Visual Eyes - The Community & Collaboration Podcast

S2 Ep 18 - Saving Haiti’s Children: How Dr. Andis Tamayo Is Changing Lives

• Visuals by Momo • Season 2 • Episode 18

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In this powerful episode of Visual Eyes Podcast, host Chris Baker speaks with Dr. Andis Tamayo, founder of the Renand Foundation, about his mission to combat child slavery, poverty, and lack of education in Haiti. 

Originally from Cuba, Dr. Tamayo’s journey to humanitarian work was inspired by his fascination with Haiti’s history and his own experiences with adversity. After witnessing the devastating Restavek system, where over 400,000 children are forced into domestic and sexual slavery, he knew he had to take action. 

💡 In this episode, we discuss:
✔️ The shocking reality of child slavery in Haiti
✔️ How the Renand Foundation provides education, healthcare, and meals to vulnerable children
✔️ The impact of partnerships with Starlink, medical teams, and nonprofits
✔️ Challenges facing Haiti & the foundation’s vision for expanding schools and trade programs
✔️ How YOU can get involved and help make a difference! 

🌍 Support the Renand Foundation:
✅ Website: www.RenandFoundation.org
✅ Email: ATamayo@RenandFoundation.org
✅ Phone: 954-558-8895
✅ LinkedIn: Renand Foundation
✅ Facebook: Renand Foundation
✅ YouTube: @RenandFoundation3917 

🎧 Listen now and join the movement to change lives in Haiti! 


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Special Thanks to Stacy Daugherty for the beautiful wall artwork in the background. Socials: @artographybystacy

Chris Baker:

Chris Baker, and each week we'll explore incredible connections between nonprofits, businesses and the community. This is a space where we highlight inspiring partnerships, uncover strategies for creating meaningful impact and share stories that show how working together can make all the difference. Whether you're a nonprofit leader, a business owner or someone just passionate about building connections, this podcast is for you. Welcome back to . Today I have a special guest, Dr Tamayo, and he is with the Ranyard Foundation. Did I say?

Andis Tamayo:

that right?

Chris Baker:

Renand Foundation, Renand Foundation. Did I say that right? Renan Foundation, renan Foundation. So tell us a little bit about how you got this foundation started and why it got started, All right, so the Renand Foundation started.

Andis Tamayo:

I mean, I fell in love with Haiti when I was 16, 17 years old. I lived in Cuba and in Cuba we had to study a book that is called the Kingdom of this World. It was written by Alejo Carpentier, who's a Cuban writer. He's already dead, but anyways, the book is a novel, but it's based on the Haitian Revolution, so a lot of the stories are related in the book, are real stories from the Haitian Revolution, are related in the book, are real stories from the Haitian Revolution, and I just, I mean, I read the book like 20 times and I really fell in love with the Haitian Revolution, with the historic facts, everything that happened in Haiti and you know, back then in Cuba, I always thought about, like maybe one day I will go visit Haiti and I will go to all these places that the book describes and everything. But two years after I finished my high school, I actually yeah, two years after I finished high school, I actually came from Cuba. I came from Cuba in a boat and that's the whole story, Anyways.

Andis Tamayo:

But after arriving here, I basically, you know, I did everything that everyone, every immigrant, goes here, goes to school, works three or four main jobs and et depression where I decided that I didn't want to do anymore what I was doing. I had the opportunity back then of visiting Africa to do a little bit of volunteer work with the US government and I absolutely fell in love with humanitarian work, because I was now going as a humanitarian but I was embedded in a team of people that were humanitarians and I fell in love with it. So when I came back from Africa, I decided that I want to dedicate my life to making a difference in the world, and so I went to school. I got my doctorate degree in organizational development. My dissertation was specific on non-profit development, and so I was either work for a big non-profit or start my own non-profit and what I was trying to figure out, what I wanted to do with my life.

Andis Tamayo:

A friend of mine put a post on Facebook and she said I'm moving to and so all those memories back then what I was in Cuba saying I want to go to Haiti. I was like it was almost like the universe was telling me this is your time to go to Haiti. So I didn't even think about it, I just I called her up and I said I want to go to Haiti with you, and so I graduated from university on December of 2014. In January 2015, I was already in Haiti. Now, when I was in Haiti, one of the first things that I found out was that there was this group of children. Usually, these are children from rural families, very large families, and these families don't have the means to raise these children.

Andis Tamayo:

They don't have the means to feed them, give them education, provide medical care for them, and so what they do is they take these children and they give them to people in urban areas to provide them with a better life. What really ends up happening is these kids become not only physical slaves, but they also become sexual slaves. They become, they're treated like animals. I mean, they're very, they're treated really bad. These children are called restavics, and last time I was checked, there's more than 407,000 restavics in Haiti.

