When faithful Catholic donors support our ministry partners in Haiti, they do much more than provide safe housing. They create a path for people to escape extreme poverty, thrive as families and pursue a brighter future — one that will last for generations.
Last year, the support from generous U.S. Catholics enabled our ministry to build 50 homes for families through our Kobonal and Bethsaide Mission ministry partners. In addition, they contributed to scholarships and health services and helped provide vocational guidance to strengthen families’ finances.
We called this effort our Magnify the Lord campaign, which funded life-transforming projects with several of our ministry partners, including:
Mothers are the center of the home, so their loss in the family has a profound impact on the children they leave behind. In Haiti, too many families have lost wives and mothers to breast cancer simply because a diagnosis wasn’t made in time for treatments to be effective.
This already troubling situation has become even more challenging because of unrest in Haiti, the recent destruction of The St. Francois de Sales Catholic Hospital and the loss of many of the country’s other health facilities.
Mercifully, the Grand’Anse Health & Development Association (GAHDA) is still operational and has been working with the Diocese of Jeremie to help educate women in remote, rural communities about breast cancer. Cross Catholic Outreach supports GAHDA in providing essential healthcare and training for volunteer nurses, church leaders and church groups on breast cancer education. GAHDA administers early screenings to reduce the impact of breast cancer and provides food rations for women undergoing breast cancer treatment and vitamins for women diagnosed with cancer in the Diocese of Jérémie.
Mirnouzard is 52 years old and has one child. When she felt a lump in her breast, a friend advised her to go to GAHDA in Jeremie. She received an exam and later a biopsy. Unfortunately, she was suffering from invasive ductal carcinoma. With staff and doctor support, Mirnouzard was able to travel to the surgical center to undergo a mastectomy. She is under the care of a GAHDA doctor and receives monthly cancer medication and food from the GAHDA staff.
Donor support allows GAHDA to serve the women in Haiti by providing the resources they need during the difficult moments of their cancer journey.
“God has touched us in ways we could not have anticipated with donations at the perfect time, volunteers and gifts-in-kind, all offered willingly and with love,” said Bette Gebrian, the executive director.
Thanks to the compassionate support of Catholic donors, last year, GAHDA provided 546 women with screenings and treatment support plans, including medication and transportation to treatment facilities. They also gave 1,236 women demonstrations on self-examination techniques, along with laminated step-by-step guides for monthly self-care.
The St. Teresa Vocational School is located in Ouanaminthe, a town in the northeast of Haiti that borders the Dominican Republic. This area has grown dramatically in recent years and has an unusually young population. Although the young people living there have great potential, unemployment and a lack of access to formal and technical education are their biggest obstacles.
That is why the St. Teresa Vocational School has made it a priority to train workers and develop programs to support the unemployed, especially women and young people. They accomplish this by helping their students acquire practical skills such as sewing and candle-making and decorating. The program, run by the Sisters of San Juan Evangelista, gives young people eager to learn valuable skills for the future so they can become self-sufficient.
During the most recently completed school year, the program enrolled 63 students. One of those students was Youse-Darline. The teen has been living with her uncle while her parents work in the Dominican Republic to support her.
Youse-Darline is a cheerful, outgoing girl with a keen interest in learning, which was why the sisters offered her a scholarship to join the vocational school. She has made the most of this opportunity and was, in fact, the first among her peers to sew a new skirt. She was also diligent with her guitar lessons and hoped to sew her cousins’ school uniforms.
Haiti has a very unstable employment environment, making it very difficult for young people with few professional qualifications or a low level of education to find good jobs. Many attend school, only to become frustrated and drop out after the sixth grade.
The Kobonal Haiti Mission Scholarship program was developed to help students attend school, remain focused on their education and graduate with the skills necessary to seek gainful employment. Kobonal provides scholarships for secondary, technical, vocational and college and university students. Last year, 63 adults received college or university scholarships.
The scholarships allow students to attend school while covering the cost of tuition, supplies, meals and room and board.
The story of Benjamin Darwinson — a recipient of one of the Kobonal scholarships — is a great example of this program’s value to struggling students. We recently spoke with Benjamin, now in his fourth year of university studies, and he explained that his favorite course is international economics because “it illustrates how a country can produce and engage in the exchange of goods and services.”
Now that he’s in his fourth year, he plans to finish school, secure a job and eventually start a business to put his knowledge into practice. He would also like to help other young people the way U.S. Catholics’ kind donations have helped him.
“The Catholic education I received from Kobonal has been very beneficial to me because it taught me how to live in society,” he told us. “It has made me a new person, helping me understand the life of Jesus and how his disciples walked, such as the verse ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If I hadn’t received the scholarship through the Kobonal Haiti Mission, my university education could have been paralyzed because I don’t have a parent who can care for all my needs.”
Benjamin is so grateful for the Kobonal scholarship that he prays every day for the mission to find new ways to help more young people. He has much praise for the people who’ve supported him and other students like him through the Kobonal Haiti Mission.
“Thank you to the Cross Catholic Outreach donors who provide the mission with opportunities to help young people. I would say that God always places blessings in the hands of those who give, not just those who receive,” he said.
Catholic leaders in Haiti are eager to end extreme poverty and provide lasting solutions to those they serve, but they need our support to succeed in that important mission of mercy.
Join us and be an answer to prayer for Haitian brothers and sisters in need of healing, hope and a path to a better future. Through your generous support of Cross Catholic Outreach, essential ministries like the Kobonal Haiti Mission, GAHDA and the St. Teresa Vocational School can continue transforming Haiti from the inside out!
Donations from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for this project incurred through June 30, 2027, the close of our ministry’s fiscal year. In the event that more funds are raised than needed to fully fund the project, the excess funds, if any, will be used to meet the most urgent needs of the ministry.
