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Haiti update
(news from Connie, COPA Project Director, received 20 Jan)
Many still are arriving from Haiti to go to the hospitals in the DR. COPA Health Adviser Amy has taken supplies over to the hospital to help patients and families. Connie writes, “only because of Amy's perseverance did a little 6 year old receive an external device on her broken leg. However, we are worried about infection on the leg.” COPA staff have been following the progress of a 2 week old baby and the laceration on his face is now healing well. Connie comments “I thank God that the US team was here and did his surgery! The baby’s father has been located but he has been injured.” Connie has purchased nappies for a number of babies that they have seen and she is able to buy more with a donation from Aldersgate United Methodist Church in USA.
Connie has been recently been to the hospital and seen a number of new mothers recuperating after giving birth. She observed “there were 4 mothers from Haiti with injuries. Two had no clothes at all and I was able to give them dresses that the ladies in Bombita had made. We went into the pediatrics unit and watched as a young boy had his wounds scrubbed. I felt so badly for him as he should have been taken to the surgical area and put to sleep. I can't imagine how much pain he was in.”
When a patient is discharged from hospital, they don't want to leave as they have no place to go. They cannot be sent back to Haiti. Co-ordination is taking place with different bateys bringing food on different days to feed those in the hospital. Bombita have taken part in this exercise.
Connie concludes “I have been very impressed with the Dominican outreach to those in Haiti. It is very moving.
COPA support for communities post-earthquake
All our COPA volunteers and Project Trust volunteers have been working hard to support the local communities particularly since the Haiti earthquake. Read more about Iman Amrani who is currently teaching english to children in the COPA schools during her GAP year. Click here to read the article
28.01.10
A new church opened in La Hoya just before Christmas.
Find out more: Click here for more information.
28.01.10
Supporting more students in the DR
COPA's work helping provide classroom resources and teacher training in other local schools has been a great success.
Health Matters
Amy Edelstein, COPA Health Adviser has recently sent some photos of the clinic in La Hoya. Photos show the Waiting Area, the Pharmacy and the Emergency Room.
Keeping in touch...
The children in La Hoya and Bombita enjoy receiving your cards and letters. Please address your letters or cards to:
Child’s name and sponsorship number
Escuela de COPA (La Hoya or Bombita), Apartado 42, BARAHONA, Dominican Republic
Please could you write your name and address on the reverse of the envelope. This will help the volunteers when they are delivering the letters and cards to the children. The volunteers have asked that messages to the children be kept short as each one needs translating into Spanish! Thankyou for your understanding.
Click here for other news stories from this year or click on one of the links below to download a newsletter.
Further newsletters will be available for downloading soon.
Over 100 receive new spectacles
Different prescriptions of reading glasses were donated to COPA and Amy Edelstein, COPA Health Adviser and the donar of the glasses spent a morning in La Hoya clinic and the afternoon in Bombita clinic assessing people’s eyes and finding the right reading glasses for them. They saw 106 people in La Hoya who received glasses and 78 in Bombita.
Thank you!
COPA would like to express a huge 'thank you' to sponsors and supporters who have held fundraising events or are planning to raise money for the Flood Appeal. A substantial amount has been raised so far and this will enable us to re-equip the schools and support the communities further.
Partnership Schools Update
COPA aims to provide help and support to a number of the local schools (known as 'Partnership Schools') and this relatively new venture had had a difficult start to the new academic year, particularly due to the bad weather.
Destinations of COPA school leavers
It is always interesting to find out what has happened to previous students of the schools and the progress they have made.
COPA doesn't escape the Credit Crunch
The international financial crisis is causing COPA some concern as the value of the pound has fallen and the amount of US dollars or DR pesos we can buy has dropped significantly.
Pulling Teeth!
COPA Project Director Connie Di Leo managed to get her dentist to visit COPA for a week to assess the health of people’s teeth, which generally involved mostly extracting teeth.