The boys make most of their livelihood by running the guesthouse. When they aren't attending classes, the boys do everything from helping cook your meals and cleaning the house to performing their dance theater for guests.

The confidence and pride that grows from working together and earning a weekly wage is self-evident. This is truly a family that works together, plays together, prays together and cares for each other.

Haiti, known to be the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, is usually cast as a nation of starvation, malnutrition, disease, homelessness, illiteracy, violence and destruction.

St. Joseph's Home for Boys is a haven within the grueling chaos of Port-au-Prince. Its founder, Michael Geilenfeld, was formerly a brother for Mother Theresa. His work was with abandoned children in Vietnam, Cambodia, Calcutta, Los Angeles, Haiti and El Salvador. After his 11 years of service, Michael decided to provide a place for street boys that would be a family instead of the night shelter system he had followed with the MC Brothers.

In January of 1985, Michael left the MC Brothers and returned to Haiti with $1000 and began with six boys and a prayer. This new family paid for six months rent on a four-room house. After paying the rent, they were left with $400 to live on.

The challenge is enormous: caring for the children, building a separate are for physical therapy treatments, and providing a loving but challenging environment that helps each child to develop to his or her full potential. The daily routine includes school, arts and crafts, music dancing and prayer.

Luckner (“Maya”) Fond-Rose, director is a graduate of St. Joseph’s Home for Boys. The young residents of Wings, Trinity and St. Joseph’s consider themselves part of the same family and there is much interaction between them.

Situated right off Delmas 91, on the Petionville line, St. Joseph’s Home for Boys is just 20 minutes from the airport. Located in a residential neighborhood, this seven-story home is tastefully furnished with tile floors and brightly colored walls covered with Haitian art. Rooms include not only sleeping areas, but also indoor and outdoor lounge areas, meeting areas, a spacious dining area, and a breezy rooftop terrace – complete with rattan furniture, potted plants, wind chimes and mountain views. One floor features an open-air chapel that is available for reflection and mediation. The guests at St. Joseph’s come from all over the world, and the breakfast and dinner conversations are lively, informative and sometimes inspirational. The dining room has become a place to make new friends, learn new things and expand your spiritual lives.

These St. Joseph’s “graduates,” now young adults, urged Michael Geilenfeld and the youngsters at St. Joseph’s to take on a large challenge – caring for fourteen severely disabled children who were living at Wings of Hope, previously run by French missionaries. The missionaries were returning to France but were having trouble finding new homes for their young disabled residents. Michael proposed that they care for one child at St. Joseph’s; the boys at St. Joseph’s said, “No way, Michael! We’re going to care for all of them!”

They had visited “Wings” as it is affectionately called, and seen children who spent their entire days in bed, given little care and no compassion or love. They were shocked when the woman who ran the home described the children as “living pieces of furniture.” Remembering how they, too, were once seen as being of no value, they were determined to give these children – abandoned because of their handicaps – the experience of family that had changed their lives.