8 Reasons Why You Should Support Respire Haiti.

Here are eight reasons why we at Conspiracy Of Hope think you would love to support Respire Haiti's work in Gressier, Haiti. In no particular order, the following reasons highlight the methodology, the core beliefs, and the ongoing commitment of RH to the people of Gressier.

From Bellevue Mountain. At the heart of Respire Haiti's story and at the heart of Gressier itself. The story of Respire and Gressier's future will always be inextricably linked to this pristine peak.

Stability and Strength: The earthquake of 2009 devastated Gressier, destroying 70% of the homes and leaving many vulnerable people and especially children at the mercy of the elements. It was in this post-apocalyptic landscape that Respire's founder Megan Boudreaux found herself. That reality stayed with her, the fragility of life, the realization that more storms would come. For that reason, RH is building a school and a community hub that can withstand another earthquake of similar magnitude and be ultra resistant to hurricane force winds. The attention to detail in this respect has been painstaking and sometimes slow, but the reward is safety and security for the impossibly gorgeous children of Gressier.

The deep footings and steel re-enforcement that will help the Gressier school withstand another major disaster. Cutting corners is not an option when the lives of children are at stake.

Social Justice: One of the most exciting things about the school RH is building, and the most compelling for us at COH is that many of the students will be restaveks. In a country of 9 million people there are an estimated 300,000 restavek children. Through education, opportunity, and a true sense of community that the school will afford these kids, RH hopes that tolerance of this injustice will quickly become a thing of the past in Gressier. There are 300 thousand children with no voice in Haiti, Respire is deeply committed to being a voice for those voiceless kids.

Stewardship: Part of every NGO and non-profit's reality is limited resources. Respire Haiti is ever mindful of this. When many other humanitarian orgs in Haiti ride around in new Landcruisers, the staff of RH takes a tap tap or hires a driver for longer trips. This keeps them intimately connected to the community, engenders respect and doesn't foster mistrust, and besides costing less, it also keeps money in the community by using these local businesses. RH shops locally, buys building supplies locally, and in every sense is committed to helping the local economy by buying Haiti first. The majority of RH's staff are Haitian, in fact other than RH's founder Megan Boudreaux, the only other resident non-Haitian is Kyle Fishburn the general contractor who oversees the day to day construction on site.

Kyle the contractor and Bernard, translator and backbone of so much of Respire Haiti's day to day operations.

Sustainability: One of the keys to self-reliance for the Haitian people and one of the tenets of stewardship for RH is sustainability. This means that even as they provide food for local orphanages they also facilitate those same orphanages in planting crops and raising livestock. RH will also use solar panels and wind power at the school and surrounding buildings to lower the communities dependence on an ever temperamental power grid and keep utility costs affordable.

Self-reliance: The reality of humanitarian aid is that sometimes helping hurts. The best intentions of the kindest people often provide immediate relief but do permanent damage or provide no lasting change. Respire Haiti understands this implicitly. In every sense they elevate the people of Gressier by staying out of the way. From the construction of the school to the weekly feeding programs, Haitians serve Haitians. There is no breeding of dependence on foreign hand-outs, no heavy American footprint, only the desire for the Haitian people to be self-reliant. Respire knows that the people of Gressier want to work, and that they work extremely hard when given the chance. Every day 60-70 Haitian men and women walk to the top of Bellevue Mountain and build the future of Gressier: a school for their kids, and soon a church, a medical clinic, a computer lab, a market, a library, and more. The residents of Gressier are pouring their blood and sweat and prayers into these buildings and beautifully taking ownership of the project in their hearts and minds. And, they are being paid almost double the average worker's daily rate! Money that goes back into the local economy and stimulates growth for all of Gressier.

Above, the residents of Gressier, men and women, build a school for their children and their brothers and sisters in the Haitian sun. Below, food is prepared on site everyday.

Scholarships: One of the realities of poverty is that sometimes even a free education is unaffordable. RH partners sponsors with impoverished children to put education within their reach. This means smart new uniforms for children who have never had a brand new piece of clothing. This means two meals a day for a child who would otherwise be hungry and restless, unable to concentrate on learning. This means school supplies and books in the hands of children like Floencia (below), who at 8 will be attending school for the very first time. She was one of the last children to register and I had the deeply humbling honor of walking with her and her precious mom to the little concrete church house that glorious Monday afternoon to sign her up!

Floencia in pink pants!

