Looking for a gift idea for someone who loves Haiti? Are you interested in learning more about Haiti? Add my book "Haiti, my Love" to your holiday wish list! Available in paperback and e-reader from Amazon.com. 

50% of the proceeds from the book go to PECH Haiti to help Haiti through better education!

http://www.amazon.com/Haiti-Love-Julie-Peters-Akey/dp/0615715583/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1355605025&sr=8-3&keywords=akey

$500+ donors for the 2012-2013 school year

Thank you to the following generous individuals who donated $500 or more to PECH Haiti for the 2012-2013 school year! The names of all $500+ donors are placed on the wall of the school each year.

Megs and Paul Rosenberg
Anonymous
Kay and Mark Olson

Sponsored Children Update

While in Haiti a week ago, I met with the children (and their parents) who are being sponsored to attend school. Each child and/or parent wrote a note thanking their sponsor and we took a picture together (here are some of the pictures). The parents are so appreciative. Some of the parents never attended school so couldn't write the letters. When we asked them to write, they looked at us apprehensively, not wanting to admit that they were illiterate, so we offered to write for them. They dictated their letters in either Kreyol or French (often a combination of the two) and we wrote their words for them. It was very moving for me.

Thank you to the sponsors who pay for school for these children who otherwise couldn't attend!

We have several more children on the list waiting for sponsors. Can you sponsor one of them and give them an opportunity for an education in an country where half of all children never attend school?

Costs for the 2012-2013 school year at Gentille Hirondelle elementary school:

    Tuition: $230
    Uniforms: $66

    Books: $75
    TOTAL: $371

Sponsors can choose to only pay for tuition or to also pay for uniform and books.

You can share a child with a friend or coworkers! Please pay via the Paypal link below or contact me at juliepakey@gmail.com if interested!

Thank You's for 2012-2013 school year

Thank you so much to the following generous individuals for their donations to PECH Haiti for the 2012-2013 school year! After each trip I begin a new "Thank You" post, so if you donated before my August 2012 trip your name is on a previous post. Cumulative $500 donors will be recognized on the wall of the school. Merci beaucoup!

SPONSORING A CHILD to attend Gentille Hirondelle elementary school
Lisa Akey
Susan and John McKee
Julie and Geoff Akey
Cindy Shyne
Ann Akey
Lisa Nakata and Lisa Browning
Valerie and Derek Poag
Bay West Advisors
Susan Whitacre
Roy and Margarete Harmon
Megan and Anthony Sciammarella
Ricardo and Jennifer Villares

ADULT LITERACY SPONSOR of adults learning to read for the first time
Margarete Harmon

HURRICANE ISAAC REPAIRS at Gentille Hirondelle school
Kelly Bland

OTHER EDUCATIONAL PROJECTS
Irene Gordon
*Megs and Paul Rosenberg
Jane and Rick Duncan
*Kay and Mark Olson

LEGOS
the members of King of Kings Lutheran Church
Sam and Theo
the Poag family
the Meade family
the Markin family
the Shin family
the Dornak family
Youtherans at King of Kings Lutheran Church
The Malone family

BOOKS
Sam and Theo
Melody Allan
Jessie Malkin

*denotes $500+ donor for the 2012-2013 school year
 

 

Adult Literacy Class Update

I just returned from a trip to Haiti to check on the adult literacy classes we began in June. I was so completely inspired by how hard those adults are working to learn to read and write. It is excruciating to see how slowly they learn and to watch how difficult it is to even form basic letters, but they try so hard that it is so incredibly inspiring to see them read and write simple words. The students in the first class have learned 7 consonants and 4 vowels, and add another letter each week. When I visited the class, the students so proudly showed me their homework and the hard work they've been doing. A teenage student even wrote me a letter, and although it didn't make sense, it was full of "words".

Evangeline, the school director and initial teacher

 

our literacy text books with health lessons

 

 

The students follow a literacy program created by a Haitian organization and they learn in their mother tongue, Kreyol, a French-based creole that is heavy on French vocabulary and infused with words from African languages. Kreyol grammar is distinct from French and has strong influences from Africa. The literacy text book includes illustrated sanitation and health lessons such as hand washing, breastfeeding, purifying water, and preventing diarrhea.  

Thank you to those of you who sponsor a student and pay for their class. I have a photo and note for each sponsor with a sample of their student's work.

 

Would you like to sponsor a Haitian adult to learn to read and write? It costs $70 for the 7 months of instruction, books, and supplies. If interested, you can make a tax deductible donation through this link. Thank you!

