This is Jean Gardy, with Alex, who is the main Accountant for Love A Child. Jean Gardy is in college for accounting and one day, Lord willing, he will be Alex’s assistant. There is a lot of “paperwork,” involved in non-profits, so he will be a blessing!!
Jean Gardy was a very young boy when his mother died. His father (like most Haitian men who lose their wife), cannot take care of a young child and work. So, he brought him to us and asked if we would keep him.
He seemed like an ordinary young boy until he went to high school. Then, we noticed that he would save every dollar he earned and buy cokes and chips with it and “re-sell them” to the ladies at our orphanage. He had his own “little business” going on, in his bedroom!
When some of the children started to go to college I would make a budget for their “tap-tap” transportation and food. But, Jean Gardy convinced every one of them to let him handle their money, and he would give them “only exactly what they needed and not a penny more.”
When I would call the older children to receive their food and transportation money to go to school, they all would say, “Mom, give it to Jean Gardy!” He taught them how to squeeze every dollar so that they would have a little extra left over.
But by this time, he, Dieuferly, and one other LAC kid, Frantzo, had put their money together to start a little “snack stand” on our property, with music, drinks, and Haitian food. Jean Gardy convinced the older kids to “invest” in their “snack stand!” He still handles all their money. He is the one who knows how much their school payments are, how much it will cost them each week to go back and forth to college, etc. He, and the boys, Dieuferly, and Frantzo, now have a little “snack” restaurant on our property and it is doing good.
Haitians have a “gift from God” to start small businesses if they have a little money to start with. We are so proud of all our older kids, going to college, getting an education, serving God, and preparing for their future! It is “tough” running an orphanage with 85 kids, but it is so rewarding when we see their lives changing for the best, serving the Lord! Thank you, everyone, for ‘investing in lives,” here in Haiti.
Bobby and Sherry