Dear VHP Friends and Supporters:

Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, VHP embarked on a promising new program to support the creation of the Duchity Vocational Training Center. It is with many deep and heartfelt thanks to all of your support that we have realized it's incredibly successful initial development! The region of Duchity is eagerly anticipating the center to open its doors this fall of 2014.

We are now at a crucial turning point and in need of $25,000 for equipment and supplies, training needs and building completion. To date, we have already reached 17% of our fundraising goal--please help us in pulling together the remaining critical funds to making this program a dream come true!

VHP is immensely grateful for the support and donations we have received from all of you, as well as from other volunteer groups and charitable organizations, since launching the Duchity program in 2010.  We believe in the dream of Duchity resident, and vocational training center project manager, Despagne Felix: “I am very happy to know that people will have a place away from Port au Prince. A place to learn a skill and to create a life that will support their family, their extended family and their village.”

Learn more about the Vocational Training Center and why it is so important!

As you know, we believe in minimizing our email campaigns so if you would like to give to Vermont Haiti Project in 2014, now is the time!  You may donate online (via PayPal), by check (mailed to:  Vermont Haiti Project, 63 Maple Leaf Lane, Shelburne, VT  05482), or by going to our donation page.

Our other programs- Biosand water filters and EFE (urban primary school)- are well funded, fully established, locally managed, and hugely successful. We are very intentional in designing and implementing our programs with our Haitian partners, and we look forward to being able to successfully launch this Vocational Training Center in Duchity and to seeing it become self-sustaining.


For 25 years Despagne Felix has dreamed of creating the opportunity for vocational training and now his community and the surrounding region is counting on it.  We, at VHP, believe that this Vocational Training Center has the power to transform lives.

In Haiti the ripple effect is far reaching:
One family member learning a vocational skill = earning power =  many lives impacted.  Just one student can easily improve the lives of 10 or 20 or more!

                                 Please join us in bringing Despagne’s dream to life!

On behalf of Despagne, Vermont Haiti Project, and the people of Duchity: Many thanks for your support!

Dear Family and Friends,

I will be returning to Haiti to do volunteer work, for my fifth consecutive summer, on June 8th. Before I ask you for a contribution to help support my efforts to affect change in a small community in the poorest country in our hemisphere, I would like to share several thoughts that have been percolating in my brain since my last trip there.

I first went to Haiti the summer after the devastating earthquake of 2010. Before I went, I recall some well-meaning but grandiose thoughts about the potential impact I could have. Riding in the back of a pickup through Port-au-Prince my first day was a lesson in instant humility. I witnessed a teeming hell of desperation, squalor, and utter hopelessness. I was daunted: How can one person make a dent let alone a difference?

    VHP recently received wonderful news from Sister’s of Mercy:  The organization has chosen to fund VHP again for the next year, in order to to continue the Biosand Water Filter program!

    The annual grant, valued at 10-thousand dollars, comes thanks in great part to Sister Susan Fortier, VHP board member.  "I was hoping it would come through again this year, and this is amazing.  Alleluia!" 

   Vermont Haiti Project has been involved in the BioSand filter program, partnering with Pure Water for the World, since 2007.  "We are so grateful to the Sisters of Mercy for keeping this important program going," said VHP spokesperson Tim Singer. 
   "Most importantly, it puts clean water in scores of homes in both Port au Prince and rural areas.  Furthermore, it keeps several people employed!  We're very proud of the work that Patrick, Mannou and Despagne have done with the filters."