You may be familiar with the process of choosing a Word of the Year. This year, Jamie & I have decided to select one: Hope. As 2013 unfolds, we want to be aware of our word and watch how it shows up in our lives and in our organization. Here are just some of the reasons we chose Hope.
HOPE: Providing the most basic needs for some of the poorest people in the world, every day without fail. These people depend on us for survival and we give them hope.
HOPE: The chance to receive an education gives a child HOPE for a better future.
HOPE: A mother puts her children in bed tonight without worrying about their growling tummies, she has HOPE that anything might be possible.
HOPE: A single father has HOPE that his infant daughter may be able to survive with HFFs provision of formula.
We provide hope to families who are in danger of being torn apart. We provide hope to children who have nearly nothing in this world. We provide hope to mothers who cannot meet their child’s most basic needs. We provide hope to fathers who want to do more, but don’t know how. We provide hope to grandparents who love their grandchildren enough to commit to parenting them. We provide hope to communities that see women being empowered and becoming strong. We provide hope to people of a country that needs hope in order to become better.
In 2013, we have hope that we will be able to continue this work. We have hope that our partners will continue to believe in us, and to trust us to oversee some amazing things in the lives of some amazing people.
We commit to hope this year. We will always strive to provide hope to families in Haiti in whatever way is most necessary and appropriate for them as individuals, as families, and as communities.
It is not uncommon to face challenges in our work in Haiti. Those challenges vary in size, scope, and impact. On one side of the scale, someone may arrive late to a meeting, throwing off an entire day’s work, but this happens in America too. A more major challenge may result due to severe weather or concerns over security. America has faced these challenges too, especially in recent weeks.
Our challenge in Haiti this week: a diesel fuel shortage throughout the entire country. As you can imagine, not having fuel makes it pretty difficult to travel to the different communities we serve; everything from a routine check in check-in with families enrolled in our programs to delivering supplies has been complicated. We have had to determine where we absolutely need to combine deliveries of life-sustaining items like formula.
Many of the areas where our families live are more than an hour drive from Haitian Families First’s headquarters in Port-au-Prince. One of the main towns we commute to is Saint Marc, which is almost 60 miles from the capital. The main road was paved recently, which makes the drive fairly smooth and safe, but it is still quite a drive. Traffic in the city is similar to that of any major city, and Jamie sometimes spends two-and-a-half to three hours commuting each way.
It is not always easy to understand what doing work in a third world country looks like. From fuel shortages, to inconsistent and unreliable electricity (generally electricity is given for just a few hours per day), one thing we have learned in our years of work in Haiti is to roll with the punches and take every day in stride. There’s no sense in complaining about the circumstances, we just work diligently to adapt. This week, Jamie is prioritizing, perhaps doing less, and hoping that no serious emergencies arise that prove life threatening for those in our care.
Having recently experienced significant economic challenges in establishing our Pittsburgh headquarters, the Haitian Families First organization wants to acknowledge the amazing contributions that so many of you have made toward our work in Haiti this year. We are grateful to you. We strive to do more with every dollar you give us and always work to honor the trust and faith you’ve put in us to help others. We are especially grateful this holiday season for the love of our family.
From our family to yours we wish you peace today and throughout the coming year.
Rose Andre grew up with a single mother. A little over a year ago, she found herself in a terrible situation with no idea what to do. Rose Andre became pregnant to a much older man. She was just 15 years old. She was in school, but stopped going when she became pregnant.
She was ashamed and embarrassed. And she had no idea what she was going to do once the baby arrived. How would she support him? She lived with her mother who struggled to make ends meet. She knew her mom would not be able to help cover the costs that go along with taking care of a newborn.
Rose Andre, though she didn’t intend to get pregnant, knew that she loved the baby inside of her, and wanted to be able to care for him when he was born. But she had no options and came to terms with the fact that she would have to give him up for adoption. She didn’t know what else to do.
She was referred to HFF by a woman from our program. Rose Andre thought that her meeting with us was to determine the logistics of giving her baby away once he was born. When we spoke to her we explained that that was not our intention, but rather we wanted to talk with her about her options for keeping and parenting her baby.
Rose Andre was so filled with happiness to know that she would keep her baby. We determined that HFF would provide assistance with her school tuition, supplemental formula once the baby arrived for the hours she would be unable to breast feed while at school, and that we would help arrange for child care with one of the other woman in our programs. 
Today, 16 year old Rose Andre is in school, in the 6th grade. Her baby boy, Kewens, is just over 4 months. He is happy, healthy, safe, at home with his loving mother. He will grow up knowing that his mother loved him enough to seek whatever option she could to ensure him the best life, and because of the assistance HFF is able to provide, his best life is at home in Montrouis, Haiti with his mom.