By Jennifer Barton
Rhode Island Catholic Correspondent
HOPE VALLEY — “A forty-five-minute flight from Disneyworld, children are starving to death.”
This was the message Kiki Latimer delivered to parishioners of tiny St. Joseph Parish in Hope Valley when she felt called to lead a missionary project in Haiti. In 2007, Father Michael Leckie asked the parish to participate in a project to build houses in Haiti at a cost of $150,000, knowing that a home meant safety and security for a family. Latimer chronicles this 15-year collaboration in her new book, “There Be Hope: Islands of Hope, My Memoir of Haiti, and The Hopeful Coconut,” recently published by Enroute Books and Media.
Latimer served as the project chair for its duration. Eventually, the parish supported the building of 14 homes and a community center for a village in Haiti, along with digging a well for fresh water. “This is a massive undertaking for a small parish,” Latimer said, noting that 200 families raised $150,000 in a year. “It was like watching grace right in front of you.”
It wasn’t easy to get such a large project off the ground and Latimer’s first obstacle was knowing where to start. She was told to contact Father Richard Martin, originally from the Diocese of Providence, now pastoring a parish in Virginia. He advised her that she only needed to do “two things”: give people a means to donate money and “speak the truth.”
Sharing the realities of the lives of people in Haiti – “the poorest of the poor in the Northern Hemisphere” — moved the parishioners of St. Joseph. “I think if people believe that they’re really going to make a difference, they’re willing to be generous. And they were. So, we built the village,” Latimer said.
Even up to the start of the pandemic, the parish continued to provide financial aid to the village they built in Cap-Haitien, a commune on the country’s northern coast. Turmoil in Haiti in the last few years halted this support, however. Latimer did report that the houses built by the parish are still standing, thankfully, even as the Food for the Poor feeding stations have been shut down due to gang activity.
Poverty in Haiti is extreme and looks vastly different from poverty in some other countries. “The poor in Haiti have nothing,” Latimer stated. Prices shocked her – “nothing’s cheap in Haiti.” People live in squalid conditions – in shacks and tents, on the street.
When Latimer made her first mission trip to the country, she considered it an act of charity and had expected the villagers to love her for the generous work she represented. But she came to realize that many of the older women resented her for the injustice of life that had given them poverty and hardship instead of her perceived wealth.
The children, however, did embrace her, as she did them. In fact, her first book, “Islands of Hope,” was translated into Haitian Creole and copies were brought to the village in Haiti so that the children there could read it.
Latimer professes great love for these little ones. She said, “The most beautiful thing about Haiti is the children; they are Haiti’s gold, their hope for the future.”
Mission work such as the projects St. Joseph Parish undertook gives children in Haiti access to lifesaving resources like clean water and education. Latimer remarked how Americans often take wealth for granted, but having seen life in Haiti, she understands the extreme poverty others endure. She stated that the most important thing she learned on her mission trips was that this work “was not an act of charity, it was an act of justice.”
She credits Father Leckie’s “steadfast influence” in the parish’s continued work in Haiti, as they eventually raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars for this mission work over the years. During this time, she made three trips to Haiti, the first and third with Food for the Poor and one with her publisher. Deacon Ron Pruehs accompanied her on one of the trips, as well.
These trips inspired her first book about the Haitian people, “Islands of Hope.” The title itself brings Haiti and Rhode Island together, and the children’s book inspires families to stand strong and to share their worldly goods with others in need. “Islands of Hope” comprises the second part of “There Be Hope,” with its sequel “The Hopeful Coconut” rounding out her new book.
With the support of newly assigned pastor Father Francesco Francese, the people of St. Joseph Parish hope to restart mission work in Latin America, if not in Haiti. Latimer mentioned another possible collaboration with Father Martin’s former parish of Nativity Church in Burke, Virginia, this time helping establish a medical clinic in Honduras.
For those interested in seeing what missionary work looks like, Latimer’s book is available for purchase through Enroute Books and Media and Amazon.
“It’s my hope that ‘There Be Hope’ does touch people’s hearts and shows them the importance of mission work,” she said. “But this isn’t a Cinderella story. … I kind of show all the ups and downs of these 15 years – blood, sweat and tears.”
