NOVA Hope for Haiti - Bringing Urgent Humanitarian Aid to the People of Haiti

THE THIRD ANNUAL 2009 GALA FUND RAISER EARNS PROFITS

NOVA Hope for Haiti held their Third Annual Gala Dinner Dance on March 26, 2009 at The Estate at Florentine Gardens in River Vale, NJ. This year's Honoree was Rev. Robert B. Stagg of The Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, NJ. "Father Bob" was recognized for his long-term vision and his tenacity to maintain the Haiti Ministry and provide ongoing medical care to the very needy Haitian population despite logistical obstacles and political unrest during last year's medical mission.

Two hundred loyal supporters enjoyed an evening of open bar, sumptuous cocktail hour, five-course dinner, dancing and a video presentation of NOVA's work in Haiti.This year's Silent Auction was an exciting opportunity to bid on over 60 items that included a Hawaii vacation package with airfare, Florida Get-a-away package, Colorado ski vacation home, numerous sport memorabilia and VIP Mets, Giants and Nets tickets. A new addition this year was an array of authentic Haitian artwork that reflected the spirit and culture of our Haitian friends.

The evening was a great success and enabled NOVA to secure 50% of the funding required to initiate the building construction of our medical clinic in Haiti. We will work passionately throughout the year to raise the additional funding needed to break ground.

2009 MEDICAL MISSION TREATS 800 PATIENTS

Twenty volunteers traveled to Cavaillon, Haiti on May 2, 2009 and spent the next eight days setting up and operating a medical clinic that evaluated and treated over 800 patients, both adults and children. This year, while the main stationary clinic was in FULL operation, a supplementary ambulatory team traveled twice to spend a full day in more remote regions to offer care to those who otherwise would have encountered difficulty traveling to the home base clinic in Cavaillon. A variety of conditions were diagnosed and medicines were on hand to treat the majority of these illnesses. Also new this year, an educational booth was set up inside the clinic and at a local school where both private counseling and group sessions were provided to individuals or groups of young men and women who were taught the basic principles of healthy personal hygiene, family planning and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS. Printed materials with pictures were provided for the analphabetical and both visual and mechanical models were employed for instruction. The program was extremely well received by community leaders and highly attended by the local youth. The information provided needs to be shared universally in Haiti and plans are being made to expand this program into the mountain villages as well. Two surgical cases were identified that could be operated on right in Haiti and finances were provided by our team for these procedures to be performed. The medical team commuted two hours a day from and back from the local Hotel Aldy in neighboring Aquin and no political or social unrest was ever encountered during this daily commute. On the last day of the mission the remaining medicines with long-term expiration dates were carefully catalogued and boxed for storage in NOVA’s house until the next mission, scheduled for April 17, 2010.

OCTOBER 2009 FIELD TRIP

RESULTS EXCEED EXPECTATIONS !

Four NOVA Board members traveled to Haiti to conduct an organizational field trip October 25-31, 2009. The agenda was full and included meetings with other experienced missionaries and philanthropic not-for-profit directors, the Departmental Minister of Health for Southwest Haiti, community leaders of the greater Cavaillon district and local farmers and neighborhood residents living in Martineau, where NOVA’s clinic is scheduled to be built. We reaffirmed the commitment of NOVA’s local Haitian Board members and invited a respected citizen from Cavaillon to join our governing Haitian board; he has accepted and now plays an active day-to-day role in our activities. During joint meetings with the Mayor of Cavaillon and the Haitian Departmental Minister of Health, we reached an agreement to help equip a proposed operating room in a new state facility located near our clinic site, recently constructed as a donation from a friendly foreign country, but dormant and empty. We will have full use of the facility once equipped for surgical procedures when traveling teams of surgeons are brought by NOVA for organized volunteer one-week surgical missions. This will avoid the expense of having to build and equip an on-campus duplicate surgical facility. Three important town hall meetings were held with enthusiastic local attendance and three local organizations were established: an Agricultural Committee and a Medical Committee, each with seven elected board members and a president, and a Mothers’ Health Club with some 150 initially registered members. These committees will be used to initiate and coordinate activities at the local level and thereby provide grass roots planning for delivery of local care. It is critical to include local citizenry in the planning and delivery of care and services, and to understand the local perception of needs.

Finally, NOVA’s members joined hands with representatives of the St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church of Arlington, VA that has been administering during the past 23 years many agricultural, educational and food programs through a Parish Twinning relationship with the local Cavaillon church. St Charles is planning to dramatically expand its agricultural activities and NOVA is dedicating a portion of its twelve acres of farmland to facilitate this expansion. We have asked two members of the St. Charles Haiti Ministry to serve as NOVA Board Members, and they have accepted. While St Charles will continue to function in Haiti as a church-to-church twinning venture, NOVA will continue to function ecumenically yet in close association with St Charles, similar to the relationship NOVA has enjoyed with Church of the Presentation since NOVA’s inception.

