Heart for Haiti was founded in December of 1981
by Dutchman Johan Smoorenburg, a missionary of 36 years. He
started his work on the island Martinique. After 10 years there,
he left Martinique and went to Haiti with his wife and two children
with a vision to do something for young people.
Johan Smoorenburg received this vision when he took a trip
to the island two years before. He visited an orphanage resembling
more of a pigsty than it did a home. There were more than
50 small children—all of them malnourished and sleeping
on the floor.
Click on the pictures to enlarge
Johan Smoorenburg started a work on faith and God began doing
wonders. With support from the Netherlands, he realized his
dream to build a children’s village. His goal was to
allow underprivileged children to receive good care and education.
Heart for Haiti in Bon Repos also has a church,
linked with the church in Martinique where Johan Smoorenburg
worked for ten years as an evangelist at the beginning of
his career as a missionary.
Little by little, the village started to grow; and, in August
1983, the first 40 children came to live there. Many of the
children had been abandoned at birth and came straight from
the hospital.
Over the course of many years, some hundreds of children
were given a chance at a successful life.
Click on the picture to enlarge
Now, after 26 years, the village has grown
to hold two schools with approximately 1000 children.
In addition to the schools, a nursing home was built to house
a number of elderly people that had been living on the street.
Another augmentation
to the village was the construction of a seminar centre with
a possibility to hold up to 120 people with overnight accommodation.
Seminars, such as an AIDS awareness symposium, are held there
often.
UCT would like to thank Heart for Haiti
for allowing us to host our small Kids EE English Translators
training program there in January 2009
Jenny Tryhane, founder of UCT
worked in partnership with Pastor
Pierre Banes Laurore the Haiti Kids EE National Coordinator
trained 12 English speaking interpreters in preparation for
Don and Carla Thompson, the Kids EE Caribbean Coordinator's
visit to Haiti later in 2009.
Click on the pictures to enlarge
In January 2009 Jenny visited Heart
for Haiti for the distributed hundreds of
Make Jesus Smile shoeboxes to the Heart for Haiti Children's
Village.
Click on the picture to enlarge
Thanks to Robert en Durkje
de Vries who helped distribute the gifts and thanks to the
children of the Abundant Life
Assembly Sunday School that once again this year prepared
hundreds of Make Jesus Smile shoeboxes which were distributed
all over Haiti.
Based on our convictions, the vision of the Heart
for Haiti foundation is to relieve need wherever it’s
necessary. The goal of Heart for Haiti is to reach the poor
with aid and the Gospel. Through the current and prospective
work and proclamation of the Gospel in Haiti, the social, public
and evangelical standards and values are being actively carried
out.
The young people in the children's
village and adults are being offered the opportunity of a better
future through schooling and proper nourishment. The senior
citizens peacefully enjoy their old age. The children's village
in Bon-Repos, together with the projects in Leogane are and
will remain an 'Oasis of Hope'.
Seen here Jenny from United
Caribbean Trust distributing the Make Jesus Smile shoeboxes
to the children of the Heart for Haiti school.
Click to view more school children collecting their gifts
The school is a building with
2 floors containing 15 classes. The teachers have all had
secondary teacher training, training that can be taken in
Port-au-Prince. The teachers follow a program prescribed by
the ministry of education from which they are not permitted
to deviate.
Click
to see the school children receiving their Make
Jesus Smile shoeboxes.
This school has been totally destroyed in the recent
earthquake praise God no one was killed.
All of these children are available
to be sponsored through Heart for Haiti.
Thanks to the little children
of First Class Day Nursery
that beautifully hand painted Make Jesus Smile shoeboxes
Child
Sponsorship Program
Full Sponsorship
US $30 per month will cover the
child's education as well as a feeding program. Feeding them
physically and Spiritually through the introduction of the
Kids EE program and other God centered After School Club activities.
Click
to see the school children receiving their Make Jesus
Smile shoeboxes.
Child
Sponsorship Program
Part Sponsorship
You can select US $15 per month
to cover education alone or the Feeding
Programme alone.
50 people taking part in the
Part Sponsorship Feeding
Program could feed 500 children for a year.
This would feed 350 Heart for Haiti children
and bless 150 other orphans from smaller organizations that
have no international assistance such as My Father's House
and Upper Room Orphanage.
