Conor Bohan
Executive Director & Co-Founder

A graduate recently reminded me of a Creole proverb: when the night is at its darkest, daylight is closest.

2025 tested the Haitian Education & Leadership Program in ways no one could have anticipated. Nearly a third of our staff were forced to abandon their homes due to gang encroachment, some more than once. Amid these hardships, and in a climate of profound fear, our team remained remarkably focused on minimizing risk and maximizing results, grounded in the belief that education is almost always the answer.

In a year defined by survival, I am deeply proud of—and inspired by—our community: supporters, staff, and students alike. Thanks to a combination of careful planning and good fortune, no one in our care was a victim of gang violence. Every student remained enrolled in university and met our academic standards—a remarkable achievement made possible by the tireless work of our advisors, faculty, and staff. Our students repeatedly told us that what made the difference was not only financial support, but community: being surrounded by peers and having access to advisors and mental health professionals who helped them navigate extraordinary stress.

Staff and students opened their doors to one another, and our campus became, quite literally, a refuge. We housed more than 30 displaced family members of students and staff who otherwise would have been forced to scatter across the city or seek shelter in tent camps. At one point last year, our dormitories sheltered more people fleeing violence than students themselves.

Yet, the organization's impact has not diminished but expanded. More Haitian institutions are adopting HELP’s core programs and tools, 50 freshman enrolled at our new location in Les Cayes, and students and alumni continue to build solutions by Haitians for Haiti.

Despite the profound challenges of 2025, every HELP student completed the 2024–25 academic year. As I write this, we are seeing a welcome stabilization in the security situation in Port-au-Prince and have been able to reopen one of our dormitories, welcoming back nearly 50 students a year after it closed. These moments reinforce a simple truth: we endure the hardest times so we are ready to make the most of those ahead.

None of this would be possible without you. Not a single donor reduced their support in response to the crisis. A longtime donor recently asked me how we keep going. I told them, honestly, that we kept going because you kept going. That extraordinary vote of confidence has inspired our team every single day.