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Bridging Humanity Visits Haitian NGO Rebuild Globally

We visited the Haitian based REBUILD Globally in April of 2012. David Lawrence introduced us to the founder, Julie Colombino at a Haitian benefit held at his home. Julie’s story is truly amazing. Julie is a young woman from Orlando, Florida. After the Haitian earthquake in January of 2010, Julie could not sit by idlely and watch the tragedies unfold on her TV screen. She decided to take action and sold everything she owned and jumped on the first flight to Haiti. She did not know how she would help only that she needed to do something to alleviate the pain and suffering of the Haitian people. Julie braved the homeless masses by inviting them to come and live in a warehouse that was provided to a group of foreign non profits who came to help out. Not knowing what to do with her newly adopted family of homeless Haitians she asked them to comb the streets for debris and trash they could retrofit into something useful. They brought back used tires. After a few trial runs they started making sandals out of tires. Julie eventually went on form Rebuild Globally and was able to secure a better location for her team in Tabare. Their hand made sandals are currently available through their website www.rebuildglobally.org. Julie’s organization is a model template for other NGOs to learn from. They harvest rain water and recently created a perma culture garden. They also have 3 egg producing chickens. Their next big project towards becoming more self sufficient is to build a tilapia pond.

While we visited Rebuild Globally we conducted classes on site and showed them how to make other useful items out of trash. We showed their team how to make beautiful collaged vases out of discarded bottles and how to fuse garbage bags found on the streets to make draw string bags for shipping their sandals. We even showed a young homeless boy named Carlos how to repair his hole ridden tent by sandwiching his tent in between garbage bags and then fusing them together with an iron.

We learned a lot from Julie and her team at Rebuild Globally and have shared their success stories and lessons with other NGOs under our purview.

We are looking forward to our next follow-up trip to Haiti where we will show team Rebuild Globally how to plant fast growing bamboo and produce eco efficient coal. They can also use their home grown bamboo to make fishing poles and other useful items. Operation Mending and Ending Deforestation is under way!

Great job team Rebuild Globally! We look forward to seeing you next year!!!

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Bridging Humanity Visits African Orphanage

Orphelinat Niaber

The Orphelinat Niaber was founded in 1993 by Mali Sangho. The orphanage is located in a village outside of Bamako, Mali, West Africa. Madame Sangho started her foundation to care for infants and children who were being abandoned on the streets and in hospitals. She has helped many children grow up to live healthy, happy lives. Bibi, as she is affectionately known by many, also helps the villagers that surround her orphanage by creating jobs for them. The orphanage currently houses 13 infants and 6 toddlers and has a satelite site at a remote village that was built to care for a blind woman. Bibi found this young blind woman when she was only 11 years old and living on the streets of Bamako. Amako is now 19 years old and has a home for life at the Orphelinat Niaber.

In June 2012 Bridging Humanity spent time teaching their team how to harvest rain water, grow a perma culture garden and make useful items out of trash. We also introduced the founder of the orphanage to various global non profits with local offices located in Bamako, Mali.

Thank you Bibi and team Orphelinat Niaber for having such a big, caring heart! We love you and the kids!

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Guatemalan Orphanage – Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos

Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos is a non profit founded in 1954 by an American Priest by the name of Father Wasson. He was the priest of a very small and very poor church located in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He went on to open an orphanage on an old sugar refinery located in Miacatlan, Mexico. He did not have money to care for the children. He only knew he could not leave them to die on the streets. He was able to care for these children with anonymous donations and with the help of his family and friends. Today through the continued generosity of his friends and family they now have 9 Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos orphanages located in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Bolivia, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

During the Haitian earthquake of January 2010, we worked feverishly to get emergency and medical supplies into Port au Prince by land via the Dominican Republic. This is an image of a container full of walkers, crutches, food and medicine that we shipped over the week of the earthquake. It was one of first containers to make it over.

On another occassion we spent time at their orphanage located outside of Antigua, Guatemala. While we were there we conducted network cable classes for the kids. We also taught the handicapped children how to make large scale origami sculptures in a group collaborative effort. These empowering classes taught the children how easy it is to make network cable as well as the importance of reinforcing team building.

Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos is the model NGO in that they grow what they need to survive, have tilapia ponds, egg producing chickens, have vocational schools on site and send the children for a higher education. Thank you Father Wasson who is now watching over the kids in heaven and thank you Team Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos! We love you!