Newsletter September 2008

Back to School - September 2008

Greetings to you in the name of our Compassionate Lord.



Now that it has been a month since our return from Haiti we are ready to put some new projects together.
September has always meant BACK TO SCHOOL time for me,so that is what our focus will be for now.





Schools in Haiti will be starting soon and most children will NOT have the opportunity to attend because public schools are NOT free in Haiti. If you cannot afford to feed your family every day how can you afford to send your children to school?



If we were to tell most of our children here in the U S that we could not afford to send them to school this year they would most likely accept this decision cheerfully (for a while anyway) but not Haitian children. They are told that getting an education is the only way out of the extream poverty that they live in. This is their only chance and if they cannot attend school they face a life of hunger and despair. Education is so important that parents will give their children to strangers living in the cities, as servants, if they will send them to school. For those people living outside of the cities, schools are not even available.



This is why the 22 Lutheran Schools that Pastor Isaac started in the villages surrounding Jeremie are so important. The problem is that these schools can not afford to pay their teachers regularly. Although they are promised a salary most of the teachers work for what ever is given them until another opportunity comes their way which they accept in order to feed their families. Some schools do not stay open for the entire school year because the teachers have left to take other positions.



Pastor Isaac asked me to work on a support system for the teachers in 4 of the village schools that he feels are in most need. They are villages that our teams visited while in Haiti last July. They are:
Mar Franc - 67 children - 2 teachers
Moron - 72 children - 3 teachers
Beaudouin - 97 children - 4 teachers
Anse d' Hainault - 182 children - 6 teachers



We have the opportunity not only to educate 418 children by supporting 15 teachers but to expose them to Christian Values through Bible study that is taught in these Lutheran Schools. These children will go home and teach their parents that Voudou is not their salvation but Jesus Christ is. The Haitian people have a great respect for education so they will listen to what their children bring home form school.



After meeting with Pastor Isaac and Pastor Marky (president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Haiti) we have decided that a fair salary for the teachers would be $50.00 a month. This would be enough for an educated person to support his family in the country. We are looking for churches and schools to make a long term commitment to support 1 or more of these teachers. Please prayerfully consider this commitment. $600.00 a year by our standards is not a great amount of money but think what it means to a Haitian child desperately wanting to attend school. Many of us spend this amount every year on our cable service or cell phone service or a cup of coffee on our way to work everyday instead of drinking it at home. Why not remind yourself of these suffering children by giving something up in order to send that $50.00 a month. I guarantee you will not regret it.

SUSAN