Learning more about the…

Haiti Education Mission (HEM)  in Paulette, Haiti

Formed in July 2009, the HEM team is composed of several churches within the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery and joined in giving by US high school student clubs and many friends. United Church of Fayetteville has been active in this outreach since 2009.

• The HEM Team has a partnership with the Haitian grassroots organization called FEED, a French acronym for “Fondation d’Épanouissement des Enfants” or Foundation for the Development of Children in Need”.
• FEED is composed of Haitian professionals who see a great need in their town of Paulette (northeastern Haiti near Cape Haitian and the Dominican Republic border) and donate part of their own salaries to help children and the elderly.
• Members of the HEM Team have traveled to Haiti several times since 2010, the most recent being April of 2019. Because of recent political conditions, it communicates weekly with the FEED team by email and receives photos and accountable records.  Paulette is in the northeast away from the gangs in Port-au-Prince.

• In 2018 HEM and FEED formed a partnership with the Vibrant Village Foundation that now has provided a grant so children, at two schools HEM supports, may have a daily lunch.
• In partnership with FEED and Vibrant Village HEM attempts to address the educational, nutritional and medical needs of children in Paulette.
• In the summers of 2019-2023, FEED provided summer classes in music, art, dress-making, local jewelry design, and cooking, so the older children could learn about nutrition, the fine arts and trade jobs for the future.  HEM also provided funds so FEED has a new security gate and a water filtration system to sell affordable, drinkable water to villagers.

With the help of the HEM Team, other local churches, French Clubs in the USA, individual friends and the Vibrant Village Foundation, HEM has supported the following:
• Good Samaritan Adult Literacy Center
• Teacher Training in the summer
• Tuition for 100 children (includes uniforms, backpacks & books for 100 children)
• Potable water in two elementary schools and FEED headquarters using chlorine tablets
• Manuals and materials for 100+ preschool children & six teachers
• Roofs, tables, chairs for the FEED headquarters
• Motorcycle ambulance and repairs
• Repair of a village well
• A yearly 3-day Mobile Medical Clinic
• Nutrition program for the children (now supported daily by the Vibrant Village Foundation)

• Funds for over a dozen students to continue their education in secondary school
• Two latrines for FEED Headquarters and repairs
• Supