Who we are
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said, "There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in."
This same concern led Paulos Group to become the most innovative accelerator in Haiti.
We do this because we believe people and conditions can change and be made whole in Christ. It's within temporary things, eternal things are at work. This is Transformation+
Paulos Group is a faith-based organization built on three values and measures of our effectiveness:​
Love
Where resources are scarce, love is an infinite resource—because God is love. (1 John 4:7-21)
Trust
Where guilt is presumed until innocence is proven, trust drives our work—the glue that holds everything together. (Luke 16:1-14)
Grow
Where the environment may be unfavorable, we prepare the fields and wait for God to send the rain. But we're not afraid to cut our losses. (Luke 13:6-9)
Where we started
The genesis of Paulos Group is traced back to 1998, when a group of students from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, working with CAM International and Samaritan’s Purse, was among the first responders to the town of Morolica, Honduras, in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch.
Residents clung to trees as the Choluteca River flooded the town. When the rains stoped, Morolica was completely buried in mud. The group from Moody helped residents build the very first building, a church that would serve as a storage warehouse during the reconstruction of “New Morolica” relocated to higher ground.
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Relationships from the Moody group over 25-years ago, still provide encouragement, guidance, oversight and financial backing for Paulos Group today.
How we evolved
Over the years Paulos Group has learned from the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA), its philosophy and member organizations.
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American sociologist Tony Campolo shares an insight from the Talmud—the Hebrew commentary on the Torah, that describes four ways of helping the poor, four levels of charity:
The highest level is to create real jobs for people in need without their knowing. Second, is to give someone work to avoid giving a handout. Next is to give an anonymous gift to meet an immediate need. The least effective way to help people, to be avoided if at all possible, is to give to someone in need with their full knowledge of who this giver is.
At Paulos Group we seek out the high road, quietly.
As Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say ‘We have done this ourselves.’”
2018 explainer video
2019 explainer video
Meet the team
Matt McCormick
Partner
MA Wheaton College
BA Moody Bible Institute
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Renaud Cherenfant
PDG of Côte Brillante
College Echo du Calvaire
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