Beloved members and friends of UUCM,
The Justice Team, Steve Temple, Leisa Huyck, and Rev. Kevin have some very exciting news: we are bringing a young Haitian family to Grass Valley!
Steve and Leisa have known this young couple, Nazaire (papa) and Moustapha (maman), for ten years, through our shared work in rebuilding Haiti’s agricultural education system after the 2010 earthquake. Nazaire and Moustapha have two little boys, ages 8 and 4. Steve is godfather to the older boy.
Both Nazaire and Moustapha are agricultural extensionists by training. Nazaire has come to the U.S. for two short periods to get advanced training, taking his new skills back to Haiti to help rebuild his country.
For the past three years, the situation in Haiti has been so unstable and violent that neither Nazaire nor Moustapha have been able to leave their apartment in Port au Prince to go work in the countryside. When we speak to them on the phone, we often hear gunshots in the background. We have occasionally had to send money so they would be able to buy food. The boys cannot attend school nor play outside due to the dangers of kidnapping, and Moustapha can’t go out because of the danger of rape as well as kidnapping.
For all this time, we have been exploring possible avenues for bringing them to the U.S., until Haiti is more stable. In January, the Biden administration opened a “Humanitarian Parole” program that admits 30,000 Haitians per month to the U.S. for a parole period of up to two years. We submitted the paperwork, and learned just two weeks ago that Moustapha and the boys have been cleared for travel! They will arrive on July 18! Nazaire is still waiting to hear, but we have every expectation that he will also be cleared.
In the meantime,…we need help! They will need everything! Moustapha and the boys will live at Steve and Leisa’s house in a (mostly) separate apartment we are setting up, and until we can all figure out what their next steps might be. They hope eventually to move to a place where there is more ethnic diversity, and possibly even other Haitians, but for now they are coming here.
We hope all of you will help make them welcome, not only emotionally and spiritually, but also materially. We have some furnishings for their apartment—two beds and two couches—but that’s it! They and we will need money to purchase supplies, pay for things like medical and dental care, buy a used vehicle to transport them around in (we only have our tiny electric car), and much more. They and we can certainly use donations of kitchen items like dishware, small appliances like small microwave, blender, toaster oven, etc. New or used toys, games, art supplies, and all things for 4- and 8-year-olds will also be needed, as will PLAYMATES! Steve and Leisa are of grandparent age and so are not plugged into the local family scene; we welcome suggestions for things young kids can do in the area to meet other kids and families.
We are in the process of setting up a fund to which people can donate money, as well as a wish list for particular items needed and a place to drop them off. We may also will have a work day or two to help us get everything set up. We have less than four weeks to go until they arrive!
We know our UUCM community will come together to help welcome this Haitian family into our midst. We look forward to introducing them to you. Thank You!