Epworth United Methodist Church has been working in Haiti for over 30 years. In 1988 the first member of Epworth Church took part in a medical mission trip of the Haiti Mission of Providence United Methodist Church of Charlotte, NC. In 2003 the first mission team officially sponsored by the outreach committee of Epworth United Methodist Church took part in that same mission. In 2007 the first Epworth mission team to accompany a Mission to Haiti medical team visited Fond Doux, Haiti.
Following the massive Haiti earthquake in 2010, Mission to Haiti (Epworth’s then Haiti partner) temporarily ceased medical mission trips to concentrate on re-building and rehabilitation following the quake. After an unofficial visit by Linda Mitchell and Karen Thorsen to Fond Doux later that year, Pastor Brucely of Fond Doux invited them to the community of Fond Doux. Thus, in 2011 the first independent Epworth mission team, not partnered with any other mission, went to the village of Fond Doux, Haiti. The Fond Doux Foundation was incorporated in 2012 by Epworth Mission team members with support from members of Swansboro UMC and Unity Church of Cary to pursue community-based work in the village of Fond Doux, Haiti. In 2021 the Fond Doux Foundation Mission teams will be celebrating their Tenth Anniversary of the Mission to Fond Doux.
Partners in Fond Doux, Haiti
- Our first partnership was with Pastor Brucely Delma and the congregation that he gathered, the Primitive Church of Fond Doux. He also established a school with the aid of Mission to Haiti. Many community programs were sponsored jointly with the Pastor Brucely in cooperation often in the facilities of the Church or the school.
- Over four years ago he gathered together a Haitian Fond Doux Foundation Committee of lay leaders, mostly young. This Haitian Committee became our second partner in Fond Doux. It continues to be the principal partner in our work. Emile Maceus. Then a college student, was the driving force in its organization and development. He was later hired by the Foundation to be the Executive Director of Haitian Affairs for the Foundation.
- One of the first actions of this Haitian Committee was to request the Foundation to help a struggling school in the near-by village of Platon, over the mountain north of Fond Doux. This school, the Good Samaritan School of Platon, administered by Pastor Jonas Pierre, has grown from 40 to 60 children kindergarten through 6th grade with Foundation support has become the third Haitian partner of the Foundation.
- In late 2021 the Foundation began a relationship with the Methodist Church of Fond Doux and has sponsored community projects jointly with the Methodist Church including a Saturday Club with Lovely Felix, the Vice-principal of the Methodist School, as the principal liaison person. The Methodist Church became the fourth Haitian partner of the Foundation. The Bible Story portion of the Saturday Club is led by Johnson Louis of the Methodist Church.
- In mid-2022 on the recommendation of the Haitian Committee, the Foundation established the Fond Doux Community Clinic in a building owned by the Wesleyenne Church of Fond Doux. This clinic together with the Wesleyenne Church became the fifth Haitian partner of the Foundation. Eluard Louis (no relation to Johnson louis) is the administrator of the Fond Doux Community Clinic. A five-member Haitian Committee advises the clinic.
- In 2022 Ancito Gene, a member of the Haitian Committee gathered together an English Club in the Ravine Parc School up the mountain from Fond Doux. This English Club and the School for Tomorrow in which it is located, administered by school principal Noel Joseph, became the sixth partner of the Foundation.