How to Empower Haiti’s Children with Stephania Andrew | Episode 123

Acquania Escarne

What's up y'all? Welcome back to the Purpose of Money podcast today, I'm super excited. We are going to talk about one of my favourite countries, Haiti, and what we can do to help Haitians. Right now, in this crazy, crazy times today, I have special guest Stephania Andrew. We're going to talk about all the work that she's doing in Haiti, why you need to care and so much more you are listening to the Purpose of Money podcast, a podcast where we talk about ways to build wealth and create more freedom in your life. I am your host, Aquania Escarne

Before we get started, I want to tell you guys a little bit more so as a young child in Haiti, which this is amazing, you had the privilege to receive an education and an exceptional experience, which you are now extending to other children of Haiti. And when you were travelling back and forth as an adult, you know, you had conversations with Haitians in Haiti, and you realise that they need our help. So you created an amazing opportunity where you, I guess, The Garden of Life was born, your organisation was born, where you're removing barriers from family's ability to get education, and you're also providing opportunities, hopes and dreams for our young children of Haiti. So without further ado, please, like introduce yourself and tell us more about The Garden of Life and why this is so important to you and needs to be so important to us.

Stephania Andrew

Hi, hi, hello, everyone. How are you? I'm super excited to be a part of your podcast and a part of your show. And when we met, and you told me how you work in Haiti, and I was so excited, and I couldn't wait to work with you and talk to you, because I'm like, I have to steal you one of these days and take you to Haiti with me, especially when jacquemel, because I know how much you love Jacmel, yeah, so many good memories, so

Acquania Escarne

many good memories. For those that don't know, Jacmel is a city in the south of Haiti, where the waters run blue. Oh, it's so beautiful. And it is my favourite city in Haiti, because I remember going there one weekend, long weekend, and jumping off the cliffs into the blue waters and just having the best food and best time of my life. So, yes, please take me back. Please take me back, baby.

Stephania Andrew

Let's go. We are like we actually working on that, trying to map it out and see how we can get there safely. Because jacquemouth Everything is, you know, wonderful. The kids are enjoying, you know, the programme we still operate every day, but you know, Port au Prince is not as fortunate.

Acquania Escarne

yes, and let's talk about that, because on the news, that's all you see, right? Port au Prince is just declining. Gangs have taken over the city, and they are literally controlling everything and anything that passes through. So how far removed Are you from what's happening in the capital, because Haiti is pretty small, but I know it's hours of a drive between jacquemel and Port au Prince. How is what's happening in the capitol impacting your organisation and the students that are participating there.

Stephania Andrew

As far as like, their personal safety? It doesn't affect it because we're about three hours away from Port au Prince. And where we are in Jacmel, we are de escarne, which is in the the village Jacmel, but a little bit on the outside, you know. So for us, it's more of the resources, because, you know, everything passes through Port au Prince, so it's hard to get resources to come to us. So as far as, like you know, us shipping food, there was nothing was coming in out of the country. So of course, you know, inflation will definitely impact our our work that we're doing, and how we get we feed the kids every day from Monday through Friday. As long as they come in the programme, we feed them. Some of them is their only, their only meal that they get. And when we don't have opportunities to feed them, a lot of them will reach out, madam, madam, we are hungry. We are hungry. Madam, can you please help us so when Port au Prince is down, it impacts us a lot, because we can't get resources. And can you imagine, we had Christmas toys that were donated to us. We still have them.

Acquania Escarne

Wow, but they're still here, at least. You know that they haven't been lost or taken or distributed to the right, they weren't intended for so that's really good. So what about your ability to engage with the team that's on the ground? Like I know you used to visit Haiti quite frequently, and I'm sure you have not visited in a while. How long has it been? And what are some of the things that you've had to do to support the team in Jacmel, since you can't be there physically,

Stephania Andrew

because my on site director, she's Haitian American. So we use WhatsApp a lot. We use Zoom a lot. So I can. Engage with the team, engage with, you know, the leaders that are there to ensure that the work is still, you know, going on, because Jacmel is not impacted. As far as you know, the violence, the way it is in Port au Prince, is impacted. That's

Acquania Escarne

good. That's good. So how is it? Well, let's talk about, more about the services. What type of education are the students getting from you, and how do you help them learn? What are some of the like details about your programme in the garden of light? For us, we

