HCRM Orphanage in Haiti

Children are the same everywhere you go. Inquisitive, fun loving…waiting for an opening for friendship…hoping for someone to hold their hand…someone to give them a hug. It’s what I found in Brazil, Rwanda and this past week in Haiti. In children we see promise and hope and collectively our hearts ache when we know a little one is hurting. If we also know the future holds few promises for the child before our eyes, how can we walk away and pretend it doesn’t matter?

Haiti is a tough place to like. Flying over this island nation, one is less than inspired by the expanse of brown, deforested hillsides. Instead of tourists, the beaches and streets in and around its capital, Port-au-Prince, are covered with garbage.

Hope. And yet, in a city where hope seems to have no business showing itself, one can glimpse splashes of hope in the midst of gaudy signs and brightly painted buses filled with expressionless people: children heading to and from school in their uniforms, singing and holding hands. Among these are the children of Haiti Children’s Rescue Mission (HCRM) in whose eyes you can find a hope that only God's love can provide.

Pastor Jean Fritz Nicolas and his wife Mireille operate HCRM along with a local Haitian staff. They currently have a little more than 50 children but have had as much as 100 in the past. The children arrive at HCRM in a variety of ways but invariably they are children with few prospects and are vulnerable to starvation, exploitation and abuse.

Although some will grow up under the roof of HCRM, opportunities will be sought for each child to be adopted to new families, mostly in North America where they will have greater access to higher education and opportunities in the future. But whether these children remain in Haiti or become part of families abroad, each will be raised in an environment where they will know and experience God's goodness, a goodness that heals and transcends the hurt and bitterness already experienced in many of their young lives.

Warmed Hearts. The team lived in the current rental property with the 52 children and had many opportunities to play and build friendships with them. Their cries and laughter became the back-drop of our work and always reminded us of why we had come to Haiti.

In an environment where one would expect selfishness and a desire to hoard any small morsel or treat, the children challenged us with their great generosity. Whenever we brought them candies and treats, they would seek out other children to ensure they received their share. We are taught that God's goodness is found in relationship and the children drew us into that goodness every day.

One day we were absorbed with troubleshooting the electrical system of our residence. As I stood lost in thought a little hand slipped gently into mine. The little boy simply wanted the contact of having his hand held. Could I possibly be "too busy" for that?

New Land. Having operated out of rented facilities for a number of years, the establishment of HCRM as a viable, long-term ministry dictated that it begin to seek property for a more cost effective, permanent home. In 2008 HCRM purchased a raw piece of land in the municipality of Gressier, just beyond Carrefour which is a district outside of Port-au-Prince. The property, located on the top of a hill, is about 12 miles (19 km) from HCRM's present location in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Petionville.

The expansive view toward the Caribbean Sea on the new property is stunning and the air is fresh and clean. With its modest but growing financial support base it was crucial that HCRM establish a practical and economical strategy to develop the property, with all their required facilities and infrastructure, to its full potential and so for that, HCRM contacted eMi.

eMi. An eMi team of 11 (1 staff, 1 intern and 9 volunteers) arrived in the bustling airport (with as many want-to-be porters as travelers) of Port-au-Prince on February 14, 2009. For the next week the team would conduct a detailed topographic survey of the property, investigate issues of infrastructure (water, sanitation, power) and design all the facilities needed through a series of detailed interviews and discussions with Pastor Jean Fritz and his wife.

As this property is not connected to the government electrical grid or municipal sanitation, the technical challenge to our team was to design facilities and infrastructure that would operate with maximum efficiency and cost savings to conserve fresh water (from collected rain and an on-site well) and generated electrical power. The treatment of all waste-water would be done on-site. Potable water would be brought in until an economical on-site treatment system can be installed.

New Orphanage. The result was a facility in several buildings that could house and feed 200 children with 20 live-in nannies and provide living space for 22 resident staff and 38 guests/volunteers. There would also be individual homes for the director’s family and one other long-term volunteer family. Also included on the property will be a church, a health clinic and land for small scale agriculture. The health clinic and church will benefit both the orphanage as well as the surrounding community. The children will receive their education at a school in neighbouring Carrefour which is also being established by HCRM.

Project Photos. A new set of photos has been placed in my Photo Gallery for this project, so click here (Photo Gallery) and see the HCRM set with a slideshow (click the middle of the photo for commentary). If you want to spend a little more time looking and reading, click here in Details (Photo Details). Check it out and see what your support, encouragement and prayer have produced in the work of this team. “Thank you” to all our prayer and financial supporters for making this project a reality.

