Greetings from Health for Haiti! We now have twenty wonderful SUNY Broome students accepted into out 2018 Health for Haiti class and we are excited to get to know each other and start preparing for our January projects in Haiti! At the end of this post you can read about how you can help us to meet our 2018 goals!
In news from Grande Saline, we are grateful that the community was spared from the worst of the recent hurricanes. Other than some flooding and standing water, there was no damage. School in session and the children are excited to be attending classes. We hope to help the community to build a fourth classroom this year to accommodate the local children, and we are very proud to report that there are about 25 children who are able to attend school this year because of the Helping Children School Scholarship Program.
Computer classes are back in session after a summer break. We are pleased to welcome a new computer teacher, Mr. Lyscar Rosemond to the program. We are excited to see more children (and hopefully some adults) improve their computer literacy skills.
Sewing classes are going very well with the students working hard and making some nice skirts, blouses and dresses. We have a new sewing teacher who will be working with Madame Dana, Mr. Ovila Edouard. Mr. Edouard is teaching the school students about the fundamentals of sewing every Friday and Saturday.
Health for Haiti has also continued to help sponsor a monthly medical clinic in Grande Saline. Thanks to Dr. Gary and his expert staff for all of their great work on behalf of this community, and to Pastor Berlando for helping to organize the clinics. Dr. Gary hopes to offer a special October clinic just for the school children.
The rice continues to grow well in the Community Garden and is now ready for harvest. All of the rice harvested from the Community Garden will be used to provide lunch for the school children.
Even with our successful Community Garden, there is still not enough food available to offer enough lunch for the kids every day. To help with this, we have an exciting new garden project that we hope to begin this month. We will be partnering with the school to start a student-run vegetable garden. Under the supervision of a few experienced farmers who will serve as “monitors”, the students will grow vegetables and fruits for their lunch. Not only will this project provide much needed nutritious food, the students and their families will learn best practices for growing their own vegetables. Pastor Berlando hopes to make this project a part of the school curriculum. The plan is to even have periodic tests to be sure that the children are learning this important information. There is so much food insecurity and malnutrition in the region, we hope this project will be a great hands-on opportunity for the children and their families!
As you can see, there are a lot of good things going on in Grande Saline. We are looking forward to spending some time in the community with our amazing 2018 team. We have a lot of exciting projects planned and some very ambitious goals! We are working hard to raise money and collect supplies to help us complete our January work in Haiti.
Please consider helping us by coming to our Flapjack Fundraiser on Sunday, November 19th from 8 am to 10 am. We will be serving flapjacks at the Applebee’s on Front Street, right across from SUNY Broome. Tickets are only $7 and can be purchased from Professor Hankin (hankinmr@sunybroome.edu) or me (musajm@sunybroome.edu). Please consider having some delicious flapjacks to support our 2018 Health for Haiti students and the communities we serve in Haiti. Thank you from Health for Haiti!
SUNY Broome Health for Haiti 