It’s me! Please say hi next time you see me at an event or around town!
Hello friends of Chanje! My name is Brianna, I’m the communications manager and fundraising coordinator for Chanje Movement and The Global Mission. I want to share with you how I went from being a casual volunteer, to a joyful donor, to a very committed staff member at Chanje Movement.
Around 2017, I starting volunteering a bit and doing some freelance work for The Global Mission and Chanje. This included doing social media and email newsletters.
As I was freelancing for them, I was continually impressed by the fact that Chanje Movement approached missions differently than what I was used to. I grew up in the Evangelical Christian tradition and was taught the importance of Evangelizing and missions. But in my 20s, I started to learn that the approach the Evangelical church had taken to missions was sometimes harmful to the people they were trying to help.
As I was learning about how to do things better, I was watching Chanje put those things into practice. They were empowering Haitians, giving them resources and training to make a better life for themselves.
They were in it for the long haul. They didn’t just send a few teams and then abandon Haiti a few months after the earthquake. They sent dozens of teams over the course of 13 years. Many individuals, many of you, went repeatedly and established meaningful relationships with the Haitian community there. And as those relationships were built, Chanje took the time to learn how to do things the Haitian way instead of always pushing the American way.
They took care of kids at the Chanje Lakay shelter, but they also supported families that wanted to keep their children in the home. They are also working towards reunifying children and families. They did street evangelizing, but they also trained pastors so that those converted had communities to join. Every time I was asked to do a project with Chanje I gladly said yes because the way they worked was always something that I wanted to be a part of.
In 2022, my husband and I had the opportunity to give more than usual, and the decision to give to Chanje was an easy one. We were a sponsor at the 2022 gala and that night was a pivotol moment for me. As someone who had never been to Haiti, seeing video of the staff and hearing their stories was the closest I had ever come to meeting them. Hearing Pierre Enoch’s stories was the first time I fully understood the impact Chanje Lakay had on children. Cash’s story of how a Chanje microloan has changed his life showed me a side of the ministry that I had known little about. I walked away from that night feeling deeply connected to the ministry and wondering if there was a way I could help even more.
Just 4 months later, I quit my corporate job and started working full time for Chanje Movement and The Global Mission. I now have the privilege and joy of talking to this incredibly generous, caring and attentive Chanje donor community.
My goal as the communications manager is to bring Haiti to you. Every day, I want you to feel as connected to Haiti and the Chanje Movement as I did at that pivotal gala 2 years ago. I FINALLY get to go to Haiti this June, and I’m excited to bring back more photos, videos and stories that will connect the Chanje community in the US to the Chanje community in Haiti.
