J Nissi School

The Nissi School in Cité Soleil opened in October 2011 providing education and hope for the children and families in the area. The first year was 1st grade only, each year we have added one more grade level. In 2017 will had our first graduates of the 6th grade, primary level. These graduates will carry forward to secondary school the hope of an entire community.

Our Local Team

This school was inspired by a Haitian man named “Windy”, a man who grew up in Cité Soleil and overcame significant adversity to get an education and work as a medical interpreter. Windy’s dream was to help his people by building a school in Cité Soleil.

We were deeply saddened in 2014 when Windy passed away after a year of suffering with a never diagnosed illness, likely Leukemia. This emphasized to those that knew Windy the horrific medical care available in Haiti.

The school administrator is a man we deeply respect named Jean Philippe Sauveur. In the 2 minute video above you can hear about life in Cité Soleil. He grew up with Windy. Together, their dreams and efforts as leaders encouraging the community to avoid the gangs and go to school. Nissi has a team of teachers, one for each grade level, a cook, Lalet, who from the very beginning reminds us how critical the school is for the children. Her daily meals and summer feeding program to the community keep her very close to the kids.

Project Vision

Windy’s vision for the school was to replace the guns and gangs of Cité Soleil’s youth with books, technology, and a way out of the poverty and violence of their world.

AFF has partnered with this Haitian school in a number of ways since 2011 with projects that included:

  • Raising the funds and working with Haitians to purchase the building in 2012.
  • Partnering with local residents to clean up and paint the school.
  • Working with a local contractor to build the neighborhood’s most awaited “twalet”.
  • Replacing the roof on two of the buildings.
  • Field trips! Taking the students out of the slum for a day, meeting the helicopter paramedic who grew up in their neighborhood, the pride of the National Museum, the park to run and play.
  • Providing uniforms, backpacks, books, and school supplies.
  • Summer feeding program for the kids and the families near the school.
  • Vacation Summer Camps to provide games, songs and crafts during the summer break.

The ongoing momentum in this project has helped to build this from “Windy’s big dream” to a productive school with approximately 100 students that is a beacon of hope in Cité Soleil.

Current Financial Needs

The operating costs for this school are approximately $2,000 per month. The financial support provided through donations to AFF helps pay teachers, provide new uniforms each year, purchase books, supplies, and funds a school lunch program. Students receive lunch at school and for most this is the only meal of the day.

100% of your donation to the American Friendship Foundation is used on projects. Our hope is to help as many as possible and recognizing the challenges of the community we serve them all as a ray of hope. Windy always told us to “give what you can, it is all appreciated”.

Thank you for your support of this school and community. AFF’s commitment is that 100% of your gift will be sent to the school at Cité Soleil.

Checks can be mailed to: AFF – Haiti School Project, PO Box 611; Bothell, WA 98041

Volunteer in Haiti

AFF doesn’t just fund projects! We take several trips a year to visit our partnered projects in Haiti, children programs and also support them with skilled medical volunteers, supplies, and training.

Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals interested in joining us for a trip to Haiti someday can email jeff.clark@affhope.org.

Syrian Refugee Crisis

CRISIS WITHOUT PRECEDENT

The civil war in Syria has sharply divided the country multiple ways, the main groups are:

  • Assad’s Shia government backed by Shia states.
  • Syrian Sunni Arabs, the largest demographic in Syria, rebels against Assad’s Shia government.
  • ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) Shia Muslims whose goal is to create an Islamic state,
  • Kurdish people who are an ethnic minority in northern Syria and Iraq.
  • Syrian Christians make up 10% of the population and are targeted by Assad, ISIS and other forces.

Civilians always suffer in war, but Syria’s people have suffered especially. Assad targets Sunni people ruthlessly with bombs and even chemical weapons. ISIS and other groups, when they take over towns, put the people under brutal rule, with rape and murder.  The fighting has left entire neighborhoods and towns destroyed.  Syrian Christians make up 10% of the population are being brutally targeted and persecuted by ISIS and other forces and driven from the country.

About 250,000 people have been killed in Syria and half of the country’s 23 Million population has been displaced, with 4 million fleeing as refugees.

This has created a modern day Exodus as these millions of people try to get to Europe by crossing from Turkey to Greece, creating a chaotic situation and a human tragedy with no parallel in history.  Refugee camps have been created in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and now in many other places in Europe.

Thousands are asking for asylum in some of the European countries. Many of these countries have their own economic crises and are rejecting the refugees which is creating tension that puts more stress on people who have already lost everything.

NGOs are working with governments to try and provide basic care for those people.  But the massive influx of people is overloading all attempts to help.  Your Support is needed.

AFF will join with dedicated workers and an NGOs working in Austria, Spain and Jordan to try to provide care and assistance to these people fleeing to Europe.

Partner with us to address this human catastrophe.  AFF’s commitment to you is that 100% of the funds you give will be delivered to help these people. There is nothing taken out for Administrative purposes.

Solvatten Water Treatment

One of the greatest challenges for the modern world is how to provide safe water to its expanding population. Over half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from illnesses linked to contaminated water, whilst every year more people die from consuming polluted water than those killed during war and by other forms of violence.

Water and energy are interconnected issues for many poor families; 70% of the energy used by a typical home in Sub-Saharan Africa is for cooking, washing and heating water. Due to a lack of energy infrastructure, people make use of natural resources, namely wood and charcoal. This leads to smoke inhalation, burn injuries, deforestation, and carbon dioxide emissions. Indoor plumbing and secure electricity supply are distant dreams for many households.

