Lexington Woman Changes Lives By Taking Wedding Dresses To Haiti

Is not Louis-du-Nord, Haiti - hang on hospital beds and hanging IV pole are collections of cheap wedding dresses, whose name is almost as expensive as their pearls: elegant Bliss, and dreams.
Not exactly the ideal showcase for clothes, but shop owner Diane Cornelius wedding over the stage with a smile.
"Welcome to the bridal shop of Ruth in Haiti," he said.
The real girlfriend Ruth in Lexington, Cornelius, 45, lives with her husband, Joe, and their four children. But in the last two and a half years has put the clothes in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. She plans to go again in July.
Before his first trip in March 2009. He said. "I just go to a Third World country, if it is a seaside resort."
Two years after an earthquake devastated the capital Port-au-Prince destroyed - the anniversary is Thursday - Haiti is not only a tourist destination. But where the devastation and misery of others, and where Cornelius feared, which is just voodoo and dirt, he now sees something else - hope.
This does not mean it is not difficult. One of the wives Cornelius zero instead of costumes for the first of two marriages during his recent tour in September muddy ankles, the result of a long trip on dirt roads. Another girlfriend is breathtaking, but feels he could not bathe for several days.
Cornelius dressing and seven other women in a clinic on the basis of Christian mission in the Northwest of Haiti, because the clinic is one of the few places with air conditioning.
A St. Louis-du-Nord, where the mission-based non-profit, no paved roads and little electricity or running water. If Haitian Pastor Jean Claude Jean Baptiste mass weddings here in the year 2005 began, he shared two wedding dresses a dozen women during ceremonies.
The mission of the U.S. headquarters is located in Zionsville, Indiana, and his supporters have long attended the same church as Cornelius Lexington, Southland Christian. In 2008, Cornelius asked if wedding dresses in Haiti, who could not sell to go.
"I think it really was, I decided it was not with me that these women do not have the same experience, because of geography or finances, which could be the reason," said Cornelius . "I knew I had to do something."
And Haiti, found that marriages are more and marriage registries bridal showers. This is a step on the road to a better life.
In a place where the church is often the only social structure that couples who are married are "in their communities and in this culture in a way never thought," said the director of the West Owen Janeil. A woman who was not allowed to sing with the choir of the church, married once, to be able to participate fully. A middle-aged woman who has never been approached by an official title, once married, is called Madame. And a young woman whose future in laws prevented, once married, will be treated with respect.
Weddings and funerals are two of the most important events in Haitian society and families to borrow in order to properly remove, says Owen.
While Crow is concerned about the clothes and ornaments, Magdala Remy take Petion and Jean-Baptiste, which are connected to the target, takes care of everything else, to seek marriage licenses (a $ 15, about two weeks salary Haiti ) tries to prove that the couple. Some of the planned Remy know, others are recommended by their pastors.
Cornelius estimates that each trip will cost her and her husband, who accompanies them, if possible, several thousand dollars, gifts and favors from clients, colleagues and the community. She is currently developing a non-profit organization, and in his recent tour, expanding its mission to include a woman gives birth to three wedding dresses so they can start a dress rental business.
Although she grew up in the bridal business after his mother and grandmother, gives Cornelius saccharin industry with a strong dose of reality. Joe is her second husband, and when the couple before the ceremony is spoken advised to be patient and work through their difficulties.
During a visit to the municipality of The Peninsula on a previous trip Cornelius met a woman who expresses her desire to marry. On his last trip to the fishing town of Cornelius, where the woman lives Louisilia MA. The hotel is located in the northwest of Haiti, the community is composed of 150 people living in houses with thatched roofs, without electricity, running water and all the furniture in real life. Mansion is dark and warm, and the only place to be at the center, where sloped roofs meet.
By his own admission, Masters, 37, can not afford to marry the father of her five children waiting in the way of their community. However, with Cornelius to marry the dress of the loan and the price of wedding rings, marriage certificate and a reception, and two other female teachers, a bride of 18 years and mother 50 years of age in September years years in the situation.
"If you are married, you are someone with a bad sign for you that says," Hey, this person an outcast of society, "said the Master through a translator." But if you are married, then remove the sign, and the world sees you as a whole person. "
There is a need for something that we take for granted that surprises Corneille, even after six trips to Haiti and girlfriends 121.
"I never thought something like this could change someone's life," he said. "Even if for one day (the bride) feel important."