A letter from Paul Haggis in Haiti

[Tao Ruspoli]

>From our friend Paul Haggis, who founded Artists for Peace and
Justice, and who just landed in Haiti. Feel free to forward.

Dear Board Members and Friends of APJ,

You made a real difference today. Our team landed, and after a few
missteps landed at St Damien's Children's Hosptial with medicine,
supplies, support people and doctors.  We were very low on heavy pain
medication.  Children here with multiple amputations are being treated
with Motrin.  However we are reaching out to Sean Penn's team and we
hope to get morphine and heavy pain medication tomorrow.

Sean and Diana and their support team have been amazing.  We can't
thank them enough, though the last thing they want, or will accept, is
our thanks.  They have it nonetheless.

APJ Surgeon Dr. Reza Nabavian lead the medical team to the hospital,
bringing the doctors and surgeons that Sean and Diana have assembled.
We got here just in time to take over the night shift, taking over
from exhausted doctors. They dug in and did amazing things. Lives were
saved tonight because of your support. That is not hyperbole; Reza can
give you the children's names.

Haiti is everything you have seen in the news -- and not at all what
you have seen.  The Haitian people are some of the most beautiful and
generous people I've ever met.  We had security for the doctors and
truckload of medication, but we did not see one incident of violence.

Tomorrow morning we are going out to tour our 22 street schools in the
poorest neighborhoods of Port au Prince to assess the damage.  No one
has been to the school sites, so we have no idea what we will find.
We are hoping for the best.

We, meaning you, have committed to building and funding 50 street
schools in the slums.  To do that, we need to raise 2.5 million
dollars in the next two weeks.

I don't mean to be cynical, but we already see the news teams leaving
here.  By next week, Haiti will be out of the news and will once again
be forgotten. We have been working to raise money for the the children
of the slums of Haiti for two years.  We raised more cash in the first
day of this disaster than we did in those two years.

There are tremendous needs in Haiti right now and we are funding them,
but we are in this for the long run.  We want to make a real
differnce, even if it is only in the lives of the 5,000 children of
the slums who would not get an education, or one meal a day, if we
weren't here. So I am asking for your help.

We need to raise as much money as we can before this is out of the
news.  We need to get compassionate people with money to our Sunday
brunch fundraiser.  We have amazing artists coming to share music with
us, we will have speakers who know what they are talking about because
they have been here, and we will have a live connection with Dr, Rick
Frechette in Haiti so you can ask questions and get answers.

So call your friends, twist their arms, get them there. That is the
number one thing you can do to help right now.

The doctors are just coming back in from their shift.  None of them
are sleeping, or will get much sleep, but they are smiling from ear to
ear.  We are so grateful they are here.  We are safe here, and we are
thrilled to be here.  I look forward to seeing you Sunday, and
appreciate everything you have done.

Now do more.  Start by forwarding this to your friends, as right now
we are just working off my list.

You have our love and respect.

All our best,
paul
for the board of APJ
and the volunteers on the ground in Haiti

-- 
__________
Tao Ruspoli
Director, Mangusta & LAFCO productions
www.taoruspoli.com

+ Please add FIX to your Netflix queue! +
http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Fix/70113535

"It seems to me that I have found what I wanted.
When I try to pull it all into a phrase I say
'Man can embody truth but he cannot know it.'" -William Butler Yeats