Children’s Welfare

Johan Smoorenburg received this vision when he took a trip to the island two years before. He visited an orphanage resembling more of a pigsty than it did a home. There were more than 50 small children—all of them malnourished and sleeping on the floor. With support from the Netherlands, he realized his dream to build a children’s village. His goal was to allow underprivileged children to receive good care and education. Heart for Haiti is committed to helping Haiti’s poorest children. Our dream is to give them a better future, and that is possible at the children’s village ‘Bon Repos’. This village is located in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince. In the 1980s, the village was quite literally built from nothing by missionary Johan Smoorenburg.

Almost 150 children live at Bon Repos in twelve apartments. Twelve children of different ages live in each apartment, where they are supervised by an ‘aunty.’ This means that the set-up is as close as possible to that of an ordinary family. These children are orphans or they are from families unable to care for them. In the village, they are given a roof over their heads and enough to eat. They can attend school and go to church and this enables them to build a stable future.

Educate for the future As well as these apartments, there is also a school at the children’s village. This school is not only for the children who live in the village, but other children can also be taught here. In total around 500 children from Port-au-Prince go to the Heart for Haiti school. There are also various vocational courses, made possible through the help of the foundation. Examples of these are the Bible school, the bakery and the water project.