Accomplishments

The local public hospital contacted ADO for assistance in getting hospital orthopedic beds. Twenty five orthopedic beds were shipped to Ouanaminthe. Le Bon Samaritain, a non profit home for the aged runs by catholic nuns which provides room and board, medical care, nutrition and community programs to elderly in Ouanaminthe, was also in need of beds for its clients. The beds were shared between those two facilities . ADO has provided financial support and medical supplies to that Nursing Home for the past 10 years.

ADO collaborates with a local organization named AMO (Association Moun Ouanaminthe) to provide chairs for the newly built auditorium which couldn’t function due to lack of chairs. Through fundraising effort and members contributions, 250 chairs and theater/stage curtains were shipped so the auditorium could be functional.

ADO partnered with another organization in Canada named “Regroupment des genres de Ouanaminthe” (REGO) to finance the shipment of 1000 text books. A room in the rectory of the Catholic church “Our Lady of Assumption” was renovated and shelves were build for the books. The facility became the first public library in the town of Ouanaminthe, where the young children had access to books to read.

ADO believes that the future of a child is determined by their start. Children in Haiti don’t get the opportunity to reach full potential. During ADO’s Townhall meeting in New York, some school officials, the priest Father Elence from the local Catholic church and parents from Ouanaminthe were in attendance. ADO members wanted to know what can they contribute to the future of the children of Ouanaminthe. As a group, it was concluded that a soup kitchen will be beneficial to provide a hot meal to the most needy children at least once a day. The priest Father Elence was responsible to provide the space in the church vicinity. A couple of months later barrels of food, vitamins were shipped to Ouanaminthe. A cook was hired to prepare the meals. Parents were very happy with the program because at times they were also fed depending on the availability of foods when they come to pick up their children.

The town of Ouanaminthe provides electricity to the residents with the help of a generator. The fuel for the generator is purchased with the money collected from the consumers. Like any facility the bills are not paid on time and the responsible from the Civil Society Mr. Beaubanoir Joseph the electrical company couldn’t provide electricity to the town. After repairing all electrical fixtures, ADO provided the fuel for a period of two years until the committee responsible was able to start collecting from the customers, so the town can have electricity .

After the project “Ouanaminthe Belle” where the majority of the streets were paved, it was still very difficult for a visitor to navigate its way through the town; because the streets were not identified and the houses were not numbered. A grass root movement took place in 2002 and ADO was contacted to help out. A survey to know how many streets and their proper names were conducted. It was found that some of the streets were named after the individual who first lived in the neighborhood and the names were not officially registered in the town archives. With the City Hall permission some of the streets were renamed after some leaders who passed away and were very active in the development of Ouanaminthe. For example: Joseph Verdieu, a visionary, he opened a music school where children can go and learn to play instrument free of charge as an afterschool program in the 1940. Another street was named after a well respected teacher Mr. Philopoemene Jean-Antoine aka “Professeur Philo”. He was a first grade teacher and a father figure for two generations of kids. The project was completed in 2003, thanks to the local population who volunteered their time, manpower, the materials to complete the work and food to feed the volunteers.

Two days a week on Monday and Friday, the border Ouanaminthe Dominican Republic is opened to merchants from all over the country to buy goods at the binational markets and resell them across the country. This convergence of people generate a lot of garbage and City Hall was picking up the garbage manually which took a lot of times after the market to clean the town. In 2004, ADO got involved and traveled to the Dominican Republic with Consul Jean Baptiste Bien-Aime and shopped for a pick up truck. It was a great relief for Ouanaminthe, the truck was out there everyday picking up garbage at the border zone, the streets and canals got clean. Some business owners provided the fuel money for the truck to go around.

A new Law school was opened in Ouanaminthe. The parents were very happy because it was a great opportunity for the children to stay home and study instead of traveling to a bigger city 50 miles or more away from home for their studies. Later that year, Mrs. Iramene Florival, an ADO member visited the school and find out that the lighting source for the school was Kerosene lamp. Upon her return, she presented the situation to the ADO’s Committee before the school year was over ADO shipped a generator to the school. The graduating class law students honored Mrs. Florival at their graduation three years later – the class of 2008.

