By Diana Oh ‘24
The Haiti Partnership consists of about 30 students and faculty members and is a partnership between St. Mark’s School and St. Marguerite’s School in La Tournelle, Haiti. The partnership allows St. Markers to better understand the Haitian culture and provides opportunity make special connections with students in Haiti. The three main branches of the partnership are fundraising, education/outreach, and communication.
Located in the Caribbean, Haiti is a country that includes the western part of the Island of Hispaniola and smaller islands such as Vauche, Grande Caye, and Gonâve. In 2010, Haiti went through one of the most catastrophic disasters, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0, barely 25km from the capital, Port-au-Prince. The earthquake caused 250,000 casualties, 300,000 injuries, and 1.3 million people lost their homes. Less than 10 months away from the destruction, a cholera outbreak exacerbated the situation. Even today, many Haitians suffer from poor sanitation and scarcity of food.
Annually, students and faculty members of St. Mark’s visit St. Marguerite’s school, where they build special relationships. Although the current COVID-19 pandemic does not allow regular visits, meetings will be held regularly via Zoom. For example, regular discussions meetings with school administrators and church leaders are held to discuss how to improve the school system and community. Furthermore, since 2012, St. Mark’s has raised thousands of dollars through annual hikes to Henninger Flats, a journey whose distance represents how long a student of St. Marguerite’s takes to go to school each day. Classroom materials, friendship bracelets and hundreds of seed packets were also sent to St. Marguerite’s church to help them with the lack of food and supplies. Moreover, the St. Mark’s community provides funding for the lunch of more than 180 students in the St. Marguerite School, which annually costs over $20,000.
Annually, students and faculty members of St. Mark’s visit St. Marguerite’s school, where they build special relationships. Although the current COVID-19 pandemic does not allow regular visits, meetings will be held regularly via Zoom. For example, regular discussions meetings with school administrators and church leaders are held to discuss how to improve the school system and community. Furthermore, since 2012, St. Mark’s has raised thousands of dollars through annual hikes to Henninger Flats, a journey whose distance represents how long a student of St. Marguerite’s takes to go to school each day. Classroom materials, friendship bracelets and hundreds of seed packets were also sent to St. Marguerite’s church to help them with the lack of food and supplies. Moreover, the St. Mark’s community provides funding for the lunch of more than 180 students in the St. Marguerite School, which annually costs over $20,000.
Also, the funds help pay the teachers’ salaries. Before the COVID 19 pandemic broke out, chapel received coin donations and canned food for the St. Marguerite’s lunch program.
On November 17th, from 10:30 a.m to 12:30 p.m , a letter writing event was held on the VIth form quad. Sending letters is a very effective way to connect two different communities together. By exchanging and receiving letters from the students of St. Marguerite, we will be able to maintain our relationship with the,.
Elise Gobron, the co-head of the Haiti Partnership talked about the importance of communication and her excitement about this exchange of letters: “Since it has been three years since we have had the opportunity to travel to Haiti and make those face-to-face connections, finding creative ways to connect with our partner school has definitely been a priority! I am so excited to have the whole school participate and send meaningful handwritten letters to our partner school, I think this will be a really great way to connect on a more tangible level!”
One goal for the future is to provide St. Marguerite’s with books and supplies to increase the quality of education for the students. In addition, faculty are considering extending the St. Marguerite’s school to 12th grade, as currently it only supports from kindergarten to 10th grade. Last but not least, continuing to improve friendships with the St. Marguerite community is also a major goal.
