Jenny Reitz, who runs House of Hope along with Linda, has requested that Friends of Humanity help provide the children with school supplies. School supplies such as paper and pens are scarce in Port-de-Paix. The children of House of Hope are among the few impoverished children who are able to attend school instead of working in the fields or begging in the streets of Port-de-Paix.
Friends of Humanity is sponsoring a Back To School Drive to provide school-age children with backpacks and school supplies. Children walk several miles to school so the backpacks enable them to carry their books and supplies. You can go to our Donate School Supplies page and choose what you want to donate toward. If would would prefer to make a donation of actual goods, please call Renel Noel, the president of Friends of Humanity, at 305-323-0937, or email board member Kathleen Monahan at kathleen(@)friendsofhumanity4haiti.org.
Jenny wrote:
A big Hello from the House of Hope. We hope this e-mail finds you doing well.
We are doing well especially after enjoying a very nice summer vacation. We had lots of time for fun and games together. We particularly loved playing marbles, UNO, Phase 10 and Dominoes. We also love to do sports like Basketball and Soccer. We also had lots of time to learn together through various studies and a week of camp.
But, now it’s time to start focusing on the next event coming up – the new school year. We have started our preparations for this. We have our school shoes, are working on getting our uniforms all made, and on getting the rest of the supplies we need. Around 50 of us will attend school in our local community this year and it’s a lot of work getting us all ready
Needed Items Include:
- Art Supplies: paint brushes, tempera paints, watercolors, crayons, glue, scissors
- Backpacks: medium size backpacks (not small kids size) and adult size, preferably nylon or waterproof
- Writing and Drawing Pens: blue, black, and red ballpoint pens, colored markers (preferably washable), black lead pencils, colored pencils
- Educational Games: spelling games, letter blocks, educational toys (younger children), flash cards
- Math Supplies: rulers, compasses, protractors, scientific calculators
- Miscellaneous: staplers and staples, binder clips, paper clips, bulletin boards, push pins, hole punches, notebooks, dividers, masking tape, adhesive tape
- Organizational Bins: plastic boxes for arts and crafts supplies, school supplies
- Paper: ruled spiral bound notebooks, composition books, rules notepads, construction paper, drawing newsprint
We gratefully acknowledge Sandra and Victor Fuller and the Fuller Family Foundation for their belief in this mission and for leading with a very generous donation.
We gratefully acknowledge Eli and Edy Broad and the Broad Foundation for their generous support of our work.
We thank Connie and John Cioffi and the Cioffi Foundation for their generosity.
Thank you to Neiman Marcus for their support at our recent fundraising event. Read more about it under News and Events.
Thank you to Mr. George Wilson for generously donating $1,000 and 100 bags of black beans to feed the children of House of Hope.
We thank Ms. Madana who continues to donate large amounts of food each month for House of Hope orphanage.
We are grateful to Ken and Judy Langner of Lake Stevens, WA for pledging a donation of $600 a year for three years.
We would like to thank Tina Cornely and her nonprofit, Bridging Humanity, for collecting diapers and goods for House of Hope. 
We would like to thank the Rotary Club of Miami Shores for their ongoing support. 
We are grateful to Great HealthWorks for a donation of $500 toward the Sanitation Project.
Winston Delawar Photograhy/Suzanne Delawar Studios graciously donate photography as our official photographers at all events.