HOPE VALLEY - When Kiki Latimer began reading "Mountains Beyond Mountains," by Tracy Kidder, she had no idea of the journey it would lead her on.

The story was about the work of Dr. Paul Farmer in Haiti. She was touched by his story, and "it planted a seed," she recalls.

In 2004, she took a trip to India and experienced her first encounter with real poverty, and she wondered where the experience might lead.

In 2007, Father Michael Leckie at Saint Joseph Church presented the idea of building a village in Haiti and Latimer was ready to go. It was a big project for a little church, but she ended up chairing the committee to spearhead the project.

Money was donated in the form of pledges and significant single donations. Some of the kids did a few bake sales to raise money, but for the most part there was no big fund-raising, just a response from a caring community.

Always on the reserved side, it was an intimidating prospect to get up in front of the congregation to speak, but she found the strength. She shared statistics - one in eight children die from some form of malnutrition in Haiti before their fifth birthday. And this kind of poverty can be found just a scant 1½-hour flight from Disneyworld.

It was a major undertaking, attempting to raise $150,000 within a 200 family working class congregation.

"We're just a small New England village church," said Latimer, but people were touched by the project. Within four months all pledges were in.

Working with Food for the Poor, an international relief and development organization, the small congregation funded the building of a Haitian village. They were able to build 14 "double size" homes with latrines, a community center and a dug well, creating a water system that serves several villages.

Latimer estimates that a minimum of 5 to 6 people reside in each home, and with villagers regularly having to walk miles for fresh water, the project has effected a great number of people beyond those in that one Cape Haitien village.

During this time, Latimer was writing a book called "Island of Hope." It is a story of a young girl named Chante who tells the story of her life before the building of the village and how it effected her afterward.

The story is a message of hope - hope of survival for the people of Haiti and hope for the people here, that they can make a difference.

"It is a children's book, but it is a teaching book, too," says Latimer. "A small group of people can make a huge difference in the world."

She went to Haiti last January to see the village herself. That was the first in a three-step process of development. Food for the Poor first tends to basic needs like food, housing and sanitation. The second step is education, and the third is creating some kind of sustenance in the form of fishing villages, fish farming and agricultural projects.

St. Joseph Church is involved supporting 10 of a 30-acre agricultural project that will feed the village. Latimer hopes to return to Haiti to see fields of crops so that the children there will no longer need to run up to her shouting, "I'm hungry, I'm hungry," in Creole.

Maria O'Connor co-chaired the project with Latimer and the two of them have created a program called Harp, Haiti and Hope. They are available to bring the free program to schools, churches and community organizations, to educate and inform people about the island of hope.

More information is available at Kiki Latimer's web site.

"Islands of Hope," released August 2009 by Educa Vision, Inc., can be found at Amazon or Educa Vision. Author royalties are being donated to Haitian projects. The same publisher released Latimer's second book, "The Waterfire Duck," in September.