Video Link

I am back in the U.S. - Since I have a better internet connection now, I posted 16 short videos on to You Tube. 

I am not a professional video producers, but I hope that the videos will give you an idea of what the Fanm pou Fanm Haiti Crochet Project does and who the women are that earn a livelihood through the project.

Here are a sample of photos that you can also find on our Facebook page (photo albums):

We payed for 22 children to start school for the 2012/2013 school year 

We will need additional funds to pay the 2nd trimester & 3rd trimester school fees. But, the children have the 1st trimester paid for, received funds to pay for uniforms, books and other school materials. 

We crochet 150 doggy-poop-bag-dispensers for the Zoom Room 

We crochet 208 frisbees for the Zoom Room 

We crochet beautiful earrings! $10/pair

We crochet some additional frisbees for sale, $5 each.

We crochet pot holders to be sold at $10/pair

I taught the ladies how to crochet some items that they can sell locally

They really liked these head covers - hope that they can sell lots!

I taught the ladies to make different types of hats they can sell locally.

Johnny made another one of his (now) famous crochet bags

We distributed about 100 little girls' dresses (made of pillow cases)

We distributed about 100 pairs of flip-flop sandals

We helped support the children's feeding program. 

Approx. 50 children get fed twice per day, at breakfast & at lunch. We want to be able to help more here. 

July 7 & 8 - Update

I got up super early this morning to take advantage of the slightly cooler temperatures. I sleep on the second floor porch, outside, because inside the house it is always like an oven!

I inventories and counted all the frisbees and little dispenser bags, just to make sure that we made enough for the order. I am happy to report that we have 208 frisbees and 166 dog-poop-baggie-dispensers.

The difficulty in making them is that some ladies are so slow, one took almost three weeks to come up with four frisbees, that my math planning did not work out. I had given 20 women 10 frisbees to crochet...but then I ended up have to give the faster crocheters more frisbees to crochet because of the ones that were "tweedling" along...

I had the same difficulty with the little dispenser bags. One of the ladies, I did not think that she could finish her 15 dispensers in time and/or in satisfactory condition, so I had some other ladies crochet some extra dispensers, that is how we came up with 16 additional dispensers. However, the one slow/questionable lady's dispensers are not the greatest. I just did not have the heart to reject all 15 of them...

So, my bags are packed with finished frisbees, dispensers, pot holders, market bags (small and bigger ones), additional colored frisbees, earrings and stitch markers.

On Monday, I need to still go to about 7 schools to finish paying the fees. It is always so time consuming to do anything in Haiti. The streets are blocked with traffic jams, fumes and dust. It has been super windy here. The only way to get anywhere is on a motorcycle, which is kind of risky, considering all the bad and chaotic driving that happens here.

My cousin-in-law's car kept breaking down and half of my time here, it has been not working. So, I have been catching rides with friends and relatives or taking the motorcycle or walking to where I need to go. That really slows down things.

On Tuesday, I am getting together with the ladies one more time to teach them how to crochet hats. We decided on a cute style that should not be too difficult. Some of the ladies have really caught on so well to the crochet and do beautiful work.

We will be dispersing most of the yarn that came in the container from Miami. I have decided to sell the yarn at 5 Gourdes (about 10 cents) per ball/skein because I want to make sure that whoever gets the yarn is serious about making things out of it for sale. The ladies know how to crochet the triangular head wrap, baby shoes, frisbees, bags (small and bigger) and they will know how to crochet the hats. This way, they can make a little business for themselves in addition to our project's work.

Yesterday, a young man died at the camp on Santo 17. He had been in the hospital for several months and was recently released. He started bleeding profusely from his stomach, out of his mouth and nose. It was a LOT of blood! People said that he had bleeding ulcers, but can they be so bad that you bleed to death from them? It was a horrid sight! I felt so terrible for him and his family. His young nephew was home alone with him when this happened. The man left the house to get help... but there was no help for him. May he rest in peace.

Beautiful Crochet Earrings

You MUST check out our Facebook update - PHOTO ALBUM - to see the gorgeous earrings individually and the stitch markers (a tool that knitters use) that we have made... and to think that these ladies did not know how to crochet prior to April 2012!

It takes too much out of my little Haitian plug-in antenna to upload the photos onto the blog. But here is a group photo:





Please check out the Facebook Photo Album for the earrings and stitch markers. I am so very proud of our ladies!

July 2, 2012 - Update...

When I got home yesterday evening, there was no electricity. Once it got dark, I decided to lay down for a nap, to wait until the electricity came on, so I could get on the computer to give an update. Well... the electricity came on at some point, but I don't remember because I was in dreamland! I woke up at about 3 a.m. but decided that I was not getting up until morning.

We have 164 finished frisbee. We would have more, but I rejected about 20 of them for mistakes and/or sloppy work.

134 frisbees, picture taken on Sunday, we have 30 more now

We also have 40 finished dispensers. We would have more at this time, but I told the ladies to crochet all the dispensers first and then I would show them how to crochet the rim around the opening with the button loop and the button. All in all, we had 90 unfinished dispensers.

I started showing three ladies how to crochet the earrings. I made two and gave Cleanne Blaise credit for them (she is our oldest participant, at 68, and she is not only of poor health, but she also lives in dire circumstances). Wana Deliscard finished her first pair of earrings. Elizett Mercilus along with Edith Jean were working on their first pair yesterday afternoon.

There are beads in the outside rim, but the photo is not the best

They are loving the earrings. I want to make stitch markers too, if there is enough time.

By the way, I rejected 20 market bags for being too loosely crochet and/or bad yarn connections. Martha had six of them! Mary Ann's Haitian daughter (Roseline Marcilus) had one, as did Hermitha Dessource. They took it with humor and got busy frogging the bags. I reminded them that when yarn is thinner, you use a smaller hook. But it seemed that their focus was on making big enough bags. I did a little demonstration with Rosline's bag where I did pretend shopping and put a several things into the bag...it kept stretching and stretching, until Edith started laughing and said: "If you take this bag shopping, it will end up on the ground!"

Edith's sister had two bad bags too. Edith took them to her. The rest were from ladies who never finished a bag before and who actually quit the project on their own. Nonetheless, Quelange knows the ladies and she too the bags back to them, I doubt that we will see any of them fixed and/or back.

Johnny, Roseline Colas' son made a new bag. Remember, he is the young man who insisted on learning how to crochet. He is really smart and I am looking forward to him starting school this year, FINALLY! If he can be given the opportunity to attend school, he will be a doctor someday. He has so much potential and intelligence.

Johnny's Creation :)