Many other important contacts were made during the October field trip and close ties were developed with other established philanthropic organizations working to better the Haitian quality of life. Virtually everyone we met showed great interest in our planned programs and promised support and collaboration on the ground in Haiti.

THREE NEW MEMBERS JOIN NOVA BOARD, DECEMBER 2009

NOVA HAS BEEN SEEKING a dedicated board member residing in Cavaillon proper to help with long-range planning and day-to-day management of this project as it takes form and grows. A long-time friend who virtually opened the doors of his private house for us on our first investigational trip in 1994 has agreed to join us formally as an active Board Member.

KARL A. CALIXTE is a Businessman and an Entrepreneur. Mr. Calixte was born and grew up in Cavaillon, Haiti. He completed his secondary education at the Frères Odile Joseph Des Cayes School and received an accountant certification in business management at the Howard Business School, Rego Park, Queens, New York. He entered business as the proprietor and manager of La Trocade Restaurant in Delmas, Haiti. Mr. Calixte was one of the founding members of the Fondation pour la Survie de L’Enfant Haitian (FSEH) and has worked as a field coordinator for FSEH with duties including the full responsibility for project implementation and monitoring, as well as coordination of services to insure cost effectiveness. He designed and managed the collection of measurement data to implement projects, demonstrate their positive outcomes and facilitate ongoing reviews. Mr. Calixte, for whom the plight of orphans and street children is a personal priority, has years of experience working in human assistance programs. His objective has been to improve the quality of life for those who are so desperately in need: orphans, vulnerable children and their families in Haiti. Besides his board activities with NOVA Hope for Haiti, he is presently playing a major role as Program Coordinator for the At Risk Children Foundation, Inc. He has helped to achieve construction of the Custine Water Project that provides water to a remote and rural section of Cavaillon, Haiti and he has been instrumental in the establishment of the Chambre de L’Enfance Nécéssiteuse Haitienne (CENH), a program that brings relief to orphans, the needy and at-risk children in Haiti.

Mr. Calixte, who presently resides in Cavaillon, brings to NOVA considerable expertise in all aspects of field development and coordination of national and International collaborative efforts. His well-connected ties within the Haitian community are an invaluable on-site resource for NOVA Hope for Haiti.

NOVA HAS EXPANDED ITS SCOPE and now is moving forward in close association with St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church of Arlington, Virginia. Working together, an agricultural center will be developed on NOVA’s farmland that St Charles will organize and support while NOVA forges ahead to provide medical services to Cavallon and greater Southwest Haiti. It was appropriate that St Charles have representation on the NOVA Board for future decisions that will impact both, and two members of the St Charles Haiti Ministry were solicited and have accepted to serve on this board.

RICHARD YOUNG TAUGHT in the Ivory Coast, Africa, for the Peace Corps after graduating from college in 1963. Next came a Masters degree in International Relations, followed by two years with Brethren Volunteer Service in Poland. Marriage to Caroline Brisson in France brought the two back to Roanoke, Virginia to work in a "War on Poverty" agency and raise a family.

Richard then spent most of his active work years in social services administration, primarily in the area of services to the elderly, and development and management of retirement housing communities. A return to teaching was his last regular job, teaching social sciences in an Arlington County high school.

Mr. Young has a Bachelors degree in English from Randolph-Macon College and a Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Oregon. He has been active in the St. Charles Haiti Committee for ten years and has traveled to the Cavaillon area five times in recent years.

JEAN-PLACIDE DAVID EARNED his law degree from the Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and completed a Master’s degree in Business Law from the Université Aix-Marseille III in Aix-en-Provence, France. He then joined one of Haiti’s major law firms, Cabinet Hudicourt-Woolley, where he practiced law for two years. Mr. David subsequently went on to obtain an LL.M. in International Comparative Law from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where he has remained as a Senior Associate at Capital One Financial Corporation’s Security Law Group.

Jean-Placide’s experience is mostly focused on contracts, international business transactions, corporate and more recently, securities law. He played a key role in different legal reform and institutional modernization projects for Haiti funded by the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States. He joined the St. Charles Church Haiti Committee in 2009 and has already traveled to Haiti with this group to help implement programs.

Mr. David speaks fluent English, French and Creole. He brings to NOVA Hope for Haiti a sincere personal commitment to the less fortunate of his native country and was instrumental in facilitating successful town hall meetings during the last NOVA field trip to Haiti and interacting with local community members.


