At Cross International, we’re always looking for ways to do the maximum amount of good with the resources we’re entrusted with. One of the ways we do that is through Gifts in Kind (GIK). Cross International’s GIK program takes donations of shipping containers full of food, medicine and medical supplies, and other useful items like school furniture and shoes, and ships them around the world to be delivered at the most acute point of need. In this way we’re able to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and more while stewarding our donor’s support into the greatest impact on the lives of the poor.
Learn more at crossinternational.org
UGANDA: Cross staff share a group photo with a beneficiary family in Uganda
GUATEMALA: Beloved
Cross supporters Dave and Betsy Ahl share a photo with a young beneficiary in the small village of La Union.
HAITI: Children dive into their studies at Divine Shelter Schools. In the midst of the political and social turmoil of the past few years, keeping children in school is a huge win!
Though they share the same island, the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic have diverged substantially in their economic, political, and social outcomes, leading many Haitians to leave their home country to seek a better life in the DR. Sadly, for many Haitians, the poverty they fled followed them to their new home. Just inland from the white, sandy beaches that draw tourists from all over the world, small villages called bateyes dot the edges of endless sugar cane fields.
In their heyday, the bateyes were little better than prison camps where armed guards and barbed-wire kept the residents from fleeing. Today, the guards and fences are gone, but the poverty and poor living conditions remain. No running water. No electricity. No basic sanitation—and cut off from larger Dominican society.
In one such batey, number 106, lives 7-year-old Max. Max is a pastor’s kid. His father, San Luis, tends his flock of fellow Haitian migrants faithfully. The family lives in a small, cinderblock home on one of Batey 106’s dusty streets. Max is the youngest of six kids, and with so many mouths to feed they often have to settle for meager portions. Hunger is never far away. Making matters worse, medical care is a challenge for those living in bateyes, leaving children like Max especially vulnerable.
Thankfully, through the miracle of your partnership with Cross, Max, his family, and everyone else in Batey 106 is not alone. Cross has been able to provide deliveries of food to the village, including to Max’s family, as well as supplying the local hospital with critically needed medicine to help care for the medical needs of Haitian migrants.
