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“The most important thing I learned during my first trip to Haiti was the difference between doing things for people who want and working for people who need,” says Jay Fowler ’73. A New Jersey builder and president of Arthur B. Fowler, Inc., he is trying to spread that message in order to gain support for a group of desperately poor orphans in Les Cayes, Haiti.
Fowler became involved with the orphanage through the Ridgewood, N.J., AM Rotary Club, which has taken on the challenge of providing housing, food, education, medical care, and vocational training for the children. He is now a trustee of Theos Works, the not-for-profit organization which runs the orphanage founded in 1998 by Father Marc Boisvert.
“In October 2001, 15 members of the club flew to Haiti, taking 45 duffle bags of supplies for the children,” says Fowler. “We painted the orphanage and looked for land where we could help build a new community–Hope Village–for the children.” Construction is about to begin on a 43-acre site. A few months ago Fowler flew to Kansas City to pick up a school bus, which will be packed with supplies and shipped to Les Cayes. About 165 boys live at the orphanage, and an additional 250 children attend school there. Hundreds more need a place to go.