Haiti Children's Rescue Mission

The Children of HCRM

In a country dedicated to the practice of voodoo where an estimated 80% of the population live in poverty, Haiti Children's Rescue Mission (HCRM) is a light of hope in a place of spiritual and emotional darkness.  Child slavery, rampant sexual abuse and exploitation and other horrors are all too prevalent in a country where parents who cannot afford to feed their family sometimes resort to selling their children into bonded slavery or turn them out onto the streets to beg and fend for themselves.

HCRM is a place of refuge and hope as children in their care live in a safe home, receive an education and have an opportunity to be adopted by loving and caring families.  All this happens in an environment where the love of Jesus is lived out by the staff and experienced first hand by each child.  The orphanage is currently housed in rented facilities but HCRM has now purchased an undeveloped property on which they hope to build a permanent home, one that can accommodate more children and be more affordable to maintain in the long run.

Pastor Jean Fritz at the new property

From February 13th to the 22nd, I will be leading an eMi team of two architects, a site planner, three engineers, a draftsman and two engineering students (one an eMi intern) to help design the facilities and infrastructure (power, water, sanitation) for the new property. Also coming is a volunteer photographer/artist/writer who will help to produce fund-raising and awareness documents for the orphanage as it continues to fund-raise for the construction project as well as its many ongoing expenses.

We would welcome you to pray for our team: for travel safety, sensitivity to the needs of the orphanage, flexibility and grace in working together toward a common goal and an openness to love all the people we will be there to serve.  Please also pray for my family and the families of all volunteers as they sacrifice time with their loved ones and fill the void in the busyness of family life at home.

You can see more details of the project by clicking the link under Upcoming Projects at the top of the side bar of my blog.  You can also visit the HCRM website at www.ourchildreninhaiti.org.  Thank you to all our supporters and friends who have come alongside my family and me in so many different ways, making it possible for me to be a part of this work.

2008 - Year in Review

FACTEB Seminary in Boma, DR Congo

Proposed Library, Women's Education and Resource Centre

Post-War Congo. We saw a great deal of military presence in the DR Congo: from the airport in the capital Kinshasa, the road checks on the highway, to the large military contingency in the city of Boma, our destination in the western region of the country. We were told that it is not uncommon as foreigners to be detained for bribes. Fortunately, we had a major (head chaplain in the military) with us to escort us around for the week.

It turns out the most challenging part of the trip for the team was enduring the 14 hour mini-bus ride to cover 500 km from the capital to Boma. Potholes at every 75 yards for many, many miles made for a hot, slow and bumpy ride that finally ended at 4 am! But we made great conversation and often these are the best "team bonding" moments. (Thankfully we were booked an air flight for the return...that took only 55 minutes!)







Dr. Kenzo's Family

The Seminary. Our host, and rector of the seminary, was Dr. Mabiala Kenzo and his wife Lau. They live in a residence on campus and while the team stayed at a guesthouse in town, much of our days were spent in the Kenzo residence, transforming their living room into our temporary office.

Our task was to transform an aging group of buildings into a cohesive campus, design new campus buildings and infrastructure (water, sanitation, power) as well as student housing. After many meetings with Dr. Kenzo (and he in turn with his faculty) we endeavored to capture their vision for training 300 seminarians per year from their current 55 and we set about creating a phased plan for construction that would bring them to their vision step by step.






Recently painted classroom (r) and computer resource (l) buildings


The Seminarians. It was inspiring to spend most of our time on campus in and amongst the seminarians. Each man or woman studying here has been chosen by their church to become a leader both within their church and out in their community. Sacrifices by the students have gone beyond changes in their livelihood and the monetary costs: student-housing at FACTEB currently does not have running water, consistent electricity or in-house sanitation.

Many of the seminarians are married with children so it really adds to the stress. In fact, there are enough children of seminarians on campus for us to incorporate a grade school into the overall campus master plan. Therefore, the role of the eMi team was not only to add to the academic setting of the seminary with a new library and classrooms (phase one) but also to design housing that will raise these standards of living…and they always had a ready smile and warm greeting for us. Indeed humbling and inspiring....








New Master Plan for FACTEB Seminary


Project Photos. A new set of photos has been uploaded to my Photo Gallery for this project, so click here (Photo Gallery) and see the Boma, DRC set with a slideshow (click the middle of the photo for commentary). If you want to spend a little more time looking and reading, click here in Details (Photo Details). Check it out and see what your support and encouragement and prayer has produced in the work of this team. “Thank you” to all our prayer and financial supporters for making project a reality.