August 14, 2009

Here’s a quick video of Community School of Cabois (Lekòl Jean Jacques Dessaline) which is one of four partner schools that we’re piloting. We’ve been collaborating with school director and teachers in literacy projects for years before they had the vision to create this school. These teachers have worked without pay and worked with local masons to construct the building. The school’s director and two of the teachers are participating in our 3-year Capacity Building training.

Community School of Cabois will receive from Haiti Partners over the next 3 years funds to help finish the building, start a garden that is used to teach agricultural techniques and produce revenue for school, and to start a social enterprise toward making the school autonomous. Only 15% of schools in Haiti receive government funding. Thus, paying teachers’ salaries and other expenses involved is a major challenge. While Haitian families place high importance on education, the fees they’re able to pay are normally not enough to pay teachers’ salaries. Following the model of one of our partners, we’re creating a training module and pilots toward helping schools create social enterprises that generate revenue that can pay teachers’ salaries and other necessary school expenses.