A thank you note to each and everyone who has been supporting us since 2016 and to our new supporters. On behalf of all the students and their families, thank you for the hope that you bring to a better future for the children that you have blessed every year with the gift of education. Them few individuals will be listed here but the list is longer than that.
WRNE Radio, Epps Center, Glory To God Church Ministry, Women Study Group of St Mary’s, Knights of Columbus, The Lilly’s Family, Valerie, and Wayne Schumm, Barbara and Leah Hale, DR Mathurin and Rock Family, The Gramlich Family,

Pensacola, Fl, – Over the weekend Haiti was hit by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake crumbling homes and buildings and killing more than 1,200 people. Rescuers are working to find survivors amid the rubble. A local organization Diligent Act of Love for  Haiti (https://www.dalove.org) is spearheading a relief drive for families impacted by the recent disasters in this country. 

Organization Chairwoman, Jessie Elusma, is collecting food, toiletries and other items  like flashlights, first aid kits and unused tarps to send to Haiti. 

“If you know anyone who might be interested in supporting our effort, share our request. Please drop off donations at WRNE Radio located at 312 E. 9 Mile Road in  Pensacola, Fl,” she said.

Normally, DaLove focuses on providing educational support for underprivileged children in Haiti, whose parents are still trying to pick up the pieces scattered by these recurring disasters. Children must pay yearly tuition to attend school, which ranges from $35 -100 per child. 

If you would prefer to make a monetary donation, you may do so at https:// www.dalove.org Or cashApp: daloveforhaiti

I am a Haitian native and American citizen. I am a teacher in Escambia county and currently pursuing a bachelors degree in Social Work. As some may know, Haiti has suffered the bitter end of many natural disasters in recent years. Hurricane Mathew in 2016, not only destroyed houses and infrastructures, it took away many sources of livelihood as well as opportunities for children to receive an education. Friends from different nationalities and religious backgrounds collaborated with me to create a Hurricane relief for Haiti and a charity organization—Diligent Act of Love for Haiti (dalove.org). We have since been hosting numerous events in an effort to fund schooling for the less fortunate children in Haiti whose families to this day are still trying to pick up the pieces scattered by these disasters. Fundraising events include Caribbean Dinners, concert each year, drawings, flea market sale and gofundme to name a few. Every Christmas, since 2016, we have managed to provide hot lunches and toys. Last year we fed a record of 100 children and each of them received a toy. The sad truth is that for the majority of the children, it was their first time receiving a toy or having a nice meal for Christmas.
We believe that Education is the key to positively change the trajectory of lives, so we have concentrated our support on tuition. In Haiti, yearly tuition is mandatory for children to attend school $35-$100/per child yearly depending on the location of schools. With limited funds, we sent 15 children to school in January 2017 (these children could not continue school because their parents lost everything after hurricane Matthew in Jeremie, Haiti.) To date, we have been blessed by generous donors and supporters to pay tuition for 30 children for the school year 2018-2019. For some, it was their first time ever attending school.
This Saturday, May 18, 2019, which happens to be Haiti’s Flag Day, at Epps Christian Center at 6 PM, we are having our 3rd annual benefit concert to raise tuition for the next school year. Please help us spread the word so we can have more people support our work in Haiti. In this 21st century, the numbers of children who are unable to attend school are unimaginable, so please, help us continue to make a difference in these children’s life. My phone number is 850-390-8098 and I am available after 3:30Thank you and best regards!

Marie Jessie A Elusma

Chairwoman

In Port-Au-Prince where I am from, the sun never caught my attention as it does in this vacation place when it was going down and its reflection on the morning due on the leaves with their crystal look. I also remember the beautiful sound of the birds and their beauty my favorite was the wings speed of the Wonganegress with so many vibrant colors, along with the cricket concert at night and other creatures. The roosters chant that waking up the farmers at the same time every morning like a clock. The remnant of pieces of china plates and other things such as houses that have been abandoned suggested some kind of people used to live in this place long ago.

So many childhood memories just surface in contrast of what Hurricane Matthew left from its passage. The thought of this saddens me. Then my sadness became heavy when I think about the limited resources these people have and how now Hurricane Matthew has made it worse. I could not close my eyes to sleep for many nights – thinking about a solution. How can I help? What can I do? God, what should I do to help them? Then one night a thought came to me; I can organize a Haitian Christmas Dinner to benefit the people of Haiti. It was it like a light bulb going off inside my head. All I need to do now is make it happen.  And now how is it going to happen? Once I woke up, I got in touch with a friend, Mr. Robert hill, whom I met less a year before, he was cheering for the project “You can do it, you should do it he said, go for it!” He helped me to find a place for the event, with the generosity of Dr. Sylvia Tisdale, who runs a Kitchen Soup for the homeless and is the Pastor of Epps Christian center, she graciously donated and generously gave us not only the church but also her time, ensuring the success of that fundraiser.

