The dolls have made it to Haiti! 
 
Unfortunately we weren’t able to take them personally. We had plane and hotel reservations for April 4th-6th but were told that unless we had a locked compound to stay in that it wouldn’t be a good idea to go. There were a few reasons that was the case the biggest being the election results that were being posted the night we were arriving. Most of the NGO’s in Haiti were in “hibernation mode” which basically is lock down. They didn’t know what to expect with the announcement of president so it was a questionable day to arrive. The other reason we had to cancel was that our friends on the ground in Haiti were telling us that rapes and kidnappings were daily occurrences in the IDP camps and that arriving with dolls could put not only us but our hosts in danger. We were told that if we didn’t have 65,000 dolls that the camps were not the place to take the dolls.So we had to rethink our plan.

 
So….as luck would always have it as far as the dolls go…we found out that there was a Haiti convention being held in Miami the week we were planning on being in Haiti!!! We had been put in contact with Alison Thompson one of the founders of a charity called We Advance www.weadvance.org who had expressed an interest in the dolls so we flew to Miami and met with her and the other founders. While there we also connected with several other charities that are interested in our dolls. (It’s looking like Haiti will become a regular stop on our delivery schedule.)

Ed and I went to the convention center on Tuesday and presented 70 dolls to We Advance. They (among other things) run a clinic and counsel women and children that have been assaulted in the camps. They wanted the dolls for their youngest patients, girls of as young as 2 years old, that have been sexually assaulted. I can’t believe we live in a world where this happens to children and I hope the dolls you have lovingly created will be of comfort to them.

Anyway, Alison has promised that she will get photos for us once the dolls have been delivered. Delivery will of course happen over time as the young girls and children come into the clinic and the dolls are handed out. 

A huge thanks to all of you that helped decorate and/or organized parties. A special thanks to my friend Kris Springer! Every doll was wearing a handmade necklace from Kris. The necklaces become perfect bracelets for the girls. AND…we still have some necklaces leftover for our next trip to Haiti (possibly this summer).

xoxo,
Tracy