- April 23, 2024
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Joseph and Margalie Jean-Pierre, of Palm Coast, opened an orphanage Sept. 2, in Haiti.
A little town in central Haiti, called Hinche, recently got some help for its population of homeless children, thanks to the Jean-Pierre family, of Palm Coast’s R-section.
When Joseph and Margalie Jean-Pierre brought their children to visit their homeland of Haiti for the first time in early 2009, the kids experienced a culture shock. Dirt-smudged 5-year-olds milled up and down the streets in the middle of the afternoon, washing windshields for money. A little hand slid in through their car’s side window, begging the family for change.
The couple’s daughter, Marley, wondered why the children were not in school.
Shortly after, the Jean-Pierres teamed with Joseph’s brother, Paul, who lives in Canada, to create J.P. Orphanage Ministries Inc. Their goal was to build an orphanage for 50 Haitian children.
Underfunded and unable to find property, the Jean-Pierres chose 10 of the neediest children they could find, in December 2009, and settled for enrolling them in school, buying them supplies and clothing, giving them haircuts and showers and, later, bringing each to the hospital for a checkup.
Two years and thousands of dollars later, a 6,400-square-foot orphanage in Hinche was officially established, Sept. 2 of this year. But although the Jean-Pierres financially support 10 children, the building was only big enough for five.
They’re doing what they can with what they have available.
“There is a story for all of them,” Margalie Jean-Pierre said, holding up a sheet of paper with a photo of a child taped onto it, his name and age written underneath. “This one,” she said, “used to sleep in the street. This one used to sleep in a bakery.”
She displays a thick stack of papers with photos, one for each child she and her husband hope to help. But they can’t do it alone.
“We need help,” Joseph Jean-Pierre said. “We need support.”
If they collect $80,000, they can build a proper orphanage, with a clinic. If another $65,000 is raised, they can build a school.
But for now, they hope to bring in $10,000 before 2012, and they’re asking for $60 donations from anyone willing to give. That amount will go toward buying clothes and school supplies.
In college for dental hygiene, Margalie Jean-Pierre plans to move to Haiti to work in a clinic after her children finish high school. Joseph, a Daytona State College professor and volunteer pastor for Palm Coast Haitian Seventh-day Adventist Church, hopes to have new facilities built overseas by 2014.
“Everybody wants to be something,” Margalie Jean-Pierre said of her orphans. Some want to be pastors, others engineers. “If I could, I would leave right now, go to Haiti and take care of all of them.”
But that’s impossible. There are countless homeless children in Haiti living in shacks or on the streets.
“When you look at the work,” she said, “your eyes tell you it’s too big, (that) you cannot do it. But if everybody, all of us, at least (take care) of one … I think that would make a big difference.”
She admits: In the grand scheme of things, 10 kids is only 10 kids. But that’s 10 that are now sheltered and educated and fed and safe. That’s 10 that have a home.
And that’s something.
To help the Jean-Pierres in their efforts, email [email protected] or call 675-7453.
