Will the Schools Open This Year?

Skip Lindsey came for 10 days and blessed us by doing much of the plumbing and wiring of the base.  We vacated our leased home and moved to the new base.  A few days later, we had two working toilets and an outdoor shower working.  What a blessing!!  We are so grateful to the friend who made so much of the new base possible.  But a change in Haiti’s fall school opening date means I need to talk about the schools now.

Usually, the Haiti school year starts the first week of October but the announcement just came out from the government that they are to start Sept. 3rd.  That is only a month away.

As you know, JUST MERCY sponsors three schools in the mountains.  Nearly 500 children attend these schools in an area where the adult illiteracy rate pushes 100% and no other organization is active.  Besides teaching children the usual subjects, reading, writing, and arithmetic, we started Christian Character classes last spring, hoping to make a difference in the lives of these children.

Pelerin school in 2010

We visited all three of the school locations with the building team early this month and saw the pressing facility repair needs that should be done if we are to continue operating the schools.  The first school in Pelerin has 188 students with six teachers.  The school was built five years ago out of woven twigs between poles.  Just two years ago, it still looked pretty good.  But on this visit, it was falling apart, raising concerns it might even fall down on the children.  Nathan and Bill discussed possible ways of repairing it.  We thought we had till October and hoped to do some work on it in September.  Now it is even more urgent to make a plan to repair it.

Collapsing walls on Pelerin School 2012

Chapelle church/school and “tent”

The school in Chapelle has around 150 children with three teachers.   The classes meet in a small church and two “tents”, one of tarps covering a plastic pipe frame and the other of tarps on wood sticks.   We hope to move one of the currently unused cholera tents to Chapelle to operate school in this year.

 

The school in Robia has the best, most permanent facility of the three.  The 160 children with three teachers in three rooms meets in an empty rough concrete shell. All of the schools need work.

School at Robia

The basic budget to pay the teachers at all three schools is around $1300/month. It is also time to buy books.  It costs about $10/student to buy the books new.  That is around $5000 for books for the coming year.  We are currently making an inventory of what is still usable from last year, hoping to cut that amount down. Schoolbooks in Haiti are not like our textbooks.  They are all basically like a paperback notebook and usually are used up by the end of the year.  They are cheaper now than they will be in three weeks if they are available at all then.  Sometimes the vendors run out just before the school year.

Children from the Chapelle school

We have talked with our two Haitian friends who oversee the schools about opening them this year and they know that we are coming home to try to ascertain if it is possible to commit to that.  We hope to open all three schools, Lord willing, but may have to settle for less.  Our mailing address is  PO Box 93  Stark City, MO.  64866

Thank you for your prayers and support.  May God bless you all.

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Janet, wife, mother and grandmother has made many trips to Haiti since the earthquake of 2010. She works to support Just Mercy and her husband Bill and does the many things such as research, communication, ‘technical support”, etc, at home in Missouri that are often quite difficult to do in Haiti. All these activities and her children and grandchildren keep her busy.