NEEDHAM — The idea was born from a firsthand look at the desperation that enveloped Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010: Build a home for a few dozen of the thousands of children orphaned by the disaster.
That goal was met in late October by the Alliance for Children Foundation, based in Needham, which moved about 40 orphans from a squalid home with little supervision to a modern, fully-staffed building in Kenscoff, a remote mountain village south of the chaotic capital, Port-au-Prince.
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Not to take anything away from Alliance for Children or any of the other wonderful organizations working to help Haiti's children, but I would like to call your attention to another, possibly more poignant, story of success in that area. Len and Cherylann Gengel have founded an organization called, "Be Like Brit" in honor of their 19 year old daughter Brit, who died in the Haiti earthquake. Brit, who was working with the children of Haiti as part of a college project, wrote home to her parents to say she loved what she was doing and hoped to one day return to Haiti to establish an orphanage. Be Like Brit has pretty much finished construction of an orphanage, built to honor their daughter's wishes and memory, which was designed to house 33 boys and 33 girls. The number 33 was chosen because it took 33 days for rescuers to find and uncover Brit's body in the earthquake rubble. A wonderful story of love and the transmutation of tragedy.
Billions have been sent to Haiti for its restoration yet their desperate misfortune continues. What happened to the money?