Archive for June, 2010

All donations go to help feed, house, clothe, and educate the Hinche Scholar students. All contributions are fully tax deductible.

If you are interested in supporting our college student project, please make checks payable to:

I Have a Dream Foundation Richmond
Subject Line: "Hinche Scholars" or "Haitian Students"

1507-J Forest Run Dr.
Henrico, VA 23228
(804) 543-7297

Since we are a 100% volunteer organization, the entirety of your donation will be used directly to help Haitian people who are in great need.

To Donate ONLINE - please scroll down and follow the link to our secure, PayPal account at www.ihaveadreamrichmond.org.

Mesi Anpil!

The Hinche Scholars project was founded by Danny Yates, a William and Mary student who has travelled to Haiti several times as a guide and translator for Catholic churches in the Diocese of Richmond. On January 12, 2010, Danny was in Haiti when the tragic “seisme” ravaged this Caribbean nation. In Port-au-Prince, he witnessed firsthand the death, destruction, and unparalleled scope of this tragedy. Danny was particularly shocked by the indescribable level of catastrophic loss human and material in the government, university and medical sectors. As Haiti begins to “pick up the pieces,” Danny and his team firmly believe that higher education is the only sustainable and successful path to recovery.

Now, more than four months since the earthquake, international and domestic Haiti experts agree that one of the country’s greatest crises is the leadership void. Thousands of Haitian political leaders, doctors, nurses, NGO workers, engineers, attorneys, and college students perished on January 12. Nearly all of Haiti’s universities were utterly demolished. Haitian leaders estimate it will take decades for the higher education system to return to pre-quake capacity. Ten years from now, Haiti will lack the next generation of leaders so desperately needed to rebuild.

Ever since Danny’s return from Haiti in February, he has remained in daily phone and e-mail contact with numerous Haitian friends. Several community leaders have told him about a group of six displaced Haitian university students who were in Port-au-Prince when the quake hit, but are now back with their families in Hinche (roughly 50 miles north and east of PAP in the Plateau Central). Over the past three months Danny has worked to find an American higher education institution interested in accepting these students, so they can have a chance to continue their studies before returning to Haiti as leaders in the recovery process. His efforts were recently featured in the Richmond Times Dispatch on Sunday, March 19 (link below).

The Hinche Scholar students are studying at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Richmond, VA. We hope that you will join the host of bipartisan, ecumenical community leaders who have already endorsed and supported our project. They include William and Mary President Taylor Reveley, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones, Former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, and Bishop Emeritus Walter Sullivan of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. If you have any other questions, please contact us directly at 757-645-1975, or leave us a comment. Thanks your time and consideration.

For donation information, click the links below to access our Pay Pal account, or you can send a check to the I Have a Dream Foundation at the above address.

Thank you! or as the Haitians say, Mesi Anpil!