Jean Marc

Meet Jean Marc. He's one of the most humble, kind men that I have met in Haiti. He is the director of L'orphelinat l'enfant de l'espoir. He was an orphan himself as a child. An orphanage director took him in under his wing when he was 8 years old and helped him get an education. He has always felt indebted to this man and felt an obligation and desire to help other children in Haiti that are up against the same things that he was as a kid.

When some members of his congregation (he is a pastor) died about nine years ago, he took in their children and began to care for them. When others saw how well he cared for the children- how well he taught them and how much he loved them- he continued to get more people that would ask him to take care of relatives or acquaintances that had been orphaned. Before long he had too many to take care of in his home.

A friend from his congregation rented out a larger home in Leogane where he could take care of the children, and before long, he had 69 children under his care. Another member of his congregation had moved to Canada and would send him money to pay for most of the children's school supplies so that they could attend school. His friend in Canada lost his job last year and hasn't been responding to Jean Marc's attempts to contact him, so the children have been unable to study since last September.

Then, on January 10th, tragedy struck when the earthquake hit Leogane and killed his friend that was paying the rent on the home in which Jean Marc cared for the orphans. Luckily, another member of his church offered him a piece of land to relocate the children. Jean Marc and most of the children have been on this beautiful piece of land for the last six months living in tents. There are no restrooms, electricity or running water. They are dependent on the surrounding community members for their sustenance (which consists of a tent city and some rural farmers.) Times have been so tough that Jean Marc has been forced to give about half of the children that he was caring for before the earthquake to friends and other orphanages. He misses them and hopes to get them back when he is able to take care of them again.

It is easy to see the love that Jean Marc and his wife have for the children under their care, and that love and respect is returned by the children. They also have two young children of their own. His dream is to build a safe place for the children to grow up and learn good things. He also would like to start a school that would be open to the children of the neighboring tent city that can't afford the bus ride into Leogane to attend school. We are working along side Jean Marc to reach these two goals.

Here are Rony and I meeting with Jean Marc to go over his plans for the orphanage/school. Notice the beautiful mountains in the background.