It has been too long since the last update on HATS-Haiti. I apologize for this. I was finding it very difficult to write anything as things were so very difficult and bleak in Haiti. Still, I should have let you, our supporters, know how things were.

The good news is that our school will reopen for this school year on October 7th. Our school, IMKH, is doing extremely well even though there are gang members throughout the Artibonite area where our Mission is.

Each year in Haiti, grade 9 and grade 13 (Filo) students must write the difficult governmental exams. They are directed to write them at various sites throughout Haiti under strict supervision.

Recently Luckner received the awesome results of our school’s Grade 9 governmental exams.  I am thrilled to report that 28 grade 9s of our school wrote these difficult exams and 25 of them passed. These 25 students now move on into Senior Secondary. This is a tremendous accomplishment when you consider how difficult it is in Haiti right now. Grade 13 (Filo) results came in just yesterday and 24 out of 32 students passed, which is another awesome accomplishment.

And to top this great news, Met Luckner (School Director and Director of HATS-Haiti) has been told that our school IMKH is in the category of “The Very Best Schools in the Department of Education.”

Many thanks to Met Luckner for the awesome results of these two very important governmental exams, and under your continuous strong and faithful leadership, you were able to provide so many children with an excellent education. What Met Luckner has done is especially amazing, since our school, students and teachers are faced with the daily stress of gang violence so close by.

I humbly ask all of our student sponsors to PLEASE send your sponsorship fees to HATS-Haiti.  Your sponsorship donation for your student(s) is desperately needed for this 2024-2025 school year.

We had upkeep to do to our school and uniform fabric to purchase for our students. We have teacher salaries to pay.  A very important fact is that we need to purchase large amounts of food so all our students can receive a hot meal daily. Our students arrive at school HUNGRY. You can imagine it is quite difficult to concentrate and absorb what is being taught with very empty tummies. This meal, for most of them, will be the only food they get each day.

This year I must ask something that I haven’t asked before for our school.  We do not want to raise our sponsorship fees. If, however, any of you can possibly enclose a little extra donation to cover the soaring costs of food and uniform materials with your sponsorship money for your student(s), please do so. We desire to be able to feed them a good hot meal daily.  Thank you so very much in advance!

I will write another update with new photos shortly after IMKH reopens on October 7th.

I’m also thrilled to say that all the children of our Mission are doing okay. Luckner and Roselore are continuing to care for all of the children together, our HATS children and their children. Again, thank you Luckner for all that you do. It gives me peace knowing that my children are under your care.

Things continue to be extremely difficult throughout Haiti. There are presently more than 400 extra police in Haiti, mostly from Kenya, working alongside the Haitian National Police. Much prayer is needed for more police to join them and for the safety of all the police and those they are trying to help.

The United Nations just reported that a couple of days ago, one of the gangs in Haiti went to a town in our area, about a 10-12 minute drive from us. This gang killed 70+ people and forced 3000 people to flee as they swept through the town shooting automatic rifles at the residents. Many others were injured. It was also reported that the gangs set fire to at least 45 houses and 34 vehicles leaving so many people destitute. The people in our area already have a hunger crisis, and this will make it much worse.

I want to thank you all for keeping the precious people of Haiti in your hearts and your prayers.

Love Karen 🙏