Our Mission

The Good Samaritan Foundation is a non-profit organization of volunteers dedicated to the education, health and welfare of underprivileged children of
Ile LaVache Haiti.

The organization was founded in 1994 by Michael A. Gardner of the Virgin Islands and Jean Phelix Joseph of Ile La Vache Haiti and received its official recognition as a non-profit charitable organization by the Mayor of Ile La Vache in October 2008.

By joining their gifts and focusing their efforts together to serve Christ through administering to the needs of this starving island there mission has taken root and has become a flickering flame of hope to a culture born of poverty.

Michael Anthony Gardener, one of the founders of the Good Samaritan Foundation in Ile La Vache, Haiti, has been a resident in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands for 30 years.

Michael began his journey from the Great Lakes of Michigan to the Caribbean as an apprenticed treasure hunter turning the wooden hulls of shipwrecked vessels into beautiful handmade furniture for re-sale to the nautical collectors market.  

He later discovered that the sheen on the shipwrecked furniture shined more brightly when hope entered the craftsmanship and the working hands of the beautiful people of Haiti poured their love into the project.  When he recognized that it wasn’t the tattered wood but a shattered people, still managing to smile, that was making his adventure so rich, Michael felt the calling to give back.

Jean Phelix Joseph, born in La Hatte, Ile La Vache, is one of the founders of the Good Samaritan Foundation.  He is married with 2 children and pastors the Primitive Christian Church of Soulette, Ile La Vache.  He is currently also a law student at “Ecole de Droit et des Sciences Economiques des Cayes” where he is furthering his education in Haitan law.

Aside from his role as pastor, teacher, and director for the Good Samaritan Foundation, he lovingly pours his life into the community of Ile La Vache for the betterment of the people for which he cares.  He is secretary of committee general for the  development de Ile La Vache and vice president of the committee of L’Ecole village Kay Nobert.

Jean Phelix and Michael Gardener have joined hands to create the Good Samaritan Foundation and make it a positive force in troubled times.     

OUR VISION:  
The Good Samaritan Foundation was founded in the purest form of human compassion eleven years ago and has miraculously taken root and grown past every conceivable disaster one could imagine.  The foundation was born of shipwrecks, hurricanes, starvation, disease and death yet it has remained steadfast in it’s divine purpose,  which is not focusing on our setbacks, but staring adversity in the face and dealing with it, so that we can continue to help people help themselves.  The beautiful people of Haiti are not “in need or want” as you and I would perceive it, as much as “understanding”.  It is the vision of the GSF to cultivate personal integrity and support local culture. It is our purpose to facilitate and give indigenous people a fighting chance at survival, with dignity and honor, not only against the adversity of poverty in this modern day and age but even greater giants that propose a threat to the human spirit.