Quick video of kids in Wozo, which is Haiti Partners’ Youth Choir, dumping trash they collected. They come to our (John and Merline’s) home every Saturday and Sunday afternoons to practice, learn and work on service projects. It’s wonderful to see how they’re learning to take responsibility, to make decisions together and to manage conflicts that arise. They’re also constantly improving as a choir and dance troupe.

We see intern Kietrie Noe here teaching English at Cabois Community School. She and Mary Padden teach children in the morning and do classes with teachers in the afternoons. Great work, Kietrie and Mary!

The vast majority of Haitians are self-proclaimed Christians. More frequent than not, when you ask a Haitian adult in a literacy program why they want to learn to read and write their answer will be, “So that I can read the Bible and read hymnal when singing in church.”

Haiti Partners is grateful for our partnership with Canadian Bible Society making it possible to distribute 10,000 Bibles a year over the next three years to literacy programs, churches and schools. In addition to receiving the Bibles, people receive training in Lectio Divina, a participatory approach to Bible study and prayer where EVERY voice is valued, where pastor and person who is illiterate stand on equal ground in the group as they seek to hear God, cultivate their faith, and build unity.

Mother Chloe Breyer shares about her trip in Haiti with us.

Dr. Peter Heltzel of New York Theological Seminary along with Chloe Breyer, Carl Nazaire and Kenel St. Vil share about their experience in Haiti on the first Micah Institute Haiti Advocacy Trip with Haiti Partners.

We are proud to report that thanks to a generous grant from Global Hope, Inc. – a 501(c)(3) organization based in Downers Grove, IL – for the first time ever IMN Community School now has water available on-site!  As you can see in the pictures below, this grant made it possible to dig a well in the schoolyard and to install a manual pump which will serve the students, staff and community for year to come.  The final phase of the project – which is on schedule to be completed in August – is to install an electric pump which will pump water from the well into a water tank where it can be stored for use throughout the year.

IMN has been blessed with many great partners – Kids4Good, SchoolsCountCorp, Reed Elsevier, Global Hope, and a host of individuals – who have all been instrumental in its efforts to reconstruct and get back on its feet after the earthquake.  Great thanks to all of you and especially to Global Hope for your partnership on this exciting water project!

A quick video showing progress on our 2nd Learning Center that will serve Henri Christophe School. This is being built on land donated by a Haitian colleague. We are grateful for the support of all the people who are making this possible.

Last Saturday, Haiti Partners long-time colleague, Enel Angervil, new staff member, Benaja Antoine, and two local partners, Pastor Ilven Obel and Principal Jean-Thony Delus, organized and conducted a community-wide Open Space meeting in the remote island village of Bèl Platon, where one of our partner schools is located.  Despite a rain storm, 56 participants came from 10 regional institutions and included local officials, representatives of international non-governmental organizations, as well as a number of school principals, teachers, and pastors.  The theme of the meeting was: What kind of education and activities are best for community development?

For more post-quake pictures from Bèl Platon Community School, click here.

I visited Cabois Learning Center yesterday and witnessed first hand how this building is already serving as a shelter. The rain poured and crews working on the roads came in for shelter. Gerald, school administrator, also shared how the micro-credit, that families of students are receiving, is helping them to rebuild.

Yesterday marked 3 weeks since our interns Kietrie and Mary arrived in Haiti. They share here how it’s going.