a bit drier, but the aftermath is starting to sink in. Cement block homes are standing tall on this somewhat overcast day, while those of rock and limestone remain stripped open. And their owners…

You may be connected to this woman, even if you never met her. If you wear a beautiful silk scarf from Matènwa, Kenya may be the artist who painted it. Kenya is one of many mothers now trying to clean up with a chin up after the storm. She and her family will eat meat…

The winds are still whipping through people’s homes. Here is a video of Joudin and the damage done to his home. He says that the storm really hit him hard. He is 77. Several years ago he had to move into the only room in his home that was left undamaged in Hurricane…

On Wednesday, October 5th, LKM’s Komite Ijans (Emergency Committee) staff brought some comfort to families after a night of unrelenting winds and rain that killed many of their animals, all of their crops, and beat their walls of shelter till they cracked and fell….

One of our teachers just sent a video clip he took from his window. The winds are raging. He says he will send the pictures of all the damage when the wind finally dies down. He says the roof is threatening to come off. They are planning to leave the house since it is…