“A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.” ~~~Nelson Mandela
Dr. Patrick Treacy as long been a Vanguard for Michael Jackson and is one of his most vocal of not only Michael’s good character but also of his gentle, spiritual and generous behavior and assistance to world’s needy children.
During an interview on A Place In Your Heart, with Rev. Catherine Gross, Dr. Treacy spoke of the horror of the mischaracterization of Michael Jackson by the biased media by saying —“.. the sad fact is, you only had to be in his presence for 5 minutes to know he emitted this total radiance of goodness”
As friends, Dr. Treacy and Michael Jackson discussed the dire needs of the African people and plans to implement ways and means to assist them to achieve self-empowerment and vitality in their homeland. Please visit like and support his, Hope for Haiti facebook page that he maintains to posts updates and progress in Haiti.
Recently, he and his group work tirelessly in Haiti, and were able to construct Everland Haiti orphanage. He was requested and honored to give a speech at the opening ceremony.
Everland Haiti speech:
We thank, Dr.Treacy for allowing MJJJP the opportunity to speak with him. It is an honor to speak with someone who is so loyal to Michael Jackson. We in the MJGlobal family hold him in the highest regard for taking care of him on a personal level but also for also respecting his lifelong need of privacy.
We would like to talk to you about the charitable mission for children “Hope for Haiti”. How and when did you get involved in this project and how did it all begin?
There are actually many charitable missions for children with similar names including Hope for Haiti, Hope for Haiti Now and even the Hope for Haiti Foundation. The oldest and most prominent of these is Hope for Haiti is a non-profit organization based in Naples, Florida and founded in 1990 by JoAnne Kuehner. And of course, we also had Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief was which a charity telethon was held on January 22, 2010.
And what about your particular ‘Hope for Haiti’ charity?
Our particular ‘Hope for Haiti’ was actually a Facebook page started after myself and some Irish NGO friends visited Port au Prince in the immediate period after the 2010 earthquake. Initially, we wanted to evaluate both the immediate and long term impact of the earthquake on the lives of Haitian children. We soon realised that to those ordinary people struggling hourly to break the bonds of poverty amidst the huts and small villages all along the hilltops of Haiti, that a proper education was their way out. We looked at a few projects and finally decided because of contacts to help arrange some sponsorship of the Miracle Restoration Centre in Tabarre. We felt that Bishop and Gladys Dorcilien were the right people to keep this type of project sustainable after our assistance had been given.
What is Hope for Haiti’s mission statement, goals and aspirations?
Our Hope for Haiti was a non-profit charitable organization with the mission to improve the quality of education for Haitian children in the Tabarre area, immediately after the earthquake. As mentioned we started with the Miracle Restoration Centre in Tabarre, which was under the leadership of Bishop Pierre and Gladys Dorcilien. Since the help of the Digicel Foundation and Michael Jacksons Legacy we have now focused attention to the Ned Dorcilien Christian Village in Mirebalais.
If people want to donate to this charity how do they go about sending donations?
At that time private donations went directly to:
Bishop Peter Dorcilien Dumornay Tabarre-41 Haiti Account number: 27710228839
UB SWIFT CODE UBNKHTPP Address Tabarre 27 Carefour Flureau Tabarre, Haiti Bank’s name UNIBANK Account’s name Leadership Haitien
As this is now established, donations are preferably sent to Michael Jackson’s Legacy as this organisation continues the good philanthropic work originally started.
Were you able to get enough funds to rebuild the Miracle Restoration Centre in Tabarre School?
Not through the Facebook page but God works in different ways. The plight of this school was noticed by another great Irish NGO called Denis O Brien who lives on Ailesbury Road where I have my clinic in Dublin. Denis is the patron of the Digicel Foundation, (Digicel is the largest mobile telecommunications operator in the Caribbean) which was founded in 2004 and over a thousand projects have been undertaken since its inception. This has benefited many tens of thousands of Caribbean and Papua New Guinean people and their communities. When Hurricane Ivan struck Jamaica in 2004, the Digicel Foundation provided J$200 million to provide support efforts to its many victims. The Digicel Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund was established after the January 12 earthquake to raise funds for the recovery/relief efforts in Haiti. Within 24 hours of the earthquake Digicel collected over USD $500,000 in donations within the first nine days gave USD $5 Million IN donations to the Haitian people.
Tell us more about the Digicel Foundations?
The Digicel Foundations are non-profit organisations that distribute and utilize funds on a charitable basis for the sole purpose of building communities and the community spirit. The Digicel Jamaica Foundation was established in September 2004, the Digicel Haiti Foundation was established in March 2007, the Digicel Foundation began in 2008 and the Digicel Trinidad and Tobago Foundation launched in 2012. All contributions to the Digicel Haiti Relief Fund are used to send emergency aid such as food, water and medical supplies to NGOs on the ground in Haiti. Digicel has also distributed aid directly to thousands of Haitians in the nation’s capital.
