Hope for Haiti Fact Sheet

History of the Hope for Haiti Children's Center

The Hope for Haiti Children's Center, located in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, was founded in 2001 by Danita Estrella. Estrella, a native of the United States, first became interested in the plight of Haitian children after completing a short-term mission trip in 1998. A year later she relocated to the tiny island nation. By 2000, Estrella adopted her first of many Haitian orphans. That same year, she started a school program providing the first accessible education for many of the local children. In 2002, she established a school feeding program to help combat the widespread effects of poverty and malnutrition. Since then, her work has also included the purchase or construction of a boys' dormitory, a church, a school building and a playground.

About the Hope for Haiti Children's Center

The Hope for Haiti Children's Center is home to 76 Haitian orphans: 28 girls and 48 boys. The Center provides for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the children, allowing them to not only survive, but to thrive.

Mission of the Hope for Haiti Children's Center

Danita's Children and Hope for Haiti believe that the future of Haiti can be bright. They strive to give the poor, abandoned and forgotten children of Haiti the opportunity to have a successful life by meeting their physical, emotional, spiritual and educational needs. The center's goal is to ensure that every child feels the love of Christ, grows and thrives throughout his/her childhood, goes to college and returns to Haiti and has a positive difference in this impoverished nation.

Services provided by the Hope for Haiti Children's Center

• Provides a loving home to over 70 orphans

• Offers a solid Christian education to more than 500 children

• Supplies 16,000-plus nourishing meals a month to the hungry

• Offers a welcoming, safe church family with weekly services open to the whole community

• Provides safe, quality, accessible medical care for the children

• Organizes evangelistic outreach to the surrounding communities through fun, interactive programs

Financial Accountability and Transparency

Charity Navigator, the largest independent charity assessment organization in the U.S., awarded Hope for Haiti a four-star rating (the highest possible rating) in recognition of the organization's excellence in financial accountability.

Ways to Get Involved in This Project

Minding Your Matters Organizing® is accepting donations of supplies and funds from individuals and businesses for the Hope for Haiti Children's Center project. Contact Katie Page at 919-264-7751 or Katie@MindingYourMatters.com for details. Additional information about Danita's Children and the Hope for Haiti Children's Center can be found at www.danitaschildren.org. The web site provides a regularly updated list of needed items and information regarding child sponsorship opportunities.