Many of you know Nahum from the past few years of me sharing about him but a quick overview.
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| A silly picture of our therapy Team. Residue, Nahum, Nicholson, & Myself back in 2013 |
I started working with Nahum the summer of 2011. He started out at the Miriam Center as a translator and quickly realized his passion and calling was therapy. He wanted to become an occupational therapist. I spent the summer of 2011 training him to do therapy with the kids & created treatment plans for him to follow while I was not in Haiti. WATCH THE FIRST 2 MINUTES OF THE VIDEO BELOW TO SEE HIM INTERACTING WITH THE KIDS THROUGH THERAPY....
At that point we did not know of any therapy schools in Haiti. He did some research and eventually found Loma Linda Universities Rehab Tech program in PAP. He visited and we went through the process to get him enrolled. He started an 18 month Rehab Tech program last year. He is currently finishing up his first of 3 three month clinical rotations. He is learning a ton and God has given him an AMAZING vision for where to go after he graduates in September of this year.
God has given Nahum a vision and dream for special needs care in Haiti. Over the last few months through much prayer and though Nahum has created an organization called Go 4 Haiti standing for Gateway of Opportunity for Haiti.
His Website is: www.go4haiti.org (CLICK ON IT to visit)
The following has been taken from the website He created...They are His words....His vision...His initiative...
"People with disabilities are forgotten in Haiti; our goal is to remember them and allow God to use us as a point of contact to bring them healing and hope."
Nahum's Vision
"To encourage growth and development by avoiding doing it for them; Haitians are ready to learn how to fish! Teach them how!"
Nahum's Mission
"To be a gateway of opportunities for Haiti by strategically being involved in education, rehabilitation, and job creation for the purpose of helping and encouraging Haitians to become self-sustaining."
Nahum's Dream
"To address the fundamental issues that prevent growth. Therefore our vision is to see Haitians working and supporting themselves regardless of their physical or mental disadvantages."
3 Areas of Focus
1. REHABILITATION- "we are a refuge center for the handicap and the special needs kids. Our dream is to make the disabled ABLE. Everyday we want to show and teach the Haitian people that kids with special needs are just as important as everyone and there is hope for them. We want to access them physically and psycho-socially and to provide them with a treatment plan. We are not only treating them but also helping them adapt to daily living activities where they can provide a living for themselves. People with physical disabilities are forgotten in Haiti our mission is to remember them and allow God to use us as a point of contact to bring them healing and hope."
2. JOB CREATION- "we are actively seeking to become involved in job creation in Haiti. Obviously we cannot create a job for everyone but our plan is to create employment for the purpose of helping nationals to become self-supporting: as a result our organization will benefit from the revenue generated from our business model which will help us become self-sustained. One business strategy we will apply is farming. We want to start with goat and cattle farming. This will employ some of our special kids and for more intense labor we will hire local men and women in the community. In due time we will start selling meat and milk to the community which will lead to another business operation: butchering. We will open a small community butcher to handle processing and packaging of our own goat and cattle meat and the butcher shop will also be opened to the locals where they can pay a small fee for our services. this is just one example of how we will create jobs and earn money for the organization; well will seek every reasonable business opportunity within our scope of operations to create jobs and income streams to support our mission."
3.EDUCATION- "We take a holistic approach to educating people in every aspect including academics, christian faith, and economics. Although we are not intending to directly open local churches and schools in order to promote education, we are planning on partnering with existing local churches and schools to promote and support what they are already doing. We will create programs and lesson plans aiming to promote growth and self-reliance. Ultimately, we want the people to know who they are, what they were created to be, and how to become successful Godly people. We believe by collaborating with existing churches and schools we will have a better opportunity to educate and train the Haitians how to think differently. We want to teach them to how to think positively about themselves and their future. We want them to eventually have the "I can do" mentality rather than "I want you to do for me."
PLEASE CONSIDER SUPPORTING NAHUM to get this ministry off the ground. You can CLICK HERE to donate. Please also pray for him as He steps out in faith following God's call. I know I am looking forward to working alongside Nahum & helping him in anyway I can to get this program up & running! It is a dream of mine to see nationals being trained to be therapists and then going out and creating/developing therapy programs. So proud of Nahum!
Some Pictures of Nahum doing Therapy with the children at the Miriam Center during his 2 week clinical this fall at the Miriam Center. From the pictures you can see his love & passion for therapy.
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