DHP is a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization that focuses on supporting women and children in Haiti and other resource-poor areas of the world including poor areas of the U.S.  The funds raised from the exhibit “6DEGREES” would aid in the creation and funding of the annual GIVING PROJECT as well as education programs for both Haitian and Dallas school children, jobs for Haitian women, and funds for scholarships and teacher salaries.

The following paragraphs give you a little bit more information about who we are and what we do:

THE DALLAS-HAITI PROJECT

The Dallas-Haiti Project’s focus is on humanitarian aid, education, health care and emergency funding for people in resource-poor communities, specifically in Haiti. The organization was founded seven years ago by four Dallas women who traveled to Haiti. The women used their experience to transform a passion for serving through working relationships. Through joint partnerships, DHP has been able to sustainable support programs for the schools, orphanages, AIDS action groups and individuals they visited in Haiti. Now in our seventh year, the DHP remains committed to the organization’s stability, growth, and expansion. The group has an executive board of directors, an extensive advisory board, corporate sponsors, school partnerships, church partnerships, and affiliations with major medical schools, mission programs, and health organizations.

MISSION STATEMENT

“The Dallas-Haiti Project is all about people. In the very complex world of today, there is a need to nurture human relationships, teachers, students, parents, friends and strangers; to love no matter the differences, the geographical boundaries, the level of education or wealth . . . for the hopes, prayers and dreams of all mankind are universally the same.”

THE GIVING PROJECT

The first "Giving Project" began seven years ago. It started as a partnership between Oak Hill Academy of Dallas and St. Vincent's School for the Handicapped in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The “Giving Project” is a beautiful partnership between various schools and businesses in Dallas, TX with schools/orphanages throughout Haiti where as we aid in helping to provide holiday gifts and celebrations for our Haitian sister school’s students, teachers and staff.

The Dallas-Haiti Project will begin preparing, for the seventh annual Giving Project. The past two years, DHP has realized the long-time vision of micro- entrepreneur support.

Micro- Entrepreneur Support

With help from our affiliates and partners, we have successfully hired all Haitian women to create the projects in Haiti. Next December over 3,000 children will receive Christmas gifts, for many the only gift they receive this season.

In addition to gifts, Giving Projects present teacher bonuses and scholarship money for education. Haitian teachers usually earn US$1 per day. Teachers often provide the only stability and hope for the children, as stewards of the next generation, teachers deserve to be adequately paid for hard work.

The success of this project is based on the reliability of the receiving end… in other words, our friends in Haiti. We are pleased to have established strong, trustworthy, honest relationships. These are year-round relationships ramped

up during the holidays. The new Giving Project formula, micro-entrepreneur support was launched in 2005. It is our greatest wishes to empower more Haitian women with this program in the years to come. In this way, the children will receive gifts and the Haitian women will receive income from their jobs, which will sustain their families and boost the Haitian economy. The “MICRO-Entrepreneur Support” concept is not about giving away money; it is about empowering human beings with purpose, skills, jobs, and resources, thereby allowing them to build upon their own efforts and successes.

The year-round Emergency Relief Fund is used for potable water in schools, hygiene, adequate food supply and medical care for school-aged children and mothers and jobs.

 HAITIAN Partners

DHP currently works with Haitian projects such as; Tulane University/MARCH Initiative in Haiti, Music For Haiti, Mercy and Sharing Foundation, Children’s Medical Mission in Haiti, The Haiti Nutrition Program. St. Vincent’s School for Handicapped Children and  Ecole St. Pierre.

YEAR-ROUND RELATIONSHIP WITH  SISTER SCHOOLS IN HAITI

Correspondence with the children, teachers, and staff in Haiti. (i.e.: share letters, emails, and photographs) This is wonderful for students, staff and families to understand the effect they have on their friends in Haiti and always amazing how deeply it effects our lives here.  The Giving Project is reciprocal in that both parties benefit immensely.  A global education.

