Last month, a range of Kingsway artists joined forces to help raise funds towards the rebuilding of a vital hospital that was put out of action by the earthquake that left so much devastation in Haiti earlier this year.
Brenton Brown, Graham Kendrick, Stuart Townend and Cathy Burton all appeared at The Royal Highland Hall, Edinburgh on Friday 11th June. Before a crowd of over 1300, the evening raised over £20,000.
Says event organiser and LemonAid charity director, Justin Dowds:
“We had the venue booked for the Frenzy event the next day, and we managed to talk suppliers into giving their services free for the night before. And with Kingsway lending support it meant that we could raise £20,000 on the night with another £2,000 coming in since then.”
“It was a pleasure to be a part of it,” said Brenton Brown, while Graham Kendrick saw it as “a
fantastic privilege to be part of such a worthwhile project.”
The Heart for Haiti event is part of Justin’s work with Compassion UK to rebuild the hospital on the island of La Gonave, just outside Port-au-Prince.
“The original hospital was fifty years old when it got damaged by the earthquake. All the medical care is now delivered from army tents, and the island population the hospital serves is now almost 130,000, including 5,748 children sponsored by Compassion.”
With predicted rebuilding costs close to $1million, the team have set themselves a significant
fundraising task. But with over £300,000 already raised – following last month’s high profile climb of Mount Kilimanjaro that Justin successfully tackled alongside Ian Hamilton, Compassion UK CEO – that figure is looking entirely possible.
Last month’s Heart for Haiti event was another partnership with Compassion UK, and featured
Guillbaud Saint Cyr, head of Compassion Haiti.
“It was really special to have Guillbaud speak. He shared about living through the quake, what
Compassion does in his country and how people can help. He gave the appeal and spoke
powerfully about Moses and Aaron, encouraging us that he was happy to hold out his arms in Haiti and invited us to join him in holding them up.”
“In the end we had 99 children needing sponsorship and all of them got sponsored.”
And what of that climb up the mountain?
“It was far harder than I thought,” says Justin. “We were regularly crying on final ascent night. You leave your camp at midnight, are walking in the dark, it’s snowing, the altitude is kicking in, you’re wet, cold and can’t see. But one of the people with us led six of our porters to the Lord that week, so it was wonderful as well.”
For more information about the campaign to raise funds for the hospital
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