World Wide Village is a great organization. They are accomplishing so much in Haiti that it is amazing.
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I first got involved with World Wide Village through a mission trip in 2012. Shortly after that first trip I became more involved with them and ultimately became a board member. Since 2012 I have done 14 separate week long mission trips with them. I currently go down to Haiti with them about 3 times a year. Every trip has been excellent and I have been able to see the dramatic progress that World Wide Village (WWV) has made in Haiti and in the lives of Haitians.
WWV has made, and is making a dramatic impact. Since 2012 they have built a medical clinic, dug two deep (200+ feet) fresh water wells that service the community of Williamson, built a sewing building and provided sewing machines that the locals use for training to become tailors and seamstresses, a public bathhouse, 2 chicken coops, and more. There has been immense progress. I am highly impressed with this organization, how it is run, and the impact that it is making.
The board meets 4 times a year, twice in person and twice via conference call. The board members are actively engaged in the operation of WWV and are fully invested in making a difference in the lives of the Haitians. It is clearly apparent that God is using WWV, its staff, and its leadership to meet the physical and spiritual needs of His Haitian children, and He is also using WWV to bring Americans closer to Christ. I am proud of this organization and everything that it is doing.
Our trip to Haiti was a very rewarding experience, due in large part to World Wide Village. The staff was more than willing to help us with anything we needed, including driving our group wherever we needed to be (villages, hotel, grocery store, etc), whenever we asked. They were all extremely polite and professional and made an effort to get to know us, without being intrusive. I would recommend WWV to anybody!
Review from Guidestar
This organization was great as there was a strong focus on projects that would be sustained by the folks that needed the help. If was 100% worry free once we got on the plane to support Haiti. WWV took care of everything. The staff was all amazing! I plan on supporting this organization for many years to come...
Review from Guidestar
I was referred to World Wide Village through volunteers who had traveled with the organization previously. It did not take long to realize how special this organization truly is and the impact that their mission has on the Haitian community. All aspects of the trip, (guesthouse, transportation, safety, volunteering projects, local relationships, etc) far exceeded my expectations. WWV allowed the volunteers to choose the project(s) that they wanted to participate on, this allows each trip to be tailored towards the greatest interest of the volunteers (Medical, Construction, Education, etc.). We are excited to be planning our second trip to Haiti through WWV in 2019. I would absolutely recommend reaching out to World Wide Village to learn more about their mission and how to get involved. It is incredible to see the impact World Wide Village has made to the Haitian Community and the lives they have touched. We look forward to many more trips!
Review from Guidestar
A life changing experience with great staff! This was my first mission trip and World Wide Village helped make it an amazing experience. The staff was very friendly and helpful, I can't say enough good things about my experience and how it has changed my life.
Review from Guidestar
My family and I have been to Haiti with WWV 3 times now, in 2014, 2016, and 2018. We've spent most of our time in Williamson and I can tell a huge difference in the community every subsequent visit. We've helped them to build houses for local residents, a clinic, a chicken coop, a sewing school, 2 fresh water wells, many improvements to the local school, and I'm sure other things I'm forgetting. The locals are amazing and always appreciate our help but I honestly think I get more from them than I give.
The staff at WWV is equally amazing. Most of the staff has been the same each time we've gone back so we've gotten to know them pretty well and look forward to seeing them every time. They genuinely care about us and our well-being and really go above and beyond what I would expect of them. We've taken our two daughters with us every time (they were 9 and 12 years old the first trip). My mother-in-law was worried about us taking them to a third world country, but I've always felt that my family and I are safe in the hands of WWV and it's staff.
Here is a picture of my wife and daughters showing some local kids how to play Jenga, and one of my oldest having some fun with the kids on recess at school.
Review from Guidestar
Inspired by Rosalina
www.worldwidevillage.org
While they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” some moments are not caught on camera, yet are permanently ingrained in our minds. These moments are often the most special and are one of the reasons giving to World Wide Village is so meaningful to me.
What inspires me to give to World Wide Village? The answer is simple…the people we serve. People with real names, real faces and real stories you might have a hard time believing. People I have come to love. This short story is just one example of a thousand stories that I could share about why I choose to give to World Wide Village.
It was 2013 when my husband and I first traveled to Haiti to help with medical missions in a rural village. Our experiences in Haiti were life changing and we committed to leading medical trips twice a year going forward.
During our third trip we had the opportunity to meet Youventa Alseme, one of our sponsored children who was 4-years-old at the time. After school finished for the day, Youventa walked across the small gravel road to our makeshift clinic just to give us a shy “hello” (actually “Bonswa” in Haitian Creole).
