This past week, Madame Love and I both left Haiti to travel back north to Worcester, MA, both to be able to attend our Golf Tournament hosted by Cyprian Keyes, and for a series of very important meetings, including a Board Meeting and several days of full Team Be Like Brit planning sessions! It is rare for the entirety of Team BLB to be in the same location at the same time, given that we’re now in Worcester, South Florida, and Haiti. So much can be lost in Skype sessions with tenuous internet connectivity. Nuance is lost in emails, and there’s no better communication than face-to-face! While it was a busy week, we are so excited about the outcome, and the benefit of us spending the time together is truly invaluable.

I say this every time that I go to one of our events stateside, but there is nothing more humbling, more centering, than getting to be amongst those of you who make all of what we do at BLB possible. And trust me when I say, we do a lot. One of the biggest challenges for me as the Director in Haiti is being able to stop, look up and around me, and appreciate everything that we are doing here. The day to day can be so overwhelming that it is easy to forget the incredible work, the innovative programming, the fact that we are raising the standard of care for children in the developing world. Indeed, stepping outside of it all and taking a bit of time to pause and reflect is necessary for the soul. And, it is so good for it, too.

Of the many things that happened last week, one of the key focuses of our work was on reconsidering and redrafting our Mission Statement. Our original Mission Statement reads as follows:

“To serve the children of Haiti by establishing a safe, nurturing, and sustainable orphanage in an environment where they can grow, learn, and thrive.”

This past week in Worcester, we discussed how Len and Cherylann, along with Bernie, Cherylann's sister Jodi, Len's sister Chrissy, and our good friend PJ, more than six years ago, sat around a table in discussions with family and friends on what our Mission and Vision Statements would be. They shared with us around the table in Worcester how difficult and how painful a process it was for them to work on the original Mission Statement. The formalization of the Mission, the purpose, was recognizing the undeniable reality that Britney, along with 300,000 others, had lost their lives in Haiti. The time to start picking up the pieces, both literally and figuratively, was only just beginning…

More than three years and 66 children later, here we are. I think for most of us who have been on this journey, it's hard to wrap your head around the fact that so much of that original Mission Statement has been fulfilled. The Gengels have established a safe, nurturing, and sustainable orphanage. Actually, that's the part that was getting us - that word. Orphanage. As we all sat around the table, we discussed the fact about how that word conjures up all sorts of images which we are not representative of what has been created here in Haiti at BLB. Indeed, we are a family and we are not an orphanage. We are a home. We have established this home. We are working more and more towards sustaining it. With the generosity of thousands of our friends, child sponsors, and donors around the world, we are working towards that sustainability. There is still so much to be done!

Our cistern, our acre of gardens, our solar panel system for clean energy: All of this contributes to our sustainability. While we work towards that sustainability, we are considering our new Mission Statement to include the following:

Mission:

Our commitment is to continue the compassion of Britney Gengel by serving the children of Haiti and sustaining a safe, nurturing home rooted in the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love while developing a sense of social responsibility, community involvement, and unconditional love.

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Our
Vision is clear:

To
Raise the Next Generation of Leaders in Haiti

I am proud that we at BLB are teaching our children the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love. I am proud that we are raising them with the same values that Len and Cherylann raised Britney, Bernie, and Richie. Our children will be champions for the underdog. Our children will be the voice for the voiceless. Our children will defend others in the face of marginalization. Our children will be loving and accepting of people from all backgrounds. Our children will be the next generation of leaders in this country, changing the narrative, raising the bar, and paving the way. Our thoughts and prayers go to everyone affected by this tragedy in Orlando, and to people all over the world who suffer at the hands of those filled with hate and malevolence.