Mission Statement

Hearts with Haiti is a non-profit organization (501c3 status) which supports the mission of St. Joseph’s Family in Haiti through Nurture, Advocacy, Fundraising, Administration, and Leadership Development.

A Brief History of the St. Joseph's Family

In 1985, Michael Geilenfeld, a former Brother with Mother Theresa’s Brothers of Charity, started a small home for five boys to bring them off the streets and offer them a Christian family life.

Twenty-two years later there are now three homes serving more than 60 children. Graduates from the first home, St. Joseph’s Home for Boys, run a home for disabled children called Wings of Hope outside Port-au-Prince and a home for young boys called Trinity House in a small coastal town.

Hearts with Haiti provides financial assistance to the children and young adults of St. Joseph’s in Port-au-Prince, Wings of Hope in Fermathe, and Trinity House in Jacmel through donations and fundraising activities. Hearts with Haiti tries to match expertise of individuals with needs at the homes to provide opportunities for the children in areas such as the arts and academics and to provide medical and therapeutic needs. Because the leadership of the homes and the boys themselves believe in giving back in gratitude for having been brought off the streets, there are now 94 children from a nearby slum who attend school, thanks to the boys who have voiced the needs of the neglected children (just as they once were) and found sponsors from the U.S. and Canada to help.

Every dollar that goes to St. Joseph’s Wings of Hope grows like loaves and fishes. “Our desire is to become extensions of God’s merciful love and uplifting joy,” says Michael Geilenfeld. “We want our lives to contribute to the dissolution of the miseries of the world. The children at St. Joseph’s, Wings of Hope, and Trinity House have sprouted wings of self-esteem and are soaring on the wind of the opportunities being brought to them. Their past was misery. Their future contains abundant promise.”