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Haiti Group Continuing Without Founder

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SINCE THE PASSING of Don DeHart, founder of the Palm Harbor-based For Haiti With Love humanitarian group, his Haiti-born adopted daughter Roseline and widow Eva are carrying on the mission’s work.

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By Mark  Schantz | The Suncoast News

Published: September 4, 2007

PALM HARBOR, Fla. - PALM HARBOR, Fla. - Eighteen months after For Haiti With Love founder Don DeHart died of cancer his widow says the organization's health remains good because of its avid supporters.

"Don always said that if helping the people of Haiti was only his mission it would go to the grave with him, but if it was truly God's work it would continue," Eva DeHart said in an interview this week.

Supporters of the nonprofit group, which provides medical treatment, food and housing to people of the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, are steadfast in their resolve that For Haiti With Love will continue to be God's work, she added.

The couple's adopted, Haitian-born daughter, who used to work side by side with Don, now operates For Haiti With Love's medical clinic, food kitchen and housing projects. These charitable operations are based in Cap-Haitien, a resort city of about 130,000 on the northern coast of Haiti.

Roseline, 24, married a 36-year-old Haitian policeman in October. He, too, is helping her carry on Don's work, Eva said.

It was tough for her at first to take over the reigns of the charity's operation in Haiti, Eva DeHart said, but things have gotten better for her.

Earlier this year she realized a dip in contributions was more a result of economic conditions here at home than lack of support for the organization. All charities were suffering because people could not give as much as usual.

Donations are now coming back and leveling off to what is typical for the summer, DeHart said. That's not great but it is not as bad as a few months ago, she said.

The recent For Haiti With Love Christmas in August fundraiser did not attract as many people as last year but proved to be more profitable, she said.

"The fundraiser was great," DeHart said, adding, "the volunteers were there for us, they came through to make it a tremendous success."
The party produced countless gifts for Haiti "resulting in the best year ever," DeHart said.

For example, the Kids Against Hunger satellite organization in Indianapolis gave For Haiti With Love three pallets of nutritionally balanced food packets.

In addition, MAP International, a Brunswick, Ga.-based nonprofit health-care organization, contributed a shipping container of infant formula.

Feed My Starving Children, a Christian food charity based in Minneapolis, gave 38 pallets of food packets, along with bags of beans.
Life is still very tough in Haiti, according to Eva. Haitians live with the poorest conditions imaginable and fear violence from roaming gangs, she said.

Just when you think everything there is going smoothly something bad happens, Eva said. Killings and kidnappings have started again and a lot of bad people come to Cap-Haitien to hide, she said.

Fortunately, the gang members and other criminals usually leave clinic workers alone because they know they can turn there when in need of medical help with no questions asked, she said.

For Haiti With Love struggles to meet the demand for food assistance from the starving people in Cap-Haitien, DeHart said.

"We can't afford to feed all of Cap-Haitien," she said. "When the food comes in Haitians would like for us to pass it all out in one day, but if we do that, what about tomorrow?"

"Haitians don't understand that because they never think of tomorrow, only today," she added.

For Haiti With Love needs money to pay for food and the cargo fees to transport food and medical supplies to Haiti, which shares the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republican.

People who want to keep the mission going can donate to: For Haiti With Love, P.O. 1017, Palm Harbor, FL 34682-1017. Donations also be made via its href=http://www.forhaitiwithlove.org >Web site.

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