For the past three years, Chapel Hill senior Zoe Roth has been volunteering with Streethearts Haiti, a nonprofit organization that works to eliminate youth homelessness in the country. Now, she is working to bring the spirit of this charity to her community in Chapel Hill.
Roth met Streethearts Haiti founder and East Carolina University alumna Linsey Jorgenson while attending a teachers’ conference in Cap-Haitien, Haiti with her mother in 2015.
On the trip, she met some of the local boys who benefit from the Streethearts programs.
“They are so resilient and happy all the time,” Roth said. She has been working with the organization ever since this trip.
Youth homelessness is a major crisis in Haiti, with the United Nations estimating the orphan population at over 600,000. Homeless Haitian children, often referred to as street kids, have limited access to education and healthcare and are generally exposed to diseases and illnesses at a much higher rate.
Streethearts aims to provide for these street kids, as well as help them to acquire skills to make them employable when they become adults.
Roth visits Cap-Haitien fairly regularly. Her role in the organization involves taking children on field trips, leading recreational games, helping them bake cookies and helping them with their English studies.
She attributes her love for Streethearts to the kindness and resiliency of the people the organization helps. “They have literally lived through the most awful things,” Roth said, “but [they] always have a smile on their faces.”
This year, Roth invited friend and fellow Chapel Hill senior Lara Rabinowitz to join her for her work in Haiti. The two visited Cap-Haitien on a mission trip with Streethearts over spring break.
“I think [Streethearts] has a really good method of how to solve some of the big problems in Haiti, such as unemployment and crime,” Rabinowitz said.
A large part of Roth’s work for the organization is done at home in North Carolina. Both Roth and Rabinowitz work to raise awareness and funds for the organization locally.
“[I’m] always raising money, by selling soup and Haitian things with my mom,” Roth said.
Roth and Rabinowitz are also working to organize a fundraiser through Chick-Fil-A and are encouraging students to be on the lookout for details of this event.
