Emily Hime is coming back to Canada next Monday but considering what she’s leaving, she’s reluctant to call it a homecoming.
Hime, who founded and operates Maison Ke Kontan (Happy Heart House) Children’s Home in Port Au Prince, Haiti, is heading back to complete her degree in criminology at the University of Windsor, studies which were interrupted when she began her efforts two years ago at age 20.
“I’m dreading returning,” she said. “It’s going to be hard to get on that plane. I’m trying to convince myself I’m doing it for the kids so I can get a decent paying job in the future so I can support them instead of just relying on donations, because some days the donations don’t come and it will ease my mind knowing we will be able to provide food and school for them.”
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Hime’s online interview was cut short for a half hour before she returned. “Sorry, my phone died – no electricity,” she wrote. “I had to go to a nearby restaurant to charge it. Third-World problems,” she joked.
Hime is used to juggling things. During the interview, two-year-old Tyson, one of the 14 children at Maison Ke Kontan, crawled up on her lap and went to sleep.
Still, it’s a good day for Tyson, as he and the other children will have a dinner of “chicken and roast, veggies and potatoes,” said Hime.
The toddler received even better news as medical tests showed he doesn’t have the HIV virus. Hime had taken Tyson in when he was only a few weeks old and had carried his mothers’ antibodies but he’s now in the clear.
Staff and children at the home suffered through an outbreak of chikungunya (chick-un-gun-ya) a painful mosquito-borne viral illness that swept through the Caribbean earlier this year.
Hime is in the midst of a fundraising campaign to raise the $10,000 the home needs for rent during the next year.
“The landlord has agreed to two separate payments so now we have to raise at lease $5,000 by Sept. 28 to keep our house, but the aim is the raise $10,000 so we can pay the whole year,” she said.
She has raised just over $1,000 to date.
In addition to an online gofundme campaign (www.gofundme.com/ke-kontan) the charity is holding a Yuk Yuks comedy fundraiser and dinner Sept 27.
The event will be held at St. Mary’s hall in Blenheim. It begins at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 and $45 for the dinner and the show. Other events are in the planning stage.
Tickets are available through email at emily@himeforhelp.com or at Red Devil Scuba in Chatham.
Hime will still be in contact with the home that will be operated by Haitian staff while she’s in Canada.
