Building Haiti Stronger every step of the way!
As we enter a new year of work empowering our friends in southern Haiti to continue their strident journey to independence and self-reliance, we have another set of bold goals we seek to achieve in 2024. We’ve built these goals around our Overture Social Support Model Five Pillars (Empowerment, Education, Nutrition, Healthcare, Infrastructure (formerly Housing) as these pillars provide the foundation for building strong families and communities. Like everything we do, these goals are strategic and intentional and are identified in cooperation with the communities we serve. And these goals can only be achieved with the prayers, encouragement, and support of our generous donors.
Yes, Haiti is full of challenges, and the political and gang crisis is stronger than ever, but we know that progress is possible in these circumstances because we have and are experiencing it! And we know that the only path to success is the one we take together.
We look forward to another amazing year of progress, transformation, and independence!! We hope you’ll take the time to read our 2024 goals. Please let us know if you have any questions or are interested in a particular area by emailing Lisa Hyatt at lisa@ooihait.com.
Empowerment
Our goal is to transition 100 children from orphanages and unify them with their biological family or a loving foster family. Communities are only as strong as their most vulnerable members. Removing children from the harm-inducing orphanage system and into loving, safe families is a significant step toward protecting children in southern Haiti.
We will continue to work with IBESR (Haiti’s child welfare agency) to expand the foster care system by educating community leaders, churches and families. Building a strong foster care system is critical to ensuring children coming out of orphanages, street life or incarceration have a safe, stable environment in which to live.
Education
We aim to provide 1300 full or partial education scholarships to children at risk of separation or those in our family preservation program. This will enable them to attend school where they will have access to education, social resources, and regular nutritious meals. The inability of a family to pay for their child’s education is the leading cause of their choosing to hand them over to an orphanage.
We will strive to complete a pilot project with 10 young adults who have fallen from life’s difficulties or are coming out of incarceration as we transition our Young Adult Empowerment Program to the new Rejuvenation Program. Thousands of youths are imprisoned with adults in horrible conditions that only perpetuate any propensity they have for illegal behavior. This program is designed to equip the youths and their families (or foster families) for successful reunification and lives together.
Nutrition
We are planning to package 300,000 meals through our Diri Lavi! food packaging program. This program not only provides nutritious meals to hundreds of school children in the communities we serve but also provides employment and job skills training for adult community members.
We will launch a community fishing project in St. Jean to equip fishermen who have been working with our social worker and the community to form a co-op where all the fishermen will work together to share in the business operations and to increase positive outcomes for all.
Healthcare
We will leverage our healthcare partnerships to continue mobile clinics and expand services at our Overture clinic to provide consistent, quality healthcare where, in the past, communities had to travel long distances to access any form of care.
We’re plan to provide psychosocial support to 2500 children recovering from family separation and other traumas caused by crises. These services are critical to helping these children and their families overcome the emotional, physical, and psychological harm they’ve experienced because of their time in orphanages, other abusive situations, and the myriad of natural or manmade disasters that plague Haiti.
Infrastructure (previously Housing)
We will continue improving the housing situation in vulnerable communities by building eight new block-built, disaster-resistant homes for families at risk of separation.
We will activate empowerment programs at the new Dory Dome Community Center beginning with the hiring of three local community members and training them for the positions of protection agent, first aid coordinator (or nurse), and psychosocial activities agent. The community center was completed in 2023 and is now being leveraged to provide critical training and service delivery to Dory and the surrounding communities.
We’re trusting God and the generosity of our supporters to enable us to reach these audacious, but achievable goals. Together with our friends in southern Haiti, we can truly effect transformational change in a country that so many have written off as irredeemable. But we firmly believe that all things are possible through Christ (Phil. 4:13) and that those we serve are worthy of the opportunity to earn their freedom from dependence on outside aid and gain their independence and self-reliance.
Click here to help us kickstart the year with a donation!