MOJUB
Started in 1995, MOJUB began as a literacy program for single mothers and women in Port au Prince, Haiti. These are mothers that work tirelessly to support several children alone, most of whom never received more than a sixth grade education. What started out as a few women and single loan for a small one floor “home” in Port au Prince has now grown to a completely self sustaining three story vocational school for women. In its beginnings, the women began bringing their children to classes, to learn to read and write alongside their parents. As the classrooms grew too full to accommodate both the women and the children, MOJUB opened an additional school program for the children which now educates 490 students in Pre-K through 6th grade.
The women study many different skills including producing soaps and cleaning fluids to sell, and tailoring classes. Our club finances one of the women in MOJUB to take tailoring classes at a night school in Haiti. She then returns to MOJUB for several hours each day to teach the rest of the women what she has learned. The hope is that once she completes the program (a three year process) and gets her tailoring license, the women of MOJUB can open a tailoring business, receiving contracts from local schools to make uniforms (which requires at least one licensed tailor). The woman currently attending classes, Joseline, is doing phenomenal and received a near perfect score on her last test, with the only points being deducted due to her out of date machine! We believe this program is so important since it is not simply a short term solution, but a long term process that will create a self sustaining livelihood for these women. In an effort to continue to raise money for this program and all of the incredible women involved, we thought it might help to get to know a few of the women you would be supporting. So often charities revolve around the education of the youth, which is of course of the utmost importance, but that also means that the generation above can be forgotten. Behind every child is a mother, pushing for their success and doing every single thing within their power to offer their child the best opportunity possible, we hope that you will aid us in this endeavor to allow these women the resources to do this.
Get to know some of these incredible women...
Josaline Gregoire
Josaline is a passionate mother of two with an unfailing will to provide not only for herself but those in her community. She has two little boys that she loves beyond belief. One of the boys is severely anemic so is constantly sick and she works hard to not only provide enough to keep him in good health, but to pay medical bills when illness arises. Josaline is sponsored by our organization to take the tailoring classes and in return comes back to MOJUB for several hours each day to teach the rest of the women the skills she has learned. When asked why this is so important to her she responded, “When you learn something, you learn it for life,” and her hope is that with this training she and women like her can become financially independent, without having to rely on loans and live in constant fear of how to provide for their children the next day. She said that she is beyond grateful for the opportunity she has been given to attend these classes, as it allows her to help not only herself but the other women of MOJUB, whom she truly considers family.
Roselaine Saloman
Rosalie has three beautiful children, but because of their father’s unwillingness to help support them, caring and providing for them is an everyday struggle. With few relatives at home she does all of the cooking, cleaning, and providing for her family. She tirelessly works selling small crafts on the street. She is one of the many women attending these tailoring classes taught by Josaline and her hope is for their business to grow and to have a long term job that will allow her to provide her children the life they deserve. She said, “Sometimes I cant sleep a night, I think of everything the next day will bring and I can’t imagine how I can move forward. Sometimes I think about crying, but then I think that wont do anything, that it wont change anything. So instead I laugh. I laugh until I can go to sleep. Then I start the day again.”
Margarine Altador
When Margarine finished sixth grade, her mother told her she could no longer afford to send her to school. Her boyfriend at the time continued to pay for her education, but after two years friends urged him that if he continued to give her an education she would no longer respect and look up to him. So after two years of high school, Margarine finished any formal schooling she would receive and moved home with two children. When her husband passed a few years later, she turned to his family for support, but they were only able to care for one child, so she was on her own caring for a child with little more than a middle school education. She works hard to provide for her children and to send them to school, to give them opportunities she never had to become educated and independent. Margarine said, “Before I came to MOJUB I had this sadness inside me. I didn’t know what I could do, or where my life could ever go. It was painful, feeling as though I would never feel happy inside. When I met the women here, for the first time someone cared for me, and for the first time someone wanted to hear what I had to say.”
How you can get involved!
These woman and their children represent the future of Haiti, and it is our hope that in sponsoring them in this program we can allow them an opportunity no one has ever given them: independence. Our organization believes strongly in a hand up, not a hand out, meaning that we seek to support these women in self-sustaining programs not just a one time donation. We hope that you will consider aiding us in this project, in any way that helps, and be able to know that you had a hand in creating lasting change.
2. Donations
Every little bit helps! We are looking for donations of any of the following that we could bring down to MOJUB on our March 2018 trip.
- Sewing Machines
- Sewing Supplies (thread, buttons, scissors, elastic)
-Children's and woman's shoes
-Children's and woman's clothing
*We try not to bring down fabric donations because schools in Haiti only have uniforms made from fabric bought within the country -- so that no student feels different in their school uniforms from another!
1. Sponsor a program
$1,000....................................................One year of tailoring classes
$1,000..................................................Fabric for one set of uniforms
$600....................................Fabric for MOJUB grades 1-6 uniforms
$500......................................Fabric for MOJUB preschool uniforms
$100.......................................Supplies for school uniforms (thread,
buttons, elastic, etc.)
3. Make sanitary pads/donate supplies
Over the past years different organizations have been sewing an donating reusable sanitary pads to the women and teens at all of the organizations we work with down in Haiti. With disposable sanitary pads being such a financial burden, these cloth washable and reusable sanitary pads offer a solution. Check out the link below to read more about how they are made. Contact us if your group is interested in donating pads for our March 2018 trip or supplies to make them (flannel fabric, thread, etc.).
A huge thank you to all our 2018 donors!
