haiti

WHY HAITI?

Haiti is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere with 80% of the population unemployed.

There are few paved roads, an inadequate supply of potable water, minimal utilities, and depleted forests.

Less than 45 percent of all Haitians have access to potable water.

More than half of Haitians live on less than one dollar a day.

45% of the Haitian population is illiterate.

The life expectancy rate in Haiti is about 50 years.

Seventy-six percent of Haiti's children under the age of five are underweight, or suffer from stunted growth and 63 percent of Haitians are undernourished.

An estimated 7,500 lives are lost each year to AIDS in Haiti, and thousands of children have been orphaned by the epidemic.

 

La Resurrection School, Gros Morne, Haiti

   
 

Our relationshio with La Resurrection School began in the spring of 1985. Carol Hjortsberg headed our Day School at the time and traveled to Haiti for a meeting of the National Association of Episcopal Schools in Haiti. Carol's group of representatives toured several Haitian schools as the idea of partnerships with US schools or churches was beginning to develop. Carol returned and inspired others to take on this ministry. Marilyn Dirks wrote the diocesan coordinator in Port-au-Prince and St.Martin's was assigned to Gros Morne's La Resurrection with Pere Paul presiding as rector.

 

From then until now, we have remained committed to our friends in Haiti. We cannot solve the problems that exist in Haiti but we can help and we can provide hope. We can make a difference. We can save lives.

 

EDUCATION CAN AND WILL SAVE LIVES.