Why Haiti in particular?
Poverty in their instance has largely been placed on their shoulders, mostly the result of slavery, financial indemnity, trade embargos and their environment. Conflict and corruption have come in abundance to deprive them of advanced public health, education, ports and roads. Their offspring die every day from diseases, mostly severe diarrhoea caused by poor sanitation and hygiene. Their island politics have long been divisive and the one-party system present in Haiti for so long proved equally detrimental, because it meant opposition politics were suppressed and proper secondary education was provided for an elite few.
Do you think education is more important than medicine to the Haitian people?
Although as a doctor, normally I would advocate that clean water and vaccines come before everything, I have learned in Africa that it only serves to reduce bacteria and other pathogens in water but does not take people out of poverty. In reality, education alone provides families and their children with a pathway out of the cycle of poverty. Investing in it is also smart as it promotes understanding, tolerance and friendship among the differing racial and religious groups who will eventually inhabit and politicize the island. I suppose food and clean water feed the body but education will always be on a much higher level as it feeds the soul.
How can fans get involved with Hope for Haiti other than contributing, can they perhaps, physically assist?
Difficult to answer that. NGOs have to have something to contribute to the people with whom they are integrating or else they tend to be just voyeurs gaining benefit only for themselves by living with people living in more unfortunate conditions.
You are also are the honorary ambassador for Everland in Haiti, how did that come to fruition, did your work with Hope for Haiti inspire you to assist in that or did it work congruent with the other?
The Michael Jackson Legacy asked me if I would become their Honorary Ambassador and after some period of reflection I gratefully accepted. I felt this organisation could have a synergistic relationship with some of the projects we had originally initiated in Haiti.
Michael Jackson visiting African children.
How has Michael influenced you in your life and perhaps, in this project?
As I mentioned at the opening of Everland Liberia, Michael Jackson brought light where there was darkness, hope where there was despair; he never turned away from cruelty when he could give compassion. I suppose, like Michael, I have been motivated by a sense of humanitarianism. By this I mean accepting that every human being, especially children as having the same rights in this world. We were both interested in Africa, where despite recent economic growth, little if any benefit has actually flowed down to the poor. Africa remains a continent where 60 percent of its people live on less than $2 a day. He felt the pain of the hungry children of Africa, walking for miles with swollen bellies, dying without dignity in the night as the rest of the world emptied its supermarket food waste into the bins of New York, London and Dublin.
You have said that you and Michael spoke about the children of Africa many times and how one could contribute to them, what do you think people can offer the children of this continent?
This continent’s nations remain at the bottom of any measure of economic activity, with 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries, and at the top of any list measuring inequality and poverty. Social change has to occur and it has to begin with the ruling classes who alone can revert this social inequality. Africa is plagued with problems of nationalism, ethnic and religious and tribal antagonisms that invariably end in fratricidal slaughter. Michael Jackson knew and felt deeply about this continent ravaged by civil war and pestilence. A continent where children were forced to hack off limbs of their parents and eat the beating hearts of other humans. None of these children asked to become involved in an adult war, where man’s inhumanity to each other is only outdone by the evil that lies within their hearts.
How do you think the continent of Africa has to change?
As mentioned above social change has to occur. However, I actually am somewhat against socialism being used directly to enact this change. I feel this is a type of social engineering that grew out of other left-wing well meaning ideologies such as the intellectual thinking behind Communism. This model has been used in some African nations but this ideologies very essence is the attenuation and ultimate abolition of private property rights. Humanitarians by nature are very different in ideology and mentality. Humanitarians tend to give from their own free will and they aim to change human nature by spreading love and aide.
Dr. Treacy is also Honorary Ambassador for the Michael Jackson Legacy Foundation responsible for the outstanding charity work in building a children’s home called Everland Liberia. To also help support this endeavor please visit their Michael Jackson’s Legacy website
“If You Want To Know Why, There’s A Love That Cannot Lie,
Love Is Strong, It Only Cares For Joyful Giving.
If We Try, We Shall See, In This Bliss, We Cannot Feel, Fear Or Dread,
We Stop Existing And Start Living.
Then It Feels That Always, Love’s Enough For Us Growing
So Make A Better World, Make A Better World” Michael Jackson
We honor Dr. Treacy and his efforts to bring an awareness to the issues in Haiti and his philanthropic endeavors therein, and in other parts of the African continent “to make the world a better place.”
SOURCES:
http://www.prlog.org/12265336-reflections-of-haitian-night.html
http://www.digicelgroup.com/en/digicel-in-the-community/haiti-relief-fund
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/michaeljackson/healtheworld.html
www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2013/12/05/nelson-mandela-quotes/3775255/
MJJJusticeProject 
Reblogged this on ALL THINGS MICHAEL! ♥.
LikeLike