Sublime Beauty: The Caribbean Sea and the mountains of Gressier are the stuff of poems but their majesty pales in the presence of the Haitian people themselves, especially the children. What a noble people, unconquered in spirit in spite of the deluge of despotic rulers and natural disasters. And what hard workers, what gentle souls, what deeply passionate people are the Haitians. No wonder they so captured Respire's heart. No wonder they have rebounded so quickly with just a little help from their friends.

Haitians are hard workers, from the fisherman and farmer above, to the lovely girl below who helps her mom collect bottles for a recycling program that cleans up the cities and countrysides while putting money in the pockets of Haitians facing an 80% unemployment rate.

Below, some of the beautiful children of Gressier. The future of Haiti.

Sisters: RH began in the heart of Megan after she met a little girl on Bellevue mountain where the school is being built. Michaelle was throwing rocks in the air trying to kill a bird to eat, such was her hunger and her relentless determination. Megan was deeply affected and through a whirlwind of events Megan now has legal guardianship of Micha and her younger sister Jessica. These two girls have become the lifeblood of Respire and the endless stream of guests that come to Gressier to see what God is doing. These girls change everyone they meet with their indefatigable smiles and constant mischief. I have never loved a child other than my own more than I love Michaelle. There is a look she gets in her eyes that reveals a hint of the hurt she still holds but then that unsinkable smile breaks across her face, joy dawns, and the whole world is brighter because she is loved, because now, Michaelle is free.

Respire Haiti.

Restavek, is a Haitian word for a child slave. Today, 300,000 children are bound by this heartbreaking tradition that exploits their labor, their very life . Respire Haiti is changing that in the city of Gressier, Haiti.

This is Respire Haiti's story. One girl, with a heart for the exploited, left the comforts of the first world to make Haiti her home. And now hundreds, one day thousands of Haitian children will be free.

Please support Respire Haiti in building a school for the Restaveks. Please give them back their lives. From all of us at Conspiracy Of Hope. Thank you!!

Haiti And Child Trafficking

Haitian Slum

90 minutes from Disney World on the western half of the Island of Hispaniola Haitian children are at constant risk of sexual exploitation. Haiti's eastern neighbor, the Dominican Republic features picturesque island getaways where affluence affords European and American tourists the opportunity for every sort of decadence, including the use of a Haitian child to fulfill their most perverse fantasies.

Dominican paradise

Since the 2010 earthquake it is estimated that up to 10 thousand children have been trafficked across the Haitian border into the Dominican, often with the complicity of the authorities, always with evil intent. The Miami Herald reports:

"[O]n a recent night, reporters — and tourists — watched a police supervisor stand over a teenage prostitute as she rubbed his belly from a chair. The cop and the girl laughed.

Another young man who introduced himself as a tour guide boasts that he has "Haitian girls of all ages." The young man described in aberrant detail the shape of the developing body of a 12-year-old. "Her (breasts) are still growing."

"Men who have been here before are confident that the police won't arrest them if they pick up the younger girls," said one Dominican girl.

Many of the newcomers seem to be younger than 17 and, despite wearing heavy makeup, skintight dresses and stilettos, often appear embarrassed and awkward when they offer tourists their bodies for less than $30."

According to the Herald:

"All the officials know who the traffickers are, but don't report them. It is a problem that is not going to end because the authorities' sources of income would dry up," said Regino Martínez, a Jesuit priest and director of the Border Solidarity Foundation in Dajabón, a Dominican border town.

Reporters witnessed smugglers carrying children across a river, handing them to other adults, who put the kids on motorcycles and speed off to shanty towns. Border guards, charged with preventing this very operation, witnessed the incidents and never reacted, the reporters found.

Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive acknowledged that there has been a lack of political will to tighten the porous 230-mile border between the nations, which he called a "no man's land and an opening for bigger trafficking."

"There is not one person who feels they have an interest in controlling the frontier," Bellerive told The Miami Herald. "There are people on the Haitian side who are profiting because they are the ones who organize the trafficking. The same on the Dominican side."

Haitian children wait for relief in the first days after the earthquake. Their parents dead or missing, the children are half naked, lonely and scared, with many in a state of shock. A stranger proffering kindness in the form of food or shelter may seem heaven sent, but may in fact be a malevolent opportunist.

Nelta, a 13-year-old Haitian, told The Herald that she walked for three days with two other young girls to reach Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic. She said a female trafficker left them at a hideout in that town. "A man raped me in the shelter," said Nelta.

The buscones (hustlers), as the smugglers are known, not only deliver children on request. They also deliver them a la carte to strangers. "You choose the age, what sex, and skills of the Haitian kid you want," one smuggler told an El Nuevo Herald reporter."

