MANSFIELD, Ohio – Richland County has a connection with Haiti through “Homes of Hope.” The relationship continues this week as local residents return to further their efforts to make a difference.
Two years ago, Mansfield resident Marsha Milliron-DeVito took a trip to Welsh, Haiti that would steer her – and some other area residents – onto a new life path.
She went as a curious entrepreneur looking to start what she described as a “micro project” that aided Haitians in housing. While there, the micro project turned into something more meaningful. She found an ongoing sustainable project she couldn’t overlook – one that has been unfolding for almost 15 years.
In the small rural community of Welshin Les Cayes, she met Maxon Clersaint. With his own funds, he built a church, a HIV clinic and a school and dug a well. Then he hired teachers for the school. But he soon ran out of money and resources.
Then he met Ed Schwartz, president of the non-profit, faith based Loving Shepherd Ministries (LSM) out of Bluffton, Indiana.
A friendship sparked between two men who shared similar passions. As the friendship grew, Schwartz learned Clersaint is HIV-positive and that Clersaint’s deep desire was to help children who are also HIV-positive. The two envisioned providing homes and families for these children who are often orphaned and left vulnerable.
It was this friendship that started the “Homes of Hope” movement. In 2006, they built two of them and since then built 16 more. The first two house 25 young boys and girls who are HIV-positive. The other 16 are designated for children who have been rescued from the “restavek” culture: a modern form of child slavery widely accepted in Haiti. In each home dwell permanent caretakers.
So when Milliron-DeVito arrived in Welsh and witnessed the collaborative work between LSM and the Haitians, she said she was in awe.
“I was expecting to see poor, poor, poor all over the place. With LSM though, I realized a structured program, where they (Haitians) learn leadership, is happening,” Milliron-DeVito said. “There’s a transformation going on: I got to be part of that.”
She wasn’t alone.
Grant Milliron, DeVito-Milliron’s father and president of Milliron Industries in Richland County said he had wanted to help Haitians in some way for years.
“I read something seven or eight years ago that said Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. At that moment God tapped me on the shoulder. The thought was planted, I wanted to help in some way,” commented Milliron. The timing was never right though, he said.
Through the years, his friends Leonard Dolce of Dolce Tree Services and Dan Tucker of Tucker Brothers Auto Wrecking invited him to take trips down to Haiti. But he never felt a peace, he said. Finally, an invitation piqued his interest: they were building a school in Welsh. He planned a trip to scope out the site but injured his shoulder weeks before, so he sent his daughter in his stead.
When Milliron-DeVito came back from her trip in January 2013, she showed Milliron the pictures. She said she was in awe with LSM. It was time; the family decided to be financial partners.
LSM was founded in 2002 as a non-profit organization devoted to “help[ing] the world’s most vulnerable children reach their God-given potential.” Stationed in Ethiopia and Haiti, they have developed a strategy to help vulnerable children and families overcome so they can be self sustainable – a vision that Milliron-DeVito wholeheartedly supports.
In addition to the financial support, Milliron-DeVito organizes “vision trips.” Schwartz described these trips as experiences that help others learn the Haitian culture.
“It’s purely for people to understand Haitian history. It permits them to experience the sights, smells, and sounds. So it’s not your typical short term mission trip, but it’s not a vacation either. Our thought is that the people who go on these vision trips will take what they learn back to the U.S.,” said Schwartz.
The organization hosts vision trips for individuals from around the country — Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Texas — and they plan on more in the near future.
When Part Two is delivered, the story will explore some of the issues LSM is working to remedy.
Richland Source Staff Reporter Dillon Carr is accompanying a local group to Haiti this week. This is the first of his stories, and it introduces the group and why they are going.
“I was expecting to see poor, poor, poor all over the place. With LSM though, I realized a structured program, where they (Haitians) learn leadership, is happening,” Marsha Milliron-DeVito said.
