Small Places with Big Impact
Mendocino County Residents Support Orphanage in Haiti
by Jen Dalton
In 2020, Hearthstone Village celebrated ten years of service to the nutrition and education of orphaned girls in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, ranked the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. It is plagued by poverty and civil unrest, where kidnappings, child prostitution, and, as a recent UN report summarized, “a widespread sense of insecurity” is the norm. In an environment as unstable as this, only ten percent of Haitians graduate from high school.
The Hearthstone volunteers and donor supporters, based largely in Mendocino County, have successfully helped ten girls in Haiti graduate from high school over the last two years—a huge beating-the-odds story. Their secret to success lies in a strong, supportive, community-based foundation and generous donors who help feed, house, and send these girls to private schools in their neighborhoods, encouraging them to become a part of the fabric of their community.
Hearthstone Village has been around for decades. The founding board members originate from the Ukiah community and identify as “back to the landers.” Most took their inspiration from Rudolph Steiner, with an organizational emphasis on his philosophies, including the importance of multi-generational communities. Founded by Lynn Dress-Meadows, Shawna Hesseil, Deborah Mead, and Deborah Lovett, today the all-volunteer 501(c)(3) non-profit organization includes Mendocino County locals whose names you might recognize: Nancy (Niv) McGivney, Serena Miller, Juanita-Joy Riddell, Michelle Maxwell, Laura Wedderburn, Emily Frey, Jen Dalton, Nancy Watanabe, Kirin Riddell, and a newcomer based in Chicago, Bryan Rogers.
According to Dress-Meadows, the original plan was to create a multi-generational community in the Ukiah area that could take in children who needed care. Frey said the envisioned project was “an orphanage,” while Riddell described it as “a permanent housing facility for children in medical need.” The project encountered significant red tape and was never approved by Mendocino County government. So Dress-Meadows, Riddell, and their husbands, who owned property in El Cardonal, Baja Mexico, developed the project with the local community there, and eventually raised enough money to build a multi-purpose community center. A sister organization, Tu Hogar, is now responsible for operations in Baja, while Hearthstone Village continues to support the medical needs of a few small families.
The work of the organization transitioned toward Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake, a magnitude-7.0 centered in Port-au-Prince, which killed over 200,000 people and injured more than 300,000. In less than a minute, more than a quarter of a million homes and buildings collapsed. This included 4,000 schools, eight hospitals, 75 government buildings, and the presidential palace—more than 70% of all buildings in the country. This devastation wreaked havoc on transportation and communication networks, and survivors had no way of contacting family members and friends. More than 600,000 people left Port-au-Prince due to an epidemic spread of cholera, which lasted until just before the Covid-19 pandemic. Haitians, especially children, also faced psychological issues, and an incalculable number of children were orphaned. The cultural, personal, societal, and infrastructural damage was beyond comprehension.
Medical teams—including Dress-Meadows, Wedderburn, and Frey from Ukiah—came from around the world to provide emergency medical care to those injured in the disaster. At the time of the 2010 earthquake, they had been working as doctors and physician assistants at the Ukiah Valley Medical Center (now Adventist Hospital). While in Port-au-Prince, they wanted to connect with an orphanage to support, and they toured two. One was large and sufficiently supported by the Catholic Church; the other was Reveil Matinal Orphanage Foundation (RMOF). RMOF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization “that rescues, loves, and takes care of orphaned children. It was founded in 2007 in Queens, New York. However, the orphanage itself is located in Port-au-Prince in Haiti.”
Dress-Meadows contacted the founders, Charlucie and Jay Jaboin, Haitian expats living in New York, and agreed to support the orphanage in two major realms: nutrition and education. These remain Hearthstone Village’s focus, although the organization now also pays the staff’s salaries and has developed a relationship with Maison de Jasmine, the dorm-style living arrangement for RMOF girls who age out of the orphanage after they turn eighteen. The founders are still very much involved in supporting more than 33 girls, ranging in age from 1 year to 22 years, who are a part of the RMOF community.
According to 2014 estimations, there are nearly one million orphans in Haiti. The number of orphanages is estimated to be around 760, and the number of children in orphanages is approximately 32,000. Hearthstone Village and RMOF support girls and educate them to help break the cycle of poverty. Studies have shown that educating girls is the number one way to reduce poverty, as educated girls have families later and are often able to contribute to family income. This is a primary reason why Hearthstone Village focuses on education and a stable home environment.
Per Haitian law, all orphans must vacate the orphanage after their 18th birthday. All schools in Haiti are private. There is no public school system nationally or in the cities—the primary reason that only ten percent of Haitians are high school graduates. To create some educational equity, many orphanages bring teachers in or create a “school” at the orphanage. One of the main problems with this noble arrangement is that, since kids must leave at 18, many of these youth miss out on education support and don’t get to complete their education goals. This is what makes Hearthstone Village and RMOF different.
Though RMOF is a state-sanctioned orphanage and receives new girls through that system, as girls age out, Hearthstone Village prefers to focus on the idea of community and supporting them financially until they stabilize, whether through university, vocational school, or employment. Hearthstone Village raises money to send each girl to a school in their neighborhood which meets their educational aptitude and interest, and they bring in tutors to help them excel, thus helping each girl become their best selves through the opportunity of education, nutrition, and a safe place to live. Volunteer board member and Education Liaison, Niv McGivney, works closely with Jean-Wesly Demosthene, RMOF’s on-site Administrator, to monitor grades, progress, and special needs. Despite the impacts of the pandemic and civil unrest forcing schools to close periodically through the last year, two girls have finished their first year at Quisqueya University in Port-au-Prince.
Financially, Hearthstone operates on $100k-$120k per year. For the work in Haiti, there are three funds: the education fund, the general fund, and a new higher education fund. A program with dedicated education sponsors is the backbone of the education fund, and Hearthstone is always looking for people who want to support one or more of the girls throughout their educational journey. One girl usually has three or more sponsors, who each pay $750/year to fund her education costs. The general fund pays for staff salaries, household expenses, food, internet, clean water, and medical coverage. The higher education fund was recently started to meet the growing needs of the graduates. It’s easy to get involved and be part of nurturing and educating this remarkable group of girls and young women.
UPDATE: Due to our production schedule, this article was received prior to the current political upheaval caused by the assasination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse on July 7. We reached out to Jen to ask for an update on the school and its residents. From Jen: “It’s been chaos [in Haiti] for years. The girls are in a relatively safe neighborhood in Port-au-Prince and have male escorts drive them to school. We were able to buy a school bus and have a paid driver, Louchard, whom we would all trust with our lives! And, when school is cancelled due to the unrest, or the pandemic, the girls help tutor each other at home (and thanks to a grant from the Kodak Foundation, we were able to help them create a robust library!). They read to each other, study together and use education as a form of entertainment when the country is on lockdown! We really hope things calm down soon so we can visit again. For now, we are grateful they are safe and thriving despite all the hardships.”
www.hearthstone-village.org
@herdreamsmatter (Instagram)
Facebook: Hearthstone-Village
To become an education sponsor: nivmcgiv@gmail.com
Photos courtesy of Hearthstone Village
Jen Dalton is the Vice President of Hearthstone Village. Her visits to Haiti have opened her heart in unexpected ways. She is also an author (Of Butterflies & Bullies) and a community facilitator (Kitchen Table Consulting). She lives and grows food in Ukiah.
