Summary:

About St. Joseph's Home for Boys

St. Joseph's Home for Boys is charged with positive energy from the boys, ages 8 to 18, who will enchant you with their singing, dancing, smiles, laughter, and hearty hugs upon your arrival.

The boys make most of their livelihood by running the guest house. When they are not attending classes, the boys do everything from meals and clean the house to performing their dance theater for guests.

The confidence and pride that grows from working together and earning a weekly wage is self-evident. This is truly a family that works together, plays together, prays together and cares for each other.

Haiti, known to be the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, is usually cast as a nation of starvation, malnutrition, disease, homelessness, illiteracy, violence and destruction.

St. Joseph's Home for Boys is a haven within the grueling chaos of Port-au-Prince. Its founder, Michael Geilenfeld, was formerly a brother for Mother Theresa. His work was with abandoned children in Vietnam, Cambodia, Calcutta, Los Angeles, Haiti, and El Salvador. After his 11 years of service, Michael decided to provide a place for street boys that would be a family instead of the night shelter system he had followed with the MC Brothers.

In January of 1985, Michael left the MC Brothers and returned to Haiti with $1,000 and began with six boys and a prayer. This new family paid for six months rent on a four room house. After paying the rent, they were left with $400 to live on.

Their prayers were heard, for journalists showed up on that first day to tell this "new life" story to the world. Financial support soon began to flow, visitors began to come and Michael's work grew into the success it is today.

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About Wings of Hope

Having evolved over the past several years, Michael and his boys recently took on a new challenge. They are now managing a home for severely disabled children. This new work is located in the mountains above Petionville. Michael and some of the older graduates of St. Joseph's Home for Boys decided to take over the home when they heard after eight years the previous directors were leaving Haiti, but were unable to find placements for any of the disabled children.

In the same spirit of 'family', Michael and the boys were determined to keep all of the children together. They extended themselves and took these children under their wing. Thus came into being the second home of St. Joseph's, called Wings of Hope Home for Disabled Children.

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About Trinity House

With St. Joseph's Home for Boys and Wings of Hope firmly in place, the St. Joseph's family expanded again in 2000 with the creation of Trinity House in Jacmel. Friends of the St. Joseph's family who lived in Jacmel saw the positive impact that St. Joseph's had on the children it had taken off the streets and saw the need for that kind of love, opportunity, and family for the street boys of Jacmel. They invited Michael and the children to start a home there.

The dream for Trinity House includes the creation of a bakery, trade school, and dance studio that would be open to the entire community of Jacmel. Construction is underway in Jacmel that, with finished, will include the bakery, trade school, dance studio, and auditorium, as well as dormitories for the boys, a guest house and a soccer field. There are currently 14 boys living at Trinity House in Jacmel.

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