We’re thrilled to share with our community of supporters that we have confirmed selection of Rayjon’s next Executive Director. Please join us in extending a very warm welcome to Allison Kingston!

Allison is not a new face to Rayjon. She has been an active volunteer since 2021, and joined the Board of Directors in 2022. We are so excited that she’s accepted the offer and will be leading our team into the future.

Born and raised in Corunna, ON, Allison has spent years living around Canada and the world until coming back to Sarnia-Lambton to join the Rayjon team full-time! Inspired by Rayjon’s work with our partner ASCALA, she recently completed her master’s thesis on statelessness in the Dominican Republic, achieving her MA in Migration and Diaspora Studies at Carleton. She holds close her core values of connecting communities, innovative change and strengthening partnerships. In her free time she loves to stay active, whether it’s boxing or a walk in the sunshine, but also enjoys settling down with a good book. She is looking forward to learning from and supporting our partners in their community-led change! 

Over the next few months you’ll see Allison working closely with our current ED, Heather, until Heather officially steps down in June. We are going to be sharing several opportunities for volunteers/supporters to meet Allison in person in May and June! Please stay tuned for details.

You can send her a message of welcome and support at akingston@rayjon.org

Thanks to everyone who has reached out to express concern about the situation in Haiti.

Yes, your support matters at this time. And yes, you can trust that—as always—your donations are being used wisely, and for lasting impact. Read on.

It’s hard to comprehend the extent of the horror in Haiti that is reported to us in Canada through terrifying news headlines. We’re not here to deny the reports. We all need to be aware of the suffering being experienced by real, innocent people in Haiti. We must recognize the brutality and injustice, stand with those who fight against it, and ensure support gets to those who need it most. But the headlines don’t tell the whole story, and news reports often fail to provide historical context or understanding of why Haiti is facing these challenges today (and what the international community can do if they really want to help).

Haiti is More Than Headlines

Let’s start with Rayjon’s Haitian partners. Rayjon provides support to four main partners in Haiti: The Centre for Nutrition & Education for Women & Children (C-NEW-C) in urban Cap Haitian; and  in the rural St. Marc area Rayjon Share Care Haiti, the Haitian Women’s Federation (FEFEH), and the Pinson Community School. All far away from the capital of Port-au-Prince, they have not been directly impacted by gang violence. Families in these communities are doing their very best to carry on with their daily lives: they are working, they are going to school, they are building, they are teaching, they are carrying out tremendous projects in women’s entrepreneurship, sanitation, adult literacy, childhood nutrition and more. They persevere – and they do so with dignity and with results!

That doesn’t mean that life outside of Port-au-Prince is a bed of roses. The Haitian government is non-functional. Cost of living has skyrocketed. Gas is unavailable. There are food shortages and a general difficulty in finding basic goods in the marketplace (due to gang-controlled road blockades that prevent normal trade city to city). People can’t safely travel outside of their villages. Families live with a level of stress and uncertainty hard to imagine from the comfort of Canada. But –let us be very clear– our partners are achieving great things. On their own. Relying on strong, grassroots community leadership. Independent of government assistance. Without access to many essential supplies. With concrete plans for the future. And with limited support from foreign partners like Rayjon.

As you grapple with the horrors of the news reports from Haiti, please take a moment to ask more questions. Delve a little deeper. At the bottom of this message we are sharing three links to three particular sources of information that may give you a broader understanding:

1) Thoughts from Peterson Benjamin, Rayjon Board Member and Haitian citizen on “Cap Haitian: Another Haiti”

2) A recent success from Haiti (Sidamène’s story) 

3) Our most recent podcast episode, that speaks to these very issues, and their root causes.

 Haiti is more than headlines.

 Thank you for your solidarity.