Be part of the solution
Northwest Haiti is the poorest region in one of the poorest countries on earth. Here, children are most vulnerable, and those with medical needs or without caretakers are most at risk. It costs $300 per month to cover the medical, shelter, food and other basic living costs for one child. Please consider sponsoring a child (or more than one child) with a recurring donation. Any amount will help these children… even $3 goes a long way in Northwest Haiti.
House of Hope
Friends of Humanity provides donated funds and necessities to House of Hope, a 75-bed facility that house and cares for 90-100 children and young adults at any given time. Located in the La Pointe community of Port-de-Paix, House of Hope was founded in 1956 by an American missionary as a medical clinic where children could be treated for tuberculosis and other illnesses in association with what is now Beraca Medical Center. Today, the center continues to provide care to the hospital’s chronically ill pediatric patients, while also maintaining a home for orphaned, abandoned, and displaced children in dire need.
What It Costs
It costs approximately $18,000 a month to keep the doors open at House of Hope. In addition to the $300 monthly costs for each child, beds for the children are needed. Many Haitian children do not know what it feels like to sleep in a real bed. At House of Hope, children often sleep several to a bed. Mattresses are worn and torn and some children do not have mattresses. A mattress costs about $80 in Northwest Haiti, including the material for mattress covers which is sewn locally to protect the mattresses. Individual beds are usually built local from metal, as wood is scarce.
The Solution
The highly publicized failure of the Haiti earthquake relief effort was largely a failure of organization and oversight. These failures illustrate the inability of large, non-local organizations to deal effectively with Haitian realities. Friends of Humanity is a small organization that deals directly with House of Hope and provides in-person oversight. Our board includes former residents of Port-de-Paix who understand the local community, have ties there, and know how to get things done. House of Hope in La Pointe (not affiliated with any other orphanage with the same name) has been making a difference in the lives of disabled, ill, and abandoned children for many decades. We are proud to be part of this work.
You can set up a recurring donation for any amount you choose. This helps House of Hope know how much money it might have to buy food each month. It is never certain how much they will have on hand, although so far they have managed and all the children eat each day. Because it is a volunteer-run organization, very little of their donations go to overhead or administration; nearly all goes to the children. House of Hope deals with each day as it comes and it is truly remarkable that they make progress every day in an area of the world so many consider to be hopeless. We refuse to believe any situation or any person is hopeless. We hope you agree.