MORE ABOUT HAITI
Teachers' Salaries
In the Pendus area, there are schools at St. Joseph Church
in Pendus as well as the chapels at Massacre, Mayombe, Kayimit, Savanne Carre
and Montbayard. In all there are 33 teachers (including the principals) at
these six schools. Only Berard does not have a school -- mainly because it
is located in the middle between Pendus and Kayimit and those children can go to
school at either place.
Up to and including the 2004-2005 school year, there was a French foundation
that funded the salaries for all the teachers in this area. However, that
funding dried up at that time. Beginning with the 2005-2006 academic
school year, St. Mary began raising money to pay these salaries. That
sounds like a lot of money by US standards, but the salaries for these 33
individuals only totals $18,000 -- or a little over $500 per year per teacher.
The school year in Haiti is almost 10 months, starting in September and ending
in June.
In addition to the teachers salaries, each year for the past several years, the
teachers at St. Mary Elementary School in Lafayette donate enough money for each
of these 33 teachers in the Pendus area to receive $5 US as a Christmas gift,
which the December trip takes to Haiti to distribute for them.
We have also taken many other things to help the various schools over the years
-- such as a globe in French, some Creole reading books, pens, pencils, rulers,
compasses, crayons, chalk, maps, soccer balls, several pedal powered sewing
machines, and other school related items.
Sharon Newell is the school coordinator for the St. Mary Haiti committee and has
kept a communication between Pendus and St. Mary Elementary School going.
Each year we make presentations to the students at St. Mary Elementary about our
prior year's trip. They, in turn, help us collect many of the items that we
take for the annual children's benediction that is held during the December
visit.
If you would like to make a donation to aid us in our activities to support the education of the children of Pendus, Haiti through the support of teachers' salaries, please visit our donations page.
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