Her husband, Judler aka Bwa, has been with Tania since 2014, they will soon have 3 children together. Bwa is 30, his mother and father still work sporadically planting other people’s land. Bwa is in charge of attaching the canvas to the leather for Good Threads products, an important job. Bwa made it to middle school before ending his schooling. Neither of Bwa’s siblings work and he is the only member of his extended family with a consistent job in Haiti. He helps his parents, siblings and cousins with transfers as well.
Tania’s youngest daughter is Naomi. I have gotten to watch Xena and Naomi grow up from birth and so feel really close to them. Naomi is a super happy girl and also a tank. She has been walking around the foundation, on her own since she was 7 months old. She was very excited to see me when little and would run to me, then went through a brief period of being afraid of me, before going back to running to me when I arrived. For a 2 year old Naomi is as street smart as they come. For her second birthday I brought her a little cake. I gave it to her in a group of adults and kids who all immediately started asking to see it and grabbing for it. Naomi put that cake over her head and booked it for her mom where she began to eat the cake frosting first, like a champion. I believe Naomi will start preschool this fall.
Tania’s middle children are Yefri and Franky. They are both friends of my boys and spend a lot of time at my house. They more or less in the grade they should be for their age and both do well in school. They are stereotypical boys. They love sports, dancing, video games, are super tough and enjoy a lot of freedom. They are both on track to attend college and achieve real success.
Tania’s three oldest children, Yakelin, Yesika and Yensle, started in the foundation at older ages. Yesika is still in school but is 17 and in 4th or 5th grade. Yensle is also very behind. Yakelin is no longer in school. All three get some work stitching and hope to continue to get more work with Good Threads as they become adults as their other decent job opportunities are basically non-existent. All three have good attitudes and are generally positive individuals. If they can start to get more work with Good Threads they will have solid jobs, limited expenses and the opportunity to accumulate some wealth.
Corona in Haiti
It seems like the Corona virus passed through the JRF and Good Threads community and probably all of Haiti with minimal damage. There is limited testing and the local hospital is fully closed, so nobody can speak with certainty. There were reports that infections in Haiti were starting to spike, the local jail in Jacmel had a fever run through its population and a lot of individuals in the JRF and Good Threads also got sick around that time with symptoms in line with Corona. I ran a fever for 7 or 8 days, had a sore throat at night, headache, no appetite, low energy and some nausea. One of the least healthy individuals at the foundation had chest tightness and some of the worst symptoms. There were 2 Good Threads stitchers that had parents die during the same general time period, I am not sure what their symptoms were but one had been sick for a while. The country has ended its quarantine and school will resume in early August. Haiti was super well set up for the virus as the country is young, dirty, hot and lacks effective healthcare perpetually. The crisis has caused the Haitian currency to lose another 25% of it’s value vs the US dollar since March. Haitian banks are low on US dollars. It is a fight to get 2,000 US dollars out in a day from our bank and I know in Jacmel, it is the same for all of the other banks. The roads are open which means that the central banks in Port Au Prince also lack dollars, as if they had them they could send them to the regional banks.
As always none of this would be possible without the support of our donors. Together we are making a real difference in our people’s lives.
Sincerely,
David and the JRF Community
