[11.14.08] The producers of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition have shipped a truckload of merchandise to Haiti’s poorest children via an Orlando, Fla.-based Christian ministry to Haitian orphans.
This Sunday night, Danita’s Children: Hope for Haiti ministry will be featured on ABC’s popular home-makeover program at 8 p.m. E.S.T. alongside the Frisch family from Toledo, Ohio, who have 11 children, five of whom are adopted from Haiti.
“The [Frisch] family was so blessed to be receiving a home from ABC that they decided they wanted to use the opportunity to give back to Haiti, a place to which they feel very connected,” said Amy Porter, development coordinator for Danita’s Children.
Combined with the enormous TV exposure it’s receiving, Danita’s Children—which runs an orphanage, school and feeding program in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere—began a 30-day food drive earlier this month, collecting rice, beans and cornmeal at drop-off points throughout central Florida.
“We feel very privileged to be a part of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and we hope the show will bring greater awareness to the needs of the children in Haiti,” said Sheree Beresford, the ministry’s director of U.S. operations.
In the wake of deadly storms in Haiti last summer, which left hundreds of thousands of children homeless and hungry, Danita’s Children has provided housing and education for hundreds of orphans, and is serving nearly 17,000 meals a month. “For the 450,000 orphans in Haiti, life and death are often determined by one meal,” Beresford said.
Before the Kirsch’s home makeover in September, Diane Korman, Extreme Makeover’s senior producer, encouraged people in the Toledo area to drop off new or slightly used clothing, canned goods, toiletries or school supplies to help aid the Haitian poor, according to the Toledo Blade.
The Kirsch family flew to Orlando in September and presented that shipment to Danita Estrella, founder of Danita’s Children. A large truckload of food, clothing and Christmas gifts arrived in Haiti on Thursday. Estrella was in the country to receive the truckload alongside her cheering orphans and students.
Said Porter: “The gifts and donations that came from ABC and fans of the show could not have come at a better time. Danita's Children will be able to bless not only our children, but many more orphans and Haitian people who are in need during this extremely desperate time.” —Paul Steven Ghiringhelli
