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Our Kitchen Needs Help

Rice and Vegetable Sauce

Rice with Vegetable Sauce "diri ak sos ligim"

An integral function at the Pi Gwo Byen (Greater Good) School and Community Center is the serving of the mid-day meal.

We usually feed about 20 people, students, staff and volunteers, on ten dollars per day.   Some of the people we feed are so impoverished that this is their only meal each day.  Many friends of Greater Good Haiti have been donating to the effort of ensuring that our community receive these meals and we are so very appreciative of these donations, please keep them coming as food is an every day event which is crucial to simply being human with dignity.

We would like to ask if there are any of you who would be so kind as to help us bring our kitchen up to a higher standard.  We have been using the kitchen you see in the photos for more than one year now and on the shoestring funds we receive, well quite frankly we have had to make do. The kitchen is a true shame.  There are no cabinets to store food or dishes, the evening array of unwanted guests, cockroaches, rats and mice mandate that dishes be washed again prior to use each day.

Carol, cooking a meal of rice with vegetable sauce.

As you can see the conditions for Carol, our cook, are actually deplorable as are the sanitary conditions.  I believe that with less than three  hundred dollars we can transform the kitchen into a clean, well organized, functional place to prepare our food.

Can you help?  We accept one time donations as well as monthly donations or, one can send a check directly to our office.

Please see the various donation options here.

Kitchen Entry

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Report Card Day

Students, families, teacher Rosmanie Estama and Greater Good Haiti director, Kelly Kobza celebrating successes on spring report card day.

Today family, students and staff gathered to pass out report cards, share progress, discuss problems and celebrate success.

Many families are concerned about the onset of adolescent behaviors which prompted a great discussion about how we all need to be partners not only in academics but in social and behavioral issues too.

School starts again on the 10th. Mesi Anmpil to all who help this school community continue for the greater good! PI GWO BYEN.

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Watch the Video: Local Hero Award

Greater Good Haiti Director, Kelly Kobza was honored by the Midpeninsula Media Center for her work with children in Haiti. The Media Center selected six “Local Heroes” from the community, and showcased their accomplishments in a series of interviews, which aired on cable TV during the month of March. (more…)

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Tent City in Haiti

I have been living and working in Haiti, on The island of La Gonave, in the town of Anse A Galtes for some 20 months. When I need to go to Port au Prince for a variety of reasons: to fly out, make purchases, do some banking or meet with people, I must stay over night, sometimes two nights.

Having lived in the company of Haitians, (most Americans live in compounds with other Americans) I have come to know a few Haitians whom I can call on as friends. One such couple of friends is Twenty (Wismy is his given name) and his girl friend Ketlie. Twenty and Ketlie graciously open their doors to me and offer me a bed to sleep on when I am in Port au Prince. They are young by our standards at 24 but by Haitian standards they are four years beyond the median age. Neither of them are gainfully employed since the earthquake of January 12,2010. Money is earned through odd jobs, running errands; Ketlie is a trained beautician and occasionally has a client.

They, like over a million others were displaced in January 12th 2010 when the 7.1 earthquake destroyed so much of Port au Prince. Twenty and Ketlie have been living in a tent city since the earthquake. Their tent city, Trazeli is home to more than 3,000 people living in some 500 tents on about an acre of land in the Tabarre District of Port au Prince, near the airport. I have had opportunity to stay with them there on numerous occasions and have brought other visitors to stay as well. It is a humbling experience that I will never forget. (more…)

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Greater Good Haiti Wins “Best Organization” Award

Greater Good Haiti, also known as Pi Gwo Byen in kreyol was awarded “Best Organization” by Rangon and Radio Krystal in Anse A Galets, Haiti. The award ceremony took place on December 31, 2011 and was a great finish to the year! Kudos to all the volunteers in Haiti and the US who made this possible and thanks to the community of Anse A Galets for the recognition! (more…)

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Pi Gwo Byen Activities

This week the class of Lekol Pi Gwo Byen was very busy with exciting activities.

We studied the poem Ayiti Demen (Haiti Tomorrow), which shares the message that together Haitians can create a beautiful Haiti.  Just as one drop of water cannot make a flood, not one Haitian can make the change—it will take the effort of all Haitians.

We first read the poem and studied the meaning, then we wrote the poem on a long scroll of paper, then we painted the poem with many colors! Great fun and lots of social studies, some good learning in progress. Thanks go out to Andrew Bowring of England who visited us in August and donated the anthology of poetry as well as the paints and brushes.Art project at Pi Gwo Byen school. (more…)

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Reading and Play Acting

Today we read the book Konpe Chat ak Konpe Chen, Bal pou bèt a kòn (Uncle Cat and Uncle Dog and the Dance for the Animals with Horns), a book written in Creole by Fedo Bwaye. We acted the story out in a readers theater. We had so much fun and laughed quite a lot.

Children at Pi Gwo Byen school act out a story they read in class.

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School Starts!

School is starting, and everyone is eager to be here. We have a new teacher, Rosemanie, who is working out wonderfully. We visited each student’s home in order to complete student profiles, and usually the whole family sits in on the interview. (more…)

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Haiti: One Year

The new sign at Pi Gwo Byen School

As I was preparing my departure for Haiti in early March 2011, I visited my good friend Sheila who gave me a book she was still reading but thought I ought to take with me. She handed me a heavy hard cover biography of a United Nations diplomat I had never heard of, but on Sheila’s recommendation and the catchy title I took the book, Chasing the Flame; Sergio Viera de Mello and the Fight to Save the World by Samantha Power.

What I discovered in those pages was the journey of a man whose life was spent negotiating with people, mediating situations and working for outcomes that best served all parties. I spent three months in Port au Prince on my first stay, and vowed after my observations, experiences and the reading of Ms. Power’s book, that I would return as soon as possible and work to make a difference in the best way that I personally was able. There is a direct quote from Mr. Viera de Mello, which inspired me when considering the manner in which I would face the work I was to undertake in Haiti. (more…)

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Thanks & Mailing Donations

Thank you to all who attended either of the two presentations about our work in Haiti. It is so great to see your interest and enthusiasm for our work in Haiti!
Your on the spot donations are greatly appreciated. Should you wish to donate by check and mail rather than by Paypal, please make checks out to:

Greater Good International

mail to:

Greater Good International
1230 Market St., #129
San Francisco, CA 94102

Again, Thank You

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