Local project seeks to fight hunger in Haiti

Ted Carothers of Valdese Rotary holds photographs of two children he met while on a trip to Haiti. He said the two girls are 2 and 3 years old, but look like “two little, old, worried ladies” instead of young children.

By: Terri Johnson | Morganton News Herald
Published: March 11, 2009

VALDESE --

Ted Carothers, Bruce Bingham and Paul Mears, members of the Valdese Rotary Club, saw first-hand the hunger situation when they traveled to Haiti last November.
Carothers previously traveled to several countries, such as, Guatemala, Belize, Ecuador and Peru, on trips sponsored by Valdese Rotary. He said nothing prepared him for what he observed in Haiti.
"The situation there bothered me to the extent that I could barely eat, sleep or talk about the horror of the hunger I saw there for several weeks," he said. "It was on that large a scale. We visited orphanages where the pantries and refrigerators were essentially bare, and there were no funding sources or rescue efforts of any type available.
"We even visited a factory that made mud pies for people to purchase and eat, as a way of trying to avoid the sheer pain of their empty stomachs, and as a desperate source of water. They are essentially made of dirt, held together by a little bit of oil, sugar and water dried into hard cakes in the severe sunlight."
The Valdese Rotarians' worst experience in Haiti occurred when the men left their hosts to go out and distribute a few dollars to needy persons on the streets. Though strongly warned not to do so, the men walked into an area of beggars and gave money to a woman with her 3-year-old.
They heard a commotion as they walked away and, turning around, saw several grown men beating the child and his mother while robbing them.
Ted said, "I could only reason to myself that the men were desperate, too, and just as likely to die of starvation as their victims."
The Burke County Rotary Clubs will sponsor a mission opportunity on March 28 at the Collett Street Recreational Center by helping "Stop Hunger Now" raise funds and distribute food to Haiti.
"We want to try and bring diverse groups of the community together in the project. We need approximately 800 volunteers working in two- to three-hour shifts to pack bagged meals into a shipping container bound for Haiti. We are in the process of collecting money through local humanitarian groups and churches. The Presbyterian Church of Western North Carolina gave us $7,500 for the project."
"It takes a special food for nutritionally deprived people to be able to digest it without becoming violently ill," Carothers, Rotary spokesman, said.
Stop Hunger Now is an international nonprofit, humanitarian organization. It distributes high-protein, rice-based meals customized for the spices and tastes of different world regions. The cost is 25 cents per meal. Stop Hunger Now ships containers holding 240,000 meals at a cost of $60,000 per container plus a $5,000 shipping fee.
"The goal is to get the rice mixture to schools and orphanages in order to supply children with one nutritional meal per day. Children in Haiti are sent to school by their parents so they can eat once per day. Studies there have shown an average weight gain of 5 to 7 pounds, and a 25 percent improvement measured in the children's level of cognitive functioning."
Grace Episcopal Church is having a Lenten program at 5:45 p.m. March 22 in the Fellowship Hall where the public can learn about "Understanding Poverty" from guest speaker David Tate of Burke County Christian Ministry. Shifting to a world perspective, Carothers and Bingham will talk about the Haiti project.
Carothers said, "We need money, but we also desperately need volunteers. Churches and other groups can have a table of their own at the recreation center on the 28th for a $500 donation.
"Whole families can help, even those with young children. It will be a great way to teach children the joy of giving."
For information for your church or organization, or to contribute to this hunger project in Haiti, call Bingham at 879-9243 or Camp at 893-2376.
Terri Johnson lives in Morganton and writes for Burke County Notebook.

Local project seeks to fight hunger in Haiti

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