How these issues affect humanity:

  • More than a billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to safe water.
  • 1.8 million Children die each year as a result of diarrheal diseases.
  • The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.
  • At any given time, almost half of all the people living in developing countries are suffering from a health problem caused by water.
  • Millions of women spend several hours each day collecting water.
  • Nearly 3 billion people in the developing world cook food and heat their homes with traditional cook stoves or open fires.
  • Over 4 million people die prematurely from illness attributable to the household air pollution from cooking with solid fuels. Women and children are most susceptible.

What is SOLVATTEN?

SOLVATTEN is a combined portable water treatment and solar water heater system that has been designed for use at the household level in the developing world. The product is unique and practical for a number of reasons, namely that it is able to produce both safe and warm water for its user, whilst most water treatment products designed for use in the developing world do not fulfil families’ warm water needs. SOLVATTEN belongs to a small group of water-purification devices that are capable of achieving the ‘highly protective’ status, and with 120,000 units distributed worldwide, SOLVATTEN is saving lives on a daily basis.

The device has been specially designed to meet the needs of its users, and withstand the rigors of poverty. The portability of SOLVATTEN means that those forced to travel long distances to obtain water are able to do so with more ease and comfort. It is made of durable plastic materials and requires no batteries, chemicals or spare parts. The unit has an average lifespan of 7-10 years, meaning it withstands those early years when children are most susceptible to waterborne diseases.

Another great thing about SOLVATTEN is that it creates warm water – up to 75°C. To help you imagine how warm this is, the preferred drinking temperature for tea is 56-60°C. Water at this temperature is perfect for a number of household and hygiene purposes, such as cooking, hand washing, bathing and domestic cleaning. Users that want cooler water can simply place their unit in the shade once the water has been purified. The value and dignity of warm water is sometimes easy to neglect – consider living a day without warm water for showering, cooking and hand washing. Furthermore, imagine giving birth or caring for a newborn baby without safe, warm water…

Donate Online

Click the “Donate” button below to be directed to our Secure PayPal Donation Portal. You will asked the amount you wish to donate and then you will be given the opportunity to identify the AFF Project you wish to support .

Canaan Medical Clinic

The city of Canaan is the fastest growing community in Haiti. The Haitian government moved people here from Port-au-Prince after the devastating earthquake in 2010. This community is set on a barren hillside lacking water, tillable land, and lacking any infrastructure.

AFF has partnered with Dr. Bordes to provide a labor and delivery clinic to support this community of over 200,000 people.

Meet Dr. Bordes

Dr. Edouard Bordes is a Haitian OB/GYN who has served the community of Canaan since 2010. Dr. Bordes, along with the help of AFF and others, has built a medical clinic to address the health needs of the community and a labor/delivery room to reduce maternal and infant mortality in Canaan, Haiti.

His leadership and perseverance is an outstanding example of how Haitians are taking a leadership role in developing their communities.

Project Vision

A women is 17 times more likely to die in childbirth in Haiti versus the United States.

AFF has been working with Dr. Bordes since 2012 in his efforts to provide a safe place for woman to receive prenatal, birthing, and postnatal care in the Canaan community. The Clinique Communautaire Jesu Le Vrai Chemin is fortunate to have Dr. Bordes along with a pediatrician and family practice physician working part-time.

One of our favorite projects involved a vision Dr. Bordes had to “never turn the lights off” at the clinic. AFF was able to garner the resources to provide both solar and generator produced electricity for the labor delivery room and his general clinic.

Where we’re going next is to help the clinic expand its services to include minor surgeries and C-sections. We are also excited to be helping with the continued education of the clinic’s staff.

Current Need

The community of Canaan continues to grow, and Dr. Bordes vision is now to build out an expanded full delivery room for the clinic.

AFF is actively partnering with Dr. Bordes to raise the $60,000 needed to complete the construction, enhance the medical equipment in the facility, build a security fence for the safety of the doctors working through the night, and to pay for staffing costs.

Volunteer in Haiti

AFF doesn’t just fund projects! We take several trips a year to visit our partnered projects in Haiti and support them with skilled medical volunteers, supplies, and training.

Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals interested in joining us for a trip to Haiti someday can email jeff.clark@affhope.org.

Nepal Earthquake Aid

Natural events like earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons or mud slides, give us a glimpse of how powerful the forces of nature are and how little control we have of our lives when they happen.

Nepal was hit with a 7.8 earthquake.  It is impossible to describe the extent of the damage. The Nepalese people are struggling with the almost impossible situation of living under a blue tarp as they rebuild their homes.  The hope for assistance is very limited for most of the people in Nepal.

AFF associates are working to deliver assistance to the people of Nepal.   AFF is receiving daily news of the progress that our friends are making to rebuild homes and lives with the limited resources available to them.

Our AFF associate is working at the epicenter of the earthquake to help many different villages in this area.    The AFF associate’s mother and family live in the remote mountains.   His family was not injured, but “Their house is destroyed and they are living under a tarp.”  It is too far for him to travel to his family village, so he is working with resources given to him to buy tarps, food, and building materials to deliver help to those in need near the epicenter.

For tens of thousands of people their homes have been destroyed and are left with only the clothes on their back.

AFF’s commitment to you is that 100% of the funds you give will be delivered to help the people of Nepal.   There is nothing taken out for Administrative purposes.

Donate Online

Click the “Donate” button below to be directed to our Secure PayPal Donation Portal. You will asked the amount you wish to donate and then you will be given the opportunity to identify the AFF Project you wish to support .