The Hope Centre is an independent nonprofit group of orphanages operating under the Greater Impact Foundation, an organization which strives to create self sufficiency at the program level via extended training facilities in villages across Haiti, a country still heavily dependent on recurring international aid systems for support. Besides housing, clothing, educating, loving, and looking after the orphaned and abandoned children in our care, our mission is to work diligently to create self-sufficient centers that provide our children with good jobs and enhanced business opportunities as they transition into young adulthood, in a region where regular unemployment is 83%. The children at the Hope Centre will transition to adulthood possessing the knowledge and skill sets to earn three times the average wage in Haiti. They will be prepared to own and operate businesses and provide jobs to others. In addition to growing 35% of our own food needs, we are also adding another acre of subsistence farming projects in July. We recently started vocational training programs for the students, that began with carpentry for both boys and girls at the Hope Centre in Haiti. Within the next six weeks, the centre will focus on training electricians, and in 2017, plumbers, painters, and masons. In late 2017, specialized program heads will travel to Haiti to train the students in the building of 3D prosthetic limbs. The Hope Centre will eventually dispatch workers using a method similar to Angie’s List. The students will be the equivalent of independent contractors. A portion of the money earned by the students will go directly toward the needs of the Hope Centre. The organizational goal is to wean the Hope Centre from donor support to complete self-suffiency as we expand our efforts in the region. Today’s children and students will become tomorrow's staff and teachers for future generations of children. Other students will depart from us with the necessary skills to provide a better than average wage for their families, while growing the local economy through their business ventures. We are currently expanding into our second Hope Center, called "The Hope Center II". I ask that you seriously consider sponsoring a vocational program or becoming one of the founding donors of this new center, located in Delmas, Haiti, where we will house, educate, and train 50 to 60 children with our leadership team. In July, through vocational programming, we will begin building and selling furniture built by our students to reduce the need for financial aid. The process of creating an additional 3-5 centers to equip and release children will take place over the next 5-7 years. In addition to training the students in vocational aspects, we are also providing them with a basic general education (math, reading, science, history, music, etc.), which includes classes in French and English. As we are a center funded entirely by voluntary, nongovernmental contributions, the importance of individual donor contributions cannot be understated, without which the Hope Centre's mission would not be able to continue its outreach and vocational training programs. All donations are 100% tax deductible. The Hope Centre II in Delmas has a designated quadrant for vocational training, and opens on July 1. If you desire more information of any kind, please feel free to contact me as I would love the opportunity to make you more aware of everything that we are accomplishing at the Hope Centre. Very truly yours, Tony Palmisano 954-336-7153 tonyisagenix@yahoo.com thehopecentre.org (website)