Stephania Andrew

are. We're actually in three different cities. The first city we are in Port au Prince. But Port au Prince, the only thing that we do, we provide academic scholarship to the students in Port au Prince, we partnered up with the school and the kids that are, you know, progressing well, that are doing well academically. Because, like, I feel like in our culture, it's so easy for us to chastise, you know, when someone's doing wrong, but it's not as easy for us to uplift and encourage when they're doing, you know, the right thing. So the kids that are doing well, we provide a full scholarship, and when we receive enough donations, we also try to provide them with a laptop, because we do know that Port au Prince can get pretty chaotic, and you never know when the city will be in complete turmoil. So what we'll do is we provide the laptop so that the kids can continue virtual learning, even though, like Port au Prince is in complete chaos. And then the other qualification for this programme is you have to do a community service project of your choosing. So the students will choose something. Some of them help the elders. Some of them clean up their, you know, areas, because, you know, trash is a huge problem in, you know, in Port au Prince.

So they'll clean up their areas. They'll encourage other youth to join the effort and making sure that you know the areas is clean. And then there are, you know, passing on the message that it's important to clean up your area. Let's not put a government. Let's not wait for our city leaders. Let's just take action and do it. And others are tutoring students that are, you know, in the same grade, sometimes lower grades, that are struggling academically, and all they have to do is to write an essay about it, in a short essay, and a monthly basis for us to check the progress, take pictures, take videos, and at the end of the year, they do a huge essay, just letting us know, like, why did they choose this project? How was the project prior to them choosing it? And how are they, you know, affecting their neighbourhood. How are they being beneficial changes in their community, in their areas, right? So that's the requirements for Port au Prince, okay? The next city, of course, is Jacmel. That's what we have majority of our students. We have about 55 students in Jack Ma, Jacmel, it's an after school programme that we have because at this moment, we don't have our own facility yet for us to have a school, but like when I did a survey, there was a huge need for tutoring. We have kids that are 18, that are in the seventh grade, the eighth grade. We have a student right now that's in our programme. She's 14. She's in the third grade. And a lot of our students, because of lack of resources, they'll spend three to four years sitting at home so that parents to come up with the with the money and for them to go to school. So what we'll do, we'll come alongside of them some of that time. If we have enough funding, we will pay for that child. We so we can ensure that there will be in school for the whole year, but every day, from Monday through Friday, these kids that come after school, we tutor them, we mentor them, and, of course, we give them a meal, because, like, I can't ask them to give me more. I can't ask them to give me a y and C's or set or you eat the way they do it. And Haiti is a number scale, so it's not A's and B's, it's numbers, and nine is the highest number. I can't ask them for a or b when they say, madam, we're hungry. Madam, we have a headache. My dad, we haven't eaten in days. I can't I can't push that.

Last year, we lost a two year old to hunger, and in 2024 it's something that is so hard to hear that we're still losing children to hunger, and our goal is to try to eradicate, eradicate that one youth at a time, one child at a time, in Haiti. So that's why we provide this meal. We we celebrate all the major holidays with the kids and Jacmel. And then we also, every year we have a one month long summer camp. And the summer camp, that's the only time they get to eat two meals a day. And the kids, that's what they look for. They look forward to the food. Because every time you ask them, it doesn't matter how many new programmes that I add. It doesn't matter how much fun they had when you ask them. So what did you enjoy the most about camp? I had an opportunity to eat twice a day. That doesn't happen. We have one kid who said, Well, if I had the opportunity to eat like that all the time, I could finally put on some weight. Because outside of this programme, I don't know where my next meal is going to come from. I don't know you know how I'm going to be able to pass. You know these classes, because my parents are illiterate, they can't help me. So that's why our programme is so important. On a weekly basis, we are turning 50 kids down because we just don't have the resources. Mm.

Acquania Escarne

I was just about to ask that, how do the children get into the programme? Is there application process, or are they selected based on need?

Stephania Andrew

The first majority of our students, they've been with us the whole time, for the last three years. So we had, when we first started, we had a call out in the community, and my under, my underground, the workers that I have that are on the ground working, you know, like they did the call out based on the need, but each child had to bring their parents. We had a lot of kids who came out, but if your parents, if the parents were not present, we could not work with that child, because we wanted to be a partnership. We will not be successful without the help of the parents, the community and then the teachers, all of us coming alongside and we were at capacity then. So now, if a child were to leave and they travel somewhere else, they can no longer be in our programme. So we'll have an application based number one, the need number two, of the parents. It's huge, but we are in Jacmel, so the need is huge. We have more students that are in need than those that are not in need. So we'll have the application process, the interview process, and choose it based on that. Right now, we have a waiting list of, you know, students wanting to come into our programme. But unfortunately, we act capacity,

Acquania Escarne

Capacity. So what's the third city, you said Porter Prince Jack male. What's the third city where you are all

Stephania Andrew

helping? The third city is chut. And then for this programme is every child deserves to be in school, and kids just running around in the street is a huge issue in Haiti. So in the city of chut, what we'll do is we'll just take these kids off the streets and put them in school. So we had the opportunity to do that for 25 students that's in school for the for the very first time, and you can see like, the way that they walk, the way that they talk, just completely change, just based off of the fact that they were able to to go to school. Yeah,

Acquania Escarne

No, that's very powerful. How did you How long has Garden of Life existed? I know it's a nonprofit organisation. When did you first create it? And how do you fund your organisation?

Stephania Andrew

We've been working on the ground now for three years. Believe it, believe it or not. We started out with 25 students, and within three years, we grew to 84 students, amazing. And I was just like, whoa. I did not expect for us to grow that quickly and that fast and in the different programmes that we have, and how much they appreciate the work that we're doing, like the parents, the students, some of the students, when it's time for them to go home, they say, madam, we don't want to go. We're not ready to go because we introduced new new programmes. We we introduced volleyball, where the kids had never seen volleyball before. We introduced chess, they had never seen chess before. We do theatre, not just they're not just coming for them to get tutored and you know, the work that they're doing in school, but like for us to introduce them to new opportunities, new games and new sports that they didn't even know were out there, and we started teaching the kids how to paint, how to draw. Within a month, the work that they were creating was a masterpiece. Right now, most of our funding is through individuals that are donating through our website, and some people go through our social media to see the work that we're doing. But we need a lot more help, because, as you can see, once Port au Prince is shut down, we can budget, let's say, $1,000 a month just for the food. But when something happens to Port au Prince, inflation can double that to 1500 to 2000 where you're getting the same amount of food that you were getting for 1000 sometimes even less, because there's a lack of resources

Acquania Escarne

Understood, and people are probably taking advantage of the situation, charging you more because you're probably getting food in the respective cities, but at a markup, because maybe it was dangerous to get it from Port au Prince to where you are. So that's really, really interesting. How have you been able to rally the support from the local community? Do you have anyone in Haiti who also donates to support the mission, or all your donations from US based individuals,

Stephania Andrew

As of right now, all of our donations are from US based

Acquania Escarne

Interesting, interesting. But you do have a lot of the people in the community who know that you were there, and they're using the programme for their own children. They're just not in a financial position to support

Stephania Andrew

For sure. I mean, they donate in other ways. They donate their time, and because, like whenever we have a summer camp, we have different parents, that's one of the requirements. They have to volunteer one of the parents, whether they're volunteering in the kitchen, to help with cooking the meals, to help with feeding the kids. We have parents that are on the classroom making sure that, you know, the kids are, you know, focusing and doing their work. We have other parents that are in the hallway facilitating, you know, kids transitioning from one programme to the next programme. Um, and also facilitating, you know, restrooms, you would have parents and students getting together to clean up their, you know, the classrooms to clean up the school where we are operating. So they donate in other ways. And I remember, for Christmas, they wanted a nice Christmas party. So the parents that all came together and donated cups. So each child brought, you know, how many cups they had from their homes, and then afterwards, they all washed it and took it back to their house. You know, they donated in other ways, just not financially.

Acquania Escarne

No, that's beautiful. And I like you're getting the parents involved and giving them an opportunity to be present. So maybe that's also rewarding for them as a family, being able to see the different children coming together and growing, and I think that's a good way to give back, since you do need the help, you do need the hands. So tell me more about how is it that you're spreading the word in the US? You know, you said you have a website. What is that website? What is what types of ways can people give? Do you only accept donations through certain platforms? Just let us know.

Stephania Andrew

Okay, like our website is www.tgolhaiti.org then again, it's www.tgol like the Garden of Life, but abbreviate tgolhaiti that O, R, G, they can do it online. They can zealous, zealous. The Zell would be through the number for the organisation. I don't know if you want me to let you know or just send it to you.

Acquania Escarne

Yeah, no, we I mean, it's good for people to hear so they can take action. But we'll definitely include all of this in the show notes and on the website. So where do you see your organisation in the next five years, in an ideal world where all your resources are provided for what is your dream?

