Adjacent to the HATS orphanage is the HATS school for nearly 300 students. The Institution Mixte Karen Huxter (IMKH), provides quality education for preschool – grade 9 with fully qualified Haitian teachers. The school has an excellent reputation in the community and they are justifiably proud that all of the grade 6 students passed the governmental exams in June, especially in light of the fact that only 60% of Haitian students nation-wide passed this same exam.
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| School IMKH taken from HATS main compound |
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| Students starting to gather for the flag raising |
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| preschool 1 students going to line up for the raising of the flag |
Did you ever wonder if child sponsorship really works?
Where does the money go?
How much of it reaches the students?
Is it a scam?
Are there success stories?
Here’s one success story;
In 1997 Karen, with the help of Education Haiti in Halifax, started sponsoring the schooling for 2 young girls who lived in the mountains in this area. Ronise’s and Roseline’s family were not able to provide for them to remain in school but their child sponsorship enabled them to get an education. After a few years they moved from the mountain area down to the valley and continued to attend school in the area. They were in the sponsoring program until graduation and then stayed in the program to attend a school that provided teacher training.
Roseline is now the grade 4 teacher at HATS. Last year Roseline taught grade 2 at IMKH. Last year and again this year she is a tutor for Leica and Ti Luckner four afternoons a week.
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| Roseline Joachim – Grade 4 teacher |
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| Students praying at beginning of class |
And her sister Ronise is the Grade 2 teacher. Both ladies have returned to the community to help educate their neighbors’ children.
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| Ronise Joachim – Grade 2 teacher. |
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| History lesson |
HATS still has a child sponsorship program. It costs only $275 per year to sponsor a child from preschool to grade 6, which is less than $23 per month. High school sponsorship costs $375/year which is about $1 per day. Check the web site for more information:
or contact Liette at:
liette.hatshaiti@gmail.com
In other news the new batteries for the inverter arrived today and were promptly installed. This provides backup electricity for the compound when the generator and EDH – Haitian Power is unavailable.
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| Out with the old |
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| In with the new |
~Keith
