Amid Gang Violence and New Haitian Leadership, Life Goes on for Millions

With violent gangs in the streets and an unstable government, Haiti’s Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, resigned on April 25, and a transition council took power. The council is expected to vote for a new, temporary leader on Feb. 30. The transitional government cannot be renewed after February 2026, when national elections are planned.

“We are excited to see the formation of a new government,“ missionary Nick Stolberg told The Epoch Times. ”Each time a new leader has taken power during our time in Haiti, it has brought in a renewed sense of national pride and hope for a better tomorrow. We will pray that this team learns to work together, compromise, and put the country first.”

Mr. Stolberg is the founder and CEO of New Roots in Haiti and lives near Cap-Haitien, Haiti, with his wife Nikki and their four children.

“I’ve been on the list with the Department of State for the past month, and they’ve given me plenty of options to leave,” Mr. Stolberg said. But conditions are not as bad in his region, and they want to stay and continue the work of New Roots, which focuses on economic development.

They moved to Haiti in 2010. While many missionaries serve for one week or one year, the Stolbergs believe they can best serve by calling Haiti home. They have gained much insight into the country over the last 14 years.

Former prime minister Mr. Henry was not elected or appointed by Haitians, and that never set well with the people, he said.

Related Stories

“He had an opportunity to lead, but in his tenure, we never saw him lead anything. The government had been run into the ground, and he was essentially an illegitimate dictator,” Mr. Stolberg said. “In many senses the Haitian people should be commended for organizing a popular uprising and bringing in a new government.”

He calls the announcement of a new, Haitian-appointed transitional government a huge win for the country, specifically because it has an end date. Mr. Henry’s leadership never had an end date. This next leadership will have a limited term and that encourages the entire country to work together to form a new round of elections, he said.

“If you go to church in Haiti, people are praying for jobs. They’re not praying to build another church down the road. There’s lots of churches. There’s lots of schools. We don’t need any more schools.”

A student works in a classroom in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on April 29, 2024, the first day back at school for students in the city. Schools were closed after a deadly gang assault on the capital's main prison that allowed thousands of inmates to escape overnight on March 3, 2024. (Clarens Siffroy/AFP via Getty Images)

Most schools charge tuition, making classes out of reach for many kids. But some people are willing to sponsor a child and pay their tuition.

“It you want to sponsor a kid to go to school—great. At 18 They’re going to be unemployed like everybody else,” Mr. Stolberg said.

“We need to invest in roads, power, schools, basic infrastructure that will allow economic development in ways that were never before possible. This was the vision of late president Jovenel Moise and is one of the elements that New Roots Haiti works for every day.”

Mr. Moise was assassinated in his home in 2021. Mr. Henry took his place. Haiti has a long history of unstable government, plus numerous strikes by hurricanes and major earthquakes.

Today, 50 percent of all food in Haiti (including 80 percent of its rice) is imported; two out of three Haitians live on less than $2 a day, and 70 percent of the population is unemployed, according to New Roots.

Diane and Gary Heavin of Texas, who founded the Curves fitness franchise, have been sending nearly a million pounds of food per year to Haiti since the 2016 hurricane.

“Unfortunately, this has been a challenge the last couple years with all the gang violence and uproar in the country,” Ms. Heavin told The Epoch Times in an email. “Many of our shipments were stolen in transport in Haiti.”

They have also used their private aircraft to support New Roots in various ways.

In 2016, New Roots started an educational farm. They employe people, create markets for local products, and teach local farmers a holistic way to farm. The farm’s main focus is pasture raised chickens. They also raise pigs, cows, corn, and soybeans.

“They are heroes in my book,” Ms. Heavin said of the Stolberg family.

Nick and Nikki Stolberg of New Roots, near Cap-Haitian, Haiti, get a drink of water with some of the New Roots farmers. (Alexis Wood-Ally Julien/New Roots)

The entire life cycle of a chicken is a potential job creator. New Roots buys chicken feed now produced by neighbors’ farms, and they pay workers to process chicken into a boneless, skinless, frozen chicken breast, among other things.

New Roots is building an economy locally, using local raw materials. It now employs more than 50 people, plus hundreds of farmers in the area benefit from the organization’s economic activities.

New Roots has two tractors used to help local farmers with cultivation. Without access to this equipment, farmers were previously cultivating their land by hand. The use of tractors has increased production on these farms.

The chicken feed used to be bought from the Dominican Republic. The main component of chicken feed is corn, which local farmers know how to grow, but in Haiti, there was no market for it until New Roots opened a feed mill and started buying corn from local farmers.

They also have a delivery service. New Roots supplies private customers, restaurants, hotels, orphanages and schools with chicken, delivered five days a week.

“Haiti’s best, most educated workforce—people who run businesses, doctors, police officers, bankers—people who can be successful in the U.S. are leaving. Hundreds of Haitians are boarding planes,” Mr. Stolberg said.

“The State Department is saying we need to help Haiti by reinforcing their police department. That’s the worldwide stance on how the world is going to help Haiti. At the same time, they built this program that has allowed thousands of police officers to leave the country and come to the U.S.”

Families are sending their best, most educated to the U.S., he says, because they have the best chance of succeeding stateside, and sending money back into Haiti.

While he doesn’t want to minimize the opportunity it is for Haitians, he sees trouble ahead.

“Years from now, I truly believe that we will look at this expedited brain drain of Haiti and the absolute disaster that it has left for Haiti.”

Another thing that has changed the culture in Haiti is access to cell phones. When he moved there in 2010, few people had cell phones or internet access. Now most people have a phone and the internet. They watch TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, and for the first time, they can compare their country’s condition to others.

“In the last five years, Haitians have realized more of what they don’t have than they ever have in the past. They were in the dark before. Now, they know.” Mr. Stolberg said.

There are many good people in Haiti who just want to thrive, he said.

“Even during the worst of situations, there is always hope, there is always goodness, and sometimes we need a little reminder,” Ms. Heavin said.

Haitian farmer with chicken at New Roots, in Cap-Haitian, Haiti, April 2024. (Alexis Wood-Ally Julien/New Roots)