Stephania Andrew

Oh, my goodness, in the next five years, I would love for us to have our own space, because I want to introduce education in a completely different method, the way that they are introducing them in Haiti use different methodology, because I see how the kids, when we play different games that are educational games, how we make education come alive for them, they learn more and they're able to think. I have thought provoking questions for them, and I have different projects where they have to think and they have to work together. For example, one of the projects is, have you ever heard of final? When you in Haiti, did you see final?

Acquania Escarne

I don't think so. What is that?

Stephania Andrew

It's like little homes made out of, you know, cardboard. Oh, yeah,

Acquania Escarne

10 homes, cardboard, different things in like, yes, final, okay,

Stephania Andrew

So in the summer, I'm praying that we have enough resources for us to have a summer camp this year. So in the summer, I'm going to hire someone to come and teach the kids how to make funnel, but prior to him even making the final, I want him to teach them how to draw a city. The kids are going to be working together. They're going to be in different groups. Different groups, and they're going to build their dream city out of you know, final so they're not just going to be building homes. They're going to be building their dream city. My dream city is going to be completely different from what your dream city is going to look like. But fundamentally, there are certain things that every city needs to have in order for it to operate properly. And I want for the kids to know that, you know, every single job is important. I don't want you to feel like, well, if I'm not a lawyer, if I'm not a doctor, like they've been preaching for years, then you know, I have not accomplished much. No, it doesn't matter what you do in your community, as long as you're giving your all, you're giving 100% and you're doing. You're giving something of quality. It is worth doing. So these kids will be in in a group, and they're going to be building their dream city. But like this, teacher will teach them how to draw a city, how to map it out, how to write it out before they put it together. I want you to I want them to imagine. I don't want them to see like right now, they don't have electricity, and in the area where we are, we don't even have water. We don't even have running water. We have to get it from another city. We have to get a truck to come and bring us water.

But no, I want them to add water to it. I want them to add 24 hours of electricity. I want them to have to have, you know, big hospitals, schools, everything that a city will need to operate. So they're going to be working in that community and in a group together. Because if today they can dream about their dream city, they can build it out of cardboard. They can build it out of, you know, whatever material that they will need. Tomorrow, they'll be rebuilding their community, and eventually, these kids will be rebuilding Haiti. That's the whole idea behind it. That's why I said, you know, I want them to go further. I want them to start thinking. And my ideal world, not only will we have our own school, but we would have a campus where I would have, you know, libraries, because I did a survey asking how many of our kids, even kids outside of the programme, read. For leisure, and can they give me a list of books that they read? I didn't find out 1% it was zero.

Acquania Escarne

That when nobody's reading for fun, no, because they can't read in some cases, and then you're teaching children who might be behind or trying to catch up.

Stephania Andrew

One and Number two, having access to books is not that easy, because there's one library in town that I asked them to go check it out if they can make a library card, but you had to pay to open up a library card, plus you have to pay to check it out for a week. It's on a weekly basis, and for a population that's already not reading, how much can you really read and one week, how much can you retain. So I decided to launch a literature programme in Jacmel, where I bought over 1000 books. It's in, you know, where we are, and in the summer, for an hour, every child must read. And then there's a, you know, facilitator that's in the room will facilitate with this, you know, with the students when they're presenting, help them develop the characters, help them understand, you know, the setting of this story. What did it take place? How is this character evolving? So, you know, and things like that. And the kids are, wow, madam, I didn't know that this existed. Because I'm like, you can leave Haiti and go to Africa and come to the US and learn about how to, you know, build cars, build aeroplanes without ever leaving your living room, just through literature. So we launched this literature programme, and then our kids that are much older right now, my goal is, I'm looking into trade schools for them, for them, while they are in our programme, they're going to trade school in order for them to have something, to be able to use their hands by the time they graduated, for them not to, not to struggle,

Acquania Escarne

Right, right? So trade, teaching a trade and educating them exactly using that hand. Okay, no, that's amazing.

Stephania Andrew

My goal is that in the next five years for us to double, triple in numbers, and you know, of course, the quality of education that we are offering, because if I could eradicate this illiterate issue that we have in aid in Haiti with one youth at a time, where right now it's like 98% of the population is illiterate in the next five years. If I can bring that down to 50% 60% that's a goal into to be operating in all 10 departments in Haiti.

