Celebrity
Unik Ernest Celebrates Edeyo's 5th Anniversary and Talks Haiti
- Wednesday, June 27, 2012 2:10 PM
NEW YORK, USA (defend.ht) - The Haitian-born Unik Ernest, an international event producer and President and Founder of the Edeyo Foundation will celebrate his birthday and foundation's anniversary by hosting an upscale charity ball on Wednesday and ringing the closing bell at the NASDAQ Stock Market on Thursday.
On Thursday, Ernest will be joined by actor Terrence Howard between 3:45 p.m. to 4:00 p.m ET to ring the bell and end trading in New York's Times Square. This is will be honor of his organization, the Edeyo Foundation dedicated to empowering Haitian youth's, fifth year.
Unik Ernest arrived in the United States in the early 1990s and is today is one of the most sought-after event producers in the country. He organizes events for celebrities and Fortune 500 companies all over the world.
He grown far apart from Haiti but a trip to the country in 2007, to the neighborhood of Bel-Air in Port-au-Prince pushed him to start his non-profit organization Edeyo which mean "help them" in Creole.
In an interview with Ebony Magazine:
"I have to be honest, when I moved [to the U.S.] from Haiti, I became very disconnected from Haiti. I was disconnected for 13 years. And though everybody who knew me or knew of me knew I was Haitian, and that Haitians are very proud of our culture and of our background and our ancestors, I never gave back to Haiti. But I give now for no other reason than for the love of my country."
"I launched Edeyo with Michael Pradieu on my birthday five years ago, and as it grows, I grow -- [both] as a person and in how I can help my country." - Unik Ernest, Event Producer
The Edeyo Foundation defines itself as an organization dedicated to improving the future of children in Haiti through education, supplying students with learning materials and providing them with nutritional support.
Since Edeyo's founding in 2007, t has been responsible for the creation and management of a primary school for students in the area of Bel Air in Port au Prince, which currently serves about 300 students per year, all of whom had limited or no access to education until they enrolled in our program.
The team that works with Edeyo is a group of professionals from various backgrounds who all share the same passion to empower Haitian youth through a quality education.
Unik says of his team:
"We are not like most other aid organizations because all of our New York-based staff members are volunteers, so ninety-five cents of every dollar goes directly to the children in our school."
"We have over 300 children in our school and we are also feed them one meal a day while they are at the school. Because of us, they have access to dentists and doctors as well. We have to pay the teachers and staff in Haiti to run the school and right now we are leasing the building the school is in, but we would like to stop paying rent and buy some land so that we can increase the number of students we can educate and feed instead of using money to pay someone else’s mortgage."
"That’s what we’re working on right now. So, most of the money goes to pay teachers, give them access to medical care and make sure they have a real meal every day."
"When you do right, everything else is going to work itself out." - Unik Ernest
In the Ebony Magazine interview Ernest was asked about the political corruption in Haiti, the economic and structural instability, and how he maintains his hope against those odds.
He said it comes from his mother:
But Ernest says his work with Edeyo is not political. He has a group that he says is focused on the children and believes that leaders in the African American community should go to Haiti, see what is there, and see how the stories connect.
"Haiti is the first independent Black country in the world and that’s something all Black people can be proud of. But we need more help and support from the African American community. I’m making an appeal to all African Americans to get more involved with what’s happening to the people of Haiti. We respect Sean Penn and all of these other folks’ work in Haiti, but we want some leaders from the African American community and every day people to get involved and see how our stories connect."
Ernest urges people to travel to the country with him:
"We are planning on going back to Haiti before the school year starts in September and would encourage anybody who wants to learn more and experience first-hand what is happening in Haiti and what we are doing there and wants to help to contact us and come with us. It’s not too late."