Andis Tamayo:

Oh my gosh, and so I have never been physically abused, but I was sexually abused once as a kid and I knew what the trauma the trauma growing up I have to overcome to be able to, you know, have the life that I have now. So I figured, you know if I can take what happened to me and bring it here to Haiti and do something for these children. Don't have anyone else here. Maybe, you know, maybe I could do something for that, and so that's how I started. The first thing that I did is when I got my nonprofit my 501c3, is, we took over a school that was in rural parts of Haiti. We started bringing kids, providing education for them, free education. Then, eventually, we got another school. We got a couple of children's centers, a clinic.

Andis Tamayo:

Throughout the years, all we have been doing is not only providing education to these children, but also providing medical care for free, because most of them don't have access to medical care. And then also, we provide one meal a day, because most of these children don't eat every day, and so we provide one meal a day, because most of the children don't eat every day, and so we provide one meal a day. So we provide education, medical care and then after-school classes through the children's programs, the after-school programs, so that we help them do their homeworks, because the parents are out in the field working. So we're providing, you know, we teach them English, help them do their homework, et cetera, et cetera. So the idea is to make sure that whatever is keeping the families from providing them education, medical care, food and it's a risk for the families to take them or to give them away, for them to become breast topics we take those risks out, and so the Cuba children are being in those communities.

Chris Baker:

They're staying with their families, they are educated, they're fed, all that stuff I mean just talking about through that whole entire journey, I could really feel it, what you're experiencing and seeing. So I'm glad that this organization is here to really make a difference. Um, that's awful that I mean there is, you know, these children that are getting used in this way, like this is just you. We would hope at this point in our evolution of humanity that this wouldn't be a thing, but it unfortunately sounds like it still is and it's still just really hard. So, as your foundation is actually working to end this child slavery and the sex trafficking, what are some of the collaborations that your foundation has had the opportunity to work with, either for-profit businesses or other nonprofit businesses, to really kind of move your mission forward?

Andis Tamayo:

Right. So we've worked a lot with organizations in Haiti local organizations. My focus has always been to make sure that I do as much as I can locally, not only to provide jobs for the people there, but also to provide opportunities for the community to support the work that we're doing here in the United States. I've worked with different in Jacksonville that go with me on a regular basis to provide dental care. I've also worked with AHF.

Chris Baker:

AHF, ahf.

Andis Tamayo:

Yeah, I worked with AHF. One of the programs that I wanted to implement was HIV program, because the enemies didn't have that and there's a lot of stigma related to it. So we actually implemented the first HIV program in our community in partnership with the HF. We did the tests, you know the testing. They gave out the condoms, provided all that they needed. The HIV prevention program also was linked to tuberculosis and everyone had tuberculosis. We followed up with them. Most of the follow-up was given by IHF, but they provided us with the money for us to start the program. There were other nonprofit organizations here Our Fund Foundation. They provided money to the foundation as well. That's it.

Chris Baker:

So how does getting you know that assistance from, let's say, let's go back to our fund specifically? So I mean, what kind of collaboration efforts did you have to like go through to get the funding from them? Does that make sense?

Andis Tamayo:

Right, yeah, so a lot of our donors. They put money in our fund and so there is a funder at Bouts, I think it's called, and so they ask our fund to donate their fund to their own foundation, our fund. I also forgot to say that another collaboration that I have had is through StartLink.

Chris Baker:

Okay, yeah.

Andis Tamayo:

We had a huge donation from StartLink. I think it was nine StartLinks antennas that we were able to put in all our schools, children's centers, clinics, you name it and so, for the first time, in many of the communities that we are, the children had access to internet for like the first time ever. Oh, wow, it was really great.

Chris Baker:

Oh, wow, that's awesome. On the other side of the collaborations is sometimes there's some challenges. Of the collaborations is sometimes there's some challenges, either communication or, you know, getting the right resources to make everything happen. So what are some of the challenges that you've faced, either working with other organizations or the lessons that you've learned together while you're collaborating so that you can do more benefits?

Andis Tamayo:

Well, I mean one of the main problems or issues that we have had access to being able to visit Haiti, especially because I mean at the beginning, when I started going to Haiti, I was there two or three weeks at a time every other month or something like that. Sometimes I spent a whole month in Haiti. Then, after a while, after the pandemic, I was only able to go like four or six times a year. Now I haven't been able to go since last year, and that's been a while. Things are so chaotic right now Not in the area that we are. The city where we operate is called Jackmel. It's like the fifth largest city in Haiti. Nothing is going on there. It's very peaceful. It's very safe. There are no problems, no issues, no one is killing people. There's no gangs. It's absolutely very safe. But to get to the city I have to fly into Port-au-Prince, and that's where everything is happening. All the chaos is happening.

