Wanting to do more than just send my $30 donation to SOS Children’s Villages, I decided to get my friends and family together to think of a creative way to raise funds for the rebuilding of Haiti and to save the children. I have a natural love of cooking and have been putting together a recipe cookbook for publishing. I then thought to myself… everyone has a favourite recipe. What if we put together a cookbook with recipes contributed by everyone? Contributors would not only be donating to a good cause, they would also have their own recipe published in a cookbook. We could print the cookbook professionally and the proceeds of the sales would go to SOS Children’s Villages Haiti.  If you want to donate money without purchasing a cookbook, please click on the donate button below.

	Donate to SOS Children’s Villages Haiti

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Here is an eye opening article that talks about how opportunists are taking advantage of the Haitian tragedy (again).

Clinton for Haiti Czar? by MARY ANASTASIA O’GRADY

Wall Street Journal (an excerpt from article)

“..According to sources familiar with the issue, word has already gone out that Mr. Clinton has been unofficially designated by the multilateral aid community as the conduit through which anyone who wants to participate in the country’s reconstruction will have to go. “That means,” one individual told me, “if you don’t have Clinton connections, you won’t be in the game.”
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This video shows  SOS Children’s Village in Santo, Haiti (near Port-au-Prince). Continue Reading…

It is exciting to see that Cookbooks for Charity is featured on the SOS Children’s Villages Volunteers in Action web page. I’ve pasted a screenshot of the article below. SOS Children’s Villages also let me use their logo on my site to help promote our efforts to raise funds for Haitian children. Continue Reading…

I was watching CNN Anderson 360 and learned that Anderson Cooper went back to Haiti. Right after the earth quake there was a rush of journalists to report on the disaster in Haiti. But after a couple of weeks, a lot of them went home. If you read Anderson Cooper’s blog, he explains why he went back.  His words really touched me.  Continue Reading…

I am not really a Angelina fan myself but I do admire her work in helping children around the world. She is in Haiti and made a stop at the SOS Children’s Villages Santo Haiti.  She made a comment that:

“while stressing that “new adoptions should definitely not be encouraged as an immediate response to the emergency. Haiti had many trafficking problems before the earthquake and now must keep a very close watch on the children. I would encourage as much support as possible to groups like SOS and UNICEF providing care for children in country.” Continue Reading…

People are getting on with their lives and now Haiti is fading from our memory. Let’s not forget. You can help by contributing a recipe for the SOS Children’s Villages Haiti Cookbook.

Interesting… I received this email from the office of the Governor General of Canada below.

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From: infoHaiti [mailto:infoHaiti@GG.CA]
Sent: February-11-10 1:05 PM
To: Vasquez, Anne-Rae
Subject: RE: Cookbooks for Charity – Fundraiser for Haiti SOS Children’s Villages Santo

Dear Ms. Vasquez,

On behalf of Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, I would like to thank you for writing in response to the earthquake in Haiti.

Your offer to assist the people of that country is greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Shelagh Cimpaye
The Office of the Secretary to
the Governor General

10 things that should motivate those who have something to help those who don’t have :

1. Looking at my children:  How happy they are when I make them their favourite meal.  How about those children in Haiti whose mothers make mud pies (literally out of clay and water) to help fill the stomachs of their children?
2. Bringing lunch to work instead of eating out:  Each $10 I would have spent on lunch, I will donate to SOS Children’s Villages Haiti so that ten children can have a meal.
3. Teaching each other to eat healthy: We are so lucky to have our health. It is important that we keep fit and take care of ourselves.
4. Spreading the word: I never used to care about anything outside my own network of family, friends, colleagues and acquaintances. But after I heard about how horrible it was in Haiti even before the earthquake, I realized how some people who have so little still find a way to survive every day. I can’t keep ignoring the fact that helpless and homeless children need my help so I vowed to spread the word.
5. Do something about it!  I started my Cookbooks for Charity blog so that I can help others be more aware of the plight of the Haitian children and also to raise money by asking people to contribute their recipes.  The proceeds from the sales of the cookbook will be donated to SOS Children’s Villages Haiti.
6. Don’t stop doing something: It has been a month since the earthquake and already those around me have started forgetting about what happened.  It will take ten years to rebuild Haiti.  We mustn’t stop helping.
7. Be creative:  Make it fun. Do something you love and share it with others while helping the cause.
8. Publishing a novel called “Almost a Turkish Soap Opera”:  It has been a year long project and it is now finally going to print.
9. Working on a film production:  This summer, my film production company will be filming the screenplay for “Almost a Turkish Soap Opera”
10. Publishing a cookbook: Salha’s Secrets to Middle Eastern Cooking – a collection of recipes by Chef Salha

Can low-paying garment industry save Haiti?.