 

Hurricane Isaac

Hurricane Isaac just passed over Haiti, and thankfully, damages were not as catastrophic as during previous hurricanes. Unfortunately, the hurricane destroyed a roof on one of the buildings of our school (Gentille Hirondelle elementary school). We are currently seeking donations to help repair the roof. It is too early to get a quote for work, but I estimate repairs will cost about $2,000. Please use the link below to donate to the roof repair fund or to any of our other projects.

Throughout Haiti, electricity is out at 30 out of 32 generating stations around the country, several thousand homes were destroyed, many crops were ruined, and numerous internally displaced persons (IDPs) still living in tents after the earthquake were once again made homeless. This sounds bad, but things could be worse, and I am thankful that few lives were lost.

Thank you for keeping Haiti in your thoughts and prayers!

Damage to the school roof

August 2012 trip

I'm getting ready for my August 2012 trip back to Haiti to check on my projects. Here's what we've accomplished in the past few months:

-We began our first adult literacy class in June 2012. We now have 42 Haitian adults learning to read and write for the first time! (Thank you to their sponsors!)
-I collected more than 250 recorders (Thank you friends and music teachers!) and the children will start their first music class in the fall!
-Major construction of Gentille Elementay is completed
-Bathrooms were build at the school and I recent sent a water pump so the school will have water for hand washing for the first time
-My children collected school supplies, including more than 1000 pencils, and stickers that they distributed to the children at the school
-We began plans to build a science-themed middle school

 

Recorders for the 1st music class

New bathrooms for the children

Mini-library

First adult literacy class

 Want to help?
1. You can sponsor an adult for $70 to attend a 10-month literacy class to learn to read and write
2. You can collect gently used children's books to add to the schools' mini-library
3. You can donate any used laptops in working condition (old, slow, small problems ok)
4. You can send gently used French books for any age (no sex or violence please)
5. You can donate to any of our projects!

As always, thank you for your support!

Literacy class update

We have invited the parents of the children at Gentille Hirondelle elementary school to be the first students in our new adult literacy class. Here is a photo from our first meeting with out first class. The first 10-month course will begin this June!

Can you sponsor a Haitian adult to learn to read and write for the first time? The cost is a mere $10 a month to be a continuous sponsor for several students or $70 total for the 10-month course for 1 student. This includes all books and supplies. Although our original idea was to have a one-month course for $30, the 10-month curriculum we decided on for $70 a student is much more longer and more thorough.

Literacy is such a valuable gift that we take for granted; can you help share that gift with an illiterate adult?

School Supplies and Crafts

Haitian boys with their new pencils

Lots of smiles from these Haitian school girls!

Thanks for the pencils and stickers!

Doing a craft project with the Haitian children

Showing the Haitian kids how to make crazy critters

With the help of the kindergarten and 5th grade classes at Fox Mill Elementary school in Herndon, VA, and some of their nearby friends, my boys collected school supplies and gave them to the Haitian school children. They were so thankful because many of the children didn't even have a single pencil! My boys also gave each child a page of stickers-a definite luxury in Haiti-and did a craft project with the excited children. There is not a lot of joy for children in Haiti, so this day was nice break for them!

Sponsor a child!

Sponsor a child in Haiti! Children writing letters to their sponsor.

Would you like to sponsor a child to go to school in Haiti? Here are pictures of me with some of the sponsored children and photos of them writing letters to their sponsors.

Julie Peters Akey with a child holding a picture of his sponsor

Julie with one of the sponsored children

Lots of new construction!

 

Haitian children at Gentille Hirondelle elementary school

 

In the past year, much progress has been made a Gentille Hirondelle elementary school. An elementary classroom building was completed and a preschool building was finished. Gentille Hirondelle school is now larger and better than before the earthquake. Thanks for your help!

Preschool children in Haiti's Gentille Hirondelle elementary school

  

Pen Pals

I taught the 3rd grade grade class at Gentille Hirondelle for a bit one day in Haiti because the teacher had an emergency and couldn't come. I took the opportunity to have the Haitian 3rd graders (they are 8-11 years old, in grades according to abilities instead of age) write pen pal letters to a friend's French class back in Virginia. It never occurred to me that the children had never written a letter before! There were lots of questions and confusion, but soon they realized that they were supposed to write a response to the letters I brought with me from Virginia. It was fun to do, but I am not completely sure the children made the connection that they were writing to an actual American student!

Haitian children write to American pen pals

My children joined me on this trip, and they collected stickers to bring down to hand out to all the Haitian school children. Although most of the Haitian children had never had stickers before (they are a luxury that they can't afford), I was touched when many generously shared them with their pen pals and decorated their letters with them!