 The Arts Advocating for the Poor
The Apparent Project is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with a vision to help address the needs of Haitian families in extreme poverty. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, is said to have as many as 500,000 orphans. While there are many orphanages and creches that are trying to address this crisis, Haitian adoptions are notoriously long and often difficult. This has caused orphanages to be overcrowded and short on funding, also creating emotional, physical, and developmental problems for institutionalized children. Something needs to be done
to cut the problem off at its root.
The vast majority of the children in Haiti's orphanages are actually not true orphans. These children have been brought to orphanages simply because their parents were
too poor to sustain a growing family. If these families could earn a small income many
of them would choose not to be broken and dislocated by relinquishing their children.
I n order to address the needs of these families we are establishing a workshop in which poor parents can be trained in various fine arts and crafts skills. Trained artisans can then produce goods that can be marketed internationally. This will not only earn a sustainable wage with which artisans can feed their families, but it will offer them a sense of accomplishment and contribution.
The Apparent Project is also creating a licensed creche (orphanage) that will serve a small number of true orphans and abandoned children whose parents can't be found. This creche will offer adoptive families the rare peace of knowing that they are not separating a family that could be reunited. Because of our commitment to stay small, orphans will also have the parental love and attention of our staff family, the Clays, who have served as orphanage house parents and are currently adopting from Haiti themselves.
Apparent is motivated by a deep faith that Jesus is a lover of the fatherless, widows,
and the disenfranchised. We desire to bring honor and attention the the Father God through the acts of love He has called us to. Simultaneously, we long to challenge
the body of Christ to get off the couch, turn off the TV and "do the stuff"! James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Materialism, isolation, and independence are hurting North America as deeply as poverty is hurting Haiti. For this reason we are dedicated to using media and the arts to help display the needs and the blessings of Haiti to the broader world, hopefully motivating more people to think outside of their own needs and interests.
Many missions and service groups are doing great things to help Haiti, but do not have the resources they need or an effective means to show the world those needs. We provide professional video and media services to these missions as a way for them to create awareness and to promote unity, vision, and collaboration amongst local missions through visual storytelling.
Click here to read more about our founders and the backstory of the Apparent Project
Click here for bios on our staff
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