Peter Herard, a man with a vision
By: Adma Riche, Haiti Telegraph
In 1981 Peter Herard left his small village of Diondion located in the Northwest 
Department of Haiti to pursue his dream of a better life for him and his family. He immigrated to the United States and settled in Immokalee, a farming village located on Florida’s west coast.
In Immokalee, Peter met nationals from the Northwestern Haiti who were engaged in agricultural labor such as picking tomatoes, green peppers and oranges. After a brief stint as a farm worker, he started to assist his fellow citizens by helping with writing letters, filling out government forms and other correspondence.
He went on to study accounting and in 1985 opened Peter’s Multiple Services, a full service agency that provides full immigration services, notary public, travel arrangements, filing income tax returns and other services. He has helped countless immigrants in Southwest Florida to obtain legal status and become American citizens. His reputation soon overflows into other communities. His fluency in Spanish has earned him a strong reputation among Latin American farm workers as well.
Although he has become a successful businessman, Peter Herard never forgets where he comes from. He makes it his duty to pay annual visits to the Jean Rabel region in order to give back to his community. “If you forget where you came from, you will never reach your destination” says Peter during a recent interview with Haiti Telegraph. “When I look in the eyes of a young person in Diondion, I see myself in the late 70’s” added Peter.
Peter has become a philanthropist who visits the Jean Rabel community at least twice a year. During each visit, he holds massive distribution of food, clothes and other items. Seeing the scope of the needs and with help from his siblings and some friends, he has founded the Yaya Humanitarian Foundation, a (501) c (3) nonprofit organization whose objective is to bring long term help to the community. “What I’ve done by myself over the years look like a drop in the bucket compared to the needs of the community” says Herard. His eyes light up when he’s discussing the plans of the foundation. He already sees schools that will provide tuition free education, clinics that will provide free health care, scholarships for students to attend universities.
Jean-Rabel is located some 30 miles southwest of Port-de-Paix, the main city in the Northwest Department. Due to bad road conditions, it takes about 2 hours for this short ride. The commune has an estimated adult population of 148,416. The publicly funded schools are dysfunctional due to late payment by the government to the teachers. The few private schools available are out of reach for most parents who cannot afford the tuitions. “Everyone knows education is key to success", adds Peter. “Through the Yaya Humanitarian Foundation, I want to make that key available to the children and young people of Jean-Rabel” says Peter.
Peter has put his money where his mouth is. He has personally invested the initial funds to set-up the foundation and is now working on building a strong organization both in the United States and Haiti that will oversee the implementation of their ambitious projects.
They depend heavily on contributions from people like you to reach their goals. You can obtain more information by visiting their website www.yayafoundation.org
Adma Riche
Haiti Telegraph