Pen ak Pwason Program of St. Joseph's House

Our aim is to try each day to build a new society in the shell of the old as we practice the various works of mercy, and labor wit...Learn more

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Sarah Brownell is fundraising
Pen ak Pwason needs help to buy food in Jan '24
Every year gets more difficult in Haiti - gang violence, inflation, political stalemate, and insecurity - keep society from functioning in all ways imaginable. More people are hungry in Borgne with each passing month. Haiti is out of the news, but it hasn't gotten better there.

We are still struggling with keeping food on the large tables at Pen ak Pwason where we feed 100 older and disabled people twice a week (with a leftovers). It's supposed to be a supplement to what their families and the community can offer, but in many cases, these four meals are all they get. Better off families used to be able to put aside some food for those who needed it, but now everyone is in need.

I am reaching out because we do not currently have enough money to buy food for January, which is only a few days away! We also need $600 to pay rent for our building for all of 2024. St. Joseph's House has been challenged financially with issues related to one of their buildings and cannot help support us at the moment. Can you?

We need $2400 to get through the month. We have not missed a month of providing food for 15 years, and I hope to keep that going. Also, we buy locally grown food and give stipends to our director and cooks, so all the money we send stays at work in the community of Borgne supporting other families.

I know there is a lot going on in the world right now, but please share this with others who might have a little to spare to help us get through. Any amount helps...it only takes $15 to provide a month's worth of food for one of our guests.

We are small and don't have a website, but you can read more about the history of the program here: Pen ak Pwason History

Happy New Year and good wishes for 2024! Here's a picture from last year's New Years and Haitian Independence Day Celebration:
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23 supporters
Sarah Brownell is fundraising
Urgent need: Keep the soup on at Pen ak Pwason
I write this to you from a place of desperation. The need for food in Borgne, Haiti—especially for the most vulnerable—is grave, and I have not yet raised enough to cover October. The continued gang violence, insecurity, heavy inflation and high cost of living in Haiti restricts planting, harvesting, commerce, transport of goods, and planning for the future in general.

When we started the Pen ak Pwason through St. Joseph's House of Hospitality, it was intended as a supplement for what people in need could find to eat through the kindness of their neighbors. Now our director Somane Augustama says she has doubled the portions of rice because these meals are the only meals our guests get now, and they have to make each one last 2-3 days. Doubling the amount of rice on a fixed budget means less meat and vegetables, less nutrition overall. Still, something in one’s stomach is better than nothing.

October is our anniversary month, and this marks 16 years of continuous operation. Over that time, Pen ak Pwason has served at least 122,000 meals. Pen ak Pwason is the place the community knows to send people in need of nourishment…people whose aging bodies or minds no longer allow them to work, people without family support, people with disabilities, people recently out of jail, people escaping gang violence in the capital, people who can’t work temporarily due to illness, people who have suffered strokes or been injured in accidents. Additionally, after they serve the guests each day, they hand any leftovers out the door. As most everyone in Haiti rushes to leave, Somane says she will stay. She cannot leave behind her “granmoun” (older folks) at Pen ak Pwason. They have become her family and, even if they might be a generation her senior, they often call her mother.

What we need right now to protect these most vulnerable in Borgne is $1800 to cover food for October and an additional $670 for rent. Food costs a little less than $2/meal, so $15 can feed one of our guests for one month. Can you help provide food for one person? Or for one meal?

They say in Haiti:

“Bèf san ke, Bondye pouse mouch pou li.”

For the cow without at tail, God shoos away the flies.

God does not have any eyes but ours. God does not have any feet but ours. God does not have any hands but ours. God needs us to help express Their great love. If you can help in any amount, it would be greatly appreciated.
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12 supporters
Sarah Brownell is fundraising
Repairs and Clean Water for the Food Program
The Pen ak Pwason (Bread and Fish) Food Program for the Elderly and Disabled has been serving up love in Borgne, Haiti for more than 14 years.

Somane, Marivierge, and Marceline have purchased locally grown food, cooked and served it four days a week *without ever missing a meal* despite political chaos in Haiti, desperate need at the door, rampant inflation, and danger to their personal safety. They do this as their gift of love to their community.

Now our building needs repairs. When it rains, they get drenched, and the food stores are sometimes ruined because of the leaking roof. Last year, we purchased a new water drum to store clean water from the spring when it runs (intermittent). But inflation ate away at our budget for installing it on a stand that can protect it from hurricane winds, so our cooks are still using water from an unprotected well. In addition, the block walls need repair and paint to combat mold.

Can you help support these three incredible women who represent love and hope despite the difficult times Haitians are enduring?
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16 supporters
Sarah Brownell is fundraising
Wishing for the gift of water
This holiday season, I am wishing for the gift of water. Here’s why:

Isnido sent me a message from Haiti last week on Whatsapp:

"Those up the street can’t go down, those down can’t go up. One gallon gas is 2000 HTG ($20). Everything is quiet. Every kind of oppression sits upon the head of our nation. The hungry do not speak. Misery is everywhere. No one knows what to do anymore."

