I’ve been asked to keep and maintain a blog for Edge Outreach through April of this year. The purpose of the blog is to tell some of the stories from their ongoing work in Haiti.

In July of 1999, Kelly Fleury was in Haiti attending the funeral of his brother, Dezman, who had worked for a rental care agency and had a passion for helping poor children in and around Leogane. At the funeral Kelly met a poor widow who was weeping because Dezman was the only person who had helped her and her children survive. Inspired by his brother, Kelly formed the Dezman Fleury Foundation that year. They began by building an orphanage. Slowly raising additional funds, they built a clinic and pharmacy, a school, and a bakery. The bakery was used as a business to teach a trade to the girls from the orphanage and to provide funds.

Pictures from their website taken before the earthquake tell the story. The facilities were modest by some standards, but the children were clean and well cared for. The orphanage, school, bakery, and clinic are like many social service ministries in Haiti. They are mostly run by small groups who do the best they can without a lot of resources. What you notice in the pre-earthquake photos is how clean everything was. You also notice the faces of the children. They looked happy.

The earthquake on January 12th decimated the Fleury Foundation buildings, as it did so many others. As usual, the poorest of the poor were the hardest hit…

Click here to read the rest of the story.