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Thank You 2024, Welcome 2025
Although we are looking toward 2025 with hope for the future of Jou Nouvo and our community in Haiti, it’s important to acknowledge the incredible efforts and achievements made possible by our organization and our generous donors this past year. From August to December of 2024, there has been an abundance of positive change made within Jou Nouvo.
Although ongoing insecurity in Haiti has created extremely difficult situations and uncertainty for many individuals, Jou Nouvo has worked hard to remain open, serving as a safe haven providing unique educational opportunities for young children and adults alike. Let’s take a look back into some of our greatest successes and achievements of 2024, and also look ahead to how we plan to continue this inspirational spirit in the new year.
Expanding Education
Starting off strong, this fall, all of our children returned to school, along with our adult literacy class participants! Breaking down this group, each of our individual programs had numerous updates, through hosting wonderful activities, interactive events, hiring new team members, and growing daily in every way.
Haiti Youth Education Fund
Haiti Youth Education Fund Alumni, Charles Dorvil, joined our staff this October supporting our computer lab activities and tutoring program! It’s always an honor to see our alumni succeed, but it’s extra special to have them come back and work within our programs.
Some more HYEF program shoutouts include Deborah Deshommes, who’s in her third year of studies at University Dr. Aristide, Marie Dunie, who is in her fourth year of studies at Université Épiscopale d’Haiti, and Madryse Paul and Jocaelle Jeanty who are both in their second year of nursing school. We are so proud of our incredible students and can’t wait to see where their studies take them!
Girl’s Scholar Program and Child Sponsorship
In September of 2024, our team began searching for new tutors to help grow our Girl’s Scholar Program, where we reviewed 20 different applications, conducted 5 interviews, and eventually hired three wonderful new tutors that have enhanced our program immensely.
Both our Girl’s Scholar Program participants and Child Sponsorship Participants had the chance to participate in our summer camp this past year, where they got to experience the best of two disciplines: science and art, with beautiful arts and crafts classes and advanced computer lab lessons!
Mentorship Program
Our Mentorship Program continued to provide English Lessons throughout this past year, thanks to the support of our wonderful volunteers from the United States: Conrad and Jacqueline. In December, our Mentorship Program also had the chance to host a spelling competition, educating participants and encouraging them to continue on the path of learning.
A Musical Addition
In September, Jou Nouvo added an exciting new addition to our programs: Music Lessons! We’re proud to share that we’ve partnered with The School of the Music Station, and are now able to provide our participants with a rich musical education filled with a variety of instruments such as violins, guitars, flutes, saxophones, and more right inside our community center.
Feeding the Future
We want to extend our deepest thanks to our lovely partner, Vitamin Angels, for their continued help and efforts. Because of them, we’ve been able to donate 140 foot kits and help relieve some of our fellow community members during times of difficulty and uncertainty.
Our own food business officially took off running in September, and is continuing to make a positive impact and impression. Every Friday, our organization serves and sells a mix of vegetables and meat to our community. Thus far we’ve had regular sales and are projected to stay on the path to success with this new program!
Creole Celebrations
On October 26, Jou Nouvo celebrated Creole Heritage Month, where our children, including Girls Scholar Program and Mentorship Program participants, got to honor and celebrate Creole Culture at our community center! This celebration was both fun and educational, giving our children the opportunity to learn about Haitian foods, history books, and the Haitian Creole alphabet.
A few months later, Jou Nouvo also hosted a beautiful Christmas Celebration across all of our programs. Our Adult Literacy Program participants created a special version of a Christmas Party this year, called “Nwèl Pataj” meaning Christmas in sharing. During this celebration, participants shared food, danced, performed, and shared their own experiences on what this program has meant to them. We’re grateful we had the opportunity to come together this holiday season and celebrate with one another, even through the toughest of times.
Looking Ahead: 2025 Objectives
These activities and advancements made in 2024 have had such a huge impact on our organization, and we cannot wait to continue this growth throughout the new year. Already on the horizon in 2025, we are planning to host at least two training courses for our staff and hope to form a Parent Committee, to ensure we offer our participants the best support and encouragement possible. One of our main goals for 2025 is to plan and offer more activities for all of our community members to enjoy, even more so than this past year, including a brand new cooking class! Finally, we’d love to expand our local partnerships and strengthen our relationships with these organizations to offer new exciting and educational opportunities for our wonderful program participants.
How You Can Help
In order for us to continue on this path to success and growth for our children and adult participants, we need your help! As the crisis in Haiti has worsened, and evacuation and safety has become harder to achieve, we’re in need now more than ever. The list below outlines the donation materials needed within our community center. If you’re interested in donating, please contact kerline@jounouvo.org. Donations of any amount help, and no contribution goes unnoticed. We sincerely thank you for your support!
Donation requests:
- 5 new laptops for our computer lab
- 10 iPads for our students
- A variety of books for our library
- More instruments for our music lessons
- Materials/Help setting up our new cooking class
- Any monetary donations are appreciated
A Step in the Right Direction
From everyone here at Jou Nouvo, we extend our deepest thanks to our generous supporters and want you to know that your contributions are truly making a difference. Your gracious, continued support has allowed us to host these incredible opportunities for our community. Due to the amazing >$18,000 in donations received in Jou Nouvo’s December year end campaign, John and Cathy Huycke are making their $10,000 match donation commitment.
Thanks to all of you, we are starting 2025 on a strong footing to continue expanding our education programs to serve the Bon-Repos community and will continue to persevere through times of uncertainty with unwavering dedication to this cause.
