Celebrating 15 Years In Haiti – Come Join Us
Center of Hope (Haiti), Inc. ("COHH") is celebrating its 15th anniversary throughout 2019. We will be bringing you stories from our past, our present and sharing our future in the hopes that you will be inspired to join us. Our mission is to foster livelihood and hope for the future of the poorest of the poor children in Hinche, Haiti by providing shelteer, education, nutrition, emotional security, healthcare and life skills to the children.
We gagan our mission afer a small group of people from churches in Wilton and Stamford, Connecticut visited Haiti in 2001 and 2002 on mission trips where they witnessed the deplorable conditions of Haiti and their impact on the children. Led by Pastor Emmanuel St. Juste of the French-Speaking Baptist Church of Stamford, the group decided to build an orphanage and school in Hinche, Haiti. Money was raised by the Stamford church collecting a dollar from each member each Sunday and from George Brunstad,a member of the Wilton church, who, at age 70 became the oldest person to swim the English Channel in record time.
Land was purchased in Hinche, Haiti and COHH was formed as an IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation in 2004. Construction of the orphanage and school began in 2005. It took 5 years to build the orphanage and school and 6 years for COHH to become an approved NGO. Both endeavors were not free of pitfalls and incredible aggravation.
The school opened in 2011 with 15 children in the first grade. The school accepts only 15 children each year, at the first grade level, who are the poorest of poor children who would not otherwise be able to attend school. COHH now has 115 children in grades 1 through 8 and 31 employees. The children who joined COHH in first grade not knowing how to read or write in any language, are now in 8th grade and able to read, write and speak in Kreoyl, French, Spanish and English.
Currently,the COHH site has 2 dormitories, kitchen, cafeteria, administrative quarters, volunteer quarters, multi-purpose room and 2 new classroom building with plans tobuild 2 more classroom buildingsthat are comparable to facilities in the United States. COHH has partnered with the Building Goodness Foundation of Charlottesville, Virginia to build its new classroom buildings. See videos on You Tube -
A New Day In A New School - https://youtu.be/kkQIwZOa0QU
Nurturing The Thinkers of Tomorrow’s Haiti - https://youtu.be/THAsYZstu6A
COHH is a virtual corporation in that it does not have any one office or location, but rather, in the interest of saving administrative costs, it operates virtually using the internet and conference communications. It has a Board of Directors and an Advisory Board that is diverse by gender, ethnicity and geography.
