The Rev. Jean Franco Valdemar, a native of Haiti and founder of the nonprofit Hope for American Haitian Youth and Elderly, will return to the Caribbean country in June to celebrate the opening of a new missionary guesthouse built by the group and funded by contributors from congregations throughout Lake County and around the nation.

HOHAYE will hold a 15th anniversary fundraising dinner at 6 p.m. on June 4 at Shiloh Baptist Church, 800 S. Genesee St., Waukegan. Reservations are $50 per person. Donations of school and medical supplies and shoes are welcome.

Valdemar, who lives in Waukegan, landed in Haiti on a mission trip on Jan. 12, 2010, less than an hour before the country was hit by a magnitude 7.0 earthquake. He spent the next two weeks helping in the rescue effort as the death toll reached 230,000.

In 2012, he spent more than a year raising donations and supplies, packing them into a school bus that served as a shipping container and that, after arriving in Haiti, transported children to school and church in Port au Prince.

“It’s been six years since the earthquake, but the country is still in a very difficult situation and in many cases, people’s lives are worse,” said Valdemar, pastor of Bethel Haitian Evangelical Church in Rogers Park and adjunct instructor at Judson College in Elgin.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Sixty percent of its people live on the equivalent of less than $2.42 per day, according to the World Bank, and more than 2.5 million live on less than $1.23 per day.

“Life is really tough,” said Valdemar, who estimates that 80 percent of the country’s 11 million people are unemployed. “I thank God, who has allowed me to be a hand up. And I thank God for the generosity of so many supporters who want to help the Haitian people.”

HOHAYE helps feed and clothe people, sends children to school and brings in mobile health clinics. It’s also organizing a trade school to teach work skills including plumbing, electrical work, music and English.

The nine-bedroom guesthouse offers missionaries a safe place to stay while lending their expertise to HOHAYE, which is always looking for tradespeople to help teach marketable skills, Valdemar said.

Church members and others interested in working through HOHAYE can register for a mission trip at Himghoh.org.

HOHAYE is funded by members of area churches including: Jesus Name Apostolic, Lake County Baptist, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist, Shiloh Baptist, Antioch Baptist and New Hope Missionary Baptist, all in Waukegan; Loving Arms Ministry in Zion; Lindenhurst Church of God; Mt. Sinai Baptist in North Chicago; and Faith Bible in Des Plaines. Contributors also include Open Door in Shelbyville; many Haitian churches throughout the Chicago area; Tabernacle Community Baptist Church in Milwaukee; and the New York-based missionary group So Send I You, Inc.

For more information on HOHAYE or the anniversary dinner, call Valdemar at (224) 772-7379.

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