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	THE THIRD ANNUAL 2009 GALA FUND RAISER EARNS PROFITS NOVA Hope for Haiti held their Third Annual Gala Dinner Dance on March 26, 2009 at The Estate at Florentine Gardens in River Vale, NJ. This year's Honoree was Rev. Robert B. Stagg of The Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, NJ. "Father Bob" was recognized for his long-term vision and his tenacity to maintain the Haiti Ministry and provide ongoing medical care to the very needy Haitian population despite logistical obstacles and political unrest during last year's medical mission. Two hundred loyal supporters enjoyed an evening of open bar, sumptuous cocktail hour, five-course dinner, dancing and a video presentation of NOVA's work in Haiti.This year's Silent Auction was an exciting opportunity to bid on over 60 items that included a Hawaii vacation package with airfare, Florida Get-a-away package, Colorado ski vacation home, numerous sport memorabilia and VIP Mets, Giants and Nets tickets. A new addition this year was an array of authentic Haitian artwork that reflected the spirit and culture of our Haitian friends. The evening was a great success and enabled NOVA to secure 50% of the funding required to initiate the building construction of our medical clinic in Haiti. We will work passionately throughout the year to raise the additional funding needed to break ground. 2009 MEDICAL MISSION TREATS 800 PATIENTS Twenty volunteers traveled to Cavaillon, Haiti on May 2, 2009 and spent the next eight days setting up and operating a medical clinic that evaluated and treated over 800 patients, both adults and children. This year, while the main stationary clinic was in FULL operation, a supplementary ambulatory team traveled twice to spend a full day in more remote regions to offer care to those who otherwise would have encountered difficulty traveling to the home base clinic in Cavaillon. A variety of conditions were diagnosed and medicines were on hand to treat the majority of these illnesses. Also new this year, an educational booth was set up inside the clinic and at a local school where both private counseling and group sessions were provided to individuals or groups of young men and women who were taught the basic principles of healthy personal hygiene, family planning and the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS. Printed materials with pictures were provided for the analphabetical and both visual and mechanical models were employed for instruction. The program was extremely well received by community leaders and highly attended by the local youth. The information provided needs to be shared universally in Haiti and plans are being made to expand this program into the mountain villages as well. Two surgical cases were identified that could be operated on right in Haiti and finances were provided by our team for these procedures to be performed. The medical team commuted two hours a day from and back from the local Hotel Aldy in neighboring Aquin and no political or social unrest was ever encountered during this daily commute. On the last day of the mission the remaining medicines with long-term expiration dates were carefully catalogued and boxed for storage in NOVA’s house until the next mission, scheduled for April 17, 2010. OCTOBER 2009 FIELD TRIP RESULTS EXCEED EXPECTATIONS ! Four NOVA Board members traveled to Haiti to conduct an organizational field trip October 25-31, 2009. The agenda was full and included meetings with other experienced missionaries and philanthropic not-for-profit directors, the Departmental Minister of Health for Southwest Haiti, community leaders of the greater Cavaillon district and local farmers and neighborhood residents living in Martineau, where NOVA’s clinic is scheduled to be built. We reaffirmed the commitment of NOVA’s local Haitian Board members and invited a respected citizen from Cavaillon to join our governing Haitian board; he has accepted and now plays an active day-to-day role in our activities. During joint meetings with the Mayor of Cavaillon and the Haitian Departmental Minister of Health, we reached an agreement to help equip a proposed operating room in a new state facility located near our clinic site, recently constructed as a donation from a friendly foreign country, but dormant and empty. We will have full use of the facility once equipped for surgical procedures when traveling teams of surgeons are brought by NOVA for organized volunteer one-week surgical missions. This will avoid the expense of having to build and equip an on-campus duplicate surgical facility. Three important town hall meetings were held with enthusiastic local attendance and three local organizations were established: an Agricultural Committee and a Medical Committee, each with seven elected board members and a president, and a Mothers’ Health Club with some 150 initially registered members. These committees will be used to initiate and coordinate activities at the local level and thereby provide grass roots planning for delivery of local care. It is critical to include local citizenry in the planning and delivery of care and services, and to understand the local perception of needs. Finally, NOVA’s members joined hands with representatives of the St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church of Arlington, VA that has been administering during the past 23 years many agricultural, educational and food programs through a Parish Twinning relationship with the local Cavaillon church. St Charles is planning to dramatically expand its agricultural activities and NOVA is dedicating a portion of its twelve acres of farmland to facilitate this expansion. We have asked two members of the St. Charles Haiti Ministry to serve as NOVA Board Members, and they have