Empowering Haitians

Goals for 2012:

• Begin a food distribution program to feed desperate families ($40,000 feeds 250 people for 177 days; less than $1 per person per day)
• Install another community well ($8,000 each well)
• Continue improvements to the Espoir Haitian office (enabling food and tool storage, meeting space for micro lending, and community projects, and medical clinic)
• Reinvigorate the youth baseball program (two teams, coaches and more US commitment)
• Create a community farming area so local youth can be productive and offset food costs for their families
• Continue work on a medical clinic to treat minor injuries in the Bel Aire Community
• Develop a strong relationship with a certified school to more effectively support education
• Continue and improve the micro loan program to groups of entrepreneurial women

We started the year by canceling the January 2011 trip due to the political instability. Because we are such a small organization, the lost money on flights could have put us under. But the ever surprising faith and generosity of our friends and supporters enabled us to cut our losses and continue our work.
In March, MaryLu and I traveled to Cap Haitian for a quick trip to check on the micro loans and the new well project. An emergency nearly had us back on a plane the next day. My mother, who was watching our three children, broke her leg. But the church community of Sudley United Methodist rallied to support us in our time of need. The compassion, hospitality and love showered on my mother and our children enabled us to continue our brief trip and accomplish our work. The greatest success of our trip was the new well installation in the community providing hundreds with clean water. We also authorized the funds for the continuation of the successful microloans.
July brought us back to Haiti with a small team for a very successful trip. Anna Goldston practiced dentistry with Dr. Ray’s medical team. Michael Goldston, my father and I worked on getting the electrical wiring done for the Espoir Haiti office and installing eight street lights on the hill in Bel Aire. Street lights make a community safer from traffic and crime as well as providing a gathering place for visiting and work at night. MaryLu interviewed several schools and entrepreneurial women to continue growing our efforts for school improvement and the micro lending program.
The year came to a close with the planning of the January 2012 trip. MaryLu is about to deliver our 4th child. We changed the dates of the January trip so that I could be home for the birth. It is a great joy to have another child but it does mean that MaryLu will be putting some of the micro loan work on hold until she can return to Haiti in 2013.

Micro lending, education, clean water, and hope . . .

You can find at this site:
- information about the 501c3 Empowering Haitians and the Haitian NGO Espoire Haitian
- history on our groups past Haiti trips as teams from Sudley UMC, Lynhaven UMC, the Haiti Mission, Helping Haitians Angels and Park Valley Church
- photos and stories from the most recent trip to Haiti January 2012
- information about the next trip to Haiti July 2011 (you may need to register with us to see this information)