Monday, October 19, 2009

OnEartHeart is back in action!

Welcome back to school everyone! You've heard about what we did in Brazil, and we're gearing up to do it again, but more about that later!

For this term our main focus is a "HappyPack of Books" event for children in long term hospital care units. For all of you Yankee fans, Mr. Ray Negron, a New York Times Bestselling Author of childrens books, and personal consultant to George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees, will be joining us. www.batboyhelps.com/author-ray-negron-2.html. He will be signing his latest book "One Last Time: Goodbye to Yankee Stadium" and has offered to add copies of his books The Boy of Steel: A Baseball Dream Come True (#2 on the NY Times Bestseller List) and The Greatest Story Never Told: The Babe and Jackie, to the HappyPack of Books. So save your books, join us, and pass them on. Make sure to check the blog for the date of the HappyPack book drive. It will be around Thanksgiving, which is an excellent time to reflect on what we have, and what we can do to improve the lives of others. I will keep you posted!

We will be going back to the Vo Flor orphanage in order to give more gifts to the children there. If you did not donate the first time around, now is your chance! When we went the first time, the children all lined up and we gave out HappyPacks www.youtube.com/watch?v=dccnJ2oFsps
However, by the time we reached the end of the line, there were not enough HappyPacks for the small group of girls who had patiently waited at the end of the line. There were more children at the Orphanage than we expected, but Asha and Jasmine from Saint Ann's, as well as Jonathan from Stuyvesant, started giving out their personal belongings to the children. Although they were very happy with what we were able to give them, we know that they were still disappointed at the fact that they still did not get a HappyPack. The kids lined up in a certain order, and whoever was in the back would not be getting anything. The little boys were first, then the big boys, then little girls, and then the big girls. It was very unfortunate that we did not have any more packs for the last few children. So, because of this, the next trip will be centered around Happy Packs for these Teen Girls. The next trip will be in December. You can also find out about upcoming tours for 2010 by contacting the Founder of Art Helping Life, Sherri Donovan donovassoc@aol.com or Velly Bahia at vellybahia@gmail.com.
Check here www.vellybahia.com, for more information on the trip.
Brazil is truly an amazing place.

On our trip to the Vo Flor orphanage, we saw the rooms that the children used to sleep in. Where there used to be beds are now empty spaces. The government may shut the orphanage down, because Lady Vo Flor cannot afford to keep doctors on the premises, and there is not enough space for each child to have their own room. I saw only 2 bedrooms in the building. One for the girls and one for the boys. The government now requires that each child has his or her own room. How do they expect her to go from 2 rooms to 50 rooms with no resources? The only people who help her are neighbors and friends, and people like us. She needs money in order to buy the building, and possibly make more rooms inside. She has to chase away the kids at 5:00, because they cannot stay there if she does not follow the new rules and regulations. The choices for the kids are to either stay on the streets, or go to the facilities that the government is providing. They choose to come back every day, because Lady Vo Flor, who they affectionately call Grandma, is the only person that ever showed them love, or made them feel appreciated. In fact, the name Vo Flor means Lovely Grandmother. Those kids need her. She is their only mother. Could you imagine leaving the only place you know as home for the night, and being alone on the streets? It's not a very happy thought. That's why we need to help these children. They go through our nightmares every day. They don't have a mother or father to guide them and reassure them, all they have are each other and a kind old lady who opened up her heart for these children on the street.

These private run facilities don't care about the kids, they just care about the cash. For every child that they have inside, they get paid. The kids are just another resource for money. They aren't loved, they aren't cared for, they're just kept.

This is what OnEartHeart is about. KIDS Helping KIDS!!

Read more about OnEartHeart www.oneartheart.com/

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