Kids in CA talk to kids in Haiti - through drawings

Before our trip to Haiti, we spoke with teachers at my siblings' elementary school, Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School, about doing some sort of work for the children in Haiti, and we came up with a simple idea: my sister and brothers' classes would all draw pictures and write letters for the Haitian children. By the end of this experiment, we had three classes-worth (my youngest brother is in 1st Grade and my other brother and sister are in 5th Grade) of colorful and thoughtful letters.

Once in Haiti, we took these drawings with us to several schools that we visited, and handed them out to the students. The children in Haiti will, in turn, create drawings and letters for us to give back to the kids at my siblings' school. We were able to create a connection between three sets of classes, in exactly the place where connections and support is needed.

We selected a couple of the drawings/letters to show you here on the left. The second image has writing in Creole on it, basically saying that the child on the right (the one who made the drawing) is thinking of the child on the left (the imaginary Haitian child).

As you can see (the remainder of the letters can be found in the photo sidebar on the right), the drawings turned out to be fantastic. They were supportive, happy, colorful, and most importantly, they conveyed a message of hope. This was incredible to see as even children as young as seven years old truly put forth an effort to help out those who are less fortunate than themselves. It goes to show that anybody can help, with even the most minimal effort. The Haitian people have so little and are, thus, grateful and appreciative of all the help that they get: whether it be relief efforts, supply of food and water, or simply a letter or a drawing. During tough times like these, it is the spirit of the people that is hurt the most, and small actions such as these go a long ways in repairing the morale of a devastated people.