DALLAS-HAITI PROJECT

Board of Directors

Susan Aberg—Vice President, Dallas-Haiti Project; Co-Chair, Dallas Chapter, Friend’s of St. Vincent’s, Exec. Board Member, St. Vincent’s Center, Haiti, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Mission Outreach

Harriet Gibbe—Vice President, Dallas-Haiti Project, President, Radiant Productions, Dallas, TX, Independent Documentarian/Producer, “The Giving Project”, “Angels in Haiti”, “MARCH in Haiti”

Libby Beall Goff—President, Dallas-Haiti Project; Creator, “The Giving Project,” Co-Chair, Dallas Chapter, Friend’s of St. Vincent’s, President LBGoff, Inc., Professional Photographer

Laurie States—Secretary/Treasurer, Dallas-Haiti Project. Director, “The Giving Project” Speech-Language Pathologist, M.S.CCC-SLP.  Teacher/therapist to children with learning differences and speech and language disorders.

Advisory Board 

Ruth Berggren, M.D.—Asst. Professor of Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, HIV/AID specialist, Tulane University Medical Center, New Orleans.  M.A.R.C.H., Management and Resources for Community Health, Field Consultant to Haiti, Maternal to child HIV prevention program. www.som.tulane.edu/march/

Warren Berggren, M.D.—Asst. Professor and Lecturer, Harvard School of Public Health

International Consultant/ Founder, Congo Protestant Relief Agency. Board of Hospital Albert Schweitzer. Haiti, Former Health Care Director, Save The Children, World Relief.

Gretchen Berggren, M.D.—Asst. Professor and Lecturer, Harvard School of Public Health

Consultant, Dept. of Int. Health and Population, Hospital Albert Schweitzer, Haiti. Children’s Nutrition Programs of Haiti, International Consultant

Dr’s. Warren, Gretchen and Ruth Berggren’s work spans over 40 years of training community health workers who serve their own communities in the poorest of areas of the world.  They have served in over 27 countries globally and now their primary focus is Haiti. Organizations they have worked with are: World Relief, Save The Children, CARE, UNICEF, Haitian Health Found., World Bank, ADRA, USAID, and World Health Organization. The Berggren’s are our closest advisors, mentors and dear friends.

Eddie Coker - Pres. Coker Productions. Children’s Singer/Songwriter. Over 20 yrs. experience. Writer, author, and public speaker. www.eddiecoker.com

Jack Vaughn—Vaughn Petroleum, Dallas, TX

Board Member, CMMH, Children’s Medical Missions of Haiti; CNP, Children’s Nutrition Programs of Haiti. Living Water International (LWI), trained in shallow water well drilling and water well pump repairs. Travels to third world countries, assisting in the repair and drilling water wells.

Pam Quarterman—M.M.Sc., CCC-SLP Executive Director, Oak Hill Academy, Dallas, TX

Speech-Language Pathologist Co-Creator, “The Giving Project” www.oakhillacademy.org

Affiliates

American Title, Kaki Roach

CMMH, Children’s Medical Missions of Haiti

CNP, Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti www.cnphaiti.org

Cerulean Gallery www.theceruleangallery.com

M.A.R.C.H., Management and Resources for Community Health, New    Orleans/Haiti www.som.tulane.edu/march/

Mercy and Sharing Foundation, Susie Krabacher www.haitichildren.com

Northaven United Methodist Church, Dallas, TX www.northaven.org

Oak Hill Academy, Dallas, TX www.oakhillacademy.org

Starbucks, District Mang. Dallas

 St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, Dallas, TX www.saintmichael.org

St. Pierre School, Mirebalais, Haiti

St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children, Port-au-Prince, Haiti www.friendsofstvincents.org

Tulane University Infectious Disease Department, HIV/AIDS specialist

The William Academy of Dallas

While making a difference in Haitian children and teachers’ lives as well as the lives of working women (through Micro-Entrepreneur support) it’s also important to educate and enhance the lives of our students, teachers and parents. Our goal is to develop a reciprocal education program for  students so that they would benefit from learning about a different culture. This participatory concept has proven beneficial over the years. Our Dallas partner-school students love to interact with their Haitian friends, learn about the Haitian culture – the people, history, food, etc… Global education.

As they say in Haiti, “Yon sel dwet pa maje kalalou,” – We must collaborate.