Haiti
Community Development
Manis Dilus founded the Lemuel organization in 1996. Manis had grown up very poor, but was able to finish high school and college. He was working as a professional videographer when his camera captured a scene that would change the course of his life. While filming in downtown Port-au-Prince, Manis zoomed in on a group of boys sniffing glue. They were trying to get high to numb their hunger. Seeing the emptiness in their eyes and recognizing their pain, Manis was touched and vowed to help those growing up in poverty like he did.
Today Lemuel is currently working in two areas of Haiti: the capital city, Port-au-Prince, and a rural area in the Northwest known as Gran Dyab (Big Devil) or “the Plateau.”
In Port-au-Prince the project is based primarily around the children and young adults that are in Lemuel’s education program. Activities are implemented to offer education in a wide range of areas to encourage leadership qualities. In addition there is continued outreach into the impoverished and increasingly violent community that surrounds Lemuel’s headquarters.
On the Plateau, a dry and destitute area dominated by voodoo, Lemuel is concentrating on community development through the digging of latrines and wells to improve health conditions.