Maison Fortuné Orphanage History
Beginnings
Maison Fortuné Orphanage had a very humble beginning. Founder Lefort Jean-Louis gathered a small group of malnourished children in the Hinche, Haiti area and decided to give them a home.
Jean-Louis, himself from a poor peasant family, was able to get a high school and college (Virginia Tech) education with the help of supporters in Virginia. Returning to Haiti, he looked for an opportunity to serve his own people. He became increasingly aware of the number of orphaned, abandoned, or neglected children on the streets. In 2000, he obtained from the Catholic Bishop of Hinche a small building in the town’s Bois Verna section and began the orphanage with three children, which grew to twenty-three in its first two years.
In 2002, with funding from supporters who would become the nucleus of the Maison Fortuné Orphanage Foundation, the orphanage was able to purchase a three-acre property on the other side of town. The orphanage survived severe flooding in 2008, hurricanes, and the earthquake of 2010. In response to the latter catastrophe, the orphanage took in over 100 children from Port-au-Prince, bringing the number of children in residence to 250.
The School
The orphanage opened its own campus elementary school literally under the trees! With funding from the Foundation, this evolved into a school now certified by the Haitian Ministry of Education and incorporated into the Catholic school system of the Hinche diocese. It currently serves over 300 children from the orphanage and poor children from the neighborhood. The Fortuné Jean-Louis School has had excellent results in the national exams, and all of its graduates to date have been admitted to secondary school (currently about 80 attend secondary schools in Hinche). Its first secondary school graduate is now studying Business Administration at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., with the goal of returning to Maison Fortuné and working there in an administrative role.