We Turned Five!
2023 marks the 5-year anniversary of From Roots to Wings (FRW)! Thanks to your generous support and investment we are able to make a continuous impact on the Haitian community. You play an important part in our vision of a world where all individuals have access to the basic necessities of life, knowledge, and opportunities to break out of poverty.
Haiti continues to face instability as gangs have taken control in the absence of government. The continued violence impacts our children and staff; at times they have to stay at the From Roots to Wings’s office because it is unsafe to travel home.
Despite these obstacles, our current programs are running strong. We would like to take this opportunity to share updates on our programs and exciting news about things to come.
We have six children in our Scholarship and Mentorship Program and plan on adding more children the next school year. Twice a week, the children meet with their mentors to check in about their mental and emotional well-being, their nutrition, and their educational progress. Despite the school closure in the Fall, our Mentorship Program continued to operate providing children with an avenue to learn.
Our Yoga Program continues to run every Saturday morning, providing the children with a place to mentally and emotionally decompress from the surrounding stress. We now have over 30 children attending and an additional instructor, Samuel! Our new instructor started out as a participant and Showdy trained him to become a teacher.
We wanted to create another avenue for the children to break away from daily stresses. After reviewing with our Haitian partners, we are excited to announce our new Sports Program! This program occurs Saturday after yoga and consists of organized soccer, jump rope, catch, and other physical activities.
Due to the political unrest, there have been disruptions to everyday life, resulting in economic hardship. We were able to offer six microloans to combat the economic instability; however, only four were successful. Learning from these experiences, we have decided to restructure our microloan program.
After collaborating with the Haitian community for over 5 years, we have decided to refocus and work towards a COMMUNITY CENTER to grow our programs and increase our impact. Keep an eye out for our next newsletter for more updates!
Our From Roots to Wings team is grateful for your trust and investment!
Sincerely,
Showdy, Cat, and Joe
