Our Team

Paul Balo

Paul Balo

Country Director

Paul Balo is a Bahamian Haitian who grew up in Florida. He moved to Haiti in 2002 and lived with his extended family. He met his wife in 2005, and they got married two years later. Paul worked as a translator on and off for several years. He also worked for about two years at a drinking water factory, where he loved providing drinking water to his community. Through this job, he met a lot of people in his neighborhood that he hadn’t seen before.

Paul continued to work as a translator and eventually became head of interpreters at a large mission in Saint Louis. There, he met Tore. More importantly, it was there he realized his passion for working with children. Paul spent his free time with the kids in the nutrition program and quickly realized how much he loved helping them. Since then, he has felt like God put him on earth to love and help the kids.

Paul started assisting with the formula program from its very beginning. He helped shape it into the ministry that it is today and has spent more time with the families than any of us. He really values the families and they value his leadership.

In Paul’s free time now, he loves to work on his garden and spend time with his children. He is always out in the community checking on kids and families that he has met. Kids all over Saint Louis call him “Tonton Ben” or Uncle Ben. While Paul fills that uncle role for so many kids, he also has become a mentor for several 18 to 20-year-old boys who aged out of an orphanage. He is an integral part of this ministry, but we also love that he has ministries of his own.

 

 

 

Tore Dobbie

Tore Dobbie

Founder/Executive Director

Tore is originally from Lexington, Kentucky. She graduated from Georgetown College with degrees in International Business and Public Health. She received her MBA from the University of Louisiana Monroe. She also has a post-graduate certificate in Non-profit Management from Duke University.

Tore took her first trip to Haiti in 2009. On this trip, God used a voodoo temple and a little boy named James to show her that He had a greater plan for her in Haiti. She continued making short term trips from 2009-2014. Tore also spent the summer of 2012 in Saint Louis du Nord, Haiti. 

In 2015, two weeks after her college graduation, Tore moved to Haiti. While she had gone to Haiti with the intent of working with community health, she eventually began managing medical programs. Through this, she discovered her passion for fighting malnutrition. She spent a lot of time in the nutrition program but felt there was still a need to fill. Children were typically enrolled in the nutrition program at two years of age, but she kept asking herself, “What if you could meet the need before two years of age? Would earlier intervention prevent the child from reaching that condition?” Thus, the formula program, now known as The Potter’s Family, was born.

Tore and her husband Liam made the difficult decision to leave Haiti towards the end of 2019. While they weren’t exactly sure where God was leading them, they knew without a doubt that He wanted them to continue the formula program. God formed the ideal scenario: an organization for Haitians run by Haitians. Tore continues to do behind the scenes administrative work and fundraising for the organization, but it is Paul who has taken ownership of the day to day operations.

headshot of Ryan Schwartz

Ryan Schwartz

Board Member

Kelly Louk Headshot

Kelly Louk

Board Member

Nate Verst

Board Member

Headshot of Brian Hiner

Brian Hiner

Board Member

Logan Trent headshot

Logan Trent

Board member

Liam Dobbie

Media Director