A Hero for Haiti
A true hero to a cause might be someone who volunteers their time—someone who donates their resources (i.e., money) or someone who takes on a need with such passion it becomes part of their life.
Check yes on each category when it comes to UAF board member Mike Wnek. Just ask one of the thousands of families in Haiti “Mr. Mike” has helped or any of the dozens of United Aid Foundation (UAF) volunteers who traveled with him. Despite the poverty, corruption, violence, and natural disasters that continue to devastate the island, Wnek never gives up hope for the Haitian people.
“These are hard-working, gentle people,” said Wnek. “They don’t want handouts. They want to be self-sustaining.”
Wnek, the vice president of a successful home building company, a restaurant owner and entrepreneur based near Orlando, became involved in Haiti in 1995. He once joked that he was tricked into helping by a friend and customer who “routinely came by my office with pictures and stories.” Wnek was happy to contribute to the cause, but eventually was recruited to visit Haiti in person.
“I was overwhelmed by the sickness and pain I saw,” Wneksaid. “I wanted to go home, but my friend convinced me to stay one more night.” That is when Wnek describes an epiphany of sorts. “God thumped me on the head that night and let me know I was needed there. God has blessed me with success and the wherewithal to help. And I have been doing my best to help ever since.”
Over the past 30 years, Wnek founded Hope for Haiti Healing,which helps by delivering food, housing, and medical and hygiene aid, as well as funding orphans and paying to send children to school.
In 2010, he crossed paths with UAF founder John Alex in Haiti following the deadly earthquake that killed (number) and displaced (number). “Mike was fearless in the wake of the Haiti earthquake,” said Alex. “We quickly teamed up to deliver desperately needed food and medical supplies during that terrible time. I knew we needed him on our board and that UAF could be a force for good in a country desperate for hope.”
Wnek has since led UAF volunteers on over 20 missions to Haiti, helping local people build sustainable homes that will not erode in hurricanes or collapse during an earthquake. Those missions led to 46 homes constructed, that house multi-generations of families and have been utilized by entire communities during severe storms. His mission teams also rebuilt a 3-story dormitory damaged severely in the earthquake of 2010, on the Christianville campus in Gressier. While the COVID pandemic prevented UAF from traveling to Haiti on the last 3 years, Wnek and UAF financed local Haitian laborers who had been worked alongside UAF volunteers to construct quality housing, demonstrating the effort to teach Haitian workers was a success. They built 6 more homes on their own, UAF supervision and funding.
“We are still all in this together,” Wnek emphasized.
If the world thought Haiti was desperate back then, the situation is much worse now.
The political upheaval and rise of violent gangs have made it impossible for American volunteers to return. “It’s been one tragedy after another,” Wnek noted. “six of my security team who protect me and our supply trains when I travel there have been killed by the gangs. My two personal bodyguards, MagathAntoine and Baham Jean called my wife, Peggy, and said, ‘Mr. Mike needs to stay home. If he comes to Haiti, he will be kidnapped for ransom or killed.’” Wnek, who at 73 is survivor of a heart condition, listened to his bodyguards and his wife.
But that doesn’t mean he remains idle. Wnek continues to financially assist the widows and families of his security team, supports a children’s feeding program, schools, an egg production operation, 40 acres of vegetable production and a tilapia farm. “It’s all about people,” Wnek said. “The real victims are the children. They have no control and no input, and have the same needs as kids anywhere. We try to love and nurture as many as we can”
Wnek also helps on a more personal level. In 2024, he managed to clear visa paperwork to bring Brandy, the daughter of one of his long-time employees in Haiti, to the United States with her baby son, Malik. Brandy and Malik view Wnek and his family as their own.
“The situation is Haiti is tragic,” said Brandy. “The gangs will shoot you for no reason. They don’t even know you and they will shoot you,” she said. “Mike is our angel. Such a good person. It is my goal to make him proud.”
Wnek, the successful businessman who took on what appears to be a hopeless cause, has some advice for doing this kind of volunteer work. “I take time to enjoy life, and spend as much time as I can with my beautiful wife Peggy” he said. “I take vacations, I go marlin fishing, snorkel and dive. I have to be rested and successful in order to help people.”
He encourages others to get involved in something as he did with Haiti and with UAF.
“Just look around. Everywhere you look you find new opportunities to help people.”
Wnek sees the UAF mission of providing direct aid to people in crisis as a good response to the head thump God gave him back in Haiti so many years ago.
“Someday, we will all stand to account for what we did and didn’t do. I’m not religious, just part of God’s kingdom. I do this because God leads me to help others, and I have a support system that covers a lot of territory”
