Monthly Newsletter: June 2020 |
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A bag of plastic sits in the Kay Blada facility, ready to be sorted and cleaned by staff. |
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Environmental Education and COVID Awareness Kay Blada is now providing environmental education and COVID-19 safety information via a radio show. This way, Kay Blada can still reach a wide audience while maintaining social distancing. Kay Blada has always used radio shows to spread its message, but during COVID times, it is even more important. |
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Cap-Haitien Program off to a Successful Start Kay Blada recently began collecting plastic from Cap-Haitien, a port city and our founder's birthplace. Two months later, we can safely say that the program is off to a promising start, and will double the amount of plastic Kay Blada collects and recycles each month. Despite COVID, Cap-Haitien is sending 4,000-5,000 pounds of plastic bottles to our Hinche facility monthly. |
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Pictured at right: Collection sacks sit ready for pickup on a beach in Cap-Haitien. |
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Kay Blada Continues to Provide Employment Due to coronavirus, Kay Blada has experienced significant financial hardship, mainly due to rising costs of supplies, inability to transport plastic to buyers in Port-au-Prince, and a decrease in donations. However, not a single staff member has been laid off during this time. Kay Blada employs 25 teachers and 6 full-time employees in Hinche, who manage operations, guide the education program, and coordinate our freelance plastic collectors. All employees continued to be paid their full wage, and are working in community outreach or in the recycling center under strict sanitary and social distancing rules. Kay Blada has three goals in its mission statement: providing meaningful employment, cleaning up the environment, and empowering the people of Haiti. Our staff depend on us for their livelihood. We are very proud to have been able to continue to stay true to our mission, even in a global pandemic. |
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A Kay Blada employee delivers a care package to a Hinche resident, containing masks, hand sanitizer, and information about COVID-19. |
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2020 Goals Despite COVID, Kay Blada still wants to accomplish some of its 2020 dreams. Since we are now halfway through the year, we are launching our annual Year End Fundraising Campaign. Our remaining goals are: Printing teaching materials for our gradeschool education program. Schools will be opening soon, and we need to provide additional teaching materials to our 2,000 students. Raising remaining costs of construction on our new recycling facility. Our new facility was constructed earlier this year, but we still have several remaining projects to fund (a concrete floor, security fence, and loading dock). Completing at least one work trip this year. Each year, KBR's founder and president, Blada, makes several trips to Haiti to guide operations, provide additional training, and assess progress. Due to COVID, we may not have the funds this year, unless we have support from donors. If you are able to donate, we ask you to consider making a donation to help Kay Blada get through the pandemic and widespread economic hardship. More than ever, we are depending on our donors to make sure we can accomplish our goals and continue supporting the community of Hinche. |
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As always, thank you for everything you do to support us. |
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Kay Blada employees pose in t-shirts that read "Awareness Campaign against Coronavirus". |
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