Herald reporters repeatedly watched smugglers transport children across the borders unhindered. With the bulk of the child smuggling concentrated in the northern border of the island of Hispaniola, between the towns of Dajabón, 180 miles from Santo Domingo, and Oanaminthe in Haiti, separated by the Masacre River.

The Masacre River, dubiously named, shallow (above) and narrow (below) enough to navigate easily Haiti's porous border with the Dominican.

A chaotic, bi-national wholesale market opens every Friday and Monday in Dajabón. Thousands of merchants and buyers show up, allowing smugglers to pass money — usually $1 — via Haitian bag men to Dominican officers, who look the other way as the child cargo moves amid the chaos.

The devastation left by the earthquake, the lack of civil infrastructure, and the aggravated poverty in Haiti have left the vulnerable ever more so. And with 300,000 dead and 2 million more displaced from the earthquake, the Dominican has become a place of hope for many of Haiti's downtrodden. Traffickers make promises that desperate Haitians want to believe, and many, especially the newly orphaned, fall victim to the lies.

Megan Boudreaux, founder of Respire Haiti, says the actual numbers of trafficked children may never be known. She adds, "Unfortunately, in a country where there is a population of 9 million people and there are nearly 1 million orphans, there is lots of exploitation of children. After the earthquake it was estimated that between 25 and 100 children were crossing the border to the Dominican Republic EVERY DAY! Many of the children came from the largest slum in Haiti, City Soleil. It’s only a matter of minutes when a young woman and her baby walk into City Soleil, before someone is offering to buy her child. Sadly, because SO many of these children lack paperwork and proper documentation, they are easily trafficked without people even knowing they are gone."

Megan believes the solution is education, more precisely the opportunity for an education for Haiti's impoverished youth. With only 45 percent of children attending primary school and less than 15 percent enrolled in secondary school there is an educational crisis in Haiti. To this end Respire is building a school (below) for 300 children in the city of Gressier. You can help Respire and Megan end the cycle of hopelessness here.

As always, from all of us at Conspiracy Of Hope, thank you for caring about justice. Thank you for being a voice for the voiceless. Thank you for sharing Haiti's story with your friends, and for supporting groups like Respire Haiti in their efforts to rescue Haiti's most vulnerable and restore both dignity to their lives and hope to their hearts. None of us would expect any less for our own children.

Megan Boudreaux Fights For The Heart Of Haiti, One Child At A Time.

The images that came out of Haiti after last year’s earthquake were heart-rending, the devastation was complete. 230,000 dead, and the newly homeless numbering close to a million.

A fraction of the dead in Haiti's capitol city Port-au-Prince after the 2010 earthquake.

Almost instantly stories of displaced children and the tens of thousands of new orphans began to cover the web pages and blogs of the NGO’s and anyone with a humanitarian bent. Children, who days before had at least some semblance of a life, now were at high risk of being stolen, sold, or worse. But a year later the world has had another giant earthquake, the media has replaced images of Haiti and her children with a Royal wedding and trumped up pictures of dead terrorists. The talk around the office is gas prices and scaled back summer vacations and yet there are those that labor on, that are ceaseless in their resolve. Those like Louisiana native Megan Boudreaux. Conspiracy Of Hope interviewed Megan about the orphan crisis in Haiti and her organization, Respire Haiti's response to it. Through inexhaustible tenderness, food programs and education, Respire Haiti helps stem the tide of hopelessness in the beleaguered nation of Haiti.

Megan Boudreaux and Michaelle Dimanche.

In his book “A Crime So Monstrous” E. Benjamin Skinner decides to see how long it will take him to leave New York, get to Haiti and buy a child slave. I think it took him about 7 hours to get to the transaction point. Of course he didn’t buy the child but he could have. How much child trafficking goes on in and around Gressier and in Haiti in general?

Unfortunately, in a country where there is a population of 9 million people and there are nearly 1 million orphans, there is lots of exploitation of children. After the earthquake it was estimated that between 25 and 100 children were crossing the border to the Dominican Republic EVERY DAY! Many of the children came from the largest slum in Haiti, City Soleil. It’s only a matter of minutes when a young woman and her baby walk into City Soleil, before someone is offering to buy her child. Sadly, because SO many of these children lack paperwork and proper documentation, they are easily trafficked without people even knowing they are gone. I firmly believe we will never have a real number on how many children have been trafficked from Haiti in the past.

City Soleil, Haiti's largest slum

Restaveks are child servants, either orphans or children sent by impoverished families to work in the homes of strangers. Is this just a gray area of child labor- a part of Haitian culture that offends our western sensibilities- or is this very real slavery and wholesale child abuse?

