Joan Rose Foundation 10 Year Progress Report

In mid October the Joan Rose Foundation reached it’s 10^th year since we first opened our doors. Id like to take this update as a chance to look back on our biggest accomplishments and also our biggest changes. This is too much to put into a single update so I am going to use this first update to list our accomplishments in general and then in subsequent updates talk about the individual categories, Nutrition, Education, Healthcare, some of our success stories and a final update about the overall journey that the JRF and I have been on.

Nutrition– Provided over 510,000 meals provided to Haitian and Dominican children.
We have served 500 to 1500 meals a week depending on what year you were to look at, 1000 is a fair average. We serve food about 51 weeks out of the year, so we have served over 510,000 meals to impoverished children to date. That has obviously made a tremendous difference in a lot of children’s physical and intellectual development and saved a lot of family’s money that they were able to use to improve their lives. While doing the math it also appears that the JRF has now fed me about 1750 over these f

irst 10 years, so thank you all for that as well, the food has been delicious.

Yuben when entering the JRF with the fluid filled belly that a lack of protein/nutrition creates

Yuben after a few months eating at the foundation

Yuben Happy

Healthcare- We have directly saved the lives of 3 children, saved the life of 1 adult, treated thousands of skin infections, paid for thousands of prescriptions, provided hundreds of children with dental care and provided glasses for dozens of children. We have also helped with and paid for dozens of hospitalizations, bone breaks, motorcycle accidents, and minor surgeries. We also extended the life of Neri, the mother of the boys we adopted, for at least 1 year, probably more like 2 or 3.

Misbelli in 2013

Nelson 2020

Yakelin 2020

Education– We have paid 625 years of private school tuition, 125 children a year for 5 years. We have provided uniforms and books for over 1125 school years, 125 a year for 10 years. We have taught dozens of teens and pre-teens, who would not have received any formal education without us, basic math and reading skills. We have provided our children with over 2500 days of tutoring, mostly using a curriculum and teaching methods far superior to those they get in school. We have provided English classes for dozens of kids for years and taught our children about money, business and how to think things through. We have one foundation girl in her 3^rd year of studying medicine and another dozen or so who will hopefully enter college in the near future (inside 5 years) and even more who are on route to attend college in the next 10 years.

Cedric, Xena, Islin and Tiberlin in their school uniforms

Biggest Individual Success Stories-
Wadson– Wadson and Yobanny are brothers that lived in the ghetto that I moved to in 2010 when I was first doing research about opening a non profit foundation. Both have achieved success but for the sake of brevity I will focus on Wadson. They were super poor, their mother was not in the picture, their father was a bit of a degenerate and their step mother saw them as competition for resources that could go to her own children. Wadson had charisma, an infectious smile, optimistic outlook and was a total hustler in the best sense of the word. Wadson is now about 22, has two children, both of which he takes care of, a car he rents out to tourists in the DR, a steady job and is close to finishing his high school diploma at night school. We are extremely proud of Wadson. For a Haitian child in the DR who was homeless before the age of 12, whose mom died before he was 15 and came from a family where few had ever finished school to be where he is, is a true testament to the influence the foundation can have on our children.

Wadson and David in Haiti in 2011

Wadson and his Daughter in 2020

Maria Celeste- Maria Celeste joined the foundation in late 2010, her brother had been in the foundation from day 1. She was about 12 at the time, she was already in school and very smart. Her brother died in 2013 unexpectedly and unnecessarily and it rocked their family. That motivated her to be a pediatrician so she could help young boys like her brother and she is on the precipice of realizing that dream. She was Dominican and so did not come with the foundation when we moved in 2015. She got pregnant in early 2014 at the age of 15 or 16. She took a year off school but returned and is now 2 years away from being a doctor. We have sent some small help since leaving the DR but have not done much for her since 2015. We are super proud of the success she has been able to achieve and while she deserves the credit for her amazing accomplishments, we think the education and support she found at the foundation helped and we are very proud.

Maria Celeste with Yanira in front of her

Maria Celeste and her daughter in 2020

Felina and Yanira- Yanira was also a Dominican who was with us from when we opened our doors that first day to when we left for Haiti. We are paying her expenses for college and have continued to help with her high school expenses over the years. Yanira has a great attitude/head on her shoulders and is a hard worker. She got along with everyone and was genuinely kind. She is starting college now as it was cancelled this fall due to Corona. Felina is a 20 year old Haitian girl. She was with us from 2010 until last year when she moved back to the DR with her mother and sisters. She has missed a year of school due to some paperwork issues but is also on route to attend college in the coming years. She is very smart, responsible, hard working, good hearted and motivated. She wants to be a doctor and we will help her with the school costs. Her younger sisters are also on track to attend college in the not too distant future.

Felina with her sisters and cousin, all longtime JRF members. Felina is at the bottom left

Yanira in 2020, you can see her in 2011 in the picture with Maria Celeste above

Boloko- Boloko started with us in 2011. He was probably 13 at the time and didn’t even know how to hold a pencil. He was generally a happy kid with a great attitude. He was too old to start and finish formal schooling but we did teach him how to read, write and do basic math and enrolled him in night school. His mother and father were not in the picture so when we moved to Haiti he came with us without any family. He started working at the JRF sometime in 2015. Catherine fired him once but he got brought back a few months later. He still works at the foundation and does a great job managing the kids, maintenance and overall supervision. He fixes up motorcycles and sells them on the side to make extra money and also stitches for GT. He is another example of someone who has done better than 99.9% of the children who were in similar situations to his at 13 year old.

Boloko in 2011

Boloko with his Moto in 2020

Lastly I will write about my experience. I wont lie, 10 years of running the JRF has certainly left me more distrusting, cynical and jaded but not less motivated. I thought I knew what was what because I had lived in some ghetto’s and had some real experiences and while I was less of an ignorant schmuck than many who start non profits or do service trips abroad, I was still an ignorant schmuck. It took a generous heaping of betrayal and the grim realities of lower class people in the 3rd world to carry me from ignorant schmuck to what I am today, a distrusting yet optimistic leader. I am proud that those experiences tempered me and did not break me. For a while in the middle there I thought I had to “harden” myself to feeling too much when I had to deal with horrible stuff. Turns out when you harden yourself to the bad you end up also hardening yourself to the good so I wouldn’t recommend that. Being sick for 3 years due to parasites, bacteria and antibiotics was also an experience I don’t hope to repeat. However, I have never considered quitting and know that we have made a huge difference in a lot of people’s lives. The JRF and work that has developed from the JRF is how I have chosen to spend my life and I am as committed to that decision as ever. Our mission of breaking the cycle of poverty our families are stuck in is not easy but we will keep grinding and we are succeeding. None of this would be possible without our donors and we are truly grateful, together we are making a real difference.