Annual Report 2007
The Millennium Development Goals and CHP
The Colorado Haiti Project Board of Directors has formally adopted the United Nations' Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as the framework for our continuing program development in Haiti. Father Kesner and the Community Advisory Committee in Petit Trou de Nippes have also endorsed the MDGs. Adopted by 190 nations around the world, as well as the United States Episcopal Church, the Millennium Development Goals are aimed at improving the human condition. They are:
- Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger
- Universal access to primary education
- Gender equity and the empowerment of women
- Reduction in child mortality
- Improvement in maternal health
- Combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
- Steps to insure environmental sustainability
- Developing global partnerships.
The Colorado Haiti Project has and continues to develop specific strategies, linked directly to the MDGs, to address the pressing needs of the Haitian people living in the Nippes region on the southern peninsula . . . a region ravaged by the inhumane conditions of extreme poverty. Building on the work of past years, expanding our vision, and utilizing the MDGs as a framework, the Colorado Haiti Project has evolved into an organization that supports and facilitates the full development of a healthy and independent community . . . providing the assistance needed to move the community, as former Haitian president Aristide has said, "From misery to poverty with dignity."
The Colorado Haiti Project has and continues to develop specific strategies, linked directly to the MDGs, to address the pressing Thanks to the generosity of our Three Bishops' Fund donors, we have raised all the funds required for the school building construction. At the Mission campus, in partnership with our Haitian friends, we have brought St. Paul's School building construction nearly to completion. St. Paul's now serves 750 children from 19 villages in the region. Most of these young students are the first in their families to have the opportunity for a quality education. We continue to work together with the Community Advisory Committee, made up of leaders from all of the villages we serve. Our collaboration with them is essential to understand the priorities of the community and insure that it is the Haitians, not us, taking ownership and leadership in the projects implemented in their community. Of course, at the center of all of this is St. Paul's Church and Father Kesner Gracia, a leader respected by the community and committed to improving the lives of his Haitian brothers and sisters.
Having adopted the MDGs as our guideposts, we now have a specific vision for the future. I sincerely thank each and every one of you for your continuing support of the Colorado Haiti Project. Your ongoing support is vital to our efforts. For those of us who return time and time again to Petit Trou de Nippes, we are often asked by our Haitian friends, who have been aban- doned in so many ways, for so long, "Do you forget me . . . do you forget me?" I am always happy to tell them, "No, we have not forgotten you . . . we will never forget you."
DON SNYDER - PRESIDENT
COLORADO HAITI PROJECT BOARD OF DIRECTORS
2007 YEAR IN REVIEW
The Colorado Haiti Project Board of Directors adopts the UN Millennium Development Goals as guidelines for goal-setting and measuring progress against goals.
- CHP sends six missions in 2007, a new record.
CHP's First Annual "Heartbeat for Haiti" Benefit was held, with keynote speaker Dr. Paul Farmer. 650 attended his lecture at St. John's Cathedral in Denver, and 150 attended the dinner following in Dagwell Hall.
Fonkoze, Haiti's largest microcredit lending agency, selects St. Paul's Mission as the location for a satellite office. The first women clients are recruited for microloans.
- Three Bishops' Fund Campaign raises the funds for staff quarters, and construction is completed on the new Staff Housing and Guest Quarters, located as a second floor above the Women's Resource and Education Center.
CHP's main office moves to its new location, at 4141 Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder.
Father Kesner Gracia spends July in Boulder, taking an Intensive English Language course at the University of Colorado. He visits St. Mark's in Durango, St. Aidan's and St. John's in Boulder, Church of the Hills Presbyterian in Evergreen, and Chapel of Our Saviour in Colorado Springs. A few classes are missed as he flies out to visit his new baby daughter, Kestie.
With the 2007-2008 academic year, St. Paul's School has a record enrollment of 750 in Grades K - 6.
Father Kesner recruits Bernard Pamphile, curriculum specialist, to oversee the areas of teacher training and curriculum improvement.
Thanks to funding from two groups in Evergreen, St. Paul's begins its first school-wide music program. A new music teacher is hired.
The women's vocational courses now have 90 students enrolled, and an additional instructor is hired. Couture students are producing school uniforms for the Kindergarten; Cuisine students practice their skills for the record number of mission groups this year.
A series of CHP meetings with community groups around the Petit Trou de Nippes area confirms that the top priority for the community is clean and accessible water. The CHP Board votes to make a comprehensive Water Project the next goal of the Three Bishops' Fund campaign.
The first Youth Mission, sponsored by St. John's in Boulder, visits Petit Trou in July. Working together with young people from Petit Trou, they build a playground for St. Paul's School.
Dr. Warren Berggren designs and manages a first-time-ever randomized community household survey in Petit Trou de Nippes. A team of 33 women from the Petit Trou area are trained and employed to conduct the survey, and gather baseline data consistent with the MDG's criteria. This data will be vital in assessing the success or failure of specific CHP programs.
- THREE BISHOPS' FUND CAMPAIGN COMPLETES FUNDING FOR CONSTRUCTION OF ST. PAUL'S SCHOOL BUILDING.
The Boys Choir of Saint Trinité Episcopal Cathedral in Port-au-Prince tours Colorado and sings at the Diocesan Convention.
Hurricane Noel devastates the Nippes region, cutting off transportation to and from Port-au-Prince for five weeks. Food supplies disappear; many homes and lives are lost. St. Paul's Mission becomes a center of efforts to house the homeless, share food, locate the missing. CHP sends emergency funds to purchase food and fuel.
Dr. Ted Lewis officially retires from the CHP Board in December. Ted continues as Medical Director.
Konbit student sponsorships top 230 at year's end, a new record.
A new film about the Colorado Haiti Project, "Where Two May Meet," is released by Ontos Media.
History of The Colorado Haiti Project
The Colorado Haiti Project, Inc. was founded in 1989 by Colorado Episcopal priests Father Dayle Casey and Father Ed Morgan, and Haitian Episcopal Priest Father Octave LaFontant. Setting out from the Milwaukee Episcopal Diocese mission at Jeannette, Haiti, they made a long and very difficult journey westward along the coast road across numerous rivers to Chevalier, near the town of Petit Trou de Nippes. Father Octave stopped the Jeep at a desolate spot, literally at the end of the road. As the three priests surveyed the spot, the two from Colorado threw up their hands - it was too remote from the Jeannette Mission, too isolated, the roads were virtually impassable, and there wasn't even a water source to work with. They would have to turn back and find a less forbidding spot for their new mission. Father Octave replied: "If God wants us to go - we go! Besides - I have already bought the land."
For the first few years, pioneering CHP Board members and volunteers from across Colorado traveled to Petit Trou to clear the land, dig two wells, build temporary shelters for the church and school and a cinderblock house for Father Octave. Since that starting point, the Colorado Haiti Project has grown to oversee a variety of projects in Haiti, with our greatest concentration in funding, resources, and mission trips going toward St. Paul's Mission at Petit Trou de Nippes.
Today the Mission campus includes St. Paul's, Haiti's second largest Episcopal Church, a Rectory, a Women's Resource and Education Center, Faculty Housing and Guest Quarters, a system of wells and cisterns, sanitation system, and a nearby telecommunications tower bringing the Internet to St. Paul's Mission. The centerpiece of the Mission is the new St. Paul's School, a 14,000 square foot building, where 750 students in Grades K - 6 are enrolled.
PROGRAMS
Konbit Sponsorship Program
Founded in 1996, the Konbit Sponsorship Program links sponsors in the US with students at the St. Paul's School through annual $300 donations. Originally designed to support individual students, the sponsorships are now pooled to benefit all the students equally, while giving the sponsor the joy of knowing an individual child at St. Paul's.
St. Paul's School Operations
General gifts to the Konbit Program, combined with the Konbit Sponsorship donations, pay for the operating costs of the St. Paul's School. Konbit supports tuition aid, books and supplies, uniforms, and the hot lunch program; it also pays the salaries of the teachers, staff, cooks, and school nurse who serve the children with great dedication and faithfulness.
Women's Vocational Training Courses
Two year courses in professional tailoring and cooking/catering began their second year of operation, enrolling 90 students and adding another instructor. Graduating students will earn a government-issued certificate.
Episcopal Seminary of Haiti
CHP saw its third year of fund raising from churches and parishioners around the Diocese to support the Seminary, where the future Episcopal priests of Haiti are trained under the guidance of Dean Oge Beauvoir.
New Programs in 2007
Water Project
Responding to unanimous requests from community groups throughout Petit Trou de Nippes, the CHP Board adopted a comprehensive Water Project as the next major goal of the Three Bishops' Fund. Phase One, with a $100,000 goal, will drill wells to make clean water accessible to all 19 hamlets that make up Petit Trou.
Fonkoze Microloans for Women
Fonkoze is the premier microcredit lending agency in the Caribbean, providing banking and microloans for poor women entrepreneurs. Rather than creating our own effort at microcredit programs, CHP chose to focus on "landing" Fonkoze for the community of Petit Trou. In 2007, Fonkoze located a satellite office in the Women's Center at St. Paul's, and approved the first women clients for loans.
St. Paul's School Music Program begins
A stable funding stream was established to allow hiring 2 music teachers for the school. The new Music curriculum will follow one developed at the Saint Trinite Cathedral School of Music.
Community Health Education
A first-ever community household survey was conducted to collect data on families' health, employment and education histories. Volunteer "master trainers" from among the women of Petit Trou were identified to spearhead a new project in community health education.
MISSIONS
Medical Mission
The January Medical Mission saw a record number of patients: 1,636. The Mission gave 492 student physicals to St. Paul's students, saw 796 adults and children and saw 348 dental clients. Health kits were distributed to every student at St. Paul's.
Insight Trips
Board President Don Snyder led a record number of "Insight" Trips, designed to familiarize missioners with a broad range of mission efforts in Haiti: the St. Trinite Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, St. Vincent's Center for the Handicapped, Hospice St. Joseph, Leogane Hospital, as well as an extended visit to St. Paul's Mission.
New Missions in 2007
Youth Mission
Young people from St. John's in Boulder and their parents worked together with the youth of Petit Trou, in a joint project to build a playground for St. Paul's School.
School Mission
Teacher-missionaries collaborated with St. Paul's curriculum specialist Bernard Pamphile in a week-long series of training work-shops with St. Paul's 17 teachers. Responding to requests from the teachers, the mission emphasized new instructional methods and materials and French language skills.
