In many parts of Haiti, children spend much of their day helping with household chores- fetching water, cooking, and caring for younger siblings occupy their after-school hours. For most, toys, books, and extracurricular activities are rare luxuries. Yet even without these, children find joy in play: if a neighbor has a soccer ball, they’ll get creative, using rocks or sticks as makeshift goals, and spend hours kicking and running with endless energy.

But what if they could also discover new worlds through stories? You may have seen them in your own neighborhoods or communities, small, colorful mailboxes filled with library books. Fleri Cheri wants to bring the same idea to the Central Plateau of Haiti by planting these library boxes in local neighborhoods and outside churches. Each mailbox will be filled with stories featuring characters who look like the children reading them, written in French, which they learn in school, and most importantly in their native language of Haitian Creole. These books give kids a chance to experience the joy of reading, learn in their own language, and dream beyond their daily routines.

But this effort is about more than just books. According to UNICEF reports from 2024 and 2025, gangs in Haiti are targeting children through forced recruitment, sexual violence, displacement, and the destruction of vital social services. In November 2024, UNICEF reported that the number of children recruited by armed groups had increased by seventy percent in just one year, with children making up as much as half of all gang members. In a time when so many Haitian children are being robbed of safety and childhood itself, simply being able to sit and read a story in peace, under a mango tree becomes a powerful act of hope.

Each library mailbox costs about $700 to build and includes the first-year salary for a local staff member to manage it part-time, organizing the books, keeping them available for the community, and hosting storytime read-aloud sessions for the children. To withstand hurricanes, heavy rains, and termites, we are building the mailboxes with cement and rebar rather than wood. Our first mailbox will be placed on the Fleri Cheri property, where children already pass daily on their way to school or to fetch water, making it easy for them to gather and read. The second will be at a rural church where we are starting a new partnership, reaching children in even more remote areas.

These small but powerful library mailboxes are more than just boxes of books; they are seeds of hope. They give children stories that reflect their language, their culture, and their lives. They help kids see their value, spark their imagination, and dream of a brighter future. You can help us plant these seeds of hope. Together, we can give Haitian children the gift of reading, the gift of joy, and the gift of possibility.