To stand for something, you can’t let anybody buy you. Put a grain of salt under your tongue and you’ll be fine for the whole day.” Self-reliance. She taught me as a kid, “if you are hungry, don’t ever go to your next-door neighbor and ask for food. UK: My mom always taught me, in everything you do in life, if you do it with your heart, if you do it with honesty, you will be a success. I have a lot of hope that when they are 25 and 30 years old, they’re going to be the next leaders and people Haiti can count on.ĮBONY: With so much political corruption in Haiti and so much economic and structural instability in the country, where does that hope that you have come from and how do you hold onto it when the tasks at hand seem daunting? Even though they are young, they are aware of what we are doing for them and what this school is all about and that we are doing what we can for them with love and it’s from the heart, so that they will have love and give from the heart too.
We want to be role models for these children now so they can be role models for other children. Our long term goal is to see these children we’ve been taking care of 5 years, 10 years, 15 years down the line becoming true leaders of Haiti and are invested in Haiti. That’s our short-term goal, to continue to do that for even more children. UK: It’s a success in the short term if poor parents that don’t have means to send their children to a state-of-the-art school or feed them can send them to our school and those children can get what they need without cost. Right now, our school educates children from kindergarten through sixth grade, so when the students graduate from sixth grade and have to go on to another school, we pay to send them to a different school so they can continue their education.ĮBONY: At what point will you consider Edeyo a success? So, most of the money goes to pay teachers, give them access to medical care and make sure they have a real meal every day. We have to pay the teachers and staff in Haiti to run the school and right now we are leasing the building the school is in, but we would like to stop paying rent and buy some land so that we can increase the number of students we can educate and feed instead of using money to pay someone else’s mortgage. Because of us, they have access to dentists and doctors as well. We have over 300 children in our school and we are also feed them one meal a day while they are at the school. UK: Well, we are not like most other aid organizations because all of our New York-based staff members are volunteers, so ninety-five cents of every dollar goes directly to the children in our school. I launched Edeyo with Michael Pradieu on my birthday five years ago, and as it grows, I grow - as a person and in how I can help my country.ĮBONY: Edeyo does much more than educate children, so when people donate to your foundation, where are the majority of the funds concentrated? But I give now for no other reason than for the love of my country. And though everybody who knew me or knew of me knew I was Haitian, and that Haitians are very proud of our culture and of our background and our ancestors, I never gave back to Haiti. UNIK ERNEST: I have to be honest, when I moved from Haiti, I became very disconnected from Haiti. What triggered this desire to give more to your home country?
In an interview with, Unik spoke about his vision for Haiti and his hope that more African Americans will hear about the struggles of Haiti and get involved.ĮBONY: Starting with raising $15,000 for Wyclef Jean’s Yele Foundation in 2006, you began to give back to Haiti in a much more substantial and tangible way. And as the foundation celebrates its fifth anniversary in Manhattan this Wednesday, June 27, Unik is throwing another one of his famous parties, the Edeyo Gives Hope Ball - hosted by Boris Kudjoe and Kelly Bensimon– to raise much-needed funds for the foundation. Today, over 300 children receive education, temporary shelter and one meal a day through Edeyo. That year, he and his childhood friend Michael Pradieu co-founded the non-profit education organization for children, Edeyo, which simply means “help them” in Haitian Krèyol.
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The Bel-Air neighborhood had become a slum, a tent-city, full of children aimlessly wandering with no education and no future. In 2007, Unik saw a Haiti he did not recognize. But after a devastating visit to his native Port-Au-Prince five years ago, Unik was inspired to pursue a new dream. Over twenty years later, Unik still produces the most exclusive events for celebrities, tastemakers and Fortune 500 companies all over the world. After coming to America in the early 1990s, he quickly became one of the most sought-after event producers in the country. Haitian-born Unik Ernest is living the American Dream.
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