Chris Baker:

So it's the connection city.

Andis Tamayo:

So usually what I do is I fly from Port Lauderdale to Port Prince and then I fly out to Jack Mill and that's not a problem. But since lately the flights have been canceled, there's no way for me to get there.

Chris Baker:

So that's the main issue, I know, okay.

Andis Tamayo:

But usually if we have flights, then we could just go. You know, fly to Port Prince, then fly to Jackal.

Chris Baker:

So how are some of the ways that you could navigate that? Or you could ask for assistance to hopefully get you there.

Andis Tamayo:

Yeah, I mean if we can get like a private plane that was straight to Jackal that would be great.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, no, that would definitely be the cure-all for everything, absolutely. But hopefully maybe some of you know the viewers and people that are watching the show right now. You know what are some other ways that you can think of that they could collaborate. That may not just be donor dollars, it may be other ways of getting supplies, or maybe it's a service that could help, you know, in some other way. Right?

Andis Tamayo:

or maybe it's a service that could help in some other way, right? So most of the biggest NGOs or biggest organizations in Haiti are in porpoise, not in the areas where we are Very few, like, for instance, I know AHF it's in Jack Ryle but they're already collaborating with us when it comes to medicine, things like that. That's usually what the difficulty that we have regarding Haiti, because most of the NGOs, most of the organizations, are in the capital and everything is closed down. And you know it's very hard With Starlink. I mean, we have the opportunity to be with Starlink, that you know. We can communicate with our teachers. We're going to communicate with our executive directors there. We're going to communicate with the students, whatever it is that they need. We could do Zoom calls and talk to them and everything, but right now we're a little, you know, limited to that what we could do, going to edu yeah, for the travel piece of it.

Chris Baker:

That's a little kind of a standstill at the moment. Um, so organizations like starlink and that kind of program that they've kind of like helped you add in. What other companies or potential ideas could you think of that could help in that same manner?

Andis Tamayo:

I mean any organization that can help with medicines, or any organization that can help with education, any organization that can help with, I mean school systems that could, for instance, teach our students English. That's one of the things that we do Teachers that want to join and do a Zoom classroom or something like that. We can help, we can get, we can use that, because we have started it now. Things related to, for instance, one of the things that I wanted to implement and I haven't been able to implement is the PayPal program, where children in the United States can communicate with the children via Zoom in Haiti. Okay, Kind of like a video PayPal thing. I mean things like that. Those are things that we can definitely use and collaborate with other people.

Chris Baker:

I think that's a good ask, especially if that's something that you were trying to achieve. Bringing that out and asking even here on this show is a good way to future project that into reality, because hopefully somebody that's listening might be able to go. Oh, I know how I can help make that happen.

Andis Tamayo:

The other thing that we can do is do telehealth. Maybe a hand doctor in the United States that are willing to see our patients there in the clinics. That will help as well.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, I mean even just a couple hours a month. Every little bit helps. I like that that's an easier ask, I think for just saying, hey, doctors, come on If you can help one hour a month. If you have 10 doctors, that's 10 hours a month. That's a huge, huge assistance. So, through your education and your health care services that you're offering, can you share one of the success stories that really stand out that made a difference in one of these child's lives?

Andis Tamayo:

Actually, the reason why I implemented the dental program when I went to Haiti was because it was very beginning. I was out in the community visiting families filled in children's, which is something that I used to do all the time when I was in Haiti and we're visiting one of our kids from one of our families the neighbor who was not one of our kids from one of our families, the neighbor who was not one of our families. I saw the kid that was sitting in their porch their kid sitting in their porch and this kid was crying. He was not happy at all.

Andis Tamayo:

And I saw that his cheek was swollen and I asked you know? We asked the parents what's going on and said oh yes, he has a tooth infection. I requested the case managers that worked for me to take the kid to the dentist and I told the parents I'll pay for it, just make sure that you take him to the dentist in town. Yeah, mind you, we're talking about.

Andis Tamayo:

These families are in the rural part, not in town so right far away from town and so I saw the kid that day, and then I went back and then the next day I came back to the united states. Well, a week later I? Um my camp managers called me and when I asked them about the kid, they said, oh, the kid died from a tooth infection. And I was devastated. I was like kid. They said, oh, the kid died from a tooth infection. And I was devastated. I was like, oh my God, I could have saved this kid. He was only five years old and so as soon as this happened, I mean I spent like a whole month trying to figure out how can I avoid this from happening again.