After meeting Youventa, I really wanted to connect with her family to see how we could best support them. Youventa had a 10-year-old neighbor named Rosalina who offered to walk us to her home.
My friend and I set off to meet Youventa’s family with a Haitian translator, Rosalina, Rosalina’s sister named Anchilove, Rosalina’s younger cousin and Youventa. In Haiti I always wear very sturdy shoes because of the poor walking conditions. We often walk through sharp gravel, rough “grasses”, occasional broken glass and garbage.
As we were walking I noticed that Rosalina and Youventa were the only two girls with shoes. Anchilove and Rosalina’s younger cousin were barefoot and carefully stepping on the rough path.
The memories of the next moment will forever be etched on my heart as I watched a girl at the tender age of ten demonstrate so much love and self-sacrifice.
I remember watching as Anchilove walked barefoot holding onto Rosalina’s hand.
I remember hearing Anchilove’s soft cry as she stepped on a thorn in the rough path.
I remember watching Rosalina bend down and gently remove the thorn from her sister’s small foot.
I remember watching Rosalina selflessly remove her own shoes and offer them to her younger cousin as she lifted Anchilove onto her back.
I remember watching Rosalina carry Anchilove while she walked barefoot through the thorns.
These moments are what inspire me to give to World Wide Village and the work they are doing in Haiti. Girls like Rosalina deserve the opportunity to receive an education. Girls like Rosalina deserve medical care in their community. Girls like Rosalina deserve to live in a community where housing and jobs are available for their parents. Girls like Rosalina deserve to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the mission of World Wide Village and the reason I am inspired to give. This is #MyGivingStory.
Review from #MyGivingStory
Some ask, why Haiti? I ask, why not Haiti?
I have now made four trips to Haiti in partnership with http://worldwidevillage.org. After each trip, my heart is filled with more aches, more love, more worry, and more joy. I now find myself asking what more can I do? When can I return? Why am I still stateside?
There are several organizations in Haiti and I am sure that they are all doing wonderful things. However, I love that I get to work alongside the Haitian and American staff of World Wide Village. One of the many things that I love and appreciate about the World Wide Village organization is that instead of telling the people of Haiti how to ‘fix’ their country, they are in Haiti asking the people ‘What can we help you with?’ ‘How can we help you build back better?’
This organization has a positive presence within the communities they work alongside and are there to help with the everyday needs of the families and children.
This trip was different than any of the past 3 trips.
I was forced to slow down and to spend abundant time with the children in Williamson. There was no project to think about, no tools to pack, no measurements to figure out, no plan B or C or D to create. There were children who wanted attention. There where children who wanted their pictures taken. There were children who wanted to have a dance party. There were children who wanted to hold hands. There were children who wanted to braid our hair. There were children who wanted to give hugs. There were children who wanted to be children. There were children who simply wanted to be loved.
It’s crazy to think that with the amount of technology and gizmos and gadgets we have access to in the states, we still crave and miss out on so much of what life is all about.
Love.
Life is about loving others.
Life is about loving ourselves.
Life is about loving our God with all that we can.
Life is about sharing the love of God with others.
I believe that God partnered me with World Wide Village and brought me to Haiti to experience a love like no other.
Time and time again…
…we drove past the people in the market
…we walked past the families in the villages.
…we played with the children in the schoolyards.
…we spoke with the translators.
…we worked alongside the construction team.
…we trusted the drivers to safely get us from place to place.
This trip was different than any of the past 3 trips.
Yes, I am different than those who live in Haiti.
The color of my skin.
The language that I speak.
The life that I live.
The world that I wake up to.
What is not different?
The God who created us all.
The love that we long to feel.
The sense of belonging that we hope to find.
I believe that God partnered me with World Wide Village and brought me to Haiti to experience a love like no other.
This trip was different that any of the past 3 trips.
My heart aches for those whom we could not help.
My heart aches for those whom experience violence.
My heart aches for those whom go to bed with nothing in their stomach.
My heart aches for those whom go day after day without their family.
God has placed an ache into my heart…
It is because of the memories of this trip and past trips that I look forward to many more experiences in Haiti with World Wide Village.
Review from #MyGivingStory
I have been working with World Wide Village (WWV) for one year this week. I have been living on the ground in Haiti at the WWV guesthouse since May 5th, 2013 working full-time with Randy and Pat Mortensen and this incredible organization. I have witnessed some of the most amazing things in my life during my time working with the efforts of WWV and the absolute life changing differences they are making in the lives and hearts of the Haitian people they touch everyday. I am blessed to have great leaders with Integrity such as Randy and Pat to work with and learn from while combining our talents and hard work to make a difference in Haiti. I would recommend this organization for an internship, missions team trip or a wonderful Non-Profit to donate too. I am and will continue to work for them for all of 2014 as a full-time volunteer in Haiti, raising my own personal support and I feel blessed every single day that I do what I do.
