My name is Pierre Michel Norame and I am the Founder of I Clean Haiti. Born and raised in Haiti, my Father brought me to America when I was 19 years old. Not having a high school education, I taught myself English and eventually earned a college education in Business Administration, pursued culinary arts to become a Chef and opened a tax business in 2013.
In 2017, during the toughest time of my life and after natural disasters had already devastated Haiti, I had my first vision of I Clean Haiti. My wife and I had recently separated, my son was 4 years old, I had lost my financial income and I was trying to find work anywhere I could. As a man of God, I had to stay in line with the Lord no matter what I was going through in life.
There were many people who helped me find jobs, but something I did often was collecting unwanted things and taking it to the trash dump. Most of the work and jobs I was provided during this time came from Josh Kobrin and his father David Kobrin. These two people kept me alive during my tough time. I thank them for everything they have done for me and knew I would be able to eventually pay it forward. Back then, earning an honest wage helping to clean up different areas is what God wanted me to do and this simple task gave me the idea for the I Clean Haiti Project. I thought to myself, what if Haiti had an organized way to provide jobs for those helping to clean up trash; taking care of Haiti’s trash and poverty issues together.