How our journey began

Hands Together Orphanage (HTO) is the realization of a vision God placed in the heart of our founder, and spread to the creation of our Empower Haiti team. Following the call to help the children of Haiti, HTO was created and is fully funded and run by our 501(c)(3), Empower Haiti, Inc.

This group is not like most other organizations that come and mission to many orphanages, bringing gifts and moving on; we are building life-long relationships with our children all the way to adulthood, devoting all of our time to empowering the same 18 children.

Here at HTO, we are all about forming long-term relationships, and plan to support our children fully until they reach adulthood. These children are precious individuals who have come from very unstable backgrounds. We aim to provide long-term relationships that are rooted in genuine, Christ-like love, and through thoughtful consideration provide protection, nurturing, responsible guidance and support.

Our ultimate goal is to raise them with purpose; to know Christ, and to empower and equip them to be spiritually, physically and emotionally healthy, whole, self-sufficient adults.

Our children at HTO need stability, with a routine and consistent people in their lives. Too many adults have already betrayed and abandoned them, and we do not want to reinforce this fear. For this reason, we limit visitors and the number of interactions with new groups. It is not our goal to over protect our children, but to only introduce them to people who will remain constant, reinforcing the message we aim to teach. We believe that people coming and going, on a one-time basis or just to deliver goods and leave, is not ultimately beneficial to their well-being, and will only reinforce their abandonment and attachment issues.

Since it's inception, the Empower Haiti team has grown. Each trip to Haiti brings new faces, and a bigger family for the children at Hands Together Orphanage. 

The larger our family, the greater an impact we can have! Each team member brings a unique set of skills, relationships and spiritual gifts, multiplying our influence in Montrouis as well as our communities in the United States.