Choices

Our home while in Haiti is an apartment guest house built above the school in Garcin. As a result of the five parish schools, the school in Garcin holds a special place in our hearts. We have watched it grow from its start to an enrollment of almost 200 students, and then down to around 80. The drop in attendance is a result of the lack of funds. The worldwide recession resulted in a significant drop in donations that the school is dependent on.

With a goal to break the dependency cycle, we recognize that an educated population is a prerequisite to building a self-sustaining community.

There are many shortcomings in the education the children receive compared to an American school. There is a lack of books, of qualified teachers, paper, pencils and many days a meal. But dedicated teachers work for $65 a month. Many students walk long distances, often with no breakfast, and many days no lunch. Parents sacrifice basic necessities to pay tuition often choosing which of their children can attend.

Many years ago, before Denise and I began going to Haiti, we worked with youth participating in the World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine. There is one lesson that we have carried with us all of these years. It is about choices. We all have choices; we all have to make choices.  Some of us have many choices, others have few. Those living in grinding poverty have the least.  Their most basic choice can be, do I let my children drink from the cholera infested river, or do I let them go thirsty? And then, if I have five gourds, do I purchase the chlorine solution to treat my water, or do I buy a piece of bread to feed my children?

Now, as we have seen the people we work with advance slowly from that level, and now they have to choose, do I spend 200 gourds, (a little over $4.00), on a test at school for my child, or do I buy enough food to feed my family of eight or ten for two or three days?

From the time we left Haiti at Thanksgiving, to the time we returned after the first of the year, twenty children have dropped out of school here in Garcin because their parents chose to buy food.

Think about it…..