Look beyond the current state of Haiti and try looking through the eyes of a 7-year-old.

Did you know, the Average Haitian girl only attends school until the age of 7? For most of us when we imagine the typical day of our 7-year-old daughters we see three meals and a day in first grade full of learning and laughter. For a 7-year-old girl in Bon Repos, it’s very likely there is little to no food, she has a lower chance or possibility to go to school, and by the time she’s 13, she is likely already working to help support the family.

Poverty is a vicious cycle. That young girl born to a family with no means to provide education has little hope of a life more prosperous than her parents.? Off to work at 13 without the ability to read and in an environment with tremendous risk for abuse and exploitation, perhaps the best potential outcome for that little girl is to someday be a young mother sending her own daughter off to work instead of school.? The other potential outcomes are far worse.

Education is the greatest tool to break the cycle. Education is the Golden ticket to a better life for that 7-year-old little girl, and for the next generation and beyond.? Education doesn’t just break the cycle of poverty; it creates a new cycle of prosperity, a new cycle of hope.

Kerline Auguste Tofuri is the President and Founder of Jou Nouvo. She has the unique perspective of also having grown up in the community that she is so determined to improve. Kerline was once that 7-year-old girl in Bon Repos Haiti.

It was during a trip back to Haiti in 2007 Kerline explains that Jou Nouvo found her. She was struck with a vision of what Bon Repos could be. Kerline left that trip determined to reach out and give back to her hometown, her helping hand was not simply to lift up others to reach their full potential but rather to lift the entire community up. A year later in 2008, Kerline founded Jou Nouvo.? Her vision for a better Bon Repos starts with a better life for that 7-year-old little girl.

In 2008 Jou Nouvo began its first programs including Adult Literacy, Basic health instruction, small business loans, and child sponsorships. Since 2008 Jou Nouvo has been breaking the cycle of poverty and lifting the community with a Holistic approach. Any one of those programs alone would have been a welcome help to the community, but together they’re that much more powerful.

Child sponsorships are a wonderful part of the program and have an immediate positive impact on a child’s life. There are over 75 children waiting to be sponsored, please consider sponsoring a child so they have to opportunity to go to school. The reality is, all the programs intertwine to lift the community and improve the lives of not just that one child, but all the children in Bon Repos.?

Providing adult literacy programs enhances the lives of adults that didn’t have the benefit of an education and allows them to provide a better future for themselves and their children. Basic health instruction creates a healthier home environment for all and provides a better future for all.

The small business loan programs provide an opportunity for families to provide a better future for themselves and their future generations.

Over the years through constant feedback from the community, the programs have evolved, and new initiatives have been added. These initiatives include: the University Sponsorship program (the Haiti Youth Education Fund), the Girls Scholar Program (GSP), and the opening in 2022 of the Jou Nouvo Community Center.? This center provides a safe place to gather to learn and play.? It features a library, classrooms, a computer lab, full working kitchen, clean running water, and self-sustained solar power that isn’t reliant on the often-unpredictable power supply of the town. Contributions for the operation of the center are always much appreciated.

Jou Nouvo isn’t simply a charitable organization sending money from the US, they are an organization that is rolling up its sleeves, living and working in the community they serve.? And the Cycle of Hope lives within the Jou Nouvo team.? Part of the programs offered encourage and require continued mentorship.? That 7-year-old little girl that may have been blessed to be part of the sponsorship program, then part of the girl’s scholar program, will come back to her community and help lift the next generation up.

Please read more about the work Jou Nouvo has been doing to keep the Cycle of Hope growing in Bon Repos. And then think about how you might want to contribute to, think about, recognize, and pay tribute to those amazing organizations that are making a positive impact in the lives of children.