Acquania Escarne

Um, this is a question, because some people don't realise this. The French before Haiti was independent, the French control the country. So a lot of Haitians do speak French in a formal setting. That's the official language, but Creole, Haitian Creole, is actually spoken amongst the people and on like a familial and within the community basis. So when you say you are educating the children and they're reading. I'm assuming most of these books are in French, but do you also have anything that's in Haitian Creole? Because it's so hard to find books in Haitian Creole. It's such a verbal language, more so than written. But what is the official language that you're using for education, for books and for instruction.

Stephania Andrew

I mean, as of right now, because we are an after school programme, we have to use the books that the kids bring to us from because the kids are in different schools. They're not all in the same in the same school. It's a programme that we have in the community. But we do have books in both French and Creole, because the books that I purchased, I purchased it from he was an old professor who retired, so he had a library of books. So the books are in both French Creole, and we have some very elementary books in English too. Because my goal is for the kids to learn English once we have enough resources, and also for them to learn technology.

Acquania Escarne

Awesome. No, that is really, really exciting. So I love this, and I hope that those who are listening take an active interest in learning more, checking out the website, seeing how they can personally support your organisation, just for transparency and also so we understand how much we really need to give. What does the Garden of Life need for a successful year? Do you have, like, a budget off the top of your head that you need to run the organisation and to help feed the children?

Stephania Andrew

I do. I do. I do. In order for us to have a, you know, a successful year and operate on all three cities and four to operate as is, that's without adding, you know, anything extra, we'll need about 50,000 because food is very expensive in Haiti, and I'm sure that you know. So the biggest budget will be Jacmel, of course, because we operate every day. So we'll need about 50,000 to operate and to break it down. It'll be 30,000 for Jacmel, 10,000 for photo prints and 10,000 Chut,

Acquania Escarne

excellent. Thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you so much for sharing your story and being on the Purpose of Money podcast. I do ask all of my guests this question, and I would love to know your answer to the name of the show is called the Purpose of Money. So I would love to know what is your purpose for money?

Stephania Andrew

Um. For me, my purpose for money is, you know, freedom, because money allows you to be to be free. You know, where you're not tied to anything or anyone. Because imagine if we had money, if we had more resources and the Garden of Life, how much more we would be able to do for others and for the community, how much more will be able to empower the community because of the work that we're doing? So I the purpose of money to me, is freedom and empowerment. It empowers you to do so much, and it empowers you to dream bigger than where we are. And one of the things I encourage the kids is, don't look at your circumstances. Dream big.

Acquania Escarne

Yes, I love it. Dream big. Thank you guys. Thank you so much for being on the show. I hope you guys take action. Look in the show notes, visit the website and make a donation today. I love to hear your story, so after you do that, make sure you reach out and share your story with us, so we can share it on a future episode, and also highlight the good work that the Purpose of Money listeners are doing. Thanks again for being on the show until next time, guys keep building generational wealth.

Stephania Andrew

Thank you so much for having me. I really, really, really appreciate it. This was such a pleasure. Thank you for taking interest in the work that we're doing. And you know, my country so thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I look forward to us going to Haiti next time, yeah, doing this show in Haiti. Next time, the both of us will be next to each other on the beach.

Acquania Escarne

That is definitely the plan. The beaches of Haiti are some of my favourite places. Jacmel especially so I think that is a great idea. And even if we did a whole mission trip getting people to come and see the kids in Haiti, that would be awesome.

Stephania Andrew

Oh, we are working on that. Trust me, we are working on that. We just want to make sure, like we are mapping it out and everything, everyone will be safe. But we are definitely working on that. The kids can't wait to see you, to see you guys. Because when I tell them, like, you know, this organisation donated, you know, so and so donated, they say, Mara we want to see them, Maram, because they're, uh, such a sweet, sweet, sweet kids. Oh, and the other thing that we do with the kids in Jacmel, we take them out into the community every Friday in the summer, it's field trip day. So we take them, you know, to the beaches that on jacquemouth, to different historical places for them to see their country, their neighbourhood. Because our goal is to make them fall in love with Haiti. So how can you fall in love with the place you don't really know

Acquania Escarne

That is a great mission. Oh my gosh. Thank you for sharing. Yes, yes, yes. We'll do all we can to support please. Guys donate today and follow the instructions and the show notes and when it is safe to do so we would love to visit.

Stephania Andrew

Yes, come with me.

Acquania Escarne

Thank you for listening to the Purpose of Money podcast. For more resources and information, check out my website, the purposeofmoney.com and while you're there, please sign up for our newsletter, so you'll have all the latest information on new episodes and blog posts until next time keep building generational wealth you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai