By Emma Taylor | IDV Head of Media & Marketing
Your on-going support of the English in Mind (EIM) Institute continues to change lives in Haiti. The school thrives because of your generosity – but you aren’t the only ones supporting EIM.
A group of international supporters continue to travel to the school and help the Haitian staff and students. For this project report, we asked international team leader – Stephanie Price – to write an update on how EIM is developing:
“2014 has been a big year so far for English in Mind Institute!
In the spring we transitioned to a new, temporary building, which gives us more space to hold our classes simultaneously. We also have our own computer lab at the new school complete with six newly donated laptops with WiFi connection. In addition, we received a grant, which allowed us to outfit our teachers with iPads and projectors for their classes.
These advances in technology enable us to provide more English resources to our students that go beyond the textbook. In June, we also welcomed Jonathon Ende, the founder of several tech-start ups in New York who offered web coding classes to our Advanced students. Learning English is about connecting ourselves with the larger world and being more tech savvy will give us a true advantage moving forward.
Jonathon was not the only foreign volunteer to visit EIM this year. As of July we’ve already welcomed six new groups of American and Canadian volunteers to Haiti! These new friends taught us extra classes and administered additional test prep for our final exams in September. We also enjoyed extra time socializing outside the classroom, to further a cultural exchange that goes beyond English. Many of our students have noted that getting regular exposure to native English speakers is a true advantage of EIM, as it’s an opportunity rarely granted at other institutes.
What’s next for us? Last month we opened up registration for new 2015 students and were overwhelmed by the response. We had over 100 applicants on the very first day of sign ups and had to stop accepting names. Come November we’ll be able to decide how many we can afford to admit.
We also have two exciting new announcements: First, as of this month we’ve officially put a deposit down on our very own piece of land in Clercine! Construction won’t begin until late 2015 but it’s extremely exciting (and relieving) to have our own property and no longer be dependent on renting, which in Haiti can be unstable.
Secondly, after a long two-year process, our Haitian principal Brunel is proud to announce that EIM received its registration from the Haitian government. We’re official!”
All these developments wouldn’t be possible without your support – thanks so very much!
As always, if you ever have any queries about how we’re using your donation, please don’t hesitate to email Emma@IDVolunteers.org. I would be delighted to hear from you.
By Emma Taylor | Head of Media and Marketing at IDV
By Emma Taylor | Head of Media and Marketing at IDV
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