Help Adeni and Selafua Build a Home

Hello, I'm Marcie Boyd. My goal is to raise $6,000 to help a Haitian family in the Dominican Republic build a house.

I live in Berkeley, California, but have lived off and on in the rural Dominican Republic where I have developed close relationships with people in two farming villages. Over the years, I have come to know and love two Haitian families in El Limón, a village of about 300 people in the mountains outside San José de Ocoa.

Haitian immigrants in the rural D.R. are extremely marginalized, eking out a subsistence income as farm laborers. It's not safe for them to return to Haiti, and there's no work available there anyway. So they stay, learn Spanish, and gradually become somewhat integrated into community life. But most barely make enough to support a family. Owning a home—even a modest one—will forever remain a dream without outside help.

Five years ago, thanks to the generosity of many U.S. friends—maybe you!—I was able to raise enough funds to build a house for a family of six: Amicia's family. Now, Amicia's sister Adeni and her family urgently need a home.

Adeni and her husband Selafua came to the D.R. twelve years ago with two children, and now they have two more. They've lived in a series of humble dwellings, usually in exchange for farm work. The house they're currently in is about to be sold as part of a land deal, and they have to move...soon.

Adeni and Selafua have a plot of land already, but they lack the funds to build a house. Our best estimate for the total cost of materials and labor is $6,000.

Please consider making Adeni and Selafua's dream come true. Thank you and God bless you!

Left to right: Loudia (16), Lovena (19), Ismael (3), Esther (9) with their parents Adeni and Selafua (pronounced as in French "C'est la foi" = "It's faith")