The Restavek situation in Haiti is very troubling and sadly somewhat hidden. It is and has been part of Haitian culture so sometimes it is hard to uncover the child’s situation, but it is very real slavery and on several levels includes child abuse. The answer to the Restavek crisis in Haiti is not punishing the people who are enslaving these children, the answer is education. Educating the families who are giving their children away to people who tell them they will “have a better life”, and also educating the populace about recognizing Restaveks in their own neighborhoods and communities. To me, the Restavek problem is a solvable one with education and participation from the Haitian people and government. Many Haitians are actually shocked when they find out that their children or children they know are not taken away to be educated but are rather taken away and enslaved. With a number like 300,000 or more Restaveks it can be overwhelming, but I believe that through the Church in Haiti and through education, this situation can be solved.

Respire Haiti in Gressier's mountainous region is "away from the chaos and pollution of Port-au-Prince and Carrefour."

You make a great deal about these numbers: 163 million orphans in the world, 33 million children with AIDS, 1 billion people live on less than $1.00 a day, 800 million people won’t eat today, 300 million of them are kids….These are statistics that should shock us but so many times they fall on deaf ears, hard hearts…especially in the church….why?

Sadly, I have met many people who are shocked by these numbers yet continue their life undisturbed. Many people have the idea that it’s someone else’s responsibility to “fix this”. The truth is that God has called us ALL to be the Voice for the Voiceless and Fight for the Fatherless. I think that much of the American Church is so preoccupied with THEIR churches and THEIR numbers, that they forget that Jesus tells us, “Our life is not our own.” We should be more concerned with others, especially suffering children, then ourselves.




Please explain the name Respire Haiti? What it is? What you do?

Respire means to Breathe in Creole and in French. The name was chosen for two reasons: 1- because of our location in the mountainous area away from the chaos and pollution of Port au Prince and Carrefour. And 2- after Genesis where God talks about breathing life into each person. Our mission statement is to empower, encourage and educate orphans and vulnerable children in Gressier. We want EVERY child to know that their identity is in Christ as a Child of God and that GOD breathed life into each of them. We want them to KNOW that they were created with a purpose and they are not forgotten.

We currently have a school with 97 children, ages 5-17 (Grades 1st-5th). Since 50% of the children in Gressier are not in school, there are TONS more children who still need to be enrolled. Therefore, one of our goals is to encourage children to go to school and to help their parents realize the importance of education. For this reason, we are in the process of building a new school for over 300 children.




Additionally, we have free English classes throughout Gressier, this helps to educate and empower those children and adults who can’t afford to take classes. Also, each Saturday morning we have a bible study where we feed about 350 children and then we have another activity Saturday afternoon where we feed 300 different children.

Megan serving food from the back of the Tap-Tap, a Haitian term for utility truck or bus.

Our goal is to create a effective and Christ-like way of educating children to know their identity in Christ and also give them the opportunity for education that will help them sustain their community and their families.

Saturdays! Food, fun and fellowship on Megan's mountain. The Tap-Tap lurks in the background.

What are Respires greatest needs, greatest challenges?

First, our greatest need is ALWAYS prayer. God gave me this vision to start this non-profit with putting one child in school and only enough money to pay her $225 school fee. Now in only 5 short months, Respire Haiti supports over 1,000 children throughout the Gressier community through education, feeding programs, simple medical care and English classes.

Our greatest challenge is helping families who have Restaveks realize the importance of letting us put them in school, and through that, educating the family about the importance of equality and loving ALL children the way Christ does.

How bad was/is the devastation in Gressier from last January’s earthquake?

The damage in Gressier is immense. Gressier is only a few miles from the epicenter of the earthquake. It’s estimated that 70-75% of all of the buildings in Gressier crumbled, but even that number doesn’t include the houses and buildings that were damaged in the quake.




Although the devastation was bad, the most disheartening part is that there are still thousands of people living in tents in Gressier, and there is little help for those who need assistance in repairing their houses.

Being from South Louisiana, do you feel a special connection with Haiti’s common Creole heritage? Are there any unique similarities between the two cultures?

Growing up in South Louisiana we had always heard about “Creole” and even ate some Creole food, but really the Haitian Creole Culture is quite different then the Louisiana Creole culture we have in Southern Louisiana. The most obvious similarity between the two are the foods, in Louisiana we eat a lot of rice and beans and so do Haitians.

Megan finds a friendly face and familiar shirt far from Louisiana.

You quote Mother Theresa a good bit. Is she one of your heroes?

Yes, she definitely is. Her tireless effort to love the unwanted, forgotten and abandoned is inspirational and her walk with Christ even through uncertainty is an amazing role model of faith.

