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In December 2009, Dell and Renae purchased a home in the village of Simonette and, in 2011, founded Touch of Hope, a nonprofit ministry allowing them to become more involved in the village and surrounding area. Dell previously operated a feed yard outside of Rock Rapids and Renae did freelance home décor services while raising their three children. Webert’s school grew from 30 to 80 students between 2006 and 2010. Touch of Hope’s first big goal was to raise enough money to construct a new school building and provide the funds to pay teachers. The school has grown exponentially in the past 12 years and now has more than 1,000 students and 80 teachers. Since then, the ministry has helped raise the roof on seven school buildings, a cafeteria and an office building. After graduating from the University of Northern Iowa in 2012, Kayla Grooters moved to Haiti to help at the school. She quickly discovered too many of the children were arriving at school hungry. Instead of seeking a source of food donations, Kayla focused instead on job creation and income generation for “mamas.” “Our whole philosophy focuses on how can we strengthen the family unit in the most holistic way. If mom has a job, the odds of her being able to feed the kids and keep them in school are much higher.” After moving to Haiti, Kayla worked for a jewelry store. She connected the dots between Touch of Hope ministries and her jewelry experience and the talents of some women in local Haitian communities. In 2014, she opened a store named Rosie’s in Cabaret, Haiti. Two years later, her mom opened a Rosie’s Boutique in Rock Rapids. Dell and Renae recently purchased the building at the corner of Highway 9 and North Story Street. The main level is Rosie’s gift and coffee shop and they have an apartment in the upper level. (The store was named in honor Rosie, Kayla’s first goddaughter in Haiti whose mother was a jewelry artisan with whom Kayla worked. Rosie died from pneumonia when she was 13 months old.) While civil unrest forced the original shop in Haiti to close, Rosie's Boutique and coffee shop in Rock Rapids is thriving, as are online sales at www.rosiesboutiquehaiti.com.

EMPOWERING THE ARTISANS

Rosie’s purchases product from 10 different companies who collectively employ over 400 Haitians. Kayla said, “Each company believes and practices the same ethics we have: Provide a fair, living wage to the artisan; empower and equip the artisan; educate people about the realities in Haiti; and work to keep families together.”

The Raymond family: Loveson, Webert, Zion, Rubie, Kayla, Josiah, Jephte, Wishla.

Rosie’s directly employs 30 women who hand-stitch greeting cards and make banana-paper products. Kayla said intentional buying decisions truly make a difference. “If more people purchased the greeting cards we sell online and in our store, we could go from employing 30 women to maybe 100 women – which would affect 1,000 children. It all has ripple effects.”

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The top photo shows the original school established by Webert Raymond in Simonette, Haiti. The bottom photo shows the multi-building campus today. Plans are to add two more school buildings in the near future. Photo by Lindsay Williams.

Two students eating their daily hot meal. Webert Raymond and his brother, Jude, who runs the school on a day-to-day basis. Haitian coffee producers were wiped out by a hurricane six years ago. “Just drinking Haitian coffee could change an entire village. The more parents we can empower and provide employment opportunities to will result in less children abandoned into orphanages.”

OUR HEART AND SOUL REMAINS IN HAITI

Besides finding her life’s calling in Haiti, Kayla also found her life partner. She and Webert were married in January 2014. Prior to the wedding, they gained legal guardianship to three children: Jephte, Loveson, and Wishla. They have since welcomed three biological children: Rubie, Zion and Josiah. In the fall of 2019, the couple moved to the U.S. “In the last two years, there’s been times where I think ‘Oh, I wish I were in Haiti.’ But I’ve realized we’re now in a season where it’s more important for us to be here raising money and running our website at full capacity to help fund the work in Haiti,” she said. “We’ll live in America for however long God asks of us, yet our hearts and souls remain so alive for Haiti and its people. Each day I still have the honor of waking up and working for Rosie’s and our mamas. Each day Webert is in communication with Haiti and leading in some different way. While we aren’t physically there anymore, our work continues on by the grace of God.”

In addition to the children’s school, the artisan business, and a revolving small business loan program, Touch of Hope includes a ministry where they provide a program of general education, spiritual foundation courses and small business loans to mothers in Simonette. Also, they’ve started building houses for families. “I know I don’t work well when I don’t rest at night, so how can anyone be expected to work well or study well when they’re sleeping on the dirt or on a piece of cardboard?” A donor from the Twin Cities is funding the construction of 10 homes each quarter in Simonette. “So we’re expecting to build 40 homes a year,” Kayla said. “We have a Haitian project manager and he has two different teams of laborers who build the homes. There are 25 or 30 Haitians employed in the house building projects.” Building materials are also purchased in Haiti in order to support the local economy and for Touch of Hope to stay true to its holistic approach of a hand up instead of a hand out.

WISDOM FOR CHURCH MISSION TRIPS

For churches who are considering a mission trip in the postpandemic period, Kayla encourages them to do a heart-check on their motivations. “If you’re sending a team, send skilled labor – people who can actually do the job that locals are unable to do. Or go do trainings to further equip the locals – whether that means farmers going to teach more agricultural skills or doctors or dentists providing hands-on services. “There will always be a place for short-term missions – I started on a short-term mission. But hopefully your mission trip is not young kids going to paint houses and take pictures