For more information: www.freethekids.org.

The Rev. Marc Boisvert was already making an impact in Haiti before the earthquake felt around the world rocked the small island south of Cuba.

On Tuesday, the former Lewiston resident’s impact grew deeper when his orphanage, known as Project Hope, announced that the facility would take in another 100 children orphaned as a result of the nation’s deadliest natural disaster in history.

“With our staff of 250 and over 140 acres, we have the capacity to handle the extra children left helpless because of this devastation,” Boisvert said in a press release issued Tuesday by Free the Kids, a stateside nonprofit organization that helps raise money for the Les Cayes orphanage.

Over the past 12 years, Boisvert has captured the hearts, souls and hands of thousands across the country because of his work in Haiti.
Boisvert’s orphanage is home to more than 600 children, and provides academic and vocational
training to at least 1,200 more. Boisvert went on to say in the press release that the facility serves more than 4,000 meals each day.

The massive Jan. 12 earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The orphans who will soon arrive at Project Hope’s doorstep will come from the town of Leogane, a few miles west of the earthquake’s epicenter.

Jami Vass, executive director of Free the Kids, said that many are drawn to Boisvert’s mission to raise the children who come to his orphanage to be caring and productive leaders in their community and country.

No child from the facility is adopted out, except when a family member steps forward, Vass said. Otherwise, children grow up at the orphanage, receive educations and learn trades. Many go on to higher education, she said.

“(Boisvert) doesn’t want the country of Haiti to export its children,” said Rob Morris, a lawyer from South Portland who serves on the Free the Kids Board of Directors. “He wants it to educate its children. These kids grow up within their culture and learn to give back to Haiti.”

Vass said that the stateside group is raising money to fund the rapid expansion of the orphanage. The mission has been to house 1,000 children, but the earthquake has the group moving toward that goal sooner than expected, she said.

“It’s just so traumatic for them,” Vass said. “All we know is that there’s 100 of them and that they need food, shelter, clothing and medical supplies.”

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