A Lot Going On

I love this image, the beauty of the people, the green and white, the mountains against and within inscrutable clouds. A lot is going on here. Haiti is nothing, if not complex. It's full of people, dreams, broken systems, unmet expectations, mountains, waterfalls, beaches, love, and life. Yes, a lot.

I wish you could visit and experience the place. Maybe one day, we'll be retaking trips. Maybe one day, the humanitarian crisis will subside. Maybe one day.

Meanwhile, lovehaiti will keep working to support all we can. Despite the chaos, we have hundreds of children in our schools and thousands of people in our communities who rely upon our healthcare. So, we're thankful to be providing what we can.

photo: from our instagram friend who has been to the S/E with us … @jeanoscar.a

Exceeded our Goal. Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our back-to-school fundraiser last week. We exceeded our goal and are feeling very grateful. The Haitian education system has taken a massive hit over the last few years due to political and social instability. However, lovehaiti.org has continued to partner with local communities, employ teachers and administrators, and work incredibly hard to ensure hundreds of children have access to school.

Fundraiser Sept 3-5 :)

We're gearing up for another great school year in the Haitian Southeast. We have an excellent opportunity to influence hundreds of children and thousands of people in our communities through education, healthcare, and soccer. 

This Tuesday, Sept 3, we'll launch a 48-hour fundraiser. Please consider giving something a little extra on Tuesday morning, as it'll be important to get "out of the gate" quickly and, just as most important, to share the link (when it goes live) with everyone in your network. 

We have a modest goal for this fundraiser, but it'll help us add the extra teachers we need to add because our schools are growing. More grades means more teachers! 

Educators Retreat by the Ocean

We recently hosted a retreat for all of our educators! Our Kindergarten-7th grade teachers joined us on the beach in Jacmel as we debriefed on the recently finished school year and discussed ideas to improve education at CPCS for our 400+ students this coming year.

Jacmel is an artistic, cultural hub of Southeast Haiti with beautiful beaches, great food, and lots of places to hang out together. We LOVED hosting this little 2-day retreat for our education staff, especially because several of them had never been able to visit Jacmel before! We cannot thank these teachers enough for giving so much of themselves for these kids who are going to grow up to love and improve their home communities.

Haiti's Unmatched Beauty

The natural beauty of Haiti is quite unmatched. As so many stories are filling our social media feeds about the impossibly difficult situation Haiti continues to find itself in, we try our best to stop and dwell on the beauty that is present here whenever we can. This doesn't mean that we turn a blind eye away from the difficulties. Rather, it means that we choose to believe that, despite the difficulties, beauty and love will be what change this country for the better.

Taken off of the coast of Jacmel, Haiti, by our friend Louis.

Our 7th grade teachers with some of their students!

Two of our 7th grade teachers with a few of their students last week after class at Cascade Pichon Community School.

Last semester we helped the teachers at Cascade Pichon Community School open the FIRST EVER 7th-grade class in the history of the community. And we’re currently raising money so that next semester we can open classes for these same students as they move on to the 8th grade!

Quincy Foster's trip to Haiti 10 years ago. . .

10 years ago today, Quincy Foster set off on a trip to Haiti with a small group of friends from MidAmerica Nazarene University. She had no idea how her experience in Haiti was going to alter the trajectory of her life. And, of course, she had no idea that the passion ignited within her from this trip would catalyze an entire movement, an entire organization, and an entire mission to love the people of Haiti.

We're honored to have Quincy's dad and one of LQVE's (now Love Haiti) founders share his thoughts with us as we look back over the last decade of working in Haiti.

"It’s been ten years since my daughter first journeyed to Haiti. It changed her: the mountains, the banana groves, the soccer, the sunshine, the people. Eventually, it changed my family and me, for, in the wake of her passing, we were drawn to Haiti as well. We went to honor our girl, our grief, and the Haitians for whom she had so much affection, and yes, it changed us. I suppose it’s impossible to make such a trip and not have one’s perspective affected.

Crazy how one person influences another, isn’t it? How one year bleeds into the other, one life bleeds into the other. How interconnected we all are in time, in life, in love.

I was thinking about all this recently as I read a little about the first astronauts going to the moon in the late 60s. Apparently, they were caught off guard by the new perspective they gained around the idea of interconnection. Imagine being the first humans to turn around and see Earth from space.

David Beaver, co-founder of the Overview Institute, recalls comments from one of the astronauts: “When we originally went to the moon, our total focus was on the moon. We weren’t thinking about looking back at the Earth. But now that we’ve done it, that may well have been the most important reason we went.” They were focused on the moon but came back thinking about Earth.

Going to Haiti has been a little like that for me. Yes, I have gone to remember my kid, to do whatever I can to help this beautiful wreck of a country. But being involved with Haiti also helps me look back, to gain a sense of where I come from, to remember how important it is to honor people within my own circle, to slow down, look people in the eye in the US––beautiful wreck of a country that it is.

Haitians and Americans aren’t that different. We share the same world, water, air, and environment. The only thing we don’t share is the same economic possibilities, which is a travesty because these are our brothers and sisters. If we were on the moon looking back at earth, we would realize how enmeshed we all are, the Global North and Global South, the entire world. We’re deeply interconnected. We ignore this to Haiti’s peril. We ignore this to our peril.

I hope whatever is going on during this important season––a season where we remember the interconnectedness of humanity with both each other and the divine––that you consider getting involved with the “interconnectedness” of what's going on at lovehaiti.org. You might not take a trip like the one Quincy took ten years ago, but you could pray, subscribe, or give. I can tell you from first-hand experience that as you do, you’ll gain a deeper perspective, a new respect for life and love. And in the end, seriously, what else could any of us ask out of this journey we’re on?"

- Dr. Jonathan Foster (author, theologian, pastor, entrepreneur, and father)
 

Some pictures of Quincy's group trip to Haiti:
 January 2013

Nurse M standing in front of that same clinic, where she has given medical care to thousands of Haitians over the years

Quincy and the MNU group in front of the almost-finished health clinic in Cascade Pichon, January 2013

 

Training session for our micro-finance group in Cascade Pichon under that same ceiling, March 2022

The group helps install the clinic ceiling in Cascade Pichon, January 2013

 

Azemite, now a 6th grade student at our school in Cascade Pichon

Quincy and her friend Azemite, whom she met on her short trip to Haiti ten years ago