Haiti: equip a school, build the future!
When the appalling earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010, it totally disrupted the educational system.
Haitian Calvary International Ministries, (HCIM), our partners on the offshore island of La Gonave, had been helping a number of small schools on the island for over 10 years. Some WorldShare supporters were regularly involved in sponsoring children at these schools.
The earthquake damaged the buildings and scattered the communities where the children lived. The schools are only now able to begin again. All the limited resources that they had were destroyed. Now they have to start from scratch.
WorldShare, through HCIM, are helping two schools:-
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at Grand Lagon, a community built on the white tropical sands by the mangrove-lined coast. Stunningly beautiful but very poor, this is a fragile community and very much at the mercy of wind and wave.
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at Picmy, a distant farming community high in the hills.
Children from these communities have few other opportunities for education, and families have no hope of improvement without education.
These schools have nothing - except the sacrificial willingness of teachers, who have been working for months to gather the children again and begin classes.
Most of the teachers have little or no pay. Most of them have only limited training.
The buildings are poor, dirty and dark. All ages are taught in one room, because that’s all they have. Hygiene facilities are limited. Books and teaching materials are non-existent. They have no pens, pencils, or paper. They have no toys or sports equipment.
But they do have incredible commitment, and abundant hope. The children smile, and - as our video on Youtube shows - they love to sing.
Now is the time to help these children. We want to raise £1,500 per month to see the teachers get paid. Also we urgently want to pay for chalkboards, pencils, papers, colouring materials, and books. Longer-term, we want to improve the buildings and train the teachers.
These schools are not yet able to manage a sponsorship scheme again. However, your gifts, especially regular gifts, will really help them and will be carefully used to give the children a better start in life.
After the earthquake, many world leaders declared that we could not let the people of Haiti suffer any longer. Sadly, many of the hopes for change have disappeared into the sand.
Now is the time to show the children of Grand Lagon and Picmy that Christians in the UK really care about them.
ONLINE: Click the Donate Now button to use our secure online payment system.
POSTAL DONATIONS: Please make cheque payable to ‘WorldShare’. Add ‘Haiti Schools’ and your name & address to the reverse of your cheque, and mail it to ‘Freepost WorldShare’. (You do not need to add any more text to the envelope, and no stamp is needed if mailing from within UK.)
CREDIT CARD DONATION LINE: (01302) 775245.
REGULAR GIVING: We especially need supporters to commit to give regularly, if at all possible by Standing Order. To request a form, click here, or please phone 01302 775209 or email info@worldshare.org.uk .