My wife and I were associated with Worldwide Village for several years and we made numerous trips to Haiti with them supporting the mission through prayer and financial donations. Being new to mission work we have some fond memories of trips to Haiti with the Mortensons. We found them to be intelligent, affable, forward thinking and admired their expressed desire to help the Haitian people. Even though we started seeing inconsistency and lack of leadership discipline it was easy to get caught up in all the excitement and expectation of a new project. Numerous times we donated money to a new project but it always seemed to fizzle over time and the next big idea became the new priority.
I also agreed to become a WWV board member. It became apparent to me over time that a board position really didn’t mean anything and that it was only a figurehead position. As a board member I had no responsibility to attend board meetings or work on a board committee. Nevertheless my name along with others were posted on the WWV website as supposed devoted board members.
I was also involved in another idea by WWV to start an electrical supply business in Haiti. The Ezer Sales Company was formed as an LLC under the Worldwide Village 501c3 umbrella as a “business as mission” enterprise. My brother and I having spent our careers in the electric supply business used our business connections to get exclusive sales rights for Haiti, which also gave us access to electrical products and logistics from a Miami location. We developed a business plan, established a separate bank account, financials and back office functions for the company. The plan was to equally donate the company profits back to support the mission work of WWV and Haiti Teen Challenge.
For over two years we rotated turns traveling to Haiti to work with our sales person, calling on customers, developing new relationships and generating business opportunities. We had committed $55,000 of our own financial resources to make the "business as mission" strategy work. Ezer Sales was getting established and sales revenue was growing. Things were moving in a positive direction until late 2011 when an employee of WWV informed us confidentially that the monthly Ezer financial statements we were receiving from WWV were not accurate.
We discovered that over $30,000 dollars of cash had been taken out of the company and only a few hundred dollars was left in the bank account. Randy & Pat explained to us why they had to do it and that they had emergency needs come up etc. etc. Instead of including us they decided to hide their decision and give us falsified financials.
We walk away from the WWV because we do not want to be associated with an organization that lacks integrity and respect for their ministry partners. Needless to say it was a spiritual low point for us but thanks to God’s grace and a lot of prayer I can say I have forgiven them but I do not respect them.
We serve a loving and patient God but sometimes he has to hit us between the eyes to get our attention. A good friend described it best for me. “You’ve been taken to school”. Our situations with WWV taught us to do our due diligence and research the ministry organizations we financially support.
I'm currently a volunteer and have been a volunteer with World Wide Village since early this year. The organization's leadership has consistently shown their commitment to the Spiritual Development and Community Enrichment, through Education, to the people of Haiti.
Before I begin, I would like to share that I find it painful to stand up to wrong-doing when you care about the people involved. We do believe that standing up to it is the correct thing to do. We found out there is no Board of Directors. If you look into this you will find they have been dishonest about many things. History: We worked with World Wide Village for approximately two years. In this time we were the half-time "in country directors" in Haiti. We saw over and over again that the leadership of World Wide Village could not focus in on one task and do it well. We were asked for our advice, but when we suggested focusing on one thing and doing one thing well, we were ignored. Instead, whenever a new idea or new money was offered, they would switch gears and do whatever would grab the new money. At one point World Wide Village was about education, then it was about healthcare, then it was about agriculture, then it was about hearing aides, then it was about mission teams and evangelical Christianity, then it was about building houses. Every time the wind blows a new direction a new project is started. The problem is, very little is accomplished and a lot of money is being wasted. Many things have been started and abandoned mid-stream. In 2009 and 2010 we raised $69,000 for malnourished kids. As of the writing of this review Randy Mortensen and World Wide Village have spent 26K of that money and have an outstanding bill of $8,600. Please see this post for more details: http://livesayhaiti.blogspot.com/2013/11/not-to-speak-is-to-speak-not-to-act-is.html ---- the promises made in Haiti are broken and donors are told designated funds are for the items they designate them for -- that is not true. World Wide Village is not a trustworthy organization. There is not a deep abiding love for Haiti, the goal has less to do with helping Haiti and more to do with being a recongnized NGO (non government organization) As I look at the 990 I can see massive creativity used with the numbers. I would highly warn anyone thinking about working for or with World Wide Village to do a lot of research. Their turnover rate among volunteers, board, and staff speaks volumes.