By Jeff Remington | Project Leader
Dear Friends,
This year, it is fitting that our Palmyra-Haiti project has expanded to include our Palmyra elementary division seeking to engage younger students in our project. Realizing that early academic intervention leads to learning gains in elementary school, our partner schools in Haiti have placed emphasis on a younger population as well by building a new preschool. In Palmyra, expanding our program to our elementary division will lead to increased empathy and compassion which will have far-reaching effects. With this we follow the example of empathy and compassion that Dr. Rodrigue Mortel has shown by being the inspirational founder of our partner schools in Haiti.
Our connection to the new preschool in Haiti has a heartwarming story in Adeline, one of the first students involved in our Palmyra-Haiti program when it was just getting underway many years ago. Adeline is currently employed as a staff member of the new preschool, helping to care for, educate and share a bit of technology with the youngest of our peers in Haiti. From Adeline’s bright smile, you would never realize that her mother passed away when Adeline was two and that her life began in the abject poverty so common in Haiti. In the pictures below, you can see a young Adeline working on a computer that your support helped purchase. Another picture shows Adeline wearing one of our Palmyra student team t-shirts along with a Palmyra student’s created pop-up book. We have exchanged a number of items, both digitally and physically, with peers in Haiti which have been a part of the fabric of our project through the years.
A picture below with Palmyra project member Courtney depicts students creating “Dream Catchers” to send to peers in St. Marc. These Dream Catchers will be in dual languages to help students in St. Marc and Palmyra gain an appreciation for cultural language differences. Digital translation technology assists our students in the creation of these items.
Students at our schools in Haiti thrive and innovate through the use of technology that you help support! We are especially grateful to you and all who have supported this project including our Palmyra School District Staff which raised over $1,000 during a recent staff dress down day. These funds will help maintain the technology at the schools in St. Marc so students can gain maximum benefit which brings about unprecedented opportunities and success stories like Adeline’s.
Please consider sharing our project through social media to help increase our project’s reach. If you have the means, please consider a recurring donation. A small recurring donation can go a long way in helping ensure sustainable technology for our students in Haiti.
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