Boca Grande Hope For Haitians Accelerates Home Building Drive in Périgny, Haiti
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (Jan. 6, 2023) Boca Grande Hope For Haitians and the Scott family’s campaign to fight poverty and provide homes for families in Haiti through Food For The Poor (FFTP), now in its 14th year, shows no signs of slowing.
This year, the goal is to raise funds to build 40 more homes in Périgny, Haiti, a community devastated by the August 2021 earthquake.
So far, 50 homes equipped with sanitation and a water supply have been built along with a community center. Thirty-seven homes remain to be built as soon as the security situation improves in the southern region of Haiti.
Longtime Boca Grande Hope For Haitians Committee Chairpersons Ben and Louise Scott, natives of Piqua, Ohio, and winter residents of Boca Grande, Fla., are leading the campaign.
Ben and Louise Scott said the needs of Haitian families continue to be overwhelming. Only part of Périgny has benefited from the homes built so far and others in remote areas that are more challenging to reach by car remain in dire need of shelter that can protect them from bad weather.
“We’re grateful for everyone’s past support,” Ben Scott said. “We hope that people will continue opening their hearts to help the Haitian people.”
Last year, thanks to the generosity of Boca Grande Hope For Haitians donors, Ulticka now lives in a safe, sturdy new home. Her home, a dilapidated shack already vulnerable after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, was destroyed in the August 2021 earthquake, leaving no place to sleep but on the ground.
Joan Smith, Food For The Poor’s Haiti country manager, said Ulticka believes God sent the charity’s donors on her path to alleviate her suffering.
“To Ulticka and her neighbors, the kindness you bestowed upon them is a sign that the Lord has heard their prayers,” Smith said. “Ulticka said thanks to you, I no longer have rainwater invading my house with mud. She said my belongings although little are safe now. And furthermore, I do not feel undervalued by my neighbors anymore.”
For the past few years, Haiti has been enmeshed in a socioeconomic, political and humanitarian crisis.
In recent months, the crisis reached new and alarming levels, resulting in a virtual lockdown of the country due to the shortage of fuel, food and water and a new cholera outbreak.
“What we take for granted in America is not the reality for Haiti’s poor,” Smith said. “In Haiti, the lack of infrastructure hinders access to basic services and the rural areas are usually neglected by local government. There are no government and social welfare programs such as food stamps or shelters to help the poor in their daily existence.”
Since 2009, Boca Grande Hope For Haitians has built nearly 600 homes on the island nation through FFTP.
George and Lois Castrucci, members of the Boca Grande Hope For Haitians Committee, have traveled to Haiti several times with Ben and Louise Scott. They witnessed families living in mud huts with tin roofs and dirt floors, cooking what little food they had over charcoal fires.
“We are capable of eliminating and alleviating some of their suffering,” George said. “We have no illusions that we can solve all their problems. But we can assist one person, one family, one village at a time. And like compound interest, there’s a magnificent cumulative effect.”
FFTP President/CEO Ed Raine said families in Périgny are experiencing life-transforming change thanks to the dedication and perseverance of the Scott family and Boca Grande Hope For Haitians.
“We are profoundly grateful for all that they have done and continue to do to provide hope to these families in Haiti,” Raine said. “The needs in Haiti were already enormous before this latest crisis and Haiti needs our help and our prayers more than ever. Despite these challenges, we are making progress and continue to work diligently to build homes.”
Committee members include: Chairpersons Ben and Louise Scott, the Rev. Gary Beatty, the Rev. Jerome Carosella, the Rev. Michelle Robertshaw, Henry and Ginny Bryant, George and Lois Castrucci, Patricia Chapman, John Denneen, Lou and Corie Fusz, Jim and Lynda Grant, Stephen and Susan Jansen, and Tom and Nancy Lorden.
Click here to learn more and to see a video about the event.
Food For The Poor, one of the largest international relief and development organizations in the nation, does much more than feed millions of hungry children and families living in poverty primarily in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, water, medicine, educational materials, homes, support for vulnerable children, care for the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Michael Turnbell
Communications
954-471-0928
[email protected]