Reaching Out

Jennifer Young goes beyond in Haiti with ECHO group

During a medical mission trip to Haiti in 2011, just a year after the massive earthquake that devastated the country, JENNIFER YOUNG was feeling hopeless, unsure if she could really make a real difference in the lives of the people she had met, many of whom were living in tents on the mountainside.

Then, she and her team happened upon an orphanage whose children and directors had not eaten in three days. It was then that everyone’s lives changed.

“There had been these people from France who had bought them a car and a generator, and then they just disappeared. They had to sell it all to buy food, but they had run out of money. Three days later, we miraculously happened along,” Young says. “We decided this was the thing that we could do to help and invest in this group. On the flight home, we decided to commit to helping them.”

And, ECHO Haiti was born. ECHO stands for Embrace, Connect, Help, and Optimize – all of which have been Young’s goals all along, and the fruits of ECHO’s labors are apparent. 

Since 2011, Young, a Cape Fear Community College instructor, and her organization have worked closely with the orphanage directors, the Dovicks, to secure shelter and food for the thirty orphans, as well an education for them and many others in the area of Bon Repos.

“It costs $400-$500 per kid per year for an education there, so we decided to build a school and hire a teacher,” Young says. “The Dovicks invited kids from town to come to the school, so now we have fifty-plus kids there. It’s great because we’re not just impacting our kids but kids in the city that would never have been able to afford to go to school.”

Young and ECHO Haiti have built beds for each of the children, attached screens to the windows to minimize mosquito-borne illnesses, and provided running and potable water for the orphanage.

These accomplishments are only just the beginning, for Young has set her sights on major goals for the organization. 

The first involves buying land to build a house and a school, and there are many reasons Young considers this goal a necessity.

“By renting, we are not secure. We always fear the landlord will say ‘Your lease is up,’ and physically, we’ve outgrown the space,” she says. “There is not enough physical separation between the boys and the girls, and the school is too small.”

Another goal is to use the land to build a transition space for the older children. Young hopes to provide opportunities for the older children to give back once they have graduated from school by providing a space for microbusinesses as well as a transition home where they can live, pay a small rent, but have the security they need.

“I love that they are forward thinking. They have been in survival mode for so long, just thinking about tomorrow. It is nice for them to have their own long-term goals,” Young says.

All of the efforts work toward making the orphanage self-sustainable and supporting the Haitian culture. For Young, it is even more than that.

Young and all volunteers use their own money to fly and stay in Haiti when they travel there at least twice a year. They would like to be able to fund a mission that would allow a volunteer to spend the summer in Haiti to provide the students with English as a Second Language lessons.

ECHO Haiti and Young continue to dream of doing everything in their power to bring the best and the brightest future possible to these Haitian orphans.

“This entire experience has been beyond me. It has stretched me to do things that I didn’t know I could do,” Young says.

The organization is open to those who would like to volunteer to travel with them to Haiti or who would help support the general fund. To find out more, visit ECHO Haiti on Facebook or find them on the web at echohaiti.org.

To view more of photographer Chris Brehmer's work, visit chrisbrehmerphotography.com.