About

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Orphanage Foundation

Our Purpose

The purpose of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Haiti Orphanage Foundation is to provide financial support for the construction and operation of an orphanage in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. The orphanage provides food, shelter, education, health care and religious instruction for abandoned or orphaned Haitian children. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Orphanage Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. All donations are tax-deductible.

The team has worked tirelessly through every obstacle they’ve faced in order to establish the foundation to raise money to care for their children who just happen to live on a distant island. Along the way they have been helped by strong support from many in the surrounding Midwest and beyond who recognize not only the importance of their work, but also the advantage of being able to give money that directly benefits the children that they care about.

A mother can always recognize the sound of her child’s cry. A group of mothers in Muncie, Indiana, came together to form the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Foundation (OLPH) because they heard the sound of their children coming from the voices of the orphans who live in the OLPH Orphanage in Haiti. When Fr. Andre Sylvestre came and shared with them the stories and lives of the children, they felt a calling to take the welfare of these children, in part, as their responsibility. The foundation president, Ditas Rousseau, quickly found support from other women and men in the community who similarly felt the connection to these children.

Each fundraising event is a joyful activity that helps these mothers and fathers provide for their “children” in Haiti.

About Fr. Andre Sylvestre

Fr. Andre Sylvester, a diocesan priest from the Archdiocese of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, completed his Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology at Ball State University in 2009. During his time in Muncie, Fr. Andre says he felt, “a calling to help abandoned children.”
Upon returning to Haiti, Fr. Andre began building an orphanage where he says children, “have the privilege to feel love, have access to education and health care, hear the good news of the Gospel, and learn how to shape their destiny.”

The Orphans

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Haiti Orphanage is currently home to 36 children and is sanctioned by Max Lero Mésidor, Metropolitan Archbishop of Cap-Haitien, and the Archdiocese of Cap-Haitien, Haiti.

Did You Know?

Haiti had 380,000 orphans before the earthquake in 2010. Now there are thousands more.
Haiti’s literacy rate is about 61%.
Only 50% of Haitian children are able to attend school.
Only 20% of Haitian children attend secondary school.
Of all schools in Haiti, 90% are privately run.
Haiti has more than 300,000 children in restavek. Restavek is a form of modern-day child slavery that persists in Haiti, affecting one in every 15 children.
Tens of thousands of Haitian children live alone on the streets.
Up to 90% of Haitians do not have running water.
Over 100 Haitians are infected with cholera every day.