OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
The local public hospital contacted ADO for assistance in getting hospital orthopedic beds. Twenty five orthopedic beds were shipped to Ouanaminthe. Le Bon Samaritain, a non profit home for the aged runs by catholic nuns which provides room and board, medical care, nutrition and community programs to elderly in Ouanaminthe, was also in need of beds for its clients. The beds were shared between those two facilities . ADO has provided financial support and medical supplies to that Nursing Home for the past 10 years.
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1999ADO collaborates with a local organization named AMO (Association Moun Ouanaminthe) to provide chairs for the newly built auditorium which couldn’t function due to lack of chairs. Through fundraising effort and members contributions, 250 chairs and theater/stage curtains were shipped so the auditorium could be functional.
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2000ADO partnered with another organization in Canada named “Regroupment des genres de Ouanaminthe” (REGO) to finance the shipment of 1000 text books. A room in the rectory of the Catholic church “Our Lady of Assumption” was renovated and shelves were build for the books. The facility became the first public library in the town of Ouanaminthe, where the young children had access to books to read.
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2001ADO believes that the future of a child is determined by their start. Children in Haiti don’t get the opportunity to reach full potential. During ADO’s Townhall meeting in New York, some school officials, the priest Father Elence from the local Catholic church and parents from Ouanaminthe were in attendance. ADO members wanted to know what can they contribute to the future of the children of Ouanaminthe. As a group, it was concluded that a soup kitchen will be beneficial to provide a hot meal to the most needy children at least once a day. The priest Father Elence was responsible to provide the space in the church vicinity. A couple of months later barrels of food, vitamins were shipped to Ouanaminthe. A cook was hired to prepare the meals. Parents were very happy with the program because at times they were also fed depending on the availability of foods when they come to pick up their children.
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2001
The town of Ouanaminthe provides electricity to the residents with the help of a generator. The fuel for the generator is purchased with the money collected from the consumers. Like any facility the bills are not paid on time and the responsible from the Civil Society Mr. Beaubanoir Joseph the electrical company couldn’t provide electricity to the town. After repairing all electrical fixtures, ADO provided the fuel for a period of two years until the committee responsible was able to start collecting from the customers, so the town can have electricity .
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2002
After the project “Ouanaminthe Belle” where the majority of the streets were paved, it was still very difficult for a visitor to navigate its way through the town; because the streets were not identified and the houses were not numbered. A grass root movement took place in 2002 and ADO was contacted to help out. A survey to know how many streets and their proper names were conducted. It was found that some of the streets were named after the individual who first lived in the neighborhood and the names were not officially registered in the town archives. With the City Hall permission some of the streets were renamed after some leaders who passed away and were very active in the development of Ouanaminthe. For example: Joseph Verdieu, a visionary, he opened a music school where children can go and learn to play instrument free of charge as an afterschool program in the 1940. Another street was named after a well respected teacher Mr. Philopoemene Jean-Antoine aka “Professeur Philo”. He was a first grade teacher and a father figure for two generations of kids. The project was completed in 2003, thanks to the local population who volunteered their time, manpower, the materials to complete the work and food to feed the volunteers.
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2004Two days a week on Monday and Friday, the border Ouanaminthe Dominican Republic is opened to merchants from all over the country to buy goods at the binational markets and resell them across the country. This convergence of people generate a lot of garbage and City Hall was picking up the garbage manually which took a lot of times after the market to clean the town. In 2004, ADO got involved and traveled to the Dominican Republic with Consul Jean Baptiste Bien-Aime and shopped for a pick up truck. It was a great relief for Ouanaminthe, the truck was out there everyday picking up garbage at the border zone, the streets and canals got clean. Some business owners provided the fuel money for the truck to go around.
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2005
A new Law school was opened in Ouanaminthe. The parents were very happy because it was a great opportunity for the children to stay home and study instead of traveling to a bigger city 50 miles or more away from home for their studies. Later that year, Mrs. Iramene Florival, an ADO member visited the school and find out that the lighting source for the school was Kerosene lamp. Upon her return, she presented the situation to the ADO’s Committee before the school year was over ADO shipped a generator to the school. The graduating class law students honored Mrs. Florival at their graduation three years later – the class of 2008.
