The "Peter Hesse Foundation SOLIDARITY IN PARTNERSHIP for ONE world in diversity" was established on December 7, 1983 to sustain small self-help projects for deprived people in Haiti.
Peter J. Hesse wanted to secure private charity-initiatives which he had started in Haiti after an initial Christmas-visit in 1980. The establishment of a small "General independent Foundation" (Allgemeine selbstständige Stiftung) was a relatively bureaucratic venture with a rigid formal structure - but still easier to establish than a German Association (Verein), because it only needed one founder who was willing to give a minimum amount of money - here DM 200.000. - (The Foundation will somewhat grow after the founder's death.) All administrative cost are covered by the founder's own yearly donations. Since May 2000 the Foundation is a "NGO in SPECIAL CONSULTATIVE STATUS with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations - ECOSOC".
The Foundation has "Curators", a group of German top development politicians from the two mayor political parties (3 CDU and 2 SPD - as listed in the German section of this homepage). It also has a "Board of Directors", the founder being its chairman, his sister Dr. Ariane Hesse being the Vice-President. Other board-members are Thomas E. Hesse, Mathematician and Organisational Consultant, and Eckart Flöther, MA in Theology, management-consultant and author.
In Germany, there is no hired Foundation-staff but part-time volunteers help with the administration. In Haiti, there is a small office-staff employed by the Haitian "Fondation Peter Hesse", created and formally accepted there in November 1988. Since 1983, ten - mostly German - volunteers have been providing valuable help in Haiti; eight for a few weeks or months and two for a full year - all of them without salaries but with a lot of motivation. Peace corps and UN-volunteers also helped in the beginning. Several UNVs were sponsored by UNDP, one by the German DED.
The main partner, who joined the Haiti-project in early 1983 - even before the formal establishment of the Foundation in Germany - is Carol Guy-James Barratt from Trinidad. She is a London-trained Montessori-Directress (with Montessori pre-, primary- and advanced diplomas). Without her highly qualified, motivated and enduring participation, there would be no successful and widely recognized Early Childhood Program of our Foundation in Haiti.