History and Milestones
HISTORY OF THE COLORADO HAITI PROJECT
The Colorado Haiti Project, Inc. (CHP) 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.
At the request of Bishop Robert O'Neill of Colorado, we undertook to oversee all of Colorado's Episcopal outreach efforts in Haiti. Since 2004, we have been leading supporters of the reopening of the Episcopal Seminary of Haiti. CHP provides support for the Trinity School of Music and the St. Vincent's School for the Handicapped in Port-au-Prince, and partners with St. Basil's medical mission in Gonaives.
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 900 students in Grades K - 7 are enrolled.
Milestones of the Colorado Haiti Project at Petit Trou de Nippes
1989 - founded by American priests Fathers Dayle Casey and Ed Morgan, and Haitian Priest Octave LaFontant.
1989 - 1996 Missionaries from Episcopal churches in Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Evergreen, Denver, and Boulder, develop the mission site. CHP sends annual medical missions; a lean-to with a tin roof is used for church services, community meetings, and medical care.
1996 - St. Paul's School is founded, with first classes held in the lean-to; daily hot lunches are part of the school offerings.
1998 - the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado donates $85,000 to build St. Paul's Church.
1998 - St. Paul's is made an official mission of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, and a church building was begun. Today, St. Paul's church is the second largest Episcopal Church building in Haiti.
2003 - Father Kesner Gracia is appointed Priest-in-Charge of St. Paul's Mission.
2005 - Women's Education and Resource Center is completed. First employed as space for school classrooms.
2006 - Ground is broken for the St. Paul's School.
September 2006 - St. Paul's School building opens. St. Paul's School is a major resource for changing the lives of the surrounding community, and is rated the one of the best in the region.
2007 - CHP Board adopts UN Millennium Development Goals as guidelines for policy decisions and self-evaluation.
2007 - Vocational classes for women begin on a limited basis in the Women's Center.
2007 - Faculty Housing and Guest Quarters completed.
2007 - Fonkoze satellite microcredit office opens at Women's Center
2007 - First School Mission
2007 - Funding for St. Paul's School construction completed.
2007 - Water Project chosen as next goal of Three Bishops' Fund capital campaign
2008 - Community Health Initiative launched.
2008 - Launch of St. Paul's Secondary School with the addition of a 7th Grade
Still to Come in 2008
Consecration of the St. Paul's School - October 12, 2008
Addition of a 7th Grade in the 2008-2009 academic year
First Environmental Mission