My Life Speaks is a public non-profit organization whose goal is to develop a Christ-centered community in Neply, Haiti through orphan care and prevention, education and public health. The idea was sparked by Mike Wilson in 2003 when he visited a missions facility in Haiti, only to return in 2005 with a group of teenagers.
Local resident Bliss Zechman and a group of Phi Mu Sorority sisters volunteered in Neply through the My Life Speaks program May 16-23. It was a life-changing experience for Zechman and the group.
“Haiti is a very poor country, but the residents there do not let that hold them back,” said Zechman. “They understand they are poor, but it doesn’t necessarily bother them. They are a joyous people.”
Through orphan care, the organization provides care for children who have been orphaned and/or abandoned. Through the Haitian government, they identify children who are truly orphans and place them in a home for care. Many of these children have special needs, and it is the goal of the organization to provide them the opportunity to experience life in its fullest. 
“It was our duty to take care of the children, offering love and attention,” said Zechman. “We played a lot of games with the kids, did arts and crafts with them, and just gave them our time and let them have normal interactions like other children.”
Along with the orphan care and orphan prevention programs, My Life Speaks provides education opportunities for the special needs children, as well as other children in the community and even some outside Neply. Their public health initiative provides opportunities for the entire village to become healthy through clinics, occupational and physical therapy, medicines and feeding programs to help eliminate malnutrition. 
“We did a lot of feeding programs where we cooked the food, served it and cleaned up three times a day,” Zechman said. “We also tried to serve the community in different ways. We did laundry by hand, and my knuckles actually bled. I realized the women sit there and do this all day long.”
The volunteer group did get to do some fun things, like walking to the beach every day to enjoy the crystal clear water, and boating out into the open water.
“They celebrated Flag Day while we were there, and they had musical instruments and little dancers in the parade,” she stated.
Zechman is a junior journalism and electronic media major student at the University of Tennessee Knoxville. The 20-year-old aspires to become an entertainment broadcaster.
“I guess the main thing that stuck out for me was not to stereotype poverty as depression and sadness,” said Zechman. “There is a lot of joy in Haiti and it’s an experience that everyone needs to experience. The trip put a lot of things in perspective for me.”
More information and ways to donate can be obtained by visiting mylifespeaks.com.