Haiti houses funded in February will be finished in June

Construction has started on houses in Haiti pledged at February’s Food For The Poor Building Hope Gala in Boca Raton, Fla. This year’s gala raised enough money to construct 100 housing units, as well as a community center, and an animal husbandry project of 20 cows in Olivier, Deuxieme Plaine, Haiti.

“We were fortunate to have so many people support the event and donate money to build a home for a family,” said René Mahfood, Publisher of The Light Magazine and the event’s Honorary Chairperson in 2012. “We would like to thank each and every one of these generous donors for changing a life for a homeless family in Haiti.”

This year, guests pledged enough funding to construct a record number of homes to restore hope and to shelter the destitute in Olivier. Construction on the first 40 Food For The Poor housing units in this community are scheduled to be completed by the end of March.

“Food For The Poor’s house building plans in Olivier remain on track for completion in June,” said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. “Food For The Poor’s extensive network of operations in Haiti uniquely positions the charity to be a leader in the reconstruction process. Since the quake, we have escalated our homebuilding in Haiti.”

Committee members plan to travel to Haiti in June to dedicate the Food For The Poor village they have worked hard to raise funds to build. Seven of the committee members traveled to Haiti for the first time in November. They witnessed firsthand the condition of the people and learned how the nonprofit continues to improve their lives and living conditions.

“We witnessed the desperate struggle that hundreds of thousands of people face on a daily basis,” said Ronda Gluck, an attorney at the Law Offices of Bill T. Smith Jr. in Boca Raton and a 2012 Event Co-Chairperson. “The basics of food, water, and shelter simply do not exist. The Building Hope Gala will provide homes for the homeless and hope for the hopeless, thanks to Food For The Poor.”

The Building Hope Gala committee members invite you to join them on May 3 at Arrigo Fiat of West Palm Beach from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. for a cocktail reception and to pull the winning raffle ticket for a Gucci Fiat 500C 2-door black automatic convertible. Raffle tickets, starting at $50, can be purchased through the charity’s secure website www.FoodForThePoor.org/fiat. The Gucci Fiat 500C raffle sales will be used to continue building in Haiti.

“Our commitment is far from done,” said Cathy Moabery, a 2012 Event Co-Chairperson. “We plan to continue our support of Food For The Poor and its efforts to provide homes for one family at a time. We will continue to work all year to fulfill the dream of building many more homes in 2012.”

Committee members for the 2012 Building Hope Gala included Cathy and Abdol Moabery (Event Co-Chairpersons), Ronda and David Gluck (Event Co-Chairpersons), René and Francis Mahfood (Honorary Chairpersons), Becky Carlsson, Ronda Ellis Ged, Michele Greene, Julie Mahfood, Pamela Matsil, Kara Seelye, Natasha Singh, Allison Venditti, Patricia Wallace, and Traci Wilson.

Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 96 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor.

For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.