Haiti Empowered, a nonprofit that operates schools and provides meals and healthcare to more than 2,500 children in Haiti, has launched a cross-country road tour called The Empowered Road. The initiative comes as the organization faces a $150,000 budget shortfall this year, largely because the COVID-19 pandemic shut down mission trips that had historically introduced new supporters to its work.
For years, mission trips served as the primary way Americans encountered Haiti Empowered. Volunteers traveled to Haiti, met the children and the Haitian team, and returned home as sponsors, advocates, and long-term partners. That pipeline has largely disappeared since trips stopped during the pandemic. At one point, child sponsorship accounted for about 75 percent of the organization’s income. Today, it is closer to 47 percent.
The financial strain is compounded by rising costs for food, fuel, medical supplies, transportation, and wages for the Haitian team who keep the schools running. Haiti Empowered is currently feeding children on credit, and the $150,000 gap represents what rising costs have added this year alone. If the gap is not closed, the organization may be forced to close a school, stop meals, and send children home to a country where more than half the population faces acute hunger and over 1.8 million people are in the emergency phase of food insecurity.
The stakes are particularly high for Haiti’s youngest. An estimated 253,725 young children are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition over the coming year, and one in seven Haitian children is already out of school, with nearly a million more at risk of dropping out. For the children who attend Haiti Empowered schools, the classroom is more than a place to learn. It is where they eat, where they receive healthcare, and often the safest and most hopeful place they know.
The road tour is a direct response to the loss of mission trips. If people cannot come to Haiti, Haiti Empowered president Kay Larson is bringing Haiti’s story to them. The cross-country journey aims to share the mission in person and introduce a new generation of supporters to the children who depend on the organization. Larson knows the power of a compelling story. Last year, when Haiti Empowered fell behind budget and one of its schools was in danger of closing, she worked with Creative Studio Productions, an Eagan-based creative agency, to build a campaign called Adopt a Box. The campaign allowed supporters to give at any level, from $25 to $1,000, and raised $42,000 in thirty days, surpassing its $40,000 goal. The budget was caught up, the school stayed open, and the children continued to receive meals, lessons, and care.
This time, the gap is larger, and the organization is asking for introductions rather than just donations. One introduction can become a relationship, and one relationship can help sustain the work for years. For those who want to learn more about the mission or support the road tour, visit https://haitiempowered.org.
The implications of Haiti Empowered’s road tour extend beyond a single nonprofit. It illustrates how the pandemic’s disruption of international travel continues to reverberate through organizations that relied on mission trips for both fundraising and volunteer engagement. As nonprofits adapt, the success of such tours could determine whether vulnerable children continue to receive education and meals, or whether they become part of Haiti’s worsening hunger and education crisis.
