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Hello world!  Welcome to our new blog…HAITI RISING!  Our previous WordPress blog (www.haitipoverty.com) has been changed to reflect the successful implementation of our projects in Haiti!  The Haitipovertyblog was started in 2009 to bring MOM’s activities to the world.
We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and we are asking for your commitment and support to help us to help communities in Haiti to RISE to self sufficiency and to throw off the yoke of dependency.
Haitians are a wonderful, energetic, creative and innovative people who desire to work and to support themselves. Â Unfortunately, too many organizations have not designed programs and projects to assist them in becoming independent of charity.I have found the Haitians in the rural areas eager to learn and to invest sweat equity.
So, hold on and come fly with us as we now begin a new era of economic development projects on STEROIDS.  I will be able to upload more information on our latest projects and their success asI receive the photos and reports from Haiti.  Please check out my new posts on mom-haitirising. org in the meantime.
MOM has purchased 12 cows to initiate a brand new dairy project in De Nippes, Haiti.  MOM discovered this  new little dairy site in June while  leading a group of students and professors from Howard University School of Architecture and the University of Illinois, Urbana Campus, during a Summer Study Studio Program in collaboration with the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture with a grant from the Fetzer Foundation.  Thanks to our interpreter, Mr. Ronald Joanuel, a community activist and economic development specialist, the dairy was brought to the attention of the group when he asked Prof. Bradford Grant, the Howard University professor, if  the bus driver could stop at the site.
I was in awe of this beautiful little building sitting silently all alone.  It was explained that it was built by  the Haitian government some 5 years earlier, but was short of the money needed to purchase the cows .  I remember going around the back of that building and weeping at the thought that the community had been denied of their proposed livelihood for five years!  The dairy was built to help them and it belongs to the community!  MOM is helping them to develop it and to make it economically viable and sustainable with their sweat equity!  The diary is only a small part of the equation in our quest for food security and sustainability.  The livestock, the pasturage both play a huge part in the development of food security for the community.
See our bus in the background? Â This is a photo of the side of the dairy building.
I prayed right there and asked God “for this mountain”.  Talking about faith….I tell you it was by faith and faith alone because our coffers were empty!  So  we have a year to raise $18,000 for this economic development project that includes completing the cyber cafe project, (replacing stolen IT equipment by a former manager) upgrading the bakery site with sanitary facilities, and the initiation of a turkey and chicken project. De Nippes is seemingly on Steroids and the projects are moving along exceedingly well.
On Christmas Eve, the 10 families that  are part of the Dairy Project gathered to celebrate the opening of the  Project. Pastor Ronald Joanuel initiated this event and food and goodies were served to the  150 in attendance.  Included was a local judge who came to educate the group about MOM and the economic development project.  He made sure that they understood that the animals did not belong to them, and that MOM had invested in the animals  and was allowing them to raise them for milk production and to breed them for increase.  These farmers are glad to be able to raise the cows to make an income from milk production and breeding.  The arrangement worked out by  Mr. Joanuel was readily accepted by the farmers with joy!
Empty bottles waiting to be used for five years!
 Side of Diary. See our bus in the  background??
Dairy farmers praying at their meeting! Thanking God for answering their prayers so that they could work and feed their families!
The market place where the cows  were purchased.  They had to be transported from the market place back to De Nippes.  Not a very pleasant job, but a happy occasion for the awaiting dairy farmers!
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Keep an eye on this post for more details and photos in the future. Â We want to keep you informed of our progress.
Please help us to raise the funds to repay the loan within the next 11 months,  We can do it with your help.  Donations can be made  right here through PayPal!  Thank you for your help!  When each of our four major projects are running at capacity, it is estimated that over 1000 families will benefit from employment in the market place and self-employment!!
These videos produced by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) provide a synopsis of a multi-partner, public interest design education and service learning project in Petite Riviere De Nippes, Haiti were MOM is presently working. The project was a collaborative effort of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA), Howard University and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in partnership with Mercy Outreach Ministry International.
MOM wanted to bring attention to the dire living conditions found in the rural areas of Haiti by partnering with universities in the hope that they would collaborate with MOM and work to implement programs and projects that would bring socio-economic relief while at the same time provide an invaluable educational experience for their students and professors.
A graduate (Master of City Planning) of the Howard University School of City Planning in 1975, I never forgot the lessons learned about housing in developing countries from one of my professors, Prof. Victor Dzidzenyo, who is now the Associate Dean, College of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences, and the Director of the School of Architecture & Design at Howard University. It was his passionate teaching about the need for alternative housing for the poor that found its way into my very being and I have never forgotten it.
While preparing for my doctoral dissertation in 1994-45 at the Howard University School of Divinity , I asked Prof. Dzidzienyo to serve as one of my advisors on my dissertation team. He gladly accepted and under his guidance, my dissertation entitled Church Mission As A Catalyst For The Transmission of Technology For Sustainable Community and Economic Growth in Developing Countries was successfully completed and submitted for my degree of Doctor of Ministry in 1995. We have remained in constant contact since that time developing plans and projects for Haiti along with a fellow colleague, Dr. Fritz Olivier, the founder and President of the GOC University in Port-a-Prince, Haiti.
I met Prof. Bradford C. Grant when he was serving as the Interim Dean and Director of the School of Architecture & Design along with Prof . Edward Dunson, the Associate Professor & Chairman, Department of Architecture. The four of us collaborated and the partnership became a reality with the successful submission of a proposal to the Fetzer Foundation by Prof. Grant.
Students visited the town, and communicated one-on-one with the residents, entrepreneurs, government officials, and NGOs, to develop an understanding of the daily workings of the community as well as to document its existing conditions and infrastructure. The studio aimed to develop designs that could be constructed, efficiently used, and maintained by local individuals in Petite-Rivière-de-Nippes. Various methods of documentation and observation were used to help thoroughly understand the present conditions in Petite-Rivière-de-Nippes, such as the limits of existing infrastructure and planning efforts, the nature of education and entrepreneurial activity, local customs and culture, and the needs and desires of residents and government officials in the community. The final work of the studio ranged from considering various growth-pattern scenarios for the community, to design for a market, to designs for a media center and a farming co-op. These were developed and designed collaboratively among studio participants in order to achieve a comprehensive and integrated proposal for the town of Petite-Rivière-de-Nippes.*
You can donate online through PayPal or you may mail  your donation to:
Mercy Outreach Ministry
Attn: Haiti Rising
11705 Bishop’s Content
Mitchellville, MD 20721
Watch  the Haiti Summer Studio highlights in one- minute!
Published on May 1, 2015
This Haiti Summer Studio challenged students to connect with the local community, communications, documentation and designing in an area without running water or electricity and using designs that can be built by local residents themselves.*
Architects have to stop and draw to better see and describe the world. Being present and seeing allows you to connect with locals and absorb your surroundings. During the Haiti summer studio, students practiced the art of being present through sketching and watercolor.*
*(Excepts from Article written by Eric Ellis -ACSA 2014 Haiti Summer Studio Video at www.acsa.arch.org)
You can donate online through PayPal or you may mail  your donation to:
to reflect the successful implementation of our projects in Haiti! Â The Haitipoverty blog was started in 2009 to bring MOM’s activities to the world.
