Friends of Hait

The organization of Friends of Haiti was established when the
two central members visited Haiti during a volunteer abroad experience. 
Despite wanting to work, the people of Haiti cannot find employment.
They live in dumps, and the only way they know how to avoid starvation is through eating other people’s leftovers. They are survivors and that’s how they manage to stay alive. We were touched by this.
Therefore we maintain on-going activities to help these people, not as overseers, but as partners, while also trying to convey, to those that might not have been touched by it, the richness of the Haitian culture and people.

   We are working together with a non-profit organization in Haiti to create opportunities for the unemployeed to learn employable skills.
We believe that helping as many people as possible earn enough money to support their family is one long term solution for the current
depressed economy. Due to the high rate of mother/child households in Haiti, we view the job training of women as especially important.
We make environmental education of today’s youth one of the mainstays of our humanitarian efforts. We expect the next generation to bear the burden of Haiti in the future.

One of the ways we can help is by creating and selling picture post cards with the images of Haitian paintings. We also sell embroidery cards hand-made by Haitian women. All profits are returned to Haiti.
(Please reference our “charitable goods” page)
Through the continual importing and selling of embroidery cards,
we have given the Haitian women an income, and in turn households can become more economically stable. We also aim to create more jobs through this “grass roots level” trade.
In order to maintain our knowledge about the current situation of Haiti
and the progression of our project we make trips there once a year.
We also host various lectures and exhibitions in Japan not only about the serious situation of Haiti but also the rich culture and people.