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Dear Hope for Haiti Family,
With the support of a matching grant from the Digicel Haiti Foundation, our team has been working diligently to ensure both students and teachers are able to stay safe and healthy as classes resume. We’re now two weeks into the relaunch of school in Haiti, and as of last week:
- 2,614 hygiene kits have been distributed to the students across nine of our partner schools during COVID-19 prevention lessons, and the remaining schools will be completed by the end of next week (pictures)
- Partner schools are being outfitted with no-touch thermometers, pulse oximeters, hand washing stations, and washable masks for each student and teacher
- Community Health Workers received training by our Public Health Team on school COVID-19 protocol (pictures)
Students are eager to return to the classroom after a previous school year marred by disruptions from political unrest and COVID-19. Gislaine Moise, a student in the ninth grade, told our Education Program Coordinator Jude Jean Pierre: “I am so happy to go back to school. I’m excited to reconnect with my friends – I’ve been listening to the radio every day since May waiting for the Ministry of Education to publish the new school calendar.” Fellow student Dieuny Silnord agrees: “Getting back to school is a priority for me because as someone from a poor family, education is the best way for me to work for a better future. I’m not letting any obstacles like COVID-19 stop me.”
We still need your help! Your gift today will directly support students like Gislaine and Diuny:
- $4,500 will provide one school with all of the materials and support the students and teachers need to safely relaunch classes
- $1,000 will provide four schools with COVID-19 modification training for teachers and school directors
- $500 will provide five COVID-19 relief kits to families
- $100 will provide one Community Health Worker with a month’s stipend
- $50 will provide one family with a clean water filtration system
Double your impact! Your gift today will be matched by the Digicel Haiti Foundation
The Digicel Haiti Foundation announced today a $60,000 matching grant to support sending students back to school and school construction in Haiti. Sophia Stransky, CEO of the Digicel Haiti Foundation, said “The Digicel Haiti Foundation is convinced that it is increasingly critical that institutions invest alongside schools in order to guarantee a stronger future generation of citizens. Hope for Haiti is one of those organizations contributing to the country’s sustainable development, especially in the education sector. Thus, the Digicel Haiti Foundation is delighted to partner with Hope for Haiti and commits to a matching grant of up to $60,000.”
Partnership in Action: The Qatar Haiti Fund
38-year-old Janithe Pierre is the recipient of a water filtration system through our partnership with the Qatar Haiti Fund. Janithe lives with her daughter and one other person in the community of Cammy, where she has lived her entire life. Her family’s only source of income is farming. When thinking about access to clean water, Janithe notes, “I was very scared and didn’t know what to do if one night my daughter came across a bacteria in the local water, such as malaria, typhoid, cholera or something else. There is no medical assistance in the community and most of the time and we don’t have enough money to pay the transportation fee to the nearest hospital – which is an hour’s drive away by motorcycle taxi from our house. So we thank the Qatar Haiti Fund and Hope for Haiti for this initiative to distribute these filtration systems (Izin dlo) to save my family and the life of the community, especially at this particularly difficult time when there is a strong virus all over the world. We now feel more comfortable and at peace that we can manage our own water ourselves. I thank each of these two organizations that allow our community to have access to clean and safe drinking water in our homes.”