Mother Teresa's heart and hands were always holding an orphan close.

In one of your blog posts is the Mother Theresa quote. “When you don’t have anything, then you have everything.” Did you find it freeing to leave the bulk of your possessions behind? What do you miss the most? When you come back to the states for a visit is it culture shock in reverse after living without in Haiti?

I definitely found it freeing to sell everything and leave the rest behind, even though it was difficult (having a house sale and seeing people pick through my stuff), when it was all said and done I felt like a burden had been lifted. I don’t really “miss” any of my possessions, but I did have the realization of missing simple pleasures such as hot showers (or even running water), washing machines, internet, etc. (But really the thing I miss the most is Starbucks Coffee haha) When I come back to the states for a visit it is really overwhelming. It’s hard to enter the land of plenty after only an hour and a half flight from a land of nothing.

An hour and a half flight from the Land of Plenty, the "REAL World consists of people searching for clean water and struggling to find food for their families."

Your deep love for the people of Gressier, especially the orphans is evident in everything you write and do. And your passion bleeds through especially when mincing no words about the church’s responsibility for the poor and for orphans. What will it take for the church’s heart to break with what breaks God’s heart?

I think continuing to raise awareness and share information about the orphan crisis is the first step for the churches’ eyes to be opened and their hearts to be broken. The Church is so very consumed with what they see every day, it’s easy to have the idea that “Our World” what we see every day IS “The World” , but in actuality, “the real world” is not worried about what they’ll wear to dinner or where they will go on vacation….the REAL World consists of people searching for clean water and struggling to find food for their families.

Respire Haiti shirts!! Buy them HERE!!

You seem to stay broken-hearted a lot, your writing certainly seems to reveal that. How do you keep from drowning in a flood of despair?

I always tell God, the day I am not broken-hearted anymore by the poverty, hurt and pain in Gressier, is the day I need to leave. I never want to become numb to what I see or what I hear about in Haiti. This CAN be a draining way of life and experience to constantly pray that my heart would be broken for what breaks Gods, but I KNOW that this is how God wants us to live, seeing things through his eyes and loving people the way Jesus did and does. What keeps me afloat is knowing that Jesus is with me every step of the way, and knowing that I am completely inadequate, weak and scared, but Christ is the one who makes me adequate, strong and courageous. So short answer is Jesus (and funny answer is singing, I sing A LOT when I feel overwhelmed in Gressier. I feel like it brings me back to the place where Jesus is in charge)

You wrote in one of your first blog posts that orphans change you, you called it being “Blessed with a burden”, and named your blog that. Would you share one story of a particular orphan who changed you the most and how?

Actually, the reason I named my blog “Blessed with a burden” was because of a particular little girl I met in Gressier. Her name is Michaelle Dimanche.




I met her back in December on the mountaintop in Gressier when she was throwing rocks into the sky, as I approached her and asked her why she was throwing rocks she said she was throwing them at the bird. She said she was hungry and she was going to eat it. After that I was a bit rocked by her response and was drawn to her so I began asking about her life a little bit and found out that her mother died and her dad didn’t claim her, so she was living with a Caregiver on the side of the mountaintop. Michaelle was 7 years old and had not yet been to school, so the day after I met her I put her in school and I saw Michaelle beginning to change. In the last 6 months I have seen Michaelle go from a hardened, fearful and angry little girl, to the most gentle, loving and happy 8 year old. God has used Respire Haiti to remold her (and the people she lives with) life. After meeting Michaelle Dimanche, I knew that there were plenty of children out there just like her and this was what God called Respire Haiti to do in Gressier.

What is the Creole word for Freedom?

Freedom: Libète

What about for Conspiracy Of Hope?

Konspirasyon Espwa

Anything you’d like to add?

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to share what God is doing in Gressier and through Respire Haiti. I believe it is SO important to continue to raise awareness and fight for these children, because We are ALL called to FIGHT for these Children of God.

Thanks!!

*******

Every once in awhile there comes along a person of such faith and devotion to humble service that you forget to be jaded, you forget to be cynical, and in that moment you realize what is real and what is worth fighting for. Megan is such a person. We hope you fell in love with her and Michaelle and their lovely mountain in Gressier like we did.

And we hope that you will fall in love with Haiti, her orphans, and Respire Haiti as they fight for Haiti's forgotten, as they raise their voice for Haiti's voiceless. Please support them with the full force of your prayers and the depth of your generosity. You can donate directly to Respire Haiti here.

And as always from all of us at Konspirasyon Espwa, thank you for being a Voice for the Voiceless.