by Len Gengel
Recently on one of my afternoon walks up the mountain in Haiti a young high school student who asked me for a job this past summer said to me in perfect English, Papi Len, “ Don’t Forget About Me “… This sound echo’s thru-out Haiti for me, as I recall Wilbur one of my summer water boys, he carried buckets of water all day long to the masons. He said the same thing to me too when I left him outside the gate the first day we met and he applied for a job. I know it’s hard for an American to understand the desperation when there is 60-70% unemployment in Haiti, it’s not because the Haitians don’t want to work, they do, it’s the lack of economy, and there just isn’t enough investment to create economy. How do we Help Haiti’s Economy? I don’t have the answers to that, they are a proud and resilient culture who have been independent for the past 200+ years. Yet they are the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and still seem to sustain a minimal form of survival. I will continue to Pray for Haiti and its Leadership as I personally have witnessed a tremendous amount of progress in Haiti’s Infrastructure over the past 77 trips into Haiti in the past 4 years. If you do the math, that’s 154 trips to Port au Prince from Grand Goave or vice versa, what use to take 3 hours now takes 1 and ½ hours. It’s a great start of your travel day, getting from point A to point B without major road or traffic problems.
We have been very busy with our children and their religious education over the past couple of months and I would like to take the time to explain to all of our Faithful Friends what are beliefs are . About a month ago when Fr. John Madden was here in Haiti with a group from St Johns Church, CA and I asked him to baptize the rest of our 33 Children at Brit’s Orphanage. Why Fr Madden? Simple, he is our Parish Priest, Blessed Britney on the forehead on her way out of Church as she left for Haiti and sadly Preached the Homily at her Funeral. It was during that time of planning Brit’s Funeral that Fr Madden said to CA and I, we cannot let her die in vain and I said, we are not, we are going to build an orphanage in Haiti to honor her last wish. Besides that reason, it’s the law in Haiti that a Catholic Priest Baptize all children, no matter what their religious faith is.
This past week I flew into Haiti on Saturday afternoon so that I could witness the First Communion of 6 of our girls. It was such a beautiful moment as I witnessed Mirna, Germaine, Shirley, Daphne, Andreliene and Dalandya receive the body of Christ for the first time. It was bittersweet for me as I had to move from one side of the church to the other to witness the Holy Spirit entering their young souls. It was beautiful yet bittersweet at the same time, I don’t expect you to understand unless you have lost a child. I was feeling Britney in the church, I was thinking about her First Communion at St Patrick’s Church many years ago and how proud I was of her. It’s one those moments where I even recalled Sister Louise Marie of St Stephens School preparing me for my own First Communion some 48 years ago. It was beautiful yet sad for me, but I will always cherish the moment of our girls receiving the body of Christ. The Kitchen Staff served their favorite which was Lasagna, Salad and 6 beautiful cakes!!!
I would like to take a moment to explain what it means to us to be an Ecumenical Orphanage. We are a Christian Orphanage with a Faith in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. As Pope Francis said recently to his flock of 1 billion followers, “We are all Brothers and Sisters in Christ“ and that is exactly how CA and I raised Britney, Bernie and Richie. Now in Haiti this is not the norm, we are navigating new waters, Fr. Brice our Haitian Priest called me a Renegade upon his visit to BLB after First Communion. He meant this in a positive way as he has also called me a Prophet on the alter at St Francois and believe me, I have been called a lot worst. At Brit’s Orphanage Jonathan spent a lot of time researching the backgrounds of the children and their family’s religion affiliation, so that we could start the children at the Church of their families. Now when it comes to the sacrament of First Communion we allowed all 7 or our fourth graders at St Francois School decide on whether they wanted to Participate? Only 1 of the 7 chose not to Participate and we honored his decision. When the Children are between the age of 16-18 we will let them decide on whether they want to become a Confirmed Catholic or a Baptized Evangelical. As for now they go to Mission of Hope Church Service and the 6 who made their first communion will go to both churches. I firmly believe that our God is not going to judge us on our religious affiliation, but on our acts of compassion as Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Becker College is where I went to Jr College some 30 + years ago has been visiting us at BLB for the past 4 years. Rev. PH.D Debbie Palato Fontaine has been a huge supporter of BLB as one of our Program Committee Members and is Chairperson of Global Citizens for Becker College. This is her 10th trip to BLB and continues to come down 3 times a year to teach staff training to our teachers and caregivers. She epitomizes what it means to be a Global Citizen and travels the world helping Children. She has a wonderful group of Students here practicing what she preaches to all in her travels. We are certainly blessed to have a Reverend of the United Church of Christ and PH. D in Psychology helping us help the children of Haiti at BLB.
This past week brought us a rotary toaster to BLB, we cannot thank you enough for all your donations, but this one is special as we try to feed 12-15 Britsionary’s in a half hour, this is a Huge Help! I want to also give a shout out to Tina and her husband who had to have emergency surgery this past week and she couldn’t be the group leader to Haiti. Shelby our past team leader stepped in for her and as expected did an exceptional job as team leader!
While having dinner with all the College Students one gal asked me what is our biggest need at BLB and I said to her, Child Sponsorship! We have almost 100 staff members and 66 children to raise and if we are going to achieve our goal of being financially self sustaining, this is a big portion of our cost. Please remember, CA and I don’t take a salary, 100% of your donation goes to helping the children of Haiti at BLB, whether it’s paying for staff, food, medical, dental, school, vehicles, it all matters, so Please “Don’t Forget About Be Like Brit“
Sponsorship Opportunities
Thank You for helping us help the children of Haiti at Brit’s Orphanage…
Len Gengel
Co-Founder, Be Like Brit Foundation
