Mercy Focus on Haiti (MFOH) has provided Immersion Experiences for over 100 adults and students in Mercy schools, Colleges and Universities.

These trips were opportunities for groups to go to Haiti and “immerse” themselves in the daily life, experience, and virtues of our sisters and brothers living in the poorest country in the western hemisphere. These “immersions” occurred in week-long service trips to northern Haiti where MFOH partnered with many devoted Haitian leaders. American adults and students came to respect the poverty, resilience, hopefulness, and creative spirit of the Haitian people.

• They learned what it actually meant to be “ultra-poor” and to not eat every day;
• They learned what food insecurity and water insecurity really meant in a Haitian person’s life;
• They saw the Haitian reverence for soil, water, trees, and family animals;
• They witnessed the strong commitment of Haitian men and women to the education of their children and themselves in ways that would improve their current and future lives;
• They witnessed Haitian people caring for the Earth and creating ecological actions and systems (solar panel installations, reforestation projects, cisterns for rainwater harvesting, composting toilets) that mitigated some of the causes and increasingly disastrous effects of our global climate crisis.

Through all this “immersive” learning, however brief, they developed deeper bonds with our Haitian family and underwent what they said was “a life-changing experience.” Their understanding of our Gospel obligations was deepened, and they recognized the equality, goodness, courage, and inventiveness of their no longer “distant” Haitian brothers and sisters.