Re: Amid Haiti horror, stories of survival and hope
I will start this story of hope by an article published one year ago in the
Pittsburgh Magazine /
January 2009
Love and Haiti
Two Ben Avon sisters are devoting their lives to saving the lives of orphans in Haiti.
By Jonathan Wander
Jamie McMutrie (top) and Ali McMutrie with some of their young housemates at "Jamie and Ali's House," one of three orphanage homes they help operates in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Laura Petrilla
When Lawrenceville photographer Laura Petrilla visited her friends Jamie and Ali McMutrie at the Brebis de Saint-Michel de L'Attalaye (BRESMA) orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last May, the owner and director of the orphanage, Margarette Saint Fleur, asked her if she had ever been to her homeland before. "No, this is my first time," Petrilla said. "Welcome to Hell" was Saint Fleur's starkly casual response.
But in the midst of this "hell"-the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, an island battered by political upheavals, violence and a sequence of ferocious hurricanes-you will find a sanctuary for Haiti's youngest, most vulnerable citizens: its orphaned children. To meet the two young women who devote their lives to these children, to hear from the parents who have adopted children from the orphanage, it is difficult to avoid the clich? of calling BRESMA a touch of heaven, and Jamie and Ali McMutrie angels for what they do.
Ben Avon natives Jamie, 29, and Ali, 20, are sisters. They live most of the year at the orphanage, which is divided into three houses-the "Big Kids' House" for ages 4 and older, the "Baby House" for toddlers, and "Jamie and Ali's House" for the babies and children who are the most frail. They run the day-to-day operations of the orphanage, and they do so without pay, strictly as volunteers, eating what the children eat, surviving, as the orphanage does, on donations and the fees for child care paid by adoptive parents. "It's a Third World country," Jamie says of Haiti. "But I expect First World results." Theirs is a story of tireless dedication, mountain rescues, battling bureaucracy, crying with joy over a baby's first temper tantrum, high expectations, higher standards and, most of all, happy endings.
Read more at:
http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/January-2009/Love-and-Haiti/
Ben Avon sisters serving in Haiti find no need too small
Thursday, December 24, 2009
By Rachael Conway, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The baby's name was Herbert and he was sure to die, just like his mother, who took her last breaths bringing him into the world.
The boy's father, poor and alone, brought the infant to the BRESMA orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, hoping someone would take pity on Herbert, who was small and sick after surviving his first five weeks on nothing but sugar water.
After telling Herbert's father, on several occasions, that there was no room at the orphanage, 30-year-old Ben Avon native Jamie McMutrie caved in.
"We told the dad we would take [Herbert] and love him until he dies," Jamie said in a telephone interview from Haiti. "I stayed up for what seemed like 24 hours a day for weeks feeding him through a dropper."
After receiving his share of cuddling and proper nutrition, Herbert survived. He is now a happy 2 1/2-year-old living the in the United States with his adopted family.
Herbert is one of nearly 500 children who have passed through BRESMA's doors since 2003. That's the year Jamie McMutrie started spending six months a year in Haiti. She has been living there year-round since 2006.
Ali McMutrie, 21, visited her sister at the orphanage out of curiosity that same year. What she saw overwhelmed her and she moved to Haiti to volunteer at BRESMA in 2007.
They planned a one-year stay.
"We quickly realized that the work here would never be done and have committed [ourselves] to staying here as long as we can be useful," Jamie McMutrie said.
Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09358/1023084-54.stm#ixzz0d1LzxOmL
Haitian Orphans in Urgent Need of Airplane
Posted by Sierra on January 15th, 2010 at 11:30 am
A
group of orphans in Haiti were waiting to be adopted by American families when the quake hit. The children, and the two American women who care for them, survived the quake.
They?re now sharing in the fate of the country: no water, no food, no security from violence should riots break out in their area.
Several mommy bloggers have taken up their cause, using their platform to get attention for these kids and the families hoping to welcome them home.
Ginny from
That?s Church has spearheaded the effort. She?s worked with legislators to secure permission for the children to enter the country and is trying to find them a plane.
A plane?
That?s a pretty ambitious undertaking.
They?re hoping to evacuate 150 kids from the orphanage along with the two young Americans caring for them. Jamie McMutrie, 30 and her sister Ali McMutrie, 21, are run the BRESMA orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
After the quake, the McMurtrie sisters went to the American Embassy for help. They were given the opportunity to leave the country, but no means to get the kids out. They chose to go back to the orphanage and try to save the children they?d been caring for.
They are sleeping in the yard outside their damaged building with 150 kids. Like most of Haiti, they lack food, water and medical supplies.
Read more at:
http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2010/01/15/haitian-orphans-in-urgent-need-of-airplane/
Posted on Mon, Jan. 18, 2010
Haitian orphans expected tonight in Pittsburgh
By Jon Schmitz
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A plane carrying a medical team left Pittsburgh for Haiti today, and it is expected to return tonight with a group of orphans from a facility run by two sisters from western Pennsylvania.
U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-4th, the governor's office and other groups worked to arrange the flight, which was expected to arrive in Haiti late this afternoon.
The mission came in response to messages last week from sisters Jamie and Ali McMutrie of Ben Avon, a community that lies a little more than an hour east of Pittsburgh. The McMurtries said this month's devastating earthquake endangered the health of 130 orphans in their care. It is unclear how many of the children will be on the flight.
Since then, officials have been trying to organize an evacuation of the facility while groups in the Pittsburgh area have been holding fund raisers.
Read more at:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/b...n_orphans_expected_tonight_in_Pittsburgh.html
Relief plane to bring 61 Haiti orphans to W. Pa.
JOE MANDAK, Associated Press Writer
Published: 03:27 p.m., Monday, January 18, 2010
PITTSBURGH (AP) ? A charity relief flight taking supplies to earthquake-ravaged Haiti is supposed to return to Pittsburgh with about 60 children from an orphanage run by two western Pennsylvania women, a hospital spokesman familiar with the effort said.
Dan Laurent, a spokesman for the
West Penn Allegheny Health System, confirmed that the plane filled with relief supplies from
Brother's Brother Foundation left
Pittsburgh International Airport late Monday morning.
Laurent says the plane is supposed to bring back 61 orphans cared for by Jamie and Ali McMutrie, who are from the Pittsburgh suburb of Ben Avon.
They have lived in Port-au-Prince since 2007 and run an orphanage called BRESMA.
"We have three people on board," Laurent said Monday, referring to two physicians and a physician's assistant from the Pittsburgh-based hospital network. "My understanding is they took off around noon today."
Laurent said the flight should take about five hours and the plan is to bring back the orphans as soon as possible.
Read more at:
http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Relief-plane-to-bring-61-Haiti-orphans-to-W-Pa-327055.php
&bigDeclCap=Saint+Helene+Jean+Louis%2c+28%2c+of+Carrefour%2c+Haiti%2c+is+carried+out+of+the+University+of+Port-au-Prince+building+after+being+trapped+among+the+debris+for+more+than+four+days+in+Port-au-Prince%2c+Saturday%2c+Jan.+16%2c+2010.++Jean+Luis+was+rescued+by+the+U.S.+Fairfax+County+Search+and+Rescue+Unit+after+about+30+hours+of+work.++(AP+Photo%2fGregory+Bull)&bigCred=&bigUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ohio-share.coxnewsweb.com%2fmultimedia%2fdynamic%2f00629%2fHaiti_Earthquake_JP_629460c.jpg&superSizeImage=y)
