ESPWA is a center for families like Nathaline and Guerry’s who have moved from crippling poverty to hopeful progress since engaging with Overture International over the last year. This couple and their five children were in crisis, they lacked access to food and lived in a shack made of scraps of plywood and a couple of worn tarps.
None of the children (ranging in age from 3-9 years old) had set foot in a school and lacked critical paperwork like birth certificates for enrollment. And the parents lacked the training and skills to find viable, income-generating work. Even their work in farming was not profitable because they lacked access to tools, irrigation and land of their own to farm.
Because of the financial support of our generous donors, all of the school age children now have access to education through our schools on the ESPWA campus and have secured the official birth certificates they lacked.
Nathaline and Geurry are participating in both child protection classes to help them to be more effective parents and are also gaining education in responsible family planning through the medical and social work professionals at our ESPWA medical clinic.
And while their housing situation has yet to be improved, the Overture team in Haiti is working with them to identify and secure land on which they and their community can build them an Overture home where they can experience the safety and security they’ve only been able to dream about thus far.
Nathaline and Geurry’s family is just one of the many examples of the progress we’re making as well as the work that still needs to be done in southern Haiti to build more resilient and self-reliant individuals, families and communities.