You probably have the same question that everyone else has.
How did we end up in Haiti? It’s simple. Haiti called. We answered.
Jamie wanted to work with children in another country and asked friends and family of a place she might look into. When someone suggested Haiti, she packed her bags and went down to check it out for herself. And she stayed. “There’s something about the people that I love. It’s home.”
Several years later, after finding work, learning the language, and settling into the culture and her new hometown, Jamie invited her sister to move down, too.
Ali had visited numerous times and found the country to be amazing and inspiring, too. “Haiti is us. It has this draw that speaks to us. We live here. We work here. We have friends here.”
It was home for years before the earthquake and Jamie and Ali hope that it will be home for many years more. Watch this short video to learn more about how you can make Haiti yours.
Across Haiti, approximately 30,000 children and teens are living in large privatized residential institutions, known as “orphanages” which are unable to meet their needs. Outcomes for children in these institutions are deplorable. Young people raised in institutions are at significant risk of being sexually exploited or trafficked, being unemployed, being homeless, committing crimes, and committing suicide. Over 80% of these children and teens have at least one living and capable parent, but are institutionalized out of financial and/or emotional despair.
Haitian Families First has the vision to end the systematic institutionalization of disadvantaged children in Haiti.
Jonathan Wander
Mark Shepherd
Virginia Montanez
Sam McMutrie
Damien McCann
Lynn Lebowitz
Scott Heaton
Jean C. Griffith
Vivian Lee Croft
Peter Yehl
Caitlin Solander
Yumna Rathore
Oreofe Olutimilehin
Andrea Matz
Nancy Marshall
Xintong Hou
Marissa Germain
Rachel Reed
Hope Perri
Julie Hunter
Elisabeth Gallen
Paula Cardona
Find out how you can help us sustain families in our programs.
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