The First 20 Years

Children • Haiti • Trauma Relief • Women

Several studies are pointing the way to achieving self-sufficiency in developing communities by attending to family behaviors and nutrition during early childhood. In most marginalized communities, even those in industrialized nations, parenting practices generally parallel economic level.  Kids in at-risk communities are far more likely to be neglected or treated with disdain or violence, whereas children in wealthier climes are generally treated with regard, included in family events on a near equal basis, and empowered to become their own agents beginning at an early age. Some of the differences between the two groups are due to educational backgrounds (e.g. illiterate…

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Hummingbirds Share Passion for Haiti’s Kids and Native American Communities

ASR Events • Children • Current Events • Haiti • Native American

Long-time ASR contributor The Hummingbirds held their annual pre-Mother’s Day luncheon at the home of co-founder Jennifer Johnson. Mothers, daughters, aunts, and sisters were out in full force to enjoy mimosas and the delicious pasta bar provided by film kraft services company Mario’s Catering. This year’s event is the second to support Dig Deep, a non-profit  “working to ensure that every American has clean, running water forever”. Last year’s Hummingbirds’ brunch raised funds for a Navajo community in New Mexico.  This year’s brunch is focusing on water access for a Lakota Sioux community on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, of particular…

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Aid Still Required Nutritional Partner OneEgg Receives Major Tyson Foods Grant

Children • Environmental Sustainability • Haiti

Great news from OneEgg CEO Chris Ordway!  The ASR partner has received  $341,490 from Arkansas poultry giant Tyson Foods and its subsidiary Cobb-Vantress to establish an egg-producing farm west of Haitian capital Port-au-Prince.  In addition to supplying much needed nutrition for local children, the farm will create jobs in the community and become self-sustaining over time. OneEgg began its work in Rwanda and has expanded to 8 countries, its mission to provide animal protein to undernourished children.  53% of all deaths of children under 5 are due to malnutrition. One egg provides 13 different essential vitamins and minerals needed for…

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Farewell, Fred Voodoo

Children • Haiti • Trauma Relief • Women

Been reading Amy Wilentz’s ‘Farewell, Fred Voodoo’ on life in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake.  If you’d like to immerse yourself in Haitian communities and their legendary resilience, this is the avenue – and the agony and the ecstasy. There’s an openness to new ideas in our communities there that consistently inspires.  We’ve introduced a full plate of programs to some of Haiti’s most neglected communities – schooling, adult literacy, adult vocational training, orphan reunification, computer labs and training, English classes, dance, chorale, yoga, meditation – many of which were utterly foreign to our participants at the onset.  Nevertheless these programs have been met with…

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ASR Opens First Academy in Haiti

ASR Events • Children • Haiti • Trauma Relief

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”                                                                                                     –  Margaret Mead Today we proudly inaugurated the first Aid Still Required Academy in Deuxieme Plaine, Haiti, for 119 children, 30 of whom are orphans.  The original inspiration came from the local community itself, a few hundred farm families earning…

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A Note from ASR Supporter Jill Higgins

Children • Environmental Sustainability • Haiti • Jatropha • Trauma Relief • Women

While Hunter and Andrea were in Haiti for the last two weeks, Jill Higgins and her daughter Ivy took time to fly in for 6 days to visit and get a look at several of the Aid Still Required programs around the country.  Below is Jill’s reflection on her time there.

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