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2005ADO collaborates with different other organizations and also get involved in projects in Ouanaminthe. Deforestation remained a huge problem in Haiti. The Civil society in Ouanaminthe have been involved in some replanting efforts. ADO joined Agronomist Doudy Pierre and Mr. Villardouin Etienne on their initiative of reforestation process. A garden center was opened where plants and trees were prepared and distributed to the community so they can plant in different areas of the town. Certain trees like mangos, grapefruits, oranges, coconuts, avocados were in greater demand than others. Some trees were also planted alongside of the roads to provide shadow against the sun.
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2007
In March 2007, ADO provided uniforms, balls and transportations for the players to the National Volleyball team. Later the same year the school of ” St Francois Xavier des Fréres de l’ Instruction Chrètienne de Ouanaminthe (F.I.C) opened their secondary school and became coed. ADO received an urgent plea from the school Director regarding the need for toilets for the girls. ADO hire a local contractor to build the girls’ restrooms.
2008Ouanaminthe Public Park been in restoration since 1999. Mr Levy Prophete in 2008, at the mayor office solicited ADO’s assistance to secure the park and its surroundings. ADO provides the funding for the fence and a wells to water the flowers in the park.
The school directors in the town voiced concerns in 2009, about children playing in the streets after school. The children were at risks of being hit by cars or motorcycles. A playground was built with games, rides and swings for the kids under the governance of the local Mayor’s office. |
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A devastating earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, some of our Ouanaminthais who were living or attending school in Port au Prince were forced to displace. ADO was on the ground and had helped transported families out of Port-au-Prince to the Northeastern part of the country. ADO had secured schooling for fifty children in Ouanaminthe. ADO took responsibility for their tuition, distributed school supplies kits and uniforms to them. We also provided financial support to members of Haitian American Nurses who traveled to Haiti to provide health care for the victims.
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2011—2013
In 2000, ADO had used a small space in the rectory at the catholic church to provide an area where children has used for reading. As the population of Ouanaminthe is growing, it has become necessary to provide an institution where the students can find computer, books at their disposition for research, book report and more. In 2011, the Mayor Mr. Rony Pierre donated an empty lot to ADO to build a cultural center. The property was fenced and marked as “Future ADO project” In preparation to the cultural center, Father Charles Joseph Charles had collected books on behalf of ADO. In 2012, he had around 50,000 books which were shipped from Montreal to Ouanaminthe Mrs. Wideline Pierre is the architect who drew the plan for the Cultural Center. In a continuous effort to help Ouanaminthe and ADO, Father Charles was able to secure 600 office chairs tables, and other furniture as a gift for the cultural center.
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2013
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In March ADO’s President Darnel Abellard traveled to Ouanaminthe to meet with the local authorities and start construction on a Cultural Center. This project is in partnership with the Mayor office to create a space where the locals can go to read, assist at a play, students can use the computers for their research. The name Marie Louise Coidavid was chosen to name the building, she was a local hero during Haiti Independence war and the only Queen the country ever known.
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2014The project proposal for the health fair was discussed and approved in January 2014 at our meeting. ADO sent letters to friends, family and members announcing the health fair for August 13th, 2014. We have gotten several calls of people who wants to donate, participate in any way they can. Ms. Gretha Fievre assisted ADO in the planning of the event. The committee had to nominate a coordinator in New York and one in Ouanaminthe to serve as a liaison. Mrs. Marjorie Jean-Antoine and Dr. Nicot Pierre were nominated by the members of ADO. They both worked together in recruiting health professionals to participate in the fair. The First Health Fair was a success according to the testimonials by both volunteers and patients who we cared for. There were 13 doctors, 20 nurses and 80 non professional volunteers who provided services 513 patients, children and adults. We treated patients with High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Stomach Problem, malnourished children, Ringworms, tapeworms and many more.
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2015The second health fair took place in Ouanaminthe on August 13th. We treated 823 patients, children and adults. Mr. Maismy Fleurant, one of ADO members in Ouanaminthe had worked tirelessly on this project with the community leaders. The need for health is so great in Ouanaminthe that ADO is in the process of planning its third annual health fair. We are always in need of professionals, medications, foods, supplies and money.
