HEP - Haiti Engagement Project
David A. Stanley
46 Lansdowne Road South
Cambridge, Ontario
Canada
N1S 2T4
226-201-0406
August 13, 2025
I was born in Strathroy, Ontario, in 1957. I spent my early childhood in Senegal, West Africa, where my parents were missionaries to the Bassari tribe. I grew up with my parents and 5 brothers in a grass hut, no electricity, running water or any other foriegners until I was 17 years old, at which time I returned to Canada in 1973. When I came back to Canada,I didn't like snow, so quickly moved to Haiti, where my older brother was working for a hospital that worked primarily with children, and vacinated children across the island against tuburculosis. I was in Haiti from 1975 to 1988, at which time I worked with various missions, and also ran a feeding program across the island feeding 3200 children in 32 schools. The feeding program shut down in 1987 due to riots and pillaging when the then president for life (Jean Claude Duvallier) was driven out. As a result, I then got a job as a translator and Quality Control Manager for a shoe manufacturer. As a result of the continued violence, the shoe company closed down and moved across the border to the Dominican Republic, where I continued as manager running factories in both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where the company also had a factory.
The rest of my career in footwear manufacturing took me from mostly the Caribbean, but also to Honduras, Mexico, the USA and Asia. While in the Caribbean I continued to make yearly trips to Haiti. Including 2 weeks after the earthquake in 2010. I returned to Canada in 2020 to be with my younger brother who was dying of cancer.
In June of 2025 I was invited to Tulsa by a friend and life long Rotarian, Charles Adams. Charles has worked on different initiatives in Haiti going back to the 1970's. Mostly around clean water and feeding programs. Charles has been battling cancer for a while, but recently it accelerated to the point where he had to be put in paliative care. Since he did not know anybody else with extensive knowledge of Haiti, he asked me to take over and lead the HEP initiative after he was gone. He made me an honorary member of his Rotary club 6110, and chair of HEP.
I have extensive knowledge of the island of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the people, culture and language. I speak and write Creole and Spanish.