Andis Tamayo:

And so I called a friend of mine who was a dentist in El Salvador and he was working for a dental office in Jacksonville, and I said, I told him we have to implement a dental program. We cannot, we cannot do this anymore. So he put a group together and we went to Haiti uh, three times, four, five times um with dentist, dentists, denturogynist, and every time that we would go we would see, you know, hundreds of children, not only the children in our, in our, in our, under our program, but also children in the community. And then we'll see families, their parents and stuff like that. So we implemented this dental program and, even though I'm not bringing dentists right now, what? What we have done is we hired a local dentist from town and then they're coming to our communities to provide dental service.

Chris Baker:

Oh God.

Andis Tamayo:

And it's funny because yesterday the managing director in Haiti took pictures on Facebook. I already put them on my face on Facebook and it says it was a person, a gentleman from the community, who walked 10 kilometers to go to our clinic to be seen by our dentist, and the dentist told our managing director I would have charged him $400 in my private clinic to see him and here, with the Renown Foundation, he's being seen and he's not paying anything for it. So that's huge, huge, huge things that has happened now. All the things that we are doing. I mean the fact that we are able to provide one meal a day.

Andis Tamayo:

Most of the kids in our communities. They don't eat every day. In fact, the way that families in Haiti, because they don't have money to buy everything. What they do is, for instance, mom in the morning make a pot of fries or a pot of beans or whatever, whatever they have available, and then every time someone in the family is hungry, they come and they grab one spoon and then they eat one spoon or two spoon from the pot and then they walk away and then two or three hours later, when they're hungry, they do that. So they, these people's, doing it every day when they do it, the day is little by little. Yeah, they entertain in, they're not hungry.

Andis Tamayo:

So one of the things that we implemented is we all our children's in our school and our children centers they get one meal. The things that we implemented is we all our children in our school and our children's centers they get one meal a day. That's amazing. A lot of the food that we buy, a lot of the vegetables, plantains, whatever, meat, whatever that we give them, we buy them from the local farmers. So not only are we providing food for our kids, but we're also fomenting the economy of the local farmers. Some of those families are the families that we also help the kids with.

Chris Baker:

So that's amazing. It's a nice circle coming back to help. Yeah, that's awesome. So, looking ahead, what are some of the strategies that your foundation is actually looking to empower the unprivileged children in Haiti and how can you expand that impact a little bit further?

Andis Tamayo:

Well, I mean, right now we have two elementary schools and three children's centers. Our vision for the future is to be able to build a secondary school, middle school, high school and then eventually to be able to build a trade school. I mean, that's the main final goal, right? Yeah, we can take the child all the way from kindergarten to they graduate, and we're not thinking about a university, we're just thinking about things that they can actually practice in Haiti, like you know, be a mechanic, mechanic, a cosmetologist, a barber, things like that. Things that they can actually graduate and then go and work and earn a living out of that right, oh, awesome, I like that.

Chris Baker:

Having a trade school giving them a full round education, okay, awesome, awesome. So, as we wrap up the episode here, one I'm going to ask this first, how do people get involved? So how do they reach you to? You know, assist these children and the foundation itself.

Andis Tamayo:

Well, we do have a website, renownfoundationorg. We also have a phone number. People can reach me at my phone number, 954-558-8895, via email, atamayo at renownfoundationorg. My team of people here is very small. Most of the people that work for the Renown Foundation are in Haiti. I personally designed it like that, so you know I have it's me. Now there's a new executive director coming up and then we have a director of operations as our team here and, obviously, our board of directors. We are also looking for to expand the board of directors. Okay, we can get more people interested in becoming members of the board of directors and joining us. That would be great. We're also looking to expand our advisory committee, which is people that help us with their fundraisers, with the gala and things like that, sure, so anyone who wants to be involved with that would be great.

Chris Baker:

No, yeah, Building a board is very important and expands your resources and helps a lot, so all right. So my favorite question that I ask everybody that's on the show is what is the legacy you hope to leave through your work for future generations?

Andis Tamayo:

I mean. I think that more from a personal perspective. I know that I came to this world to make a difference in the world, and so that is the legacy from my personal perspective, with the generations that I'm touching in life. I'm hoping that these kids in Haiti get to transform their country and make a difference in their country as well transform their country and make a difference in their country as well. I hope that at one point in the future there are not more rest of X in Haiti.

Chris Baker:

I hope children in Haiti can have the same freedom that all the children in other parts of the world have. No, that's a beautiful legacy to envision and I think you are making huge steps towards that and we really appreciate it. So thank you so much for being on the show. If you're looking to get more involved, please reach out to the Renard Foundation and join their board. So thank you again for coming on. Thank you Appreciate it. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Visual Eyes. We hope that the inspiration and practical insights can help you foster stronger connections and meaningful change. Don't forget to subscribe, share the episode and leave us a review. To learn more about Visuals by Momo and how we support collaboration and storytelling, visit visualsbymomo. com. A huge thank you to everyone out there listening. Until next time, remember, collaboration fuels change and your connections can inspire the world.