Walter’s house is the first to be completed since we began rebuilding after Hurricane Matthew. We have been working hard to repair and build using a method that is not only sturdy, but environmentally friendly. The houses are made with the usual mixes of sand and…

Hurricane Matthew is old news for some, but not for the people who were hit by it. For those of you interested in the damage assessment of the whole island of Lagonav here is a chart below. We thank all of you who have contributed to our Hurricane fund to help our…

Thank you Sue Fiallo for bringing Friends of Matènwa a donation of soccer uniforms and socks and goalie uniforms from Tasis School in Puerto Rico all the way to Boston. We also appreciate the mosquito nets, which are especially needed after Hurricane Matthew. I will…

What a gift it was when Johanna wrote to me to express her desire to help Matènwa after Hurricane Matthew. She had already started a GoFUndMe page and was planning a series of other events. Thanks to you and all your hard-working friends for putting together a…

Dear friends of Matènwa, It has been nearly a month since Hurricane Matthew ripped through Matènwa, but the aftermath of destruction remains. From massive loss of crops to piles of rubble where homes once stood, the devastation is brutal for those who are lacking…

The Matènwa Community School is using your donations to turn the hurricane disaster into an opportunity to show our neighbors how to use the ever mounting trash of plastic bottles to rebuild their walls. This technique is successfully being used in many countries as a…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfTnfM9T5s8

Mèsiyis is a bit beside himself after the hurricane. Quietly distressed, he starts talking about himself in third person. As an elderly man, there is no work for him to acquire the money it would take to buy some cement to add to his mix of limestone and rocks….

I am proud to share that LKM opened its doors today,, giving their students a sense of normalcy today. They also had a meeting with several of the other school directors from our 40 school network on Lagonav. Already our partners at Beyond Borders have started to fund…

https://youtu.be/OQ_BIdlFyig The neighbors around the Matènwa Community School do not have much. And now they have even less. The nation that liberated themselves from slavery, this great black nation, continues to suffer because of the history of greed and…

As one walks around Matènwa they feel the wind has settled, the land is a bit drier, but the aftermath is starting to sink in. Cement block homes are standing tall on this somewhat overcast day, while those of rock and limestone remain stripped open. And their owners…

You may be connected to this woman, even if you never met her. If you wear a beautiful silk scarf from Matènwa, Kenya may be the artist who painted it. Kenya is one of many mothers now trying to clean up with a chin up after the storm. She and her family will eat meat…