Boca committee members committed to Building Hope in Haiti

One way South Floridians can keep Haiti on the radar and continue to help the rebuilding progress is to attend Food For The Poor’s annual Building Hope Gala on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012 at The Polo Club of Boca Raton.

In November, seven committee members from the Boca Raton/Lighthouse Point communities traveled to Haiti with Food For The Poor. While in-country, the committee members decided this year’s Building Hope Gala goal would be to raise enough money to construct 100 housing units, a community center, and to initiate an animal husbandry project to include 20 cows in Olivier, Deuxieme Plaine, Haiti.

“It was a very sad day, but a great experience – a life adjusting experience,” said Rene Mahfood, the event’s Honorary Chairperson after her first day in Haiti. “What we saw today puts everything in perspective. You think about how expensive life is back home and all the things you can’t afford. Then you realize that all those material things don’t matter. None of it matters. All that matters is having a roof over your head, being able to clothe your children and having food to eat.”

Attendees will be invited to create a legacy by pledging to build critically needed houses during the charity’s live house-rally. For additional information regarding the Building Hope Gala, sponsorship levels, and tickets, available at $225 per person, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org/boca.

“We’re blessed,” said Ronda Gluck, Event Co-Chairperson, after she visited a family in Cité Soleil who will soon receive a new Food For The Poor house. “We have no idea the luxuries we live in, compared to this house. I feel terrible. These families are blessed to be receiving a home.”

Travelers included Ronda Gluck, Rene Mahfood, Becky Carlsson, Julie Mahfood, Allison Venditti, Traci Wilson, and Kara Seelye.

Additional committee members include Cathy & Abdol Moabery (Event Co-Chairpersons), David Gluck (Event Co-Chairperson), Francis Mahfood (Honorary Chairperson), Ronda Ellis Ged, Michele Greene, Pamela Matsil, Natasha Singh, and Patricia Wallace.

“Hundreds of thousands of displaced Haitians have been forced to live under tarps and tents for almost two years,” said Robin Mahfood, Food For The Poor’s President/CEO, who traveled with members of the Boca committee. “As a result of these inhumane living conditions, the spread of disease and waterborne illnesses have thrived, causing even more devastation.”

Media master of ceremonies will be Calvin Hughes, an Emmy Award-winning newscaster for WPLG-TV ABC Local 10 News. For years, he has reported how nonprofits such as Food For The Poor continue to improve lives and living conditions throughout the country.

Event sponsors include Gregory’s Fine Jewelry, Arrigo Fiat of West Palm Beach, TD Bank, N.A., Regal Home Health, Premier Aircraft Sales, American Nicaraguan Foundation, Jeffery and Agnes Stoops, Dennis Charley & Associates, Quadriga Art. Inc, Haiti Shipping Lines, Seaboard Marine Ltd., Dusco Doors, The Pereira Family, Bernuth Agencies, Boca Home Care Services, Comerica Bank, The Ross Group of UBS, Mailing Service of Pittsburg, and Jox Sox.

Food For The Poor, the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.

For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.

Contact:
Jennifer Leigh Oates
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
jennifero@foodforthepoor.com

Thanks to 13 strangers, homes are being built in Honduras

Just three months after a group of 13 strangers from varied backgrounds traveled to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with Food For The Poor, the group has generated enough donations to build a double-unit home.

The new home funded by the group will be built in the Santa Barbara region later this summer. The group wants to build three more double-unit homes and will need to raise $9,600 to make this dream a reality for three more families in desperate need of sturdy housing.

With many families in the mountain region of Santa Barbara living in makeshift dwellings, the construction of even one home can become a community event. The group experienced happiness after they completed Efigenia Ramirez’s 400-square-foot house in April. Ramirez’s neighbors gathered and clapped with joy when Food For The Poor presented her with the key to a new home for herself and her family of 11.

“When we take groups on a mission trip, it’s primarily for them to meet the people who are benefiting from their generous donations, for them to see for themselves how their gifts in kind and monetary contributions are being put to use,” said Food For The Poor’s Executive Director Angel Aloma. “The fact that the mission group on their first ever ‘Journey of Hope’ to Honduras committed themselves to building homes for the people they met there is truly wonderful.”

Food For The Poor began serving in Honduras in 1999, soon after Hurricane Mitch devastated the Central American country, and has built more than 3,000 homes to date, providing thousands of families with sturdy houses. The concrete block houses are built on a cement foundation and have porches, windows, bathrooms and are topped with a sturdy zinc roof.

Because of the Honduras House Matching Program, Food For The Poor is now able to construct a double-housing unit for each family selected to receive a home. This program was developed to address the critical housing shortage in Honduras. Funds are earmarked for a house matching project, meaning that for each single-unit home that Food For The Poor builds, another single-unit home will be built. Therefore, every $3,200.00 donated will result in the construction of one double-unit home, consisting of two bedrooms, one living room, and a bathroom.

To help with the project, please visit the mission group's Champions For The Poor page.

Chicago-area lawyer Susan O’Neal, who was one of the mission trip participants, recently was featured in an American Bar Association Journal photo.

Food For The Poor, the third-largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian agency provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.

For more information, please visit www.foodforthepoor.org.

Contact:
Wanda Wright
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6079
wandaw@foodforthepoor.com