I have known Isnido for almost 20 years. He is a carpenter who long ago volunteered his skill when we were repairing the “Poor House,” a simple shelter for the homeless, in Borgne, Haiti. He is also a farmer. He currently lives in Vodrey outside of Cap Haitien where he organized a local community farm which feeds its own members and gives away extra produce to those in need. They use a few different plots of land donated for their use by the church and community members. A few years ago, I helped them purchase their first batch of seeds. They struggle at the mercy of the weather. Drought dried their peppers on the plants last year and hurricanes can blow down corn stalks before the ears are ripe. But sometimes, things go right. When the harvest is especially abundant, Isnido sends the surplus to the Pen ak Pwason program in Borgne, Haiti (a group I support through St. Joseph’s House of Hospitality in Rochester) which feeds 100 elderly and disabled guests two times a week. Isnido’s community farm group is trying to have a well dug to irrigate one of their large fields so that they can improve their harvests and share the food with more people. They need $2000 more to dig the well, line it and add a pump.

The Pen ak Pwason program also has a special water need this year. Their water storage drum cracked when it was blown around in a hurricane. Our cooks have had to carry water from a good distance away to use for preparing the food for the last year. They are hoping to purchase a new drum and create a concrete bracket to better hold it in place. They need about $800 for these repairs.

Hunger in Haiti is growing because of COVID closures, the political crisis and the gas shortage. These two programs are local efforts to blunt the force of it. They are proof that small acts multiplied 7+ billion times will see us through. As the holiday season begins, many are wishing for snow. Some are wishing for new toys…but I am wishing for water, water to grow and serve food, to nourish bodies, and to sustain hope in Haiti during these dark times.
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16 supporters
Sebastien Selarque is fundraising
Haiti Soup Kitchen : ESW-RIT

Sebastien Selarque

Engineers for a Sustainable World at the Rochester Institute for Technology (ESW-RIT) is a group led by students who are passionate about developing sustainability technology and building resiliency in local and global communities.

A pillar of our mission is to build a global network of communities with a shared culture of sustainability. Therefore, this year we began work addressing sustainable economic development in Borgne, Haiti.

Most Haitians live in rural, decentralized communes that don’t have easy access to clean water, electricity, or medical care. Natural disasters, such as the magnitude 7 earthquake in 2010, and un-natural disasters, such as the Food Price Crisis of 2008, cause tremendous strain on these communities that already have very little. It was during this time that Sarah Brownell co-founded the Pen ak Pwason food program. Their mission is to provide food to the elderly and disabled. Providing security to those marginalized by a society that has experienced a very difficult history.

Your contribution works for the community twice. First, the money you donate will go directly to supporting Pen ak Pwason’s humanitarian mission. Second, the money is used to purchase food from local farmers, therefore stimulating the local economy and allowing other families to pursue other forms of betterment.

When it was founded Pen ak Pwason could provide food to 25 guests. Now the program supports 100 guests.

Original 25 Haitians enjoying a meal.

Legim, seafood and vegetable stew over rice, is ready to be served.

Led by director Somane Agustama and accompanied by cooks Marceline and Marivierge, Pen ak Pwason is an inviting, loving place that bolsters guests sense of community. The program just celebrated its 10th anniversary and we hope to help enable them to continue their great work.

From left, Marceline, Marivierge and Somane preparing breadfruit for a meal.

My team and I have found inspiration from the parable The Flight of the Hummingbird. Here, I paraphrase the story.

When the whole forest was on fire the animals watched in sorrow as their home burned. The resilient hummingbird alone flew to the river, took a drop of water, and tried to halt the fire. “What are you doing?!” cried the other animals. Without a pause the hummingbird responded, “I am doing what I can.”

From this we derive the symbol of our campaign. The hummingbird represents the value of our effort, big or small, to protect that which we cherish. The hummingbird is a reminder that the support of an individual is never negligible nor futile. There is profound merit in taking whatever action one can make.

The design was kindly provided by Chloe Selarque of Jahier Studio.
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32 supporters

About Pen ak Pwason Program of St. Joseph's House

Our aim is to try each day to build a new society in the shell of the old as we practice the various works of mercy, and labor with whatever resources, physical as well as spiritual, that we have been given at the time.

402 South aveRochester, NY 14620

Find Pen ak Pwason Program of St. Joseph's House at

Causes

Human services, Dining services

Established

1949

Tax ID

16-6038688

NTEE code

Congregate Meals

Pen ak Pwason Program of St. Joseph's House is a 501(c)(3) public charity, EIN 16-6038688. Donations are tax-deductible. Select content is provided by GuideStar.

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Pen ak Pwason Program of St. Joseph's House

Pen ak Pwason needs help to buy food in Jan '24

Urgent need: Keep the soup on at Pen ak Pwason

Repairs and Clean Water for the Food Program

Wishing for the gift of water

Haiti Soup Kitchen : ESW-RIT