We met Wislaine 3 years ago on a prayer walk in Williamson. She was at home with her sister, Mineze, caring for her young son and her nieces and nephews while her mother and other sisters were selling goods in the market to provide for the family. Wislaine was very sweet and so happy to talk with us. She was first and foremost concerned about her sister, (read Mineze’s story) and wanted us to help get Mineze on her feet. In helping Mineze, we formed a relationship with this special family.
Pictured: WWV team members with Wislaine (right) and Mineze (middle)
After helping Mineze get on her feet, all of the children in the family – including Wislaine’s son – were enrolled in the WWV school thanks to our generous sponsors! What a blessing for these children to be able to receive a Christ-centered education.
Pictured: Wislaine with her son (Widensley) and sponsor (Taylor Urban)
As we kept in touch with this family, the question still remained…how could we best provide for this single mother and empower her to support her young son? For Wislaine, she already knew the answer to this question. During one of our conversations she shared that she had a dream to become a seamstress. With the help of her family, she had already finished her first semester of sewing school, but because of the high cost of tuition and the cost of transportation to the nearest vocational school, she was unable to continue her schooling past the first semester. Thanks to generous supporters like you, Wislaine has been attending sewing school – and although she has to travel long distances to get there – she will complete her schooling in July!
Pictured: Wislaine (center) working on a new sewing machine
The heart of World Wide Village is to help build up the Haitian people. This was a great opportunity to bless a young mother and empower her to care for her family. What a gift it has been to show love to Wislaine in this way! As a seamstress, Wislaine will be able to sew school uniforms worn by children in the local schools. These uniforms worn daily by the children need to be replaced annually so there is a steady stream of work for someone who has been trained as a seamstress. Thank you for helping answer Wislaine’s prayer of being able to provide for her family.
Pictured: Wislaine & her sisters at a women’s Bible conference in Williamson
The goal of WWV is NOT to be a “toxic charity”. WWV seeks to walk alongside and not in front of the Haitian people. WWV wants to empower and encourage the Haitians who are an amazingly resourceful people – like Wislaine – despite their circumstances. In Toxic Charity, Robert Lupton says, “…the poor, no matter how destitute, have enormous untapped capacity; find it, be inspired by it, and build upon it.” This was our goal in helping Wislaine.