Monkey Hugs in Haiti
Last month, OSM Operative Carole Burdett accompanied a group of doctors and nurses operating a mobile medical clinic travelling to some of the most remote rural areas in Haiti. Carole was an ambassador of love & magic, having recruited her friends and family in North Vancouver and Kamloops B.C. to stitch up over 60 sock monkey smiles to give to children and families attending the clinic.
While medical staff tended to patients, Carole acted as clinic facilitator and community liason, welcoming and getting acquainted with families seeking care. Carole and her team visited the communities of Forshe and Mont Blanc. These are remote mountainside communities, dusty, economically depressed, impoverished and in desperate need of medical attention and basic supplies. Carole reports that many children were malnourished, and in one community, the only toy they had in sight was an old plastic doll missing most of its appendages. Along with the sock monkeys, Carole and her team distributed basic medical supplies and food items like drinking water, rice and cooking oil to people living in and around the areas they visited
Carole went to great lengths to attach a photo of the monkey maker and personal message translated into Creole to each sock monkey to let the children know who and where the monkey came from, and to relay the message of love and joy that they bring. So wonderful to know that her mission of monkey love has provided each child in these two communities with a colourful, cuddly toy of their very own. Thank you Carole, for your incredible, inspiring work and for sharing this mission with us!
