The Sanneh Foundation (TSF) has graciously accepted emergency food relief from The Jack Brewer Foundation (JBF Worldwide) to provide a month’s worth of nutrition support for the 350 youth participants of the Haitian Initiative (H-I) program in the commune of Cite Soleil, Haiti. The country of Haiti has been experiencing a famine crisis since early 2020 due to recent political unrest. Since the first cases of Coronavirus were confirmed last week, the entire country has…

Beauty & Culture Every trip that I’ve taken to Haiti always has what you could call a “poverty tour”. Some organizations go out of their way to highlight the “plight” of the people of Haiti. But each time I visit, I come to admire the natural beauty of Haiti more and more. I’ve noticed that foreigners aren’t drawn to revisit Haiti because it’s “poor”. I think they’re drawn to a different kind of wealth that…

Grief/Pain & Consideration Death and grief have a very bold presence in Haitian culture. Although death and sickness are facts of life wherever you go, I feel that it is especially part of everyday life and conversation here in a country with limited access to good healthcare and a million other complex issues. A couple of weeks ago, a Haitian friend of mine passed away very young. This week alone, I can’t even count how…

Cultural Intelligence & Effectiveness Cultural intelligence, or CQ, is a measurement of intercultural effectiveness. How much cultural intelligence you have will determine how well you work with and relate to those of another country. I have worked alongside of foreigners in Haiti with varying degrees of CQ, and I myself have learned the hard way that the more you learn, the more you realize the things you don’t know. Through it all, I have come…

The Haitian Initiative’s Presence within the Community of Cite Soleil One of the core elements of Haitian culture is community. The people in Haiti live close together, work together, cook together, and generally do everything with someone else. Doing something together makes it better. I’ve known many a foreign-run organization in Haiti to act in their own self-interests with an “us-versus-them” mentality, which tends to do more harm than good. During the first week of…