A New School Year in Cammy
With the support of our partners, Hope for Haiti is actively engaged with helping students in the remote community of Cammy improve their academic achievement by supporting their teachers and improving their learning environment. This year the school is serving 246 students.
The school is located in an extremely remote area, in a community where people live in severe poverty. Families in Haitian communities like these often cannot afford to pay school fees on time. As a result, schools may be unable to start the academic year with necessary supplies and facilities that are ready to receive students. Hope for Haiti’s Back to School initiative helps alleviate this difficulty, providing schools with funding to purchase supplies and make necessary repairs. This year, funds provided to our partner school in Cammy were used to purchase educational materials and supplies (including chalk, material for new blackboards, notebooks, pens, pencils, geometry sets, and staplers), administrative equipment and supplies (printers, water coolers, envelopes, and paper), cleaning and sanitary supplies (brooms, mops, toilet paper, detergent, trash cans), and to purchase cement, roofing sheets, and wood to make repairs.
Inconsistent tuition payments also frequently make it difficult for schools in remote Haitian communities to pay their teaching staffs consistently, which results in high teacher turnover,negatively impacting students. Hope for Haiti’s Teacher Salary Subsidy program helps schools lower turnover and retain talented staff by providing teachers with direct payments, subsidizing their school-provided salaries, throughout the school year. With the help of our funding partners, Hope for Haiti is helping support 10 teachers in Cammy this year.
To help these teachers best serve their students, Hope for Haiti’s Education Program staff conducted three days of training with teachers at the end of November, focused on reading pedagogy. Teachers engaged in practical workshops, discussion groups, simulations, and group presentations.
Next Steps
In the coming months, Hope for Haiti’s Education Program staff will continue to actively support teachers in Cammy.
- WhatsApp Groups: Discussion groups have been established to maintain connections between teachers facing similar pedagogical challenges. These groups also facilitate constructive exchanges with trainers.
- Remote Coaching Sessions: Through regular phone calls, we assist and support teachers in their work, helping them maintain a high level of excellence. This method allows teachers to easily reach us and receive feedback on their teaching.
- January 2025 Training: A session focused on assessment and evaluation will be organized to strengthen teachers’ abilities to evaluate learning, plan lessons, and prepare exams.
- Observation-Coaching Sessions: In February and March 2025, teachers will benefit from observation-coaching sessions to enhance their practical skills and foster personalized support.
Testimonials
“Since 2004, I have had the privilege of leading this school, and one of my greatest experiences has been contributing to its growth from operating in a church. Thanks to the support we received from Hope For Haiti, we now have nine well-maintained classrooms.
During our meetings regarding the Back-to-School initiative, I reflected on what a crucial tool this program is for schools, especially given our financial struggles and lack of funds to purchase materials for classroom repairs, teaching supplies, and cleaning items needed to reopen classrooms each year. The support from Hope for Haiti is truly invaluable to all of us. For example, during exam periods, buying essential materials such as white paper and notebook staples was incredibly stressful for us.
Regarding the salary subsidy, it is extremely important in our context, where schools face economic hardship and parents are unable to provide a reasonable salary for teachers, leading to demotivation among the teaching staff. In this regard, the salary subsidy is an absolute necessity for us.
A heartfelt thank you to the Hope for Haiti and their funding partners for their unwavering support of this community.”
-Augustin Betrand, Director, Christ-Roi Presbyterian School in Cammy
“For the start of the school year, I received materials such as pens, notebooks, and pencils. I was really happy to receive these supplies, which will help me a lot this school year. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Hope for Haiti and their funders for their support.”
–Belizaire Charleson, 12-years-old, 5th Grade, Prebyterale Christ-Roi in Cammy