accepted. While St Charles will continue to function in Haiti as a church-to-church twinning venture, NOVA will continue to function ecumenically yet in close association with St Charles, similar to the relationship NOVA has enjoyed with Church of the Presentation since NOVA’s inception. Many other important contacts were made during the October field trip and close ties were developed with other established philanthropic organizations working to better the Haitian quality of life. Virtually everyone we met showed great interest in our planned programs and promised support and collaboration on the ground in Haiti. THREE NEW MEMBERS JOIN NOVA BOARD, DECEMBER 2009 NOVA HAS BEEN SEEKING a dedicated board member residing in Cavaillon proper to help with long-range planning and day-to-day management of this project as it takes form and grows. A long-time friend who virtually opened the doors of his private house for us on our first investigational trip in 1994 has agreed to join us formally as an active Board Member. KARL A. CALIXTE is a Businessman and an Entrepreneur. Mr. Calixte was born and grew up in Cavaillon, Haiti. He completed his secondary education at the Frères Odile Joseph Des Cayes School and received an accountant certification in business management at the Howard Business School, Rego Park, Queens, New York. He entered business as the proprietor and manager of La Trocade Restaurant in Delmas, Haiti. Mr. Calixte was one of the founding members of the Fondation pour la Survie de L’Enfant Haitian (FSEH) and has worked as a field coordinator for FSEH with duties including the full responsibility for project implementation and monitoring, as well as coordination of services to insure cost effectiveness. He designed and managed the collection of measurement data to implement projects, demonstrate their positive outcomes and facilitate ongoing reviews. Mr. Calixte, for whom the plight of orphans and street children is a personal priority, has years of experience working in human assistance programs. His objective has been to improve the quality of life for those who are so desperately in need: orphans, vulnerable children and their families in Haiti. Besides his board activities with NOVA Hope for Haiti, he is presently playing a major role as Program Coordinator for the At Risk Children Foundation, Inc. He has helped to achieve construction of the Custine Water Project that provides water to a remote and rural section of Cavaillon, Haiti and he has been instrumental in the establishment of the Chambre de L’Enfance Nécéssiteuse Haitienne (CENH), a program that brings relief to orphans, the needy and at-risk children in Haiti. Mr. Calixte, who presently resides in Cavaillon, brings to NOVA considerable expertise in all aspects of field development and coordination of national and International collaborative efforts. His well-connected ties within the Haitian community are an invaluable on-site resource for NOVA Hope for Haiti. NOVA HAS EXPANDED ITS SCOPE and now is moving forward in close association with St Charles Borromeo Catholic Church of Arlington, Virginia. Working together, an agricultural center will be developed on NOVA’s farmland that St Charles will organize and support while NOVA forges ahead to provide medical services to Cavallon and greater Southwest Haiti. It was appropriate that St Charles have representation on the NOVA Board for future decisions that will impact both, and two members of the St Charles Haiti Ministry were solicited and have accepted to serve on this board. RICHARD YOUNG TAUGHT in the Ivory Coast, Africa, for the Peace Corps after graduating from college in 1963. Next came a Masters degree in International Relations, followed by two years with Brethren Volunteer Service in Poland. Marriage to Caroline Brisson in France brought the two back to Roanoke, Virginia to work in a "War on Poverty" agency and raise a family. Richard then spent most of his active work years in social services administration, primarily in the area of services to the elderly, and development and management of retirement housing communities. A return to teaching was his last regular job, teaching social sciences in an Arlington County high school. Mr. Young has a Bachelors degree in English from Randolph-Macon College and a Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Oregon. He has been active in the St. Charles Haiti Committee for ten years and has traveled to the Cavaillon area five times in recent years. JEAN-PLACIDE DAVID EARNED his law degree from the Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and completed a Master’s degree in Business Law from the Université Aix-Marseille III in Aix-en-Provence, France. He then joined one of Haiti’s major law firms, Cabinet Hudicourt-Woolley, where he practiced law for two years. Mr. David subsequently went on to obtain an LL.M. in International Comparative Law from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. where he has remained as a Senior Associate at Capital One Financial Corporation’s Security Law Group. Jean-Placide’s experience is mostly focused on contracts, international business transactions, corporate and more recently, securities law. He played a key role in different legal reform and institutional modernization projects for Haiti funded by the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States. He joined the St. Charles Church Haiti Committee in 2009 and has already traveled to Haiti with this group to help implement programs. Mr. David speaks fluent English, French and Creole. He brings to NOVA Hope for Haiti a sincere personal commitment to the less fortunate of his native country and was instrumental in facilitating successful town hall meetings during the last NOVA field trip to Haiti and interacting with local community members.