The actual story behind Safe Haven Education Nutrition Association of Haiti (SHENA-Haiti). Early in 2006, I traveled to Haiti, I  visited my hometown, Les Cayes.  One Friday afternoon, I was hungry and developed a taste for “Haitian Pate”. It is something I grew up eating, suddenly I asked a friend to walked to the restaurant where I knew they used to make them. To my astonishment, the restaurant was still open and operational. As we stepped inside the restaurant and ordered the food, I noticed one of the food servers pushing a young man out of the way by asking him to leave the restaurant.

I was curious to see, why the young man was not allowed to enter the restaurant. My personality would not allow me to sit still; I got up and went to the young man’s rescue without knowing what I was getting myself involved in. I approached the young man and the server, after a few brief seconds I realized, the young man was homeless with tore up clothes, due to his condition the server would not allow him to come inside the restaurant. I intervened on the young man’s behalf and asked the server if she will allow the young man to sit at my table for a meal. The server told me my request was an unusual request and the young man was too dirty to be allowed inside the restaurant. I informed the server that the restaurant was not that much cleaner than the young man was.

The young man and his younger brother joined me for dinner. The young man was 16 years old and his brother was 7 years old, both parents were deceased, their mother died of cancer and their father died 4 months later from a motor vehicle accident. A few months after their father’s death, the only aunt they had asked them to move out of the house. The two young men did not have a place to live; therefore they ended up on the streets to find their own methods of survival. I was hurt, heartbroken and saddened by what these two young men had to do to survive. I felt helpless, I wanted to adopt them, I wanted to give them a better life. This was not a life for them. What have they done to deserve this, children are the world’s most valuable assets, why should they have to suffer because of politics, greed and bureaucracy? After a many tears and a lenghty conversation with newly found friends, I made several promises to them to help. With my help, they were able to secure a place to stay with a friend of a friend.

After I returned to the states, I started to help them out by sending money for food, school and other essentials. I knew there was more to do, feeding one child was not enough. At the same time, I still had to take care of my other obligations; however that did not stop me from helping others. Early in 2009, I started thinking about doing more for other children like these two young men. The need seemed to be greater than I was able to handle on my personal income. Early in 2010, I founded Safe Haven Education Nutrition Association of Haiti (SHENA-Haiti). After speaking with a few colleagues, everyone was speechless about my plan, although I reiterated to them the time and commitment it would take to be on the board of a nonprofit organization, they all stated that the children of Haiti need our time. Then one week later after a lot of research and sleepless nights, Safe Haven Education Nutrition Association of Haiti, Inc was on its way. Many people disagreed with the name of the organization, a name is not what makes an organization. Its people, culture, structure and vision is what makes an organization. We are deeply passionate about what we are set out to do. Haiti is a country in need, his children are in need of a miracle.

When you go to bed tonight, please imagine these:

• A child going to bed hungry for the 3rd time
• A child looking for food in a trash can.
• A sick child with no medication.
• A child who has never played with a toy.
• A child who wishes he/she could have some clean drinking water.
• A parent who has to give his son/daughter away to someone else as a maid in order for that child to survive.
• A 15 year old girl who has never been to the dentist.
• A 10 year old boy who only receives one hair cut a year.
• A  child who wishes for one meal a day!

Now imagine that this child is your son or daughter. 

Please – Stay tune for our next post on the challenges we were faced with in creating S.H.E.N.A Haiti.

Thanks for reading.

Rose-Marie Chaperon, CHAM

Founder, Executive Director