Directory Tag: Food Securities

In 1986 the Bureau de Nutrition et Développement (BND) was formed by Rob J. Padberg at the behest of Caritas Nederland and COHAN (Comité de Coopération Haitiano-Néerlandaise). The latter was determined, in view of the increasing size of the program and a general re-orientation of her overall activities, to separate themselves from the Food Aid program they were executing with the assistance of the EEC and the European NGO Caritas Nederland/Stichting Mensen in Nood. However, COHAN was looking to find another organization which could continue this important program in Haiti, a program which existed since the early 1970's. At the same time two other programs were operational in Haiti, funded by the EEC under the auspices of Father Sjef Claessens/Secofa and Father Laurence Bohnen/Pères Salésiens (Petites Ecoles du Père Bohnen), assisted respectively by the European NGO's Caritas Secours International (Brussels, Belgium) and PROTOS (Ghent, Belgium). These projects were actively seeking an opportunity to transfer their food aid activities to another NGO due to a lack of managerial expertise and the difficult socio-political climate of the late 1980's. BND is thus a Haitian, non-profit, apolitical, non-confessional, Non-Governmental Organization. BND operates under the laws of the Republic of Haïti.

The purpose of CHM is to improve the spiritual and physical condition of the Haitian People, living in the northern part of Haiti. We are working in a village named Cahess which is located about 20 miles east of the City of Cap Haitien.

his is a leadership program where the core system will be culturally reinforced by the Haitian community. We are offering support to the leaders of the community, partnering with them, NOT imparting our traditions and ways. It is based on love by one more fruitful village listening, sharing and loving another, with an ocean in between. All financial information will be available to the sponsor quarterly. All services on the US side are donated with no overhead. All business trips to Haiti are personally paid, not out of sponsorship money. Every penny goes to purchase rice and beans, the gasoline getting it to the village (by motorcycle), cooking utensils needed (opening cans of fish is NOT easy with a knife and stick…trust me), child’s school tuition, uniforms (required in schools), and paper/book supplies.

As many of you already know – God blessed our family with the call to serve in Haiti in October of 2001. For 9 years, we faithfully coordinated the fundraising for building schools, but always had a vision of being involved more “hands on.” Patience, He said.

In February of 2010, God opened doors to this vision and in June of 2010 our first “group mission trip” was under way bearing the name of our newly instituted organization, Hands for Haiti!! During this entire process, the support and encouragement from family and friends was overwhelming and God’s willingness to guide and challenge us was amazing. We have learning so many lessons along the way.

We love the people of Haiti and we love Christ’s teaching about helping the poor. Seeing common everyday people working alongside the Haitian people and, despite language and culture differences, building relationships is awesome. Wow – this is Christ’s love outpouring on a whole new level and it is beautiful to witness.

St. Francis of Assisi says,“Preach the Gospel at all times, use words if necessary.” The most powerful witness we can be is by living the Gospel and loving and serving as Jesus did. One of the ways we can do this is by using our "Hands for Haiti."

Philip Peters, Restore Haiti’s founder, was a teenager in 1997 when he met Gerald Lafleur during a mission trip to Jamaica. At that time Lafleur, a native of Jacmel Haiti, was a college student studying to become a pastor. The two quickly developed a friendship, and Philip promised to stay in touch with Lafleur.

In 2004 Philip took a team of 12 people to visit Lafleur, who had since married and was a pastor of a local church on the island of Antigua. During this trip Pastor Lafleur shared his vision of helping his homeland of Haiti. That following December, Philip assembled a team of six people to go to Haiti to visit Restoration Ministries, a church Lafleur had founded in a suburb of Jacmel. They fell in love with the community and assembled another team five months later to revisit their new friends. Philip says that “after seeing the need, I knew that the little that I had and the resources that I had were something I could use, and a long term commitment was birthed.” With the support of his Bible study teacher, Darren Tyler, Philip continued to recruit support to help bring donated clothing and shoes to this community.

In 2007, on Philip's third trip to Haiti, Theresa Swain was a member of the team. She caught the vision and utilized her administrative skill-set to begin to organize an official child sponsorship program. Since then, over 650 students have been sponsored, a kitchen has been built to facilitate the feeding program, several homes have been built for families in need, a community well was installed, a clinic was opened to care for basic medical needs, and teams continue to visit the Restoration Ministries family.

In January 2010, Philip turned his 30th birthday party into a fundraiser, which provided the funds to incorporate Hope Restored, dba Restore Haiti as an official 501c3 organization.