Article Photos

Fact Box

Dietrich's book "Behind the Mountains" can be purchased for $20. A portion of the money will go to the St. Joseph Family. To purchase a book, contact Dietrich at sjgrants@hotmail.com. To learn more about the St. Joseph Family, visit its Web site at www.heartswithhaiti.

org or its Facebook page, St. Joseph, Haiti.

The road is never long for the one who is in need, a Haitian proverb says.

Renee Dietrich has seen the need of the abandoned, poverty stricken and illiterate.

But there is hope.

Dietrich documents the struggles of the Caribbean country in her first published book, "Behind the Mountains."

The photo essay is a compilation of Dietrich's parents' mission work in Haiti, as well as her own.

Dietrich, a former photographer for The Messenger, sold all of her possessions in 2002 to follow her calling to Haiti.

"It was a dream of mine for a really long time," Dietrich said, "but I needed something to do. I couldn't just go down there without direction."

The direction came from a friend, Michael Geilendfeld, formerly of Algona, who had founded The St. Joseph Family, a nonprofit organization that offered a home and education to Haitians in need. He offered Dietrich a position as a communication and development liaison.

"Michael started the first home to serve the needs of the restaveks (child slaves) and abandoned children," Dietrich said. "We strive to empower these children so they will be able to empower others."

The children, ages 7 to 21, live in the homes for their entire childhood until they are ready to leave and make a difference.

"We are not looking for families to adopt them," Dietrich said. "We become their family."

Since the first school's inception in 1985, the work has grown. Now there are two more schools. Dietrich works with one of them. It is called Wings of Hope.

"The house is home to 40 handicapped children," Dietrich said. "Often these children are seen as manifestations of evil spirits, so many are abandoned by their families and find their way to us."

Through her work, Dietrich saw the personalities and potential of each child shine through, giving her more material for the book she had begun years earlier.

The idea for it stemmed from Dietrich's first trip to Haiti as a photojournalism student in 1988. Traveling back and forth for the next 14 years with her family gave Dietrich ample material for her first draft.

"I actually finished it waiting for a court decision as a journalist," Dietrich said with a smile. "I worked on it a lot during nights and weekends during my time at The Messenger."

Dietrich coupled the photos with poetry and gave the first draft to friends and family who convinced the photographer to publish it.

After some leg work, Dietrich found an editor and publisher to complete the work.

"I was going to self-publish it, but that was cost prohibitive," Dietrich said. "A friend in Dubuque connected me with an editor who could get the work published at cost."

After living in Haiti with the St. Joseph Family for years, Dietrich learned more about the culture as she was immersed in day-to-day living. So she added proverbs to the pages.

"I've always written poetry about Haiti and people who inspire me," Dietrich said. "So the poems really went hand in hand with the photographs, and proverbs are very important to the people of Haiti, so they are included."

To underscore the starkness of the situation in Haiti, Dietrich chose to publish the photos in black and white.

"Haiti is a very colorful country," Dietrich said, "and I thought the color contrasted from the starkness of Haitians' situations."

But no matter the problems, Haitians have hope and an expectation of hard work, as evident in this proverb: Behind the mountains, more mountains.

"It's a great gig," Dietrich said of her work with St. Joseph Family. "Seeing changes in the kids is the best part because you think 'I may have a had a role in shaping this kid's future.' Watching these young boys develop into fine young men is definitely a perk."

Contact Lindsey Mutchler at (515) 573-2141 or lindsey@messengernews.net