Sylvia O. Charitable Foundation is the brainchild of Ginette O. Prophete, one of the many grandchildren of Sylvia Ovide after whom the foundation is named. The foundation is registered in the State of Florida and is a nonprofit organization with a 501 C3 tax exemption.
Ginette’s career recently took her to live in Haiti as an expatriate. Once she arrived in her native land, Ginette was struck by the abject poverty in her surroundings. She quickly realized that she has been one of the lucky few that escaped this reality. Never one to stand on the sidelines and watch, she decided to jump in and make a difference. She wanted to give something back to her Haitian brothers and sisters.
Education has helped her all her life. Education has helped her navigate a successful career in American government. Today, she has come full circle in her native Haiti. She sees herself as a testament to how education can transform families from one generation to the next.
Ginette sees how education has impacted our own family. Sylvia, the matriarch, was born at the beginning of the 20th century. She was a strong and arduous woman who raised six children. Illiteracy did not stop her from instilling in her children the values that are still alive today in us: integrity, generosity and honesty. We have evolved from a “Sylvia from the country side of Leogane,” to many successful professionals living in Haiti, the USA, Canada and parts of Europe. Among Sylvia’s offspring’s you will find: nurses, financiers, diplomats, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, agronomist, writers and artists.
For this powerful reason, Ginette, with the help of several cousins and nephews, founded the Syvia O. Charitable Foundation to focus on helping young Haitians acquire an education that will help elevate their lives to a state of self-sufficiency, and help them become productive members of a thriving Haitian society.