Chez Moi
The translation of the Haitian Creole phrase "Chez Moi" is "My Home" and this is what we
provide for our twenty abandoned and orphaned girls.
We rented the house shown above after the original orphanage was badly damaged
during the 2010 earthquake. The owners are planning to sell the house, so we
will be looking for another facility in the near future.
Chez Moi Orphelinat de la Grace is an accredited orphanage, registered and
inspected by the Haitian Government and the Institute of Social Welfare and Research (IBESR).
We respect the work of Mme. Arielle Jeanty Villedrouin, IBESR Director since 2011,
as she moves the country of Haiti towards implementing the Hague Convention.
Download the Operating License (PDF file)
Founder, Marie Major. "We are in God’s Hands"
History of Chez Moi
When Marie Major was 20 years old she moved from her native Haiti to the United States.
There she attended a Bible college in Florida and went on to become a U.S. citizen.
To support herself she worked as an in-home caregiver for an elderly couple. In 1994,
when she was 54, the couple died and she inherited the house and cars.
Not knowing what to do next, Marie decided to visit her native Haiti and discovered the
great need of her people there. At this point, as Marie tells it, she heard the call
from Jesus to return to Haiti to build a school and take care of orphans. She answered,
"There are two things wrong with your plan, Jesus. First, I don’t want to go back to
Haiti and live in a concrete house with a dirt floor and eat beans & rice every day.
Second, building an orphanage means taking care of children. And I don’t even like children."
But she followed her call and in 1994 Sister Marie sold her inheritance, returned to Haiti,
and built a home she named “Marie’s House of Grace,†an orphanage she owned and managed by
herself for abandoned and orphaned girls. In 2009, a mission team from Faith Lutheran Church
in Lexington, KY spent the night at the orphanage when their original lodgings had no room
for them. They fell in love with Marie and the girls and when they returned home, started
to find ways to help.
Marie’s daughter, Delette Legrand Matheus, took over as Executive Director when Marie
retired in 2012.
As the orphanage structure was badly damaged in the earthquake of January 12, 2010,
Delette Legrand Matheus rented a house and moved the girls to the new location,
renaming the orphanage "Chez Moi Orphelinat de la Grace."
Chez Moi Girls
Our eighteen-plus abandoned and orphaned girls are raised in a safe, loving Christian
family-style environment where they may grow and mature into responsible, self-confident
young women.
The girls speak Creole and French and the elder girls are also learning English. They are
either attending Primary or Secondary schools, and will have the opportunity in the future
to attend vocational school or college depending on their abilities and preferences.
All the girls have passed their official year-end examinations with high grades and we were
so pleased that Sarah, age 12, was named ‘Laureate’ of her Secondary school. It is truly a
blessing to invest in children’s lives.
In the capital city of Port-au-Prince, only 23% of adults have completed secondary school
and of those, only 16% passed the state graduation exam. Secondary education is a critical
component to alleviating the widespread suffering that poverty causes in Haitian society.
We want to give our girls the tools needed to become productive citizens of Haiti and to
empower other women to give a helping hand to the less fortunate in their communities.
Yvrose Louis and Ronald Elveus
Yvrose Louis and Ronald Elveus