Miracle on Voodoo Mountain


Book Description

"It took months of God waking me up in the middle of the night before I realized I was the one He was calling to leave my comfortable American life and move to Haiti." Miracle on Voodoo Mountain is the inspirational memoir of an accomplished and driven 24-year old who quit her job, sold everything, and moved to Haiti, by herself—all without a clear plan of action. Megan Boudreaux had visited Haiti on a few humanitarian trips but each trip multiplied the sense that someone needed to address the devastation—especially with the children, many of whom were kept as household slaves on the poverty-stricken and earthquake-devastated Caribbean island. God guided her every step as she moved blindly to a foreign land without knowing the language, the people, or the future. From becoming the adoptive mother of former child slaves, to receiving the divine gift of the Haitian Creole language, to starting, building, and running a school for more than 500 children, "the amazingness of what God did after I made the choice to be obedient is incredible," said Megan. Three years later, six acres on Bellevue Mountain in Gressier is the home of the nonprofit Respire Haiti at the former site of voodoo worship, and in the area that many still come to make animal sacrifices, Megan and her staff of nearly 200 are transforming this community as they educate, feed, and address the needs.




Make That Baby Happy!


Book Description

On a visit to Haiti, Barbara Walker noticed that a penned rooster had a better life than children living on the streets and in some orphanages. Follow this ordinary womans journey as she finds homes for almost two thousand abandoned and orphaned children and builds Ruuska Village for street women who had no means of survival for themselves and their children. Those first days were very hard, Barbara said. The women were used to fighting for everything they needed, and they had very poor self-esteem. I separated many wild catfights among the women. Barbaras no-nonsense requirement of adhering to rules of civility and a Christian moral code, though, eventually shaped Ruuska Village into a unit that functioned as a caring family. Barbara built the womens self-esteem by helping them obtain birth certificates, IDs, and voting cards, which was both expensive and time-consuming. She also provided education, training, and start-up resources for the women so that they could start small businesses or find employment. Barbara Walker had no special plans for her life but lived it day by day, serving those God placed on her path. Her tenacious, never-back-down, never-give-up approach to finding homes for children and hope for Haitian street women has made her more than an ordinary woman.




Eyes Wide Open


Book Description

I didn't think that a one-week trip to Haiti with Alex, a boy whom I sponsored, would forever change the way I see myself and my surroundings. I didnt think it would make me realize that the material things I have in this life mean nothing at all. I knew that there is poverty in the world, but I did not know to what extent until I visited Alex's family. Now, what was supposed to be a visit to meet friends and see an orphanage has turned into something much larger. I now am an integral part of a village, a family, and a children's organization. I have started my own nonprofit organization for Haitian children also. This one trip to Haiti has led me to return there seven more times. This country and these people have led me to write this book to open our eyes to the plight of Haitians. All the events in this book are true. All the people and places are real. All the events in this book are an amalgamation of eight trips to Haiti. The majority of the proceeds from this book will go to the MOJAD program in Haiti and help others in the village of Fort Liberte.




The Children of Injustice


Book Description

Many of us cannot imagine what it would be like to be deeply vulnerable and without protection in a poor and corrupt country. It is beyond the scope of what we know how to think. But for orphans and abused children in Haiti, this unimaginable nightmare is their daily reality. In The Children of Injustice, Ruth Auguste tells the searing story of her childhood, and shows the stark truth of orphaned children in a country lacking compassion for its most fragile citizens. At fifteen years old, Ruth was left to raise her three brothers, and to become an adult while still a child herself. She struggled against a society where orphans were treated as second-class citizens, taken in as slaves, malnourished, neglected, forced to sleep on concrete floors, and shockingly exploited. But Ruth never stopped longing for a better life a life she had to reach for and create for herself. Betrayed by her family, betrayed by her country, Ruth broke out of an existence of crushing desperation to write this book, and to provide hope and a helping hand to those who suffer now as she once suffered herself. Proceeds from the purchase of this book will go to help Ruths World Gifters Society, which provides shelter and protection to boys and girls who are living on the streets in Haiti.




Young Ladies of Good Family


Book Description

Based on true events, "Young Ladies of Good Family", by Anne Marie du Bois de Chêne, portrays the world of one of Haiti's rare white gentry. It's packed full of wild experiences and delirious escapades; a perfect gift for anyone aged 9 to 99! Discover this incredible land of crushing poverty and rich optimism. Walk among zombies, 7 inch tarantula spiders, people and machines 'possessed' by spirits, and the nightly sounds of voodoo drums. Experience traveling alone, working on cruise ships, in island hotels, and real estate; surviving physical attacks, and attempts at kidnapping! See your world with more appreciative eyes, yet, feel a nagging urge to return to the strange one just left behind. Find adventure, romance, suspense, mystery, history, and humor. Here is a real eye opener, and very educational. Oprah, your club needs this one! Excerpt: the happy Colonel family suddenly froze in horror, for before their very eyes stood the apparition of a monster so evil looking that one could never have imagined it, and it was walking towards them! ... Reader Comments & Reviews: "If this book were required reading for our schools, we would have far fewer discontented and disrespectful children." – Linda Doucet, LA What a lovely painting of Haiti from the words of an islander! the author offers a colorful new picture of the people, ... and especially their views of outsiders. This small book explores real wealth, freedom, gracious conduct and racial harmony. You'll wish you were one of them". – Norma Richards, LA I was immersed in the stories as if I were a character present and watching the action unfold. Great masterpiece! Kristopher Lemke, FL




Sélavi, that is Life


Book Description

On the streets of Haiti, a homeless child learns the meaning of family, solidarity, and hope.




Walking on Fire


Book Description

Haiti, long noted for poverty and repression, has a powerful and too-often-overlooked history of resistance. Women in Haiti have played a large role in changing the balance of political and social power, even as they have endured rampant and devastating state-sponsored violence, including torture, rape, abuse, illegal arrest, disappearance, and assassination. Beverly Bell, an activist and an expert on Haitian social movements, brings together thirty-eight oral histories from a diverse group of Haitian women. The interviewees include, for example, a former prime minister, an illiterate poet, a leading feminist theologian, and a vodou dancer. Defying victim status despite gender- and state-based repression, they tell how Haiti's poor and dispossessed women have fought for their personal and collective survival. The women's powerfully moving accounts of horror and heroism can best be characterized by the Creole word istwa, which means both "story" and "history." They combine theory with case studies concerning resistance, gender, and alternative models of power. Photographs of the women who have lived through Haiti's recent past accompany their words to further personalize the interviews in Walking on Fire.




On that Day, Everybody Ate


Book Description




Did You Know?


Book Description

Did You Know?Over One Hundred Facts about Haiti and Her Children looks in detail at a land and its people, uncovering the history, culture, challenges, and achievements of a country often stereotyped as deeply impoverished and bereft of any nobility of purpose. Tapping into her expertise in research and her familiarity with the wealth of resources residing in libraries, Marjorie Charlot, a supervisor and instructor at academic libraries, has gathered, curated, and prepared a topically organized collection of vignettes depicting Haiti and her children. Did You Know? presents these vignettes in chapters organized according to themes, including such topics as the Africans, art and culture, civil rights, great families, inventors, the military, pilots, religion, and science. Did You Know?Over One Hundred Facts about Haiti and Her Children offers its guidance to an abundance of information about the Haitian people and their homeland. If you claim a place for Haiti in your own history, if you find yourself intrigued by the history of Haiti, or if you simply are one of those people with a deep hunger to learn more about the world, then Did You Know? will provide you with an approachable and informative introduction to Haiti and her children.