Interesting article by the Associated Press about how the garment industry can help bring Haiti out of its economic hole. See excerpt below.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Jordanie Pinquie Rebeca leans forward and guides a piece of suit-jacket wool and its silky lining into a sewing machine, where — bat! bat! bat! — they’re bound together to be hemmed.

If she does this for eight hours, she will earn $3.09. Her boss will ship the pinstriped suit she helped make to the United States, tariff-free. There a shopper will buy it from JoS. A. Bank Clothiers for $550.

In the quest to rebuild Haiti, the international community and business leaders are dusting off a pre-quake plan to expand its low-wage garment assembly industry as a linchpin of recovery. President Barack Obama’s administration is on board, encouraging U.S. retailers to obtain from Haiti at least 1 percent of the clothes they sell.

For the whole article, go to: http://www.bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1234642&srvc=rss

If the earthquake wasn’t enough, now the torrential rain season is fast approaching Haiti. Haitians are trying to find cover under tents, makeshift homes but it is very difficult.  Here are some updates about the plight of the Haitians today.

Today a massive earthquake measuring 8.8  hit Chile at 3:30 am in the morning (their time).  There were tsunami waves that hit Hawaii later in the day. Mindinao, Philippines was hit by 3 earthquakes. There was an earthquake that hit Japan causing a tusnami warning.  In SW China, there was also an earthquake.

All this was happening while everyone in my city was fast asleep.  I had trouble sleeping and I was not sure why. In the morning, I saw all the news about the earthquake in Chile.  This got me thinking… what could have caused the earthquake(s) in the past few months?  The earthquake in Haiti, Chile in particular…  Has anyone heard about H.A.A.R.P (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program)? If not, go google it.  After reading a few sites about HARRP and the conspiracy around it, I was a bit skeptical.  However, when I was watching CNN, they had Chilean eye witnesses who described what they heard and saw when the earthquake hit.  This particular clip made me drop the cup of coffee I was drinking.  The lady describes that right before the earthquake, she was looking outside at the sky and she saw the sky changing colours and it looked so surreal.

Bright glow in the sky before an earthquake only occurs when H.A.A.R.P. is pointed at the sky, is what I remembered the site had said.  This glow does not naturally occur in a natural earthquake. Not sure what to think now.

The human story is so compelling. I can’t believe how this family faced death in the face twice in a span of one month and a half.  They first fled Haiti after the devestating earthquake. They ended up in Chile to witness an even stronger earthquake.  I can only say  it must be divine intervention.  Here is an excerpt from Hannah Strange, a writer from Times Online below.

When Séraphin Philomène’s father heard that Chile had been struck by a massive earthquake weeks after his daughter had fled there from a ravaged Port-au-Prince, he thought of an old Haitian saying: “We saved her from the river and she ended up in the sea”.

Now, learning that she and eight of her cousins survived not one but two such catastrophes, Luigene Philomène takes a different view. “God is looking out for us,” he said. “Our family didn’t die in Haiti, so they aren’t going to die in Chile either.”

Séraphin, 21, was staying with her cousins, the Desarmes family, in the Haitian capital when the devastating January 12 quake hit. Two weeks later the nine relatives left for good, joining the Desarmes’ eldest son in Chile in what seemed like an escape from the fear and death of Haiti.

It was barely a month before a giant 8.8 earthquake tore their refuge apart. The family now sleep in the garden of a home that the son, Pierre, a popular reggaeton singer in Chile, found for them south of Santiago.

For the whole article go to: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7050558.ece

I just tried one of our Cookbooks for Charity contributor’s delicious Turbo Guacamole recipe.  Thank you Pablo and to all our generous contributors.

Make this for your friends and family when you get together to watch the World Cup.

http://cookbook.arnb.com/?page_id=23&category=appetizers&recipe=turbo-guacamole-1

You can also find the recipe by going to the “Recipes” button on the right menu at http://cookbook.arnb.com.