Did you know that parishioners of Trinity Staunton have provided support for the education of approximately a thousand students in Haiti since 2010? It’s amazing, right?
We didn’t do it alone, however. Trinity Boonsboro, Staunton, and Arrington, Emmanuel Staunton, Good Shepherd Blue Grass, and St. John’s Waynesboro comprise the Virginia Haiti Collaborative, a coalition founded with the goal of ensuring education for some of the most vulnerable children in our hemisphere.
In 2009, when a group from Trinity made the first trip to Cerca-la-Source, home to the St. Marc’s School, we were humbled and moved to tears. We saw a group of children learning in a dark, stuffy, and crumbling one room schoolhouse. Other children were taught outdoors under a lean-to roof of banana leaves. The teachers had no materials. They taught using tiny bits of chalk and battered blackboards. At break time, the hungry children reached eagerly for the Saltine crackers that the school’s director handed out one by one.
It was an overwhelming and disorienting experience.
A New Way Forward
Under the leadership of Father Roger Bowen, the Virginia Haiti Collaborative was born, allowing us to serve children in Haiti through education.
Since 2009, scores of Virginians have traveled to Cerca-la-Source to meet the children and teachers of St. Marc’s and our congregations have been extremely generous in support of the school, raising money each month.
By 2011, our collaborative had raised money to build a beautiful six-room schoolhouse. Currently, the elementary and middle school educates up to 300 students each day. Our Collaborative raises funds for teacher salaries at a cost of over $2,000 per month, provides money for school supplies, purchased solar panels for electricity, sent money for hygiene kits and masks during the pandemic, and sends financial support for annual teacher training.
Additionally, our partner priest, Father Schneyder Couloute, works tirelessly for his congregation and to meet the needs of the St. Marc’s School. He’s a dedicated, compassionate pastor, and a visionary administrator for the church and school.
The Ongoing Need
The teachers are also truly committed to the children — we pray they continue to be compensated. You see, parents can’t afford the $2 per month tuition if they earn only $30 per month, as the majority of Haitians do.
In closing, Haiti is a beautiful, historic, proudly traditional and culturally rich country that can only prosper when the population is educated.
Haiti has experienced an overabundance of tragedies, but the people are always ready to recover and keep going. They have incredible faith. Some say it’s all they have.
We can provide them with education too, by faith in action. If you’d like to find out how to join this mission, send an email to Father Benjamin Badgett of St. John’s Waynesboro: rector.stjohnsepiscopal@gmail.com.
— Michele Edwards, Parishioner, Trinity Episcopal Church
Michele Edwards has been a member of Trinity since 2004. She first travelled to Haiti in 2009 and helped organize the Virginia Haiti Collaborative. She served as co-chairperson and chairperson for seven years.
