Our Work
Nexus For Good promotes the well-being and flourishing of children by working with local leaders in underdeveloped countries to implement or enhance educational programs where they are inaccessible, unattainable, or limited, due to socioeconomic, religious, or ethnic status.
What We Do
Our focus is primary education and the holistic development of our students. By addressing factors that directly and indirectly affect a student’s ability to learn, we provide these children with the best possible opportunity to succeed. Components of our programs include:
- Childhood education and ancillary activities
- Nutritious school meals
- Basic healthcare
- Mentoring (for students and staff)
- Development of safe spaces where inspiration, the freedom to dream, and the opportunity to thrive are infused into these special children.
When necessary and feasible, we construct learning centers, as well!
“Poverty of goods is easily cured; poverty of the mind is irreparable.”
Why We Do
What We Do
Responding to God’s call, we are compelled to do what we can to combat injustice, poverty, and illiteracy for as many children as possible, reflecting God’s love in tangible ways (Isaiah 58:6). Our purpose derives from Jeremiah 29:11: “To give [them] hope and a future.”
Our mission is simple: to bring positive transformation to the lives of some of the most vulnerable children on earth, the ones nobody sees, the ones who have no hope other than God and His people who choose to see what is happening and engage. We can leave behind something that can endure – a next generation who, perhaps, will one day do great things because someone cared enough to get involved.
“As long as poverty, injustice, and gross inequality exist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”
Where We Serve
We have been granted the opportunity to establish learning centers in Haiti and South Asia, providing safe spaces where impoverished children can learn and grow. Additionally, we collaborate in the development of educational programs with other grassroots organizations with whom we share similar vision.
Lespinasse
The school is a “light on a hill” to this community, offering hope, dignity, and evidence of a God who cares.
While temporarily volunteering as director of medical services at an orphanage in Haiti, Jeanette Felix (co-founder of Nexus For Good), became aware of the tiny village of Lespinasse tucked away in the steep mountains of southeast Haiti. Malnutrition was rampant among the children there, and to help mitigate it, she coordinated a food program and medical clinic three days per week for several years before going back to the US.
Years later, Jeanette returned to Haiti and reconnected with the people of Lespinasse. The community’s needs were still extensive, but according to them, what was most needed was education for their children because a few years earlier, their only school had closed. In the days following that conversation, she and a group of Haitian friends formed Children in Need Haitian Project and restarted the school.
Much has transpired since those early days. The single schoolroom, which initially contained an informal group of multi-aged children, grew into a fully staffed school of 200+ students boasting extraordinary academic achievements. US volunteers working with men from the community built a large, beautiful, 7- room school building.
Today amid political unrest, natural catastrophes, crushing poverty, and displacement due to gang violence, the school continues to grow and prosper led by an all Haitian staff. With incredible courage, creativity, and fortitude, they continue providing high-quality education to preschool and elementary-aged students. Nexus For Good is actively supporting their efforts, working with them, offering counsel, encouragement, and resources.
221 Learning Center
When completed, the 221 Learning Center will provide a safe place for children in the leper colony to learn and grow.
We were first introduced to a pastoral couple in South Asia by friends. This couple cares for people on the very margins of society. Through them, we learned of children living in a leper colony who are denied education and not permitted to attend school with “regular” children.
While not having leprosy themselves, these kids are shunned and, along with their infected family members, are forced out of their community by people who were once neighbors and friends. In an instant, their young lives are uprooted and they are exiled to leper colonies where they are compelled to beg, scavenge, and steal for survival. Girls are often forced into prostitution or sold into marriage by their parents (for food or money) so the rest of the family can survive. With no future to look forward to, hope quickly vanishes.
Nexus For Good wanted to create a place for these children to learn and grow, safe from outsiders who look down on and often mock and torment them. Someone in the colony generously provided a dilapidated two-room building to use for this purpose, and from it, the 221 Learning Center emerged as a beacon of hope. Funds from Nexus For Good, along with a generous grant, transformed this structure into a place where students study basic math, learn to read and write in English and their native language, and where they learn about a God who sees and loves them.
In addition, the same pastoral couple had already purchased land to build another school. It is a beautiful plot large enough for multiple buildings and play areas. We pray that some of the students in the colony can eventually board there and be schooled with the other children. The situation is incredibly complex and challenging due to governmental restrictions and societal biases. The plan could be derailed for a host of reasons. However, we feel God desires us to do whatever we can to assist these kids who have no one else advocating for their future.
For our part, Nexus For Good will raise funds to cover teachers’ salaries and contribute toward the cost of building dormitories. If successful, these children may have a future that none of them ever dreamed possible.
Plateau Anse-Rouge
Uniquely parallels the vision and foundational principles of our mission school in Lespinasse.
In addition to our work in Lespinasse and South Asia, we collaborate with a Haitian-led organization, Lemuel Ministries, which focuses on community development in Northwest Haiti. This area has frequent food shortages due to an extremely hot and arid climate, and due to its isolated location, it has difficulty obtaining outside supplies.
Lemuel has developed a school for 250+ students grades preschool – 9th Grade. This school’s educational program uniquely parallels the vision and foundational principles of our mission school in Lespinasse. The aim of their school is that these students would graduate with 4 things:
- An understanding of who God is, what He has done for them through Jesus Christ, and his purpose for their lives.
- A quality academic education that prepares them to excel in higher education or a trade.
- A love for their country, respect for authority, and an ability to bring positive change.
- A love of the written word, the ability to read with ease and understanding, and a passion for learning.
Nexus For Good was able to assist with a portion of the financial needs of the school during an especially hard year. We hope to continue working with this ministry in any way we can.
St. Michel de L’Atalaye
We gave a one-time gift for the purchase of books to broaden the horizons and enhance the education of these students.
TeacHaiti, in the Central Plateau region (Artibonite Department), was founded by a Haitian friend of ours. After establishing an immensely successful school (grades preschool through high school) in Port-au-Prince, she started an elementary school in the impoverished area of St. Michel where she grew up. They built a beautiful school building that has a library, but unfortunately, they had no money for books.
Nexus For Good has been delighted to give a one-time gift for the purchase of books to broaden the horizons and enhance the education of these students. We are making their dream a reality! We are looking for other opportunities to collaborate with this awesome mission.
Your Participation Saves Lives
Supporting Nexus For Good allows you to intervene in the lives of children who otherwise wouldn’t have access to the education, school lunches, healthcare, and opportunities needed to improve their lives. With your help, we can reach more children, enable them to thrive, and show them that they are loved, valued, and worthy.
Our overwhelming hope is that what we do today, though small as a mustard seed, will one day produce a great harvest of good for the world through these children.
So on behalf of all these little ones and those who are not yet reached, let’s not stop until the dream becomes their reality.