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2015
An 18 year old young lady came to health fair with complain of vaginal bleeding for the 30 days prior to the health fair. She was found to have a heart rate ranges between 150-200/ beats/minute, color pale. She was transferred to the local hospital and ADO answered to pay for her care. Her initial hemoglobin was 4.8 . She was transfused two units of blood and she is doing well. Her latest blood work shows Hemoglobin 8.9, Red blood cells of 2,8 million, work up was done to find the source of the bleeding.
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“Thanks to ADO, I am alive today” |
2016
In the summer of 2016, while preparing our third health fair we received the news of the passing of one of our Founding members: Mr Joseph Clermont AKA Duly. Most members of the Board made the trip to be present at the funeral. In June and September, we had to mourn Drs Riviere Menard and Gaston Sterlin, two die hard supporters of our Organization, their donations help us in the logistics and traveling for the health fair.
As usual we had our third health fair. The crowd got bigger from the locals and people from surrounding towns. In one day we have seen close to 1500 children and adults. We used the donations from our members to buy medications and prescribe 90 days’ supply. The small volume of medications we received from Americares or Henry Schein is not enough to cover the demand. Most of the times, we have to run to the local pharmacies to buy more medications.
As usual we had our third health fair. The crowd got bigger from the locals and people from surrounding towns. In one day we have seen close to 1500 children and adults. We used the donations from our members to buy medications and prescribe 90 days’ supply. The small volume of medications we received from Americares or Henry Schein is not enough to cover the demand. Most of the times, we have to run to the local pharmacies to buy more medications.
2017
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October 10, 2017 the Association marked it’s twentieth anniversary, a Thanksgiving mass was celebrated in Saint Boniface Catholic church by the Reverend Father Charlince Vendredi.
On Saturday, December 30, 2017 we held our end of the year Gala at Terrace on the Park and Mrs. Rachel Previlus a Nurse Practitioner who usually travel with us as our guest Speaker. That same year, we received two Certificates of recognition from State Senator Leroy Comrie and Nassau County Legislator Carrie Solages. |
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2018
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We held our fifth health fair, this time the Minister of health responded to our invitation and sent a truck with some medications. As usual, we provided free healthcare to almost1500 adults and children.
The local businesses provided water and a son of Ouanaminthe Minister Aviol Fleurant gave us a donation to cover some of the expenses. |
2019
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After receiving some feedbacks from our healthcare professionals, we decided to make the health fair a two days event. It was a good idea, what we used to do in one day take us two days. It was a relief, our healthcare professionals spent more time with the patients. The majority of the children we serve are malnourished, suffer intestinal infections, skin and scalp diseases. The health fair identifies their health conditions educate the population and provides people immediate care. .
The Cultural Center is its final stage, but much need to be done. We rely on our members and supporters contribution for our operational expenses. As of now the shelves are filled with books, we’re in the process of choosing a date for its inauguration. |
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2020
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We were in the process of mailing out invitations for our Mothers Day fundraiser when the Coronavirus Pandemic strike, because of the quarantine we have to bring our fundraiser effort to a hold. We were able to stay in contact trough Zoom platform, we hold our monthly meeting and review certain projects we did in the past. Our website was never completed, we were lucky to have Mr. Jacques Jean our guest speaker last December offering his service to work on it for us, at this present time our website is almost ready with new features he added on.
This summer due the quarantine we can’t have our two days health fair, however we shipped out personal protective equipment for all the medical personal and Police in the frontline. These were the only protective equipment the frontlines personal received to do their work. Through social media, we educated the population about wearing masks, social distancing, washing their hands, luckily the virus didn’t do that much damage. |
May 29th, 2022
ADO | Haitian Mother's Day | New Hyde Park Lodge, NY
Music by DJ Dominik & Entertainment by Dionne Lamothe
ADO | Haitian Mother's Day | New Hyde Park Lodge, NY
Music by DJ Dominik & Entertainment by Dionne Lamothe
All proceeds to benefit ADO's health fair in Ouanaminthe, Haiti in Aug 2022
2023 Health FaiR
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From the volunteers: |
“I feel like I make a difference to benefit someone in need” “When I saw these people filled with joy with the little that they have! My life is forever changed” |