Artists For Peace And Justice Raises $700,000 In Toronto As Haiti Violence Disrupts Schooling

TORONTO — Artists for Peace and Justice raised more than $700,000 at its 18th annual gala in Toronto, funneling critical resources to its tuition-free secondary school in Port-au-Prince as escalating gang warfare paralyzes the Haitian capital.

Hollywood actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde, who sits on the charity's board of directors, helped steer the initiative's expansion from an emergency earthquake relief effort into a permanent educational institution. What began in the dust of the 2010 catastrophe has turned into a lifeline. But the streets outside are burning again. Armed gangs now control large swathes of Port-au-Prince, shuttering transit routes, displacing families, and preventing hundreds of enrolled students from reaching their classrooms.

Star-Studded Auction at Windsor Arms Hotel

Co-hosted by television personality George Stroumboulopoulos and musician Kardinal Offishall, the fundraiser brought together international figures across entertainment and philanthropy on September 14, 2026. The evening honoured Canadian actors Andrea Martin and Emily Hampshire, alongside singer-songwriter Jann Arden, for their long-standing humanitarian advocacy.

Bidding was fierce. A live auction featured contemporary works donated by artists Russell Young, Tyler Shields, and Mr. Brainwash, driving the evening's total past the $700,000 mark. That intake lifts the organisation’s cumulative fundraising haul past $37 million since its founding, supporting medical care and schooling for more than 32,000 young Haitians.

The money arrives under siege conditions.

Addressing the deteriorating environment, Koifman confirmed that the organisation is re-engineering its operations to keep children learning even when physical movement through gang-patrolled districts becomes lethal. Classrooms must run, she insisted, regardless of the perimeter.

Building an Institution from Earthquake Ruins

The Academy for Peace and Justice traces its origins to the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that flattened Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010, killing hundreds of thousands and rendering millions homeless. Rather than dispersing short-term food parcels, an international coalition of artists banded together to raise an initial $4.5 million. That capital paid for the land, construction crews, and a guaranteed five-year scholarship program for every incoming pupil.

The campus opened its doors in October 2010 with roughly 300 pupils aged 12 to 18. Today, the six-acre facility serves more than 1,400 students annually and employs approximately 180 Haitian teachers, administrators, and maintenance personnel. Beyond secondary education, the foundation backed the reconstruction of the country’s cinematic academy into the Artists Institute, funding the vocational media hub until transitioning it entirely to local Haitian leadership in 2018.

Wilde has consistently argued against short-lived donor interventions, advocating instead for infrastructure anchored directly by local staff. Local educators run the daily curriculum. Local administrators manage the campus perimeter. Local cooks feed the student body.

A Looming Malnutrition Emergency

The violence in Port-au-Prince is compounding a structural hunger crisis that threatens to gut an entire generation. A joint humanitarian assessment released by UNICEF, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Food Programme (WFP) projects that 253,725 children between six months and five years of age will suffer acute malnutrition across Haiti between June 2026 and May 2027.

Nearly 94,000 of them will face severe acute malnutrition — the deadliest form of hunger, which requires clinical inpatient treatment to prevent organ failure.

Supply corridors remain choked by armed factions. Food prices have skyrocketed. For families surviving on day-to-day informal labor, the Academy's guarantee of hot meals and clean drinking water often forms the barrier between life and starvation.

APJ administrators are now deploying the newly secured $700,000 toward fortified student transportation arrangements, emergency nutritional provisions, and remote instruction packets, aiming to bridge the operational gap until United Nations security delegations and national police can restore transit corridors through the capital.