Why Financial Support was never sought for Operation Hope.

In 1997, about the same time we obtained our legal status in the United States, the euphoria to help Aristide and the “Lavalas” movement was feverish and addictive.  Certainly, as someone who wished for a better Haiti, I was caught in the fever to facilitate and made all my motor coaches available to all Haitians and friends of Haitians wishing to be of assistance to Haiti’s fragile onset of democracy.  It was during that year I met Bechelet a handicap Lavalas activist.  Bechelet and I became good friends and sometimes referred to each other as brothers.

As excited as we were, we began a fundraising activity in New York that was immediately stopped to the news that Haitians in the name of the Lavalas movement were collecting money for deprived children of Haiti and were using the collected funds for their personal gain.  I and Operation Board members did not hesitate a moment and were very confident in the decision for fear of name slandering and bad reputation.  In addition our bureaucratic experience in search for our legal status in Haiti was discouraging and surprisingly long.  Our conviction to serve the needy helped us fight a ten year old ceremonial battle before the issuance of our legal status in 2007.  And lately with our experience in Cite Soleil, we were convinced to stay anonymous in the NGO world but for how long?