When my daughter was in eighth grade, she and her Girl Scout troop were beginning to explore ideas for their individual Silver Award projects.

Around our dinner table, we tossed around possibilities. Nothing landed. Nothing stirred real interest. So we encouraged her to do what we have always trusted. Stay open. Listen. Pay attention to what people are talking about in the world.

Often, the idea that will matter most arrives sideways.

That moment came when we listened to Ahaji Schreffler speak about her experience volunteering in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. She told the story of meeting Gabriel and the children of Love Orphanage.

Gabriel, who is Haitian, had been working as a translator in Miami, bringing volunteer groups to Haiti. In the aftermath, he returned to check on his family. What he encountered broke his heart and changed the course of his life.

Countless children were orphaned, hungry, and traumatized.

So Gabriel stayed and opened Love Orphanage with almost nothing. One room and three malnourished children.

After Ahaji’s presentation, my daughter asked if we could speak with her. While she wanted to learn more, there was one question she couldn’t shake. She asked how the children were doing in school.

Ahaji paused and gently explained that none of the children had ever been to school.

I will never forget the look on my daughter’s face as she turned toward me, eyes wide, silently asking if that could really be true.

It was a moment of lost innocence, one of many in a lifetime. When the realization that what you assumed was “normal” is not universal. That access to education, something she took for granted, is a privilege many children never receive.

On the drive home, she asked a simple question. “Mom, do you think it would be possible to send these kids to school?”

That question became her Girl Scout Silver Award project and the beginning of what is now the Be a Difference Maker education program.

That first year, every eligible child at Love Orphanage was enrolled in private school. They received uniforms, backpacks, books, and sneakers. A small library was created in the home, complete with art supplies and space for creative expression.

In the years that followed, her Girl Scout Gold Award project expanded the original vision.

Not only did the Be a Difference Maker program support sustainable education, it also funded four summers of Culture Camp experiences and planted the early seeds for vocational training.

Our entire family and all the Difference Makers who traveled to Love Orphanage for Culture Camp witnessed the impact first hand. We all were irrevocably changed.



Fast forward to today. 



According to We The Village’s 2025 Annual Summary, this year marks the thirteenth consecutive year that every child at Love Orphanage has had access to private education through the Be a Difference Maker program. All thanks to the generosity of so many Difference Makers.

That fact alone is extraordinary in a country where most families cannot afford school, where poverty is widespread, and most people live on just a few dollars a day amid ongoing civil unrest.

Today, there are nineteen children at Love Orphanage.

They are healthy, healed from trauma and malnutrition, and fully capable of love, joy, play, and connection.

And they have grown up knowing something essential – that Gabriel, Rodeline, and the Haitian volunteers love them and consistently work so that they may live well.