About Me

As a child, I accidentally caught images of the Biafra Famine on TV. The images were haunting. They made me question the great divide between having and having not.

Well into my adult years, I realized I still had that big question stuck inside of me. Why is there this great divide?  

One day in a church I was handed a little piece of paper inviting me on a trip to Haiti. I accepted the invitation and the rest is history, my history, my story. It’s filled with amazing lessons learned from the people of Haiti. I humbly invite you to travel with me and learn alongside of me so that my journey can become our journey.  

Onè ak respè. Honor and respect. ~Julie  

Beyond Haiti and Me is a very personal, bold and daring account of my experiences in Haiti over a 17-year time period. It includes the years preceding and following Haiti’s catastrophic 2010 earthquake. 

Have you ever wondered why Haiti is the way it is? Do you wonder what that earthquake did to those who survived? Do you know what can happen to the foreigners who try to affect change in Haiti or in other developing world countries? 

The answers may surprise you. It is my hope that the happenings in my book will become lessons that we are all willing to receive, think about, talk over and learn from.  

During the time I spent working in Haiti, I learned quite a bit about cooperative development. At first it was just a term that meant little to me. Over time though, I began to  see the beauty in this concept as well as how it can be applied to life in general. 

Though we seem to have entered  a very individualistic era, we humans are not islands. We are a living, breathing mosaic—all connected—with ripple effects that can be far reaching. 

When we are able to work together, we share the joys and when there are losses, we each take our share as well. Over time I began to see that alone I may go fast, but together we can go far.