ADO collaborates with different other organizations and also get involved in projects in Ouanaminthe. Deforestation remained a huge problem in Haiti. The Civil society in Ouanaminthe have been involved in some replanting efforts. ADO joined Agronomist Doudy Pierre and Mr. Villardouin Etienne on their initiative of reforestation process. A garden center was opened where plants and trees were prepared and distributed to the community so they can plant in different areas of the town. Certain trees like mangos, grapefruits, oranges, coconuts, avocados were in greater demand than others. Some trees were also planted alongside of the roads to provide shadow against the sun.

In March 2007, ADO provided uniforms, balls and transportations for the players to the National Volleyball team. Later the same year the school of ” St Francois Xavier des Fréres de l’ Instruction Chrètienne de Ouanaminthe (F.I.C) opened their secondary school and became coed. ADO received an urgent plea from the school Director regarding the need for toilets for the girls. ADO hire a local contractor to build the girls’ restrooms.

Ouanaminthe Public Park been in restoration since 1999. Mr Levy Prophete in 2008, at the mayor office solicited ADO’s assistance to secure the park and its surroundings. ADO provides the funding for the fence and a wells to water the flowers in the park. The school directors in the town voiced concerns in 2009, about children playing in the streets after school. The children were at risks of being hit by cars or motorcycles. A playground was built with games, rides and swings for the kids under the governance of the local Mayor’s office.

A devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, some of our Ouanaminthais who were living or attending school in Port au Prince were forced to displace. ADO was on the ground and had helped transported families out of Port-au-Prince to the Northeastern part of the country. ADO had secured schooling for fifty children in Ouanaminthe. ADO took responsibility for their tuition, distributed school supplies kits and uniforms to them. We also provided financial support to members of Haitian American Nurses who traveled to Haiti to provide health care for the victims.

In 2000, ADO had used a small space in the rectory at the catholic church to provide an area where children has used for reading. As the population of Ouanaminthe is growing, it has become necessary to provide an institution where the students can find computer, books at their disposition for research, book report and more. In 2011, the Mayor Mr. Rony Pierre donated an empty lot to ADO to build a cultural center. The property was fenced and marked as “Future ADO project” In preparation to the cultural center, Father Charles Joseph Charles had collected books on behalf of ADO. In 2012, he had around 50,000 books which were shipped from Montreal to Ouanaminthe Mrs. Wideline Pierre is the architect who drew the plan for the Cultural Center. In a continuous effort to help Ouanaminthe and ADO, Father Charles was able to secure 600 office chairs tables, and other furniture as a gift for the cultural center.

Healthcare has always been and remained a major problem in Haiti including Ouanaminthe. ADO had always wanted to address this issue in the community. In the summer month of 2013, ADO invited Nurse Gretha Fievre (a native of Saint Marc) the president of Heal Haiti, to a radio show in Ouanaminthe with the topic of “Healthcare”. During the radio show the people has reiterate to ADO that the community can benefit from a healthfair.

The project proposal for the health fair was discussed and approved in January 2014 at our meeting. ADO sent letters to friends, family and members announcing the health fair for August 13th, 2014. We have gotten several calls of people who wants to donate, participate in any way they can. Ms. Gretha Fievre assisted ADO in the planning of the event. The committee had to nominate a coordinator in New York and one in Ouanaminthe to serve as a liaison. Mrs. Marjorie Jean-Antoine and Dr. Nicot Pierre were nominated by the members of ADO. They both worked together in recruiting health professionals to participate in the fair. The First Health Fair was a success according to the testimonials by both volunteers and patients who we cared for. There were 13 doctors, 20 nurses and 80 non professional volunteers who provided services 513 patients, children and adults. We treated patients with High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Stomach Problem, malnourished children, Ringworms, tapeworms and many more.

The second health fair took place in Ouanaminthe on August 13th. We treated 823 patients, children and adults. Mr. Maismy Fleurant, one of ADO members in Ouanaminthe had worked tirelessly on this project with the community leaders. The need for health is so great in Ouanaminthe that ADO is in the process of planning its third annual health fair. We are always in need of professionals, medications, foods, supplies and money.

Click the link to open our Accomplishments PDF File.