🎙️ Episode 1 – The Power of Charity: Lessons from Toya, Claire, and Jane

Welcome to the very first edition of The ED’s Desk, a new space where HAFALI connects with members, friends, and partners to share updates, stories, and calls to action.

In this episode, released on the International Day of Charity, we explore what charity truly means for our people—not as a simple act of giving, but as a force of survival, resistance, and freedom.

We honor three remarkable pioneers who showed us that compassion and justice go hand in hand:

Toya Montou, the Amazon warrior who gave up her own freedom to raise an abandoned child she found while escaping slavery. That child was Jean-Jacques Dessalines, future leader of Haiti’s independence. Toya’s life reminds us that caring for others is both revolutionary and transformative.

Claire Heureuse Félicité, who during Haiti’s Independence War organized women to provide food, medicine, and comfort to the wounded. Her compassion extended even to captured French prisoners, whose lives she saved. Claire’s example teaches us that true freedom cannot exist without mercy and humanity.

Jane Addams, the American social reformer who founded Hull House in Chicago and is celebrated as the mother of modern social work. Like Toya and Claire, she believed charity must be tied to justice and dignity for all.

Through their legacies, we see that charity is not weakness—it is active, powerful, and life-changing.

At HAFALI, we continue this work by educating, empowering, and advocating for our members, while building a community rooted in dignity, unity, and justice.

📢 Tune in, be inspired, and join us in transforming charity into lasting change.