SIUE international graduate student Westenior Valmera launched HAITI-ED: Haitians for Advancing and Improving the Impact of Educational Development in 2017, and has grown the non-profit into a successful endeavor that provides school supplies to Haitian children in need and helps them grow both personally and professionally.
KMOV reporter Steve Harris featured Valmera in this story.
In its first year, the organization donated 24 backpacks with school supplies. Since then, an outpouring of support for HAITI-ED’s efforts has developed, allowing Valmera and his team of other young Haitian professionals to provide backpacks filled with school supplies to 218 kids in 2019.