Jean

Graduate Student, Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

“My name is Jean Dominique and I am from Port-au-Prince Haiti. I had a blessed childhood in Haiti with parents who did their best to provide me with the best education, with food, and the safety of a home. While living in Haiti opened my eyes to many things that others might not see, it also blinded me to certain conditions — one being the extreme poverty all around me.

Before going back to Haiti I was aware of the poverty there and I am ashamed to say that I somehow got used to it. As I got out of the airport with my fellow students, I was rediscovering my country meter by meter as the bus drove through the capital city. Every time a student, faculty or staff made a comment, I saw things through their eyes. I was a Haitian who went back to a foreign home. I was very confused.

Seeing people my age, with the same nationality as me living in such conditions disturbed me deeply. Listening to my classmates’, teachers’ and mentors’ comments made my heart even heavier. “Why didn’t I know this before? Why don’t us Haitians “fix” this?” I asked myself, but the answers did not reveal themselves to me. This was way bigger than anything I’d ever dealt with in the past and it made me even more desperate inside.

I kept a straight face to my group, but my feelings inside were different. I was grateful for their help, grateful for them taking time to come learn about my country, grateful for the kind words they said about the Haitian families they met, grateful for their desire to help, grateful for them opening my eyes and making me aware. At the same time, I was ashamed for being a Haitian who did not do all he could to help, ashamed for feeling sorry for people who were like me, ashamed for not being able to find a solution.

Many of my peers said that the trip was life changing. The trip was as life-changing for me. The big transformation came from what happened after the trip. A strong fire was burning in the hearts of the students, faculty, and staff that went on the trip. I could feel the heat in every greeting, handshake, and conversation that we had after the trip. That fire gave birth to the “Students for the Poor” which started to take action on the Lynn University campus. In one semester we raised about $6000 to build houses for poor Haitian families. I was very happy and appreciative. The generosity of our sponsors, classmates, professors and friends, the dedication of our group, and the happiness of the families who were going to have a home filled me with joy.

Student for the Poor (SFP) , SFP Week, the generosity of our donors, the devotion of our faculty and staff and the joy that we’ve brought to the lives of many Haitians and Jamaicans taught me a lot about goodness in life. Now I know that some of us are taller and others are shorter so that we can work together to deal with situations that require different heights. Now I know that God gave different amounts of wealth, knowledge, and abilities to his children so that they can share and face hardship and happiness together.”

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