Father Bruno & Madame Bruno in Terrier Rouge!

We are thrilled to share these wonderful photos of Father Bruno and Madame Bruno visiting St. Barthélémy and Clinique Espérance et Vie in Terrier Rouge, Haiti! Their presence brings so much joy, inspiration, and encouragement to everyone they encounter!

St. Barthélémy students were so eager to meet and interact with Father Bruno!

Among the highlights at the School, Father Bruno and Madame Bruno visited with St. Barthélémy alumnus and current St. Barthélémy social science teacher Benédick Angrand (pictured in the first photo) and met the present Preschool Director, Rode-Klemnelle Saint-Fleur (pictured in the second and third photos)!

Everyone at St. Barthélémy was truly happy to visit with Father Bruno and Madame Bruno!

At Clinique Espérance et Vie, Father Bruno visited with head nurse Madeline (pictured left in the first photo) and Medical Director Dr. Benjamin (pictured in the first and third photos), as well as lab techs Virginia and Nadege (pictured in the second photo), and even had a dental visit with the resident dentist, Dr. Jonel (pictured right in the third photo)!

We are deeply grateful to Father Bruno and Madame Bruno for all that they do!

Photos courtesy of Dominque Bruno!

St. Bart's April Highlights!

We are thrilled to share the latest from St. Barthélémy in Terrier Rouge, Haiti - including Easter festivities with St. Bart's preschoolers, a clip of St. Bart's talented band, and a spring campus clean-up!

It truly warms our hearts to see these students celebrate with such joy - and we hope these beautiful moments bring a smile to your face, too!

Highlights of the Easter celebration included Father Jabnel blessing the preschoolers, a team of St. Barthélémy students painting eggs for the little ones, and fun Easter baskets filled with surprises for every girl and boy! We are truly grateful to everyone involved in making these special moments possible for St. Barthélémy's preschoolers!

Enjoy this video clip of St. Barthélémy's 1st-year preschoolers singing for Easter! French song lyrics and English translation below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFMOaJkF6yE

On veut de beaux œufs de Pâques, œufs de Pâques, œufs de Pâques, Pâques arrive bientôt.

On décore des œufs de Pâques, œufs de Pâques, œufs de Pâques, Pâques arrive bientôt.

Nous faisons une course à l'œuf, course à l'œuf, course à l'œuf. Pâques arrive bientôt.

We want beautiful Easter eggs, Easter eggs, Easter eggs, Easter is coming soon.

We decorate Easter eggs, Easter eggs, Easter eggs, Easter is coming soon.

We are having an egg race, egg race, egg race. Easter is coming soon.

Enjoy the latest video clip of St. Barthélémy's band as they perform a Haitian children's nursery rhyme!

We are also so proud to celebrate St. Barthélémy students excitedly helping to keep the St. Barthélémy campus clean in Terrier Rouge, Haiti! Their teamwork and pride in caring for their campus truly show what makes the St. Barthélémy school community so very special!

Photos, video footage, French lyrics, and English song translation courtesy of Dominque Bruno!

On Earth Day - Behind the Promise of Island Romance

Our team in Haiti has just launched a new campaign for its natural products, promising health and beauty. And while we want everyone to be beautiful and smell nice, our primary purpose in making and selling products is to help subsistence farms not only grow enough to eat but also earn the money they need to buy what can’t be grown, like shoes, clothes, schooling, etc. That means growing something someone is willing to pay money for, i.e., growing a cash crop. If we do that, the economics of supply and demand kick in, and voilà, there’s money in the pockets of poor farmers. If only it were that easy, but it’s not.

In Haiti, where the economy is worse than lousy, the road to “voilà” is a string of roadblocks that have to be reckoned with. What can be cultivated by hand on ten acres of difficult land that someone will want to buy? Where does a poor farmer find the means to start? How is a poor farmer going to find a buyer and a fair price? How is a poor farmer going to grow enough on his little plot to meet a buyer's needs? We created JP nineteen years ago to walk the dirt tracks of Haiti in search of answers to these and other questions. Today, it is delivering income to small farms by making products from what they grow. Our work is puny in the face of the need, but we remain hard at work building an island romance between commerce and Haiti’s small farms.

Take care and stay in touch,

Rob Fisher

Executive Director of JP/Partner For People And Place, Inc.