Next, I gather all my Haitian friends, asking them to cook some Haitian meal for the dinner. Finally, we were able to have a wonderful Haitian Christmas Dinner for the people affected by Jeremy. The dinner was successful with 60 people in attendance, raising more than $2,000.00 from those who attended and other friends who could not make it to the dinner, all this in addition to all the nice clothes and shoes, plus more were donated to send to them to Haiti. The donations were sent to Haiti to make sure these people have food to eat, water treatment tablets to purify drinking water, toiletry bags filled with personal care items, and small amounts of money were also distributed to them, so they could purchase other essential for their families. The children were able to receive toys and be happy around Christmas with their families. We were able to draw smiles on the faces 80 of recipients with this small act of kindness. At the end, it was me that had a smile. This has encouraged me to keep going, to keep bringing smiles to these children and their family. As this Christmas story continues, our goal for the school year 2017-2018, is to send back to school some of who lost the school year 2016-2017 because their parents lost everything. I humbly ask you, will you become a donor to the continuation of this great story.

I dream of them being teachers that can open minds and hearts, nurse and doctors to help their community, lawyers to serve with justice, engineers to work on the infrastructure, great chef, educated farmers that could make the earth produce better. I dream of musicians, actors and artists that could guard and preserve the beautiful Haitian art. I also dream of scientists, athletes, mechanics and so on, to rebuild and serve their community.

My question to you is simple, will you let your love, compassion, generosity travel across miles to reach these children in Haiti? If so, sign in today to spark the fire across miles to help one child at a time to go school or remain in school.

I finally quelled the fear inside and said yes to him, because I know that he needs me to be the vessel that he will use to reach out for the ones in need. We have a long list of children who did not make it to school this year, due to their grave losses when Hurricane Matthew hitting their homes. My wish is for them to go back to school this upcoming school year with a full scholarship. And so I ask you, “would you be willing to share this task with us? Would you help answer their prayers? I encourage you to join DALH (Diligent Act of Love for Haiti) to reshape the world of these children and to light the path on the dark road that they’ve been forced to tread.

There is a great urgency to help the children of Haiti. They have been victimized by many catastrophic natural disasters. All too many becoming orphans, or worse. They’ve been devastated by the earthquake of 2010; hurricane Matthew in 2016; and cholera disease imported by the UN soldiers entering Haiti. In many of these situations, families are just not able to provide.

Diligent Acts of Love for Haiti (DALH) steps up to make a difference with, unfortunately, very limited resources. The need for reconstruction, healthcare, education and sanitation is indubitably an emergency. Residents from the most vulnerable areas are dying daily as a result of these epidemics. Families are being destroyed by homeless, famine, and disease.

If you could just, for a moment, imagine a mother sleeping in a tomb with her child;

Imagine a land without clean water; Imagine a place with no shelter from the punishing rain;

If you can imagine the unimaginable you are now able to picture a small glimpse of the daily life of the people of Haiti.

You can help!

You can make a big difference!

 No contribution is too small or too large!

Just step up and awake the humanitarian in you. If saving a life is a heroic act, then you can be the hero they are waiting for.

Please, click the following button to donate.

By Mr. Elie

www.mrelie.com

As I grow older and (hopefully) wiser – I find my competitive nature rising up to meet these challenges, and I’m learning to see them differently. Most of us know that great rewards require great sacrifice and effort. You know the old saying that nothing worthwhile comes easy? In a sense that’s true. If everything we wanted was handed to us, we probably wouldn’t have a lot of appreciation for it. On the other hand, when we work hard for something and then see it manifest before our eyes, we get such a powerful sense of pride and accomplishment. We can point to it and say, “I did that. It was tough, but I did it anyway.”

Challenges are truly opportunities. Opportunities to grow and learn, to strengthen ourselves, to test ourselves and our faith. They reveal how badly we want to create the dreams in our hearts, and how hard we’re willing to work for them. This is such a blessing. It may not seem that way at first, but with a tiny shift in attitude, we can see that we have been handed an incredible opportunity.

The next time life hands you a challenge, stop and consider for a moment what it means. Is the universe saying “no”, or “I want you to try harder?” Don’t look at challenges as an end, look at them as a door leading to your heart’s desires. That door might be locked, but you have the key. Maybe you forgot where you put the key, or you forgot that you even had it to begin with. It might take some effort and patience to find it again – or you might even have to create a new one, but believe that you will, even if you’re not sure how yet.

I’m learning that it’s not important to have all the answers right now. When challenges rise up before us, we may not know how to get around them, or through them. It might seem hopeless at first. Challenges can seem so overwhelming when we don’t have a solution. However, life itself is very much like this too. Sometimes life is akin to bumping around in a dark room, trying to find the light switch. It is possible to get through the room without finding the light switch immediately, we just need to step slowly and carefully. Moment to moment, we find our way.

Rather than giving up when obstacles appear in your path, look at them as welcome challenges. The biggest challenge is choosing your own attitude. Will you get flustered and angry, or will you get excited and determined? Will you lay down and cry, or will you roll up your sleeves and get to work? Some of us take on a victim mentality when obstacles arise, and I can see why this happens. It does feel like the universe is picking on us, doesn’t it? I think we’ve all been there!

Why not change your mindset and think of obstacles as a personal challenge? Rather than feeling like the universe is picking on you, challenge yourself to figure out a solution. Say to yourself, “Okay, such and such has happened, now what am I going to do about it”? Put your problem-solving skills to work.

Once we begin to change our attitude about obstacles and challenges, they can actually become fun. Our competitive human nature rises up and gets ready to win, no matter what. We develop a steely determination to not be beaten.

In fact, I like to pretend there is a great critic in the sky who laughs mockingly at me and says, “You can’t do that.” I simply grin wickedly, roll up my sleeves and say, “Watch me!”

After the earthquake of January 12th, 2010, I thought that everything was over for my Haitian folks because of the enormous devastations, But these people invented hope where there was no light of hope to be seen.

At this catastrophic period, I realized for the first time of my life how powerless I was. My people lost everything they possessed including innocent lives. more than 300.000 persons died. It was difficult to meet a family without a lost. For some people, it was just another catastrophic episode on television. But for me it was the city I grew up in, the streets I used to walk in, the neighbors I used to greet, the friends I went to school with, on and on.

At this very moment, I asked myself a relevant question about what I could do to support the people in my community? Well, one of the answers was to raise money through a concert. First, the choir Joyful Noise Singer, answered the call, followed by a friend from Pensacola opera in Florida, then Hector Louis Jeune and his fellow Haitian Band of New Orleans joined me in the adventure and, of course, other kind friends from the Pensacola community.

As a result, we were able to raise $3000.00 for two different catholic youth communities to help support activities that could help dealing with the earthquake trauma. Some other people with humanitarians hearts gave some clothes to support my Haitian communities.

Well if you consider the gigantic dimension of the problems and the tiny effort we have accomplished, you may see it like a cup of water in the sea. But, I may disagree with you by saying we did something with empty hands. Mother Teressa would say:” If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed one.”

Having the privilege to reach out to others. experiencing generosity, love, and compassion of others. These are called the diligent act of love.

Marie Jessie A. Elusma

Success or Bust!

We’ve all been driving down the road and seen those infamous signs in the back of all types of automobiles that say something like “Disneyland or Bust”. What does this mean? Basically, it means that those people are on their way to Disneyland and they will do absolutely anything no matter how much money, time or gas that they waste. They will get to Disneyland or BUST (go broke, run out of gas, waste too much time) trying to get there.

Now, let me ask you a question. Are you wearing this sign on your back as you head down the road to financial freedom?

SUCCESS OR BUST!

No, I don’t mean a real sign but you are doing everything possible to become successful no matter how much money, time or relationships it cost you. If this is you, then here’s a suggestion…stop the madness! Your success journey should progressively improve as you head down the path. Let me give you an example.

One of my coaching clients had been building her business for five years without any financial gain. That’s right, absolutely no progress. After just a few coaching sessions, she realized that she had been building her business wrong for five years. The minute that she began implementing strategies and techniques that actually work her business went through the roof. She’s now on her success journey and she is paving her way with golden bricks. This lady refuses to wear that sign that most of you are wearing…Success or Bust!

So, how do you know if you have that sign on your back? Well, subscribe with us and we will soon tell you how..