Our mission
Oeuvres de la Divine
Misèricorde (Charities of the Divine Mercy) is an orphanage
located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti run by Mgr. François Ligondé
and supported by foundations registered in Canada (under the
name Oeuvres de la Divine Misèricorde) and in the United
States (under the name Charities of the Divine Mercy). The
foundation was started with the tax returns of charity-minded
retired professionals in Montreal, Canada, and all money
raised for the orphanage goes to support the orphanage.
All time given by representatives of ODM in Canada and the
United States is non-compensated. The orphanage supports
approximately children who no longer have parents as well as
children whose parents need a safe place for them to stay while
they search for shelter or employment. The children are usually
ages ten months to ten years. Mgr. François Ligondé and the Haitian staff
care for the children's medical, spiritual, social and
educational needs.
Our mission is to provide educational, spiritual, medical and nutritional care
for the children of ODM. To that end, we have several goals to meet our
mission.
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First, to continue to provide for the nutritional needs of the children. This
includes maintaining adequate food and water supplies and working to secure
nutritional supplements from donors.
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Second, to continue to address the ongoing medical needs of the children of
ODM. The children mainly suffer from maladies associated with inadequacies in
proper hygiene. Common ailments include ringworm, scabies, and conjunctivitis.
We are working to build relationships with donors to supply medicines to treat
these diseases as well as to improve access to medical care for less frequent,
but expensive, medical emergencies that require hospitalization.
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Third, to continue to provide for the children's educational and spiritual
needs. Teachers on site comment that the children of ODM achieve at a level
higher than their peers. We strive to maintain this level of achievement while
expanding avenues for learning. We hope to build relationships that will allow
us to expand current facilities to provide quality education for the children
in the areas of general studies and agriculture. In this way we hope to empower
the children to lead productive adult lives to improve their future prospects
and those of their country.
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Fourth, to improve structural facilities to meet the needs of the children. We
work to make sure that every child has a bed to sleep on at night, a table to
eat at, and learn at, and a chair to sit in. We also strive to improve the
facilities to ameliorate hygiene practices. We hope to renovate as yet
uninhabitable space while maintaining the structure of the current orphanage.
We are hoping to build relationships with other agencies that could help with
some of these structural needs.
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Finally, to continue fundraising efforts to meet our goals. We hope to continue
to work and build relationships through churches and communities to maintain a
stable level of monetary support for ODM. We also are hoping to negotiate
reduced transfer rates through Unitransfer. Related to this goal is the
building of a website that will hopefully help to advertise us more widely to
donors.
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