Commemorating six years since the last High Hopes for Haiti volunteer trip
OUR STORY
On July 1, 2018, our group of eight teenage volunteers set out, unknowingly, as the last Mortel High Hopes for Haiti Foundation volunteer group to go to Haiti. We were meant to spend a week running a summer camp for students at Ecole Les Bons Samaritains in Saint-Marc.
However, on July 7, our planned departure date, Haitian President Jovenel Moïse starkly increased fuel prices, igniting violent riots throughout Haiti. Within a matter of hours, roadblocks made from burning tires, barrels, cut down trees, and cement blocks prevented travel throughout much of the country, including to the capital of Port-au-Prince.
As protests continued to escalate, visitors became trapped. Within 24 hours, the U.S. Embassy warned American citizens to shelter-in-place for safety with hundreds of volunteer groups stranded throughout the country. What began as a typical volunteer trip for our group, became a life-altering 11 days in Haiti that would come to forever hold a place in our hearts.
OUR CAUSE
The 11 Days in Haiti fundraiser began in 2020 as a response to the exacerbated need for sanitation materials in the Saint-Marc community at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since evolved into an annual campaign to raise funds to support the Mortel HHH Foundation’s work, to tell Haiti’s story, and to share our own experiences.
But for us, 11 Days is about so much more. Our time in Haiti brought to life the realities of an existence characterized by deep-seated poverty and a country plagued by chronic corruption. 11 Days is our drop in the ocean of change. It is how we have committed to altering the devastation we witnessed and to highlighting the hope and resilience of the people we met.
We hope that through our blog and website you will learn about the beauty and turmoil that is Haiti. And we hope you will join us in our fight for the hope and the future we see for Haiti.
