Head Start for 230 Pre-School Children in Haiti

On September 14, 200 K and pre-K children started the 2015-2016 school year at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Petite-Riviere de l'Artibonite. For 3 year old Emmanuel and Claire and 58 other kids, this was a first time experience. Some were quiet and fearful but most were excited and eager to start learning and to belong to the school community. Emmanuel and Claire as well as a great number of the preschoolers come from poor families severely affected by the present deteriorating economic, social, political and security situation in Haiti.

This school year, the children will be in freshly painted classrooms, appropriate school furniture and thus have an environment more conducive to learning. As in school year 2014-2015, targeted training of K and Pre-K teachers is scheduled and additional pedagogical materials have been made available. In the words of the the K teacher “the availability of pedagogical tools such as drawing boards, posters, introduction to French, numbers, etc. have made a difference in the children's ability to learn”. Also noteworthy is the decrease in the student teacher ratio from 38:1 in school year 2013-2014 to 22:1 in school year 2015-2016. 

We want to express our gratitude for your support and encouragement that allowed us to sustain the Early Childhood Education Initiative aimed at enhancing the quality of education for Pre-K and K children. We solicit your generous support for 2015. 

Please send us your ideas and thoughts for sustaining the program and meeting the challenges we face.

On behalf of the children we serve, we thank you again for  keeping faith in our mission.

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