By Madison Hoang ‘23 & Julie He ‘23
Ste. Marguerite Episcopal School in Haiti
Nestled within the tropical mainland of Southern Haiti is a small village named Latournelle, where the Episcopal school of Ste. Marguerite is situated. Ste. Marguerite currently enrolls approximately 130 students, from kindergarten to eighth grade, and employs 16 teachers. Serving as the direct link between the two Episcopal schools, Ste. Marguerite and St. Mark’s, is The Haiti Partnership: a student and faculty run campus organization that aims to support the students of its partner school, as well as the inhabitants of Haiti, through a variety of on campus projects and activities. Established through the Episcopal Churches Haiti Partnership, St. Mark’s began its partnership with Ste. Marguerite in 2011. The Haiti Partnership has experienced tremendous success, not only through the Partnership’s fundraising and awareness-building efforts, but also through the support and commitment of faculty, staff and students throughout the school body. The Haiti Partnership has been guided and supported by Ms. Morgan, Reverend Solter and formerly by Ms. McColloch and Dr. Bonhomme, along with approximately 30 committed students.
Unlike most conventional non-profit organizations, The Haiti Partnership is not just dedicated to fundraising efforts and charity. The Partnership is also committed to building an ethical and sustainable partnership with Ste. Marguerite, as well as spreading public awareness about the issues of Haiti. Generally defined, an “ethical partnership” means that a non-profit’s communications with the public, as well as to its beneficiaries, must be transparent, honest, and direct. Following this principle, The Haiti Partnership prides itself on its ability to practice conscientiously and communicate openly with its Haitian beneficiaries, as well as the St. Mark’s community. In addition, the partnership shared with Haiti is sustainable, which ensures that Ste. Marguerite and the Haitian beneficiaries be able to prosper long-term, even without the continued aid of The Haiti Partnership.
Recently, the Partnership has moved closer to this goal by innovating a “loan program” that awards Haitian women with small grants. Though small, these grants can become tremendously impactful; they allow the women to purchase raw materials, which are then turned into hand-made goods that can be sold at markets. By turning a profit on their products, the women are able to effectively pay off their grants, and eventually create sustainable, long-term income for themselves. In addition to supporting Haiti, The Haiti Partnership also aims to impact the St. Mark’s community by spreading awareness about the injustices and difficulties experienced by the country. While this serves the direct purpose of stimulating community involvement with the Partnership’s humanitarian efforts for Haiti, it also encourages St. Markers’ to employ stronger cultural awareness of Haiti and engage in increased cultural exchange with St. Marks’ partner school, Ste. Marguerite.
In the past, as well as this year, The Haiti Partnership has successfully raised funds and awareness for Haiti by organizing and hosting a variety of on-campus activities, special occasions, and shows. Smaller-scale projects have included a Saturday class program teaching students Creole (the national language of Haiti), a Haitian Independence Day Fair educating the community on Haitian history and culture, Haiti Partnership-run bake sales at various music and arts showcases and a conversation with Life Skills Haiti guest speaker, Jean Pillard, who shared insightful information about the importance of Haiti’s continued reconstruction.
The Haiti Partnership is perhaps most well-known for three events that are hosted annually on-campus and involve a large proportion of the St. Mark’s community: ‘Play for Haiti’ Day, which raises funds by selling specialized ‘Haiti’ t-shirts and baked goods to the community; service learning trips to Haiti to encourage cross-cultural exchanges between St. Markers and the students of Ste. Marguerite; and the ‘rice and beans’ lunch, which cuts down on lunchtime food costs in order to donate the school’s savings for that day to Haiti. Regardless of their relative scales, these initiatives have truly allowed the Haiti Partnership to continually achieve its goals of spreading awareness and raising funds in St. Mark’s. In addition, these successes have contributed to the longevity of the ethical and sustainable partnership that the Partnership shares with the school of Ste. Marguerite and the surrounding villages of Haiti.
A combination of political, environmental, and health crises in Haiti has made it an especially challenging year for the Partnership. As Haiti is a considerably young country with a unique and complicated history, political unrest looms within the nation; recent rising tensions have posed a great threat to the country’s governance. Under former President Jovenel Moise’s governing, Haiti has seen a surge of gangs and violence in the streets. President Moise also challenged democratic ideals, desiring to maintain his presidential status despite constitutional laws. This, combined with overwhelming dissent from the public, eventually led to the assasination of former President Moise in July 2021, leaving the country in political turmoil. In addition to societal challenges, Haiti is inundated with climatic and environmental obstacles. Many Haitians are still recovering from the 2010 earthquake, which is still regarded as one of the world's most devastating natural disasters. Not only was the earthquake responsible for the deaths of over 200,000 civilians and thousands of injuries, it also uprooted many families’ lives and heavily affected the country's resources and economy. Climate change continues to worsen these problems by increasing the frequency of tropical storms, floods, and heavy rainfalls which wreak havoc on Haitian communities almost annually. To add insult to injury, the recent COVID-19 outbreak has further devastated the Haitian economy and hurt Haitian livelihoods. All of these barriers have made it increasingly challenging for the Partnership to remain in contact with Haiti, send supplies to Haiti, and even host service learning opportunities to Haiti. Therefore, the sustained continuation of the ethical partnership between Haiti and St. Mark’s is greatly threatened.
Given the challenges faced in Haiti, the contributions of students and faculty at St. Mark’s are crucial to sustaining the Partnership's ethical and sustainable fundraising efforts for Haiti. Raising awareness, participating in school events, and educating oneself about Haiti are all good ways to get involved. There are many events throughout the school year such as bake sales and Play for Haiti t-shirt sales. The Haiti Partnership also hosts a club at St. Mark’s, currently run by Marianne Lyons and Caroline Sullivan. Given the multitude of opportunities and activities available, The Haiti Partnership would highly value the continued contributions of any and all individuals within the St. Mark’s community and encourages all members of St. Mark’s to attend the Haiti Partnership meetings which are held a few times each month.