Help Mountainside School Fight Illiteracy

We are proud of the teachers of the Saul Louis Community School! They truly go above and beyond to see the children in our Mountainside Partner Community thrive. When we started working with our Mountainside Partner Community in 2010, the teachers had yet to receive their salaries from the Ministry of Education. They had not been paid in over two years. We quickly created a campaign to raise funds to provide them with a monthly stipend of $50 per month. While this pales in comparison to the average teacher salary in Haïti of $250 per month, it was well received. Some teachers take part-time jobs to support themselves and their families. This is no small task as some teachers support inlaws and other family members. Working together we have improved the educational experience for the students, support for parents, and training of teachers.

The 2023-2024 school year ended with excitement. We are happy to share pictures of students being promoted to the next grade after completing their exams and their parents meeting with their teachers and the school administrators. Originally the school went from kindergarten to 6th grade. Our partnership has resulted in significant milestones. Two years ago, we added 7th grade and last year 8th grade. Our goal now is to add 9th grade to complete the school system on the mountain. This will ensure that students can stay safely within their community instead of having to walk 2-hours by themselves down the mountain to go to school in the city.

Another major concern was breakfast and lunch for the children. Most of the students, from kindergarten up, come to school hungry. This impacts their learning and causes some to fall asleep during class. What is worse, most must also walk home from school hungry. The teachers have taken on bringing cookies and snacks to help their students but this is not sustainable. The APHD Peasant Association has begun working with the community to construct a cantine (cafeteria) that will provide breakfast and lunch for the students. This will alleviate stress for the parents, students, and teachers, allowing the teachers to focus on teaching and the students to focus on learning.

Our current challenge is teachers' stipends. We were not able to meet our fundraising goal in the first and second quarters to provide stipends for our teachers. We are currently raising the $14K needed to give them their stipends for January to June. The importance of teachers to society cannot be overstated. We are unwavering in our efforts to support them. We will share the status of this situation in our next report. Development With Dignity continues.