Thursday 18 February 2010

They said it couldn´t be done, but he did it....

"Resolve says, 'I will.' The man says, 'I will climb this mountain. They told me it is too high, too far, too steep, too rocky and too difficult. But it's my mountain. I will climb it. You will soon see me waving from the top or dead on the side from trying.'"—Jim Rohn
Boy, 7, raises $160,000 for Haiti appeal
CNN, January 25, 2010
He's no Wyclef Jean or George Clooney, but that hasn't stopped seven-year-old Charlie Simpson from raising more than £100,000 ($161,000) for the Haiti earthquake.
Simpson from Fulham, west London had hoped to raise just £500 for UNICEF's earthquake appeal by cycling eight kilometers (five miles)around a local park.
"My name is Charlie Simpson. I want to do a sponsored bike ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives," said Simpson on his JustGiving page, a fundraising site which launched his efforts.
"I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti," he said.
And with that simple call, messages of support flooded the site.
"Such a big heart for a young boy, you're a little star!" wrote one supporter. "Well done Charlie. A real celebrity," said another.
More donations began pouring in after the story caught the attention of the British media—with many cheering Simpson on towards the £100,000 mark.
Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is spreading the message. His "Downing Street" Twitter alias said: "Amazed by response to the great fundraising efforts of 7 yr old Charlie Simpson for the people of Haiti."
David Bull, UNICEF UK executive director described Simpson's efforts as "very bold and innovative."
"It shows he connects with and not only understands what children his own age must be going through in Haiti," Bull said in a press statement.
"The little seed—his idea—that he has planted has grown rapidly and his is a place well deserved in the humanitarian world.
"On behalf of the many children in Haiti, I thank Charlie for his effort."

Haitian doctor takes 100 patients into his home
Mike Melia, Associated Press, January 16, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti--It wasn't long after Tuesday's earthquake leveled nearly all of the houses next to Claude Surena's that neighbors started showing up at his doorstep.
For years, the 59-year old pediatrician had treated the sick at his two-story hillside home near the center of the Haitian capital.
Suddenly, he was running a triage center, treating more than 100 victims on his shaded, leafy patio with food and supplies salvaged from ruined homes.
His undamaged house provides at least a minimum level of comfort away from the devastation--even for the dying--while thousands of others in the city lie in the dirt under a merciless sun waiting for attention from a handful of doctors.
"I have to thank whoever brought me," said Steve Julien, who says the last thing he remembers before he blacked out was rescue workers calling his name as they dug through the rubble of his house.
When he woke up, he was lying on a mattress inside Surena's soothing oasis.
"It was a blessing from God my house is safe," he said. "We at least have been able to do something for everyone."
The patients show physical and emotional wounds from having their homes collapse on them. Julien, 48, is among the least severely injured, with only a few scrapes and a sore body. Others have compound fractures and festering wounds.
Surena said at least 10 patients are in critical need of more substantial help.
The injured sing Christian hymns as they huddle close together beneath sheets strung up as tents, but the earthquake still haunts them. Aftershocks rattled the city as recently as Friday morning.
"Sometimes they just start crying. We still get some movement," said Surena, who is also the local district chairman for Haiti's disaster relief agency.
The conditions at his home are far from ideal. Plastic buckets serve as toilets, and for some patients Surena can do little more than change dressings on infected wounds. But they are better off then many in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of 3 million people.
The patients say they know Surena is doing his best.
Meanwhile, he keeps everyone at his house because they have nowhere else to go.
He sent three patients in urgent need of surgery to a hospital on the airport road Thursday, but he took them back in after they were refused admission.
"They would have left their bodies on the street," Surena said.

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