The Bridge helps Haitian women with support from Cape Girardeau citizens and beyond

(Left) The Bridge Haiti co-founder Hannah Stucker and executive director Molly Kinder stand together at a fundraising event celebrating the fifth anniversary of The Bridge Haiti organization on Tuesday, April 23, at the Hubble Creek Venue in Jackson. The Bridge is a not-for-profit ministry that is partnered with LaCroix Church which provides women, children and families in Haiti help with education, counseling, bible studies and food.

Nathan Gladden ~ ngladden@semissourian.com

After living in Haiti for 15 months starting in 2017, The Bridge Haiti co-founder Hannah Stucker saw a small women’s Bible study of five become a movement with 800 Haitians hearing the gospel weekly in 2024.

Before leaving for Haiti, Stucker worked for Hope Children’s Home in Jackson. she said her passion was working in the “foster care system, especially older teens, primarily female.” Stucker said she never thought of working in Haiti until she was introduced to a couple who would go on to adopt a teenage girl in Haiti.

“So I was asked if I would go down to Haiti and work one-on-one with her for three months,” she said.

Stucker was originally supposed to be in Haiti for three months in late 2017. She met Ritha and Fender Antoine and moved to a “small mountaintop community” where they lived. When Stucker was there, the Antoines had already been doing outreach in their community.

Stucker described them as being called to start a women’s bible study.

“(We) just spread the word, and anyone that wanted to come was welcome,” Stucker said. “The first Saturday that we held a community Bible study, five ladies came, and that's what really just sparked what The Bridge is today.”

The Bridge’s executive director, Molly Kinder, met Stucker when she was working with a school in Haiti. Kinder is trained as a special education teacher and after working with the school for “around eight months” then worked on what Kinder described as a small community library project.

Kinder said she and Stucker became friends as they worked alongside each other in Haiti. Kinder said both she and Stucker returned to America in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bridge had to pause operations for about three months.

Stucker returned to Haiti later that year to continue her work with Haitian leaders. Kinder said at that time The Bridge continued to grow.

Kinder said they recognized other needs should be addressed. She said women would come to Bible studies not having eaten or couldn’t even read their own Bible.

Kinder said the women would bring their children, but they didn’t attend school or didn’t have the opportunity to. She said their programs evolved into various services.

The organization added mental health counseling, therapy, education on reading and writing and even financial skills training. Kinder said they also offer tutoring programs for the children to get them to their grade level.

Kinder said they have teams as a part of The Bridge that go to the community every day to meet with women who are in the ministry. Kinder called it their home visit program and compared the teams to social workers to evaluate the family's needs.

“This includes evaluating their housing needs, what the house structure looks like, how many people are in the house, who has jobs in the house, that kind of thing. That includes food security, so asking how many people are they responsible for feeding? When was the last time they ate? Where do they get water? Is it clean water? That kind of stuff. Evaluate educational kind of history and see other kids in school. Have the adults been educated? What that looks like? They evaluate the spiritual kind of development, do they attend church? Do they regularly attend Bible study? What are their beliefs there? And then any mental or physical health? So do they have any kind of acute trauma,” Kinder said.

Kinder said Haitians have a lot of trauma with what’s going on in their own country. Stucker said that she has spoken with people who have done work in Haiti for the past 30 or 40 years and the current state of the country is the worst they’ve seen “by a longshot.”

The Bridge in Haiti is Haitian-led and is run by leaders of the community. Kinder said they have 21 Haitian staff.

Stucker was originally from Kansas City but lived in Cape Girardeau for over five years before moving to Haiti in 2017 and was a member of LaCriox Church, which is now the longest-running partner of The Bridge, along with four other churches. Stucker still lives in Cape Girardeau while Kinder is currently living in New Orleans while being originally from Cape.

Kinder said she assumed her role as executive director of The Bridge in January after she had been a sideline supporter for the five years since it started.

Kinder and Stucker organized a fundraising event for The Bridge celebrating its fifth anniversary on Tuesday, April 23. The event took place at the Hubble Creek Venue in Jackson and was attended by members of the surrounding community, including Molly’s uncle and former Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder.

“We wanted to get the name and get the mission of The Bridge in front of people in this community. We alternately were also fundraising,” she said. “While we are so grateful that our ministry and our work has been able to continue, it has become more expensive to feed people, and we have more people who need food more than ever, and that's just one part of this work.”

According to The Bridge Haiti’s website at https://bridgehaiti.com/, more than 150 families are receiving food monthly with more 30 young women receiving school sponsorships.