Love Changes Everything

Michou

About Eden Garden Orphanage

“When you go to Haiti, you come back changed!” – Charles LeMorzellec

Do you remember the last time you saw people living in extreme poverty? Perhaps you remember those television images of people surviving in desperate situations?

Let’s face it – many of us have encountered disturbing images of people surviving in horrendous conditions in slums or remote villages. On our way to airports, hotels, or resorts, we’ve probably zoomed right past children begging for money or food.

Most of us try not to think about it. We push those images out of our minds and try not to let them linger long enough to disturb us.

Or we simply look the other way.

Fortunately, for orphans in Haiti, Charles and Gigi LeMorzellec were different.

A French couple in their late 50s, they were in hot pursuit of the American dream in Virginia, enjoying the good life as entrepreneurs. Then, in 1998, something happened.

Charles went to visit a friend who was working in an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. He expected just that – a home for orphans. But what he saw were children barely surviving in filth and disease. No sanitation. No electricity. And barely enough food. The experience made him sick and gave him sleepless nights.

And he could not look the other away. He told the Washington Post in 2002:

“I'll never forget,” he recalls of that first visit. “It was a rainy day, getting dark. We passed so many impoverished people. I thought of the “court of miracles” in Les Miserables where all the poor people stayed…. Here were 30 Haitian orphans living in a dirty, ramshackle building without electricity. Rats were everywhere.”

He knew instantly that something must be done. Something had to happen.

He said, “The kids’ mattresses were crawling with insects. They were on a meager diet of rice and beans – though it was better than what they’d had before. On their own, unprotected, the Haitian orphans played in cesspools and chased garbage trucks for food. One little boy used to lick their tires for a snack.”

So, when the head of this orphanage, in his 70s and battling cancer, asked them to take over, Charles and Gigi took on the responsibility immediately. And for the next 14 years, Charles and Gigi applied their entrepreneurial ideas, labors of love, and savings to improve the lives of orphans in Haiti. They employed Haitians to staff the orphanage while they worked in Virginia to raise funds for the children.

They moved the children to different locations until they settled in Montrouis and founded Eden Garden Orphanage. Although there were several resorts nearby, Montrouis was a rural village full of chaos – no industry, no government, no jobs, no clean water, and no electricity. Barren, rocky, and dirty, Montrouis was full of desperate people struggling to survive. Sick and malnourished people were everywhere, with little access to medical care or food.

Charles and Gigi carved out a haven of hope to protect children from the atmosphere of hopelessness around them. Within a five-acre walled campus, they built dormitories, a grade school, a nursery, a medical clinic, and a kitchen. They also built homes in Montrouis for their employees and served surrounding villages by distributing food, water, and medical care.

Today, outside the walls of Eden Garden, Montrouis is still full of desperation and hopelessness. But inside, Charles and Gigi’s vision is alive and well. There are 37 orphaned children residents, 150 or more who attend school, and about 20 support staff and teachers who depend on us to help them with their work.

Building paths of Hope: Emerging Vision of New Leadership

Now, our enormous challenge is not only to rescue orphans and provide a haven of hope for the desperate, but to build paths that enable Eden Garden children to have better lives as adult Haitians with families in tough environments.

“Building paths of hope” involves many things.

• Giving children the education, skills, and abilities to work as productive adults in Haiti.
• Offering role models and values to children who may never have known life in a loving family.
• Creating and finding jobs and establishing industries in surrounding areas for graduates of Eden Garden Orphanage and providing choices for work that best fits their abilities.
• And in the vision of Jean Claude Monasse, Eden Garden’s Director, it also involves making Eden Garden Orphanage self-supporting.

In a nutshell, building paths of hope involves building up children so they can help rebuild Haiti as productive adults.

Building paths of Hope: Our Mission

We believe that love changes everything, and that small things done with great love can change lives. That means that our mission at Eden Garden is:

To love our children and equip them to become productive adults.
To love and serve our neighbors and improve the quality of their lives.

Building paths of Hope: Three Teams, One Mission

Three groups of people serve together to accomplish Eden Garden mission.

Our Unpaid Board of Directors give direction, funding, guidance, and resources to support our leaders and staff and on the ground in Montrouis. Except for founder Charles LeMorzellec, all are volunteers who give our time, services, and funds, and pay our own expenses whenever we serve in Montrouis. Current board members include:

• Arden Brion, Managing Director, Root Learning
• Frederick Evans, Secretary, Retired
• Glenn Gibb, CEO, Best Used Appliances
• Scott Kramer, Product Manager, JDA Software Group
• Charles LeMorzellec, Founder (resides in Montrouis, Haiti)
• Chad Turner, Treasurer, Vice President of Accounting, Assistant Corporate Controller, E*TRADE Financial
• Dave Wooster, Chairman, Partner Development Manager for Collaboration, Cisco Systems

Our Paid Leaders and Staff directly serve in Montrouis. Our philosophy is to help Haitians help Haitians. We hire and support leaders and staff who live as part of the Montrouis community and are involved in the daily operations of Eden Garden Orphanage. They are:

• Jean Claude and Ronice Monasse, Orphanage Director and Assistant
• Charles LeMorzellec, Founder, Board Member, Community Development and Special Projects
• Christian Toussaint, Principal, Eden Garden Academy
• Carline Moise, RN, Nurse, Medical Clinic.

Our Unpaid Volunteers from the U.S. serve frequently in Montrouis and the U.S., leading other volunteers and projects. This group currently includes:

• Arden Brion, Director of Recruitment and Development
• Glenn Gibb, Director of Haiti Logistics, Supplies and Security
• John Hood, Creative Director and Website Designer
• Monty Jacobs, Legal Counsel and Missions Advisor
• Scott Kramer, Director of Construction and Facility Management
• Chad Turner, Director of Finance
• Caryn Wooster, Administrative Director and Director of Communications
• David Wooster, Executive Director, U.S. Operations and Logistics
• Elizabeth Wooster, Medical Director
• Larry Wooster, Director of Water, Electrical and Solar Power