Hello All,
Today I would like to write about one of our longest tenured families and greatest success stories
Yeni, Didona, Nini, Momo, Luis Mani
The mother, Momo, works as a cook for the JRF and has been a Good Threads stitcher since 2013, the father of the family was the first male Good Threads stitcher. Together Momo and Ricardo have 4 daughters, the elder 2, Luis Mani(17) and Didona(15) have been in the foundation since we opened our doors in October 2010, the younger 2, Jenny(14) and Nini(12) joined in 2011. I still remember when I first visited their house for the necessity/poverty interviews I conducted when choosing who to select for the foundation. They lived in what was called a pension, which is a house that has been divided up so that different families rent different rooms, generally with each room having a door that leads outside. I remember walking up to that house thinking it wasn’t huge but for a 6 person family, 3 rooms wasn’t too bad before realizing that the 6 person family had 1 small room and the other rooms were occupied by other families.
Yeni, Didona, Nini, Luis Mani
The oldest, Luis Mani, is one of those people that is good at everything. She is academically gifted, a great dancer, athletic, a hard worker, humble and seemingly liked by everyone. She has a kind heart and I have never seen her be cruel to another child or person. Her favorite things to do are dance and sing and she is an active member at the church people at the foundation go to. She hopes to be a doctor and is definitely on a path to accomplish that goal and continue to be a shining example of what the foundation can help our children accomplish.
Didona is the second oldest and goofiest of the girls. She loves to sing, dance and is always laughing and joking. She is considerably wilder than Luis Mani and that side of her personality has been evident for years. I remember when Catherine started doing dance class at the foundation Didona would know the steps and had a great sense of rhythm, but all of her movements were big and wildish where as her sister would dance in a far more controlled fashion. She is super close with Naomi, our other cook Tania’s youngest Daughter, who was walking at 8 months and is clearly built tough. Didona is also quite popular and has a good heart.
The third oldest girl is Jenny. Jenny is a super good athlete and stud dancer. She is not as confident as her other sisters and has really grown a ton this last year, physically. It is a real shame there are not organized sports in Haiti as I feel like Jenny would be able to benefit greatly from her athleticism, be it through confidence or a college scholarship. Jenny laughs a lot but is relatively quiet. She is a solid student and also hopes to be a nurse.
The youngest Daughter,Nini, is very smart and has a sharp wit. She is a good dancer and athlete just like her sisters and just like her sisters her favorite things to do are dance and sing. Nini has some sass to her and likes to mess around with the boys. Her and Williamson, our second oldest, have had an on again, off again relationship for years. They don’t have phones or internet or any ability to actually date but there have been some love letters and Valentines gifts have been sent over the years. Nini wants to be a doctor or nurse, someone got it into her head that doctors make less money than nurses and don’t know how to do stuff like operate or actually help people. Her exact words to me were Doctors don’t operate on anyone or attend them, they just sit around all day and tell nurses what to do. I am not sure where she got such idea from and I tried to dissuade her but it is hard to teach someone something that they already know.
Our sincerest hope is that all 4 of these young women attend college and dote on their mother into golden years. Families like this are the exact reason that the Joan Rose Foundation was founded and the success of families like this is proof that what we are doing is making a difference. As always thank you all for your support, without you none of this would be possible.
Sincerely,
David Palmer
