Ste ThereseSchool Project

Grison Garde

St Therese School

Grison - Garde Haiti

I would like to introduce you to the Ste Therese School in Grison - Garde, a small village in northern Haiti.

Each of their 8 classrooms has a painted Black rectangular square on the wall, which serves as a blackboard, and scattered throughout the 8 rooms there are some desks, 46 benches and 31 Chairs.

They have one ruler, one pencil sharpener, one stapler ( no staples though) , 66 books, and 6 soccer balls for a student population of 271 students.

In Canada, there is a class size limit of 30 students. At St Therese, one kindergarten class has 78 students in it.

Linda Bates started in September and was able to collect over $37,000 of books, games, puzzles, flashlights, and other supplies for children that have never seen or had their own basic school supplies.

150 boxes of school supplies are scheduled to arrive in Haiti in early February

127 boxes of school supplies are scheduled to arrive in

Haiti in early February.

Now all she has to do is fly down to Haiti to distribute those boxes, set up classrooms, and help teach a class. She’s not alone though; 5 other people will be going with her.

I am lucky enough to be one of those 5.

As there are no available funds to cover transportation and accommodations for the volunteers, I am also helping with the task of fund raising.

Here in Canada the Holiday Season is approaching, where we look forward to ipods, computer games and big screen TV’s.

In Grison Garde, Christmas will arrive in early February 2009. With coloured pencils, paints and story books for their classrooms.

Thank You!