New Life for Haiti hosts a board retreat
New Life for Haiti hosted a board retreat at the home of Todd and Kim Pierson in Oswego Jan. 19.
The retreat was led by executive director Marnie Van Wyk. Seventeen of 18 board members were in attendance, representing many different church denominations, vocations and personalities.
The new and existing board members were able to get to know one another and bond as a team. Also, inspirational stories and updates from Haiti were shared. The group was even able to video conference call with New Life for Haiti's Haitian field director Vilex Plaisir and the Village of Hope Orphanage children.
The second half of the retreat was spent in training how to be an effective board member and in committee meetings. The New Life for Haiti Next Gen Board has six committees: executive, finance, governance, operations/logistics, development, and programming/ministry.
In an area where most of the people live under the national extreme poverty line of less than $1.23 a day, New Life for Haiti works to combat hunger and poor living conditions through feeding programs in schools and for the elderly, as well as responding to natural disasters that occur frequently in Haiti, such as earthquakes, tropical storms, and hurricanes.
New Life for Haiti has conducted home and church rebuilding programs after natural disasters and has built homes for displaced families or those with disabilities.
Less than 20% of children attend school in the Marfranc area where New Life for Haiti works, so they have built seven schools, including a model school (The School of Hope) to model a different philosophy and better teaching methodology in a rural area, plagued by antiquated, ill-equipped schools. New Life for Haiti trains teachers who lack access to quality training.
In a country with over 430,000 orphans, New Life for Haiti is also rescuing orphaned children from trafficking in a country with hundreds of thousands are living in domestic servitude.
New Life for Haiti was founded in 2006. It is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. Donations can be made at www.newlifeforhaiti.org/donate.
To learn more about New Life for Haiti, visit www.newlifeforhaiti.org.