Brice foundation Int'l is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization that is dedicated to helping those is needs, especially children and their families here in the U.S., in Haiti and abroad. Since our existence, we have been working diligently to help reduce poverty and illiteracy across the country among underprivileged families. Our understanding is that, for any especially developing country, in order to get out of poverty better and affordable education for everyone, especially for those who lack financial mean has to be one of the primary tools. Roughly, this is what our mission is and it is divided into three categories; Education (Protect our children and Support their Future), Social (health and living conditions, such as empowerment of the poor) and Professional (Framing Future Leaders).

 

Education:

More than half of school-aged children in Haiti are not able to go to school due to financial reasons. Each year the school's tuitions are skyrocketing while the population becomes poorer every single day. Classical education that’s supposed to be free for everyone is now a luxury. We all know that education plays a key role in reducing or even eliminating poverty in both industrialized and especially in developing countries. The higher the illiteracy rate is among a population the higher the poverty level becomes, which triggers a higher criminal activity rate until it gets to a point where that country becomes a fail state. As you all can see, there’s a close relationship between poverty and illiteracy.

 

To help reducing poverty, Brice Foundation has been working diligently among the Haitian population across the country to help families keep their children in school in certain cases or to send them to school for the first time. Actually, we are now supporting more than 500 children across the country, and to be honest, 500 hundred children is less than 1% of those who need desperately need our help. In fact, our goal is to support between 30, 000 to 50,000 school-aged children who can’t go to school by the 2016 school year. In fact, our plan is to build school establishments in each region in the country in order to help absorb school tuition fees for many underprivileged families. Haiti is a country where 6 to 7 out of 10 individuals don’t know how to read and write their own names. So with the accomplishment of such a goal, we believe it will put a big dent in both illiteracy rate and poverty level in Haiti in a positive way. Learn more about this program by clicking this button.

 

Social (Living and Health Condition):

About three years ago Haiti has experienced one of the most catastrophic events of its existence, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the most important areas in the country. More than 300,000 people died of that terrible Earthquake. Among them are innocent children, at least 25% of the victims were children. The living condition of the Haitian population was already on its way to become worse, even before that disaster took place. However, because of that situation, the living condition of the majority of the population becomes worse than expected.  We are talking about a country where 8 out of 10 individuals are living in extreme poverty before the disaster; this translates into 80% of the population who can't satisfy their very basic needs. This number is not a fabricated one; it represents real people who get cut up in poverty's treadmill at no fault to them.

 

Here at Brice Foundation despite our limited resources we take this matter to heart and made a promise to the poor, which is to walk side by side with them and show them the way to get out of poverty and dependence through a program known as "Empowering the Poor." Through this program, we educate individuals on how to be creative and independent and help them to become entrepreneurs by funding various projects that are worth supporting. We can’t help everyone, but we will help and support as many as we can because it could have been us living in such a shameful situation. Other than providing food, shelter, clean water and clothes, and empowering those in need in order ease their living condition, Brice Foundation Inc. also provides both professional and vocational training to those who finish high school and wish to go further in their education but don’t have the financial support needed. Our understanding is that there’s a close relationship between illiteracy and poverty, the more educated a population is the least their socio-economic situation tends to deteriorate. We also have a micro-credit system that can help farmers, vendors, and other entrepreneurs with their businesses. To learn more about this program go to Empowering the Poor program page. We believe that each family we help accomplishes its financial autonomy is a family we don’t have to provide help for anymore. To learn more about this program, click here...

 

Health:

Health in Haiti is a very touchy issue especially after the earthquake because there are so many factors that contribute to the deterioration of this social aspect in the population.  Before the earthquake many families, especially in the mountains, had a seriously difficult time dealing with illnesses that become deadly due to lack of treatment, some of those illnesses are; Tetanus, Malaria, Tuberculosis, Typhoid, etc. As you notice most of those illnesses are caused by bacteria and are treatable. But six months after the Earthquake, the Haitians population is now dealing with a new deadly disease known as Cholera, that illness has already taken many lives. In fact, it is estimated that more than 11000 people have already died from that disease due to lack of treatment, while there's a total of 800,000 carrying the disease as we speak. A lot of efforts have already been made to bring that disease into control, unfortunately; there's no sign of success. 

 

According to many health experts such as Harvard, Princeton University, Doctors without Borders, etc., based on their researches the disease was imported to the country by some of the U.N. military personnel who’ve been on the ground for many years. So since the health and the living condition of the population is very poor, the disease was rapidly expanded across the country. Today more than half of the population knows someone who had or has Cholera. There are many experts working on the ground to bring this under control, but so far they have not been succeeded because too many things contribute to the disease’s persistence. Brice Foundation plans to open a highly sophisticated hospital equipped with a research center that solely focuses on bringing those diseases under control, including cholera and bring health experts from countries that are medically advanced in order to treat those diseases at a reduced price to those who can afford it and at no cost to those who can’t. For every 1000 thousand Haitians only two to three hospital beds are available to them, and most children have not been vaccinated since birth. This is a perfect situation for any disease to expand, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

 

Professional (leadership):

Other than poverty and illiteracy that most of the developing countries have in common, lack of leadership is also a big factor. In fact, if we assess the amount of money given to those countries living in poverty each year the conclusion would be “Why giving so much money while poverty level is only growing each year instead of becoming lower, why such a waste?” The answer to that is a lack of leadership. Yes, it is a waste because the money never makes it to the poor. Most developing countries have a leadership problem, people who get elected for the wrong purposes, to execute their own personal agenda and no one holds them accountable due to the fact that the concerned institutions are too weak to do any follow up. Poverty and corruption walk side by side especially when there are unqualified people in office and institutions that are not strong enough to go after them.

 

This is why we decide to attack this problem from its source by promoting a program known as “Framing Future Leaders.” We implement this program across the country. Its purpose is to train young professionals to become better leaders of tomorrow. We give grants, scholarship and other types of supports to the beneficiaries in exchange for their commitment of upon finish school they will go back to their community and lead others out of poverty. We also work with the school system in the country in order to locate students with a bright future, and then support and coach them financially and professionally to become better citizens and then orientate them to become future leaders. Haiti needs leaders who can say “No” when corruption knocks at their doors, leaders who will not easily forget that they were elected for the people and by the people; leaders who put people’s interest before their own, and this is what Framing Future Leaders is all about. To learn more about this program, click here...