Kindness, Opportunities, Resources, Evangelism

Mark A. Taylor

Dennis and Brenda Bratton founded the KORE Foundation after his retirement in 2010 with the goal, as the foundation’s website explains, “to provide sustainable solutions to extreme poverty for the people of Haiti.”

Taking its name from the Old Testament businessman appointed to distribute generous offerings to those in need (2 Chronicles 31), the foundation adopted an acrostic to explain its mission:

Kindness: the touch of Christ in practical ways

Opportunities: not a handout, but a way out of poverty

Resources: a foothold away from poverty toward self-reliance

Evangelism: education and enterprise are transformational tools for the poor

KORE partnered with Smallholder Poultry Enterprises to create chicken farms that give Haitians meaningful work and create food to meet real needs.

Today, according to the website, 126 Haitian farmers are running their own business as a part of this program. Their average income increased 196 percent! And in December these farmers sold 18,000 broilers and provided 160,000 eggs for the Egg-A-Day school feeding program in the country’s Central Plateau. In the last quarter of 2018, Bratton reports, 529,000 eggs went to 32 schools.

“KORE is feeding animal protein (2,000 get meat, and 8,000 get the egg-a-day) to more than 10,000 children in orphanages and schools each month. KORE pastors are evangelizing and discipling in the homes and neighborhoods of our farmers. And our team has the opportunity to provide Christian education for 8,000 students” in the schools where they’re providing eggs.

Three model schools are measuring nutritional and cognitive development among 8,000 students. If the initial positive results hold, the program will be expanded. “This means lots more KORE farmers, Haitian jobs, economic development, and ministry opportunities,” Bratton wrote.

“I’ve learned as I had never experienced that God is able to do amazingly more than I’d ever thought or imagined!”

Read more about the KORE Foundation at korefoundation.org.

Check out these related articles:
“If You Have a Pulse, You Have a Purpose”
“What Are You Doing Now?”
“Times of Refreshing”

Author: Mark A. Taylor

Mark A. Taylor, who served as Christian Standard editor from 2003 to 2017, retired in June 2017 after almost 41 years with Standard Publishing (Christian Standard Media).