Stella Marina, an Operation Starfish project, was founded in 2014 to help provide clean birthing kits to the midwives in northern Haiti.
A Thank You from Stella Marina
To our fellow parishioners,
We want to thank you for 10 years of supporting Stella Marina and our mission to help the midwives, mothers, and babies in the slums of Haiti. In our 10 years, we have made over 21,000 birthing kits – saving over 42,000 lives – and over 9,000 newborn kits. In addition, we trained hundreds of midwives through our in-person training in 2018 and through the videos we made in conjunction with INOVA and provided through a cloud account to Dr. Maklin. None of this could have been achieved without your support and generous donations.
Through your generosity, we also provided hundreds of pack ‘n plays to new moms, providing a clean, safe place for their babies to sleep and play. We provided medical supplies and equipment to St Anthony Clinic and New Hope Hospital. And we sent school furniture to the Nativity villages thanks to Nativity School and Paul IV High School.
Most importantly, our amazing volunteers helped us in small and large ways. From cutting plastic and cloth diapers, supporting kits builds through setting up the space and making the kits, picking up supplies at Nativity, to loading almost 10 shipping containers filled with our donations to Dr. Maklin and Food for the Poor.
Unfortunately, due to the unrest in Haiti and changes in our personal lives, we are unable to continue our mission. We cannot ship any items to Haiti as we risk high tariffs and “truck-jackings” of the items. Dr. Maklin has begun to make modified birthing kits with the midwives, which we currently provide the funding to purchase the items for the kits. And we will try to continue to support this endeavor as long as possible (if you wish, you can donate online to help support Dr. Maklin’s kit builds). Lastly, we both have moved from Virginia and managing this hands-on ministry is not possible when we are not in the area. We both continue to pray to find our new callings and what God has for us in these new stages of our lives.
Please continue to pray for Haiti and for resolution of the unrest so that the people of Haiti can be served by others.
God bless and thank you,
Melinda Engelbretksson
Meg Hanrahan
Birthing & Newborn Kits
With support from our wonderful parish family, Girl Scout troops, Boy Scout troops, churches and organizations around the country, Stella Marina has over 21,000 clean birthing kits. Three years ago we added a newborn kit to accompany the birthing kit and, to date, have made over 9,000 newborn kits. What’s in our Birthing & Newborn Kits?
With the support of Food For The Poor, we are able to ship our kits and other supplies to Cap Haitian, Haiti.
Our Team
Midwife Training
Stella Marina has also partnered with INOVA Fair Oaks Hospital and uses their Labor & Delivery Simulation Lab to record training segments for the midwives to view during their monthly meetings. With the guidance of a L&D nurse and our wonderful translator, we are able to produce segments on any subject the doctor deems necessary. In addition to various birthing scenarios, we have made segments on the ultrasound and blood pressure devices sent to the midwives.
Stella Marina has outfitted every midwife with a proper midwife bag, handheld ultrasound device, blood pressure device, flashlight, batteries, and gel. This provides a safe, dry place to keep all things necessary when called upon to attend a delivery.
Heaven’s Baby Angels
Stella Marina, an Operation Starfish project, is pleased to share our partnership with Heaven’s Baby Angels.
Heaven’s Baby Angels collects wedding gowns and converts them into beautiful bereavement outfits for those babies lost due to miscarriage, stillbirth and those babies who die after birth. Dedicated volunteers donate their time, talents and materials that are not provided by the wedding gowns to this much needed labor of love program.
** Please note, we are NOT collecting wedding dresses at Nativity at this time.
