When you have lived from one generation to the next in poverty like so many have in Haiti, you feel powerless to change. You can’t afford to send your children to school, find a job or even put food on the table. If you have a disabled child, you feel even more isolated. Overcoming so many obstacles takes courage and the guiding hands of others.

One of those guiding hands is Gladys Thomas who was born in Haiti but trained as a nurse in the United States. She was determined to return to Haiti to help children that nobody else wanted or loved. In 1982 Gladys was presented with an opportunity to take over an abandoned orphanage that she immediately accepted. She scrubbed the house clean and tossed out bug infested beds. Then she went to the city’s hospital where disabled children were often abandoned by parents that were too poor to care for them. Gladys found 23 severely disabled and neglected children that she welcomed into her new orphanage that she named Hope Home. Here they received medical care, nutritious meals and a loving home.

More than three decades later Gladys has created a dynamic village which includes the original orphanage now serving 24 disabled children, a second orphanage for 82 abandoned children and a primary school serving more than 132 children.

The original orphanage called Hope Home at Children’s Village currently cares for two dozen severely disabled children who suffer from cerebral palsy to extreme autism. They receive:

• Round the clock care by trained staff
• Three nutritious meals per day
• Therapy sessions for motor skills development
• Medical care
• Love and encouragement

The 82 abandoned children who live in the second orphanage called Children’s Home at Children’s Village once lived in the streets and parks because their families were too poor to feed or care for them. The children living at Children’s Village now look forward to:

• A place to call home with a clean bed to sleep in every night
• Three nutritious meals a day
• Clean clothes to wear
• School and many friends to play with
• Medical care

The New Academy of Excellence at Children’s Village provides 132 students from Children’s Home, Hope Home and the surrounding community with:

• A strong educational foundation
• Two special education classrooms for those with disabilities
• Daily lunch and snacks
• Field trips