Marie Jose Poux is a native of Haiti, the country that was hit by a category seven earthquake on January 12, 2010…which also happens to be Poux’s birthday.

Poux has been working every day since to bring her country back from the disaster, one person at a time. Shortly afterward, she founded the Hope for Haitian Children Foundation [HFHCF], a nonprofit organization located in Port-Au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, and dedicated to housing and schooling abandoned and needy children from the earthquake.

The HFHCF also supports and sponsors the “Foyer Espoir Les Enfants,” an orphanage run by Poux for the children who had lost their parents and were orphaned after the earthquake.

Last week, Poux and the Chairman of the HFHCF, Laverne Dunn, visited as guests of the social studies department, and spoke to hundreds of students about their cause in Haiti.

Social studies teacher Charles Andrews was the one who originally had the idea to have Poux come speak to the students. He visited the organization in Haiti, and got in touch with Poux in the fall to ask about visiting Lewisville.

“When you tell the classes that we’ll be having a guest, you know everyone thinks ‘Oh it’s another one of those presentations,’” Andrews said. “But the thing that they have to understand is that it’s not just another guest speaker. It’s so much more than that.”

Andrews had been a part of another organization in Africa, Invisible Children, for a number of years. But when they met most of the goals they wanted to accomplish, he was looking for new ways to serve outside the country. That’s when he found out about the HFHCF, which led him to getting in touch with Poux.

Poux talked during the presentation about how her organization can’t tackle all the needs of Haiti, and how they have to take it one person and one thing at a time.

“I believe in the power of a dollar,” Poux said. “Because there are so many children here, and if you want to give more that’s OK with me; if everyone on the school gave one dollar, that would be about $3,000 to our cause. That’s two months salary for my teachers, and provides food for the kids.”

Andrews repeatedly told students a similar thing, that they can’t fix all of Haiti, but urged them to focus on the one area that they could change.

“It’s like the saying goes,” Andrews said. “How do you feed an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Poux couldn’t hold any more children in her orphanage, so she founded the school to help in a different way.

“I had 14 kids before,” Poux said, “And when the earthquake hit, people were knocking on my door  bringing them, and I couldn’t keep all of those kids. That’s why I have the school.”

The school holds 180 children, and provides a hot meal and education for every one of them, every single day.

“Every month I have to find the money to pay my employees and feed the children,” Poux said. “And the school is only a fourth of the size of the library at this school.”

With such a small amount of space to work with all of those children, every donation counts. The final goal of Poux’s cause is going to be a years-long effort. Poux wants every person who hears her speak to remember her mission, because even if they can’t help now, they can in the future.

“Education is very important in life,” Poux said. “Without your education you will not go far. I think even a little can take you far, so I just want to be able to keep providing that.”

Junior Melena Garza, one of Andrews’ students, had a front row seat for Poux’s presentation.

“This means a lot to me,” Garza said. “Because as Mr. Andrews was saying, the next tragedy just comes along and we usually forget about what originally happened. And so it’s nice to have this reminder. And I enjoy having the chance to be able to [help].”

Marie Jose is back in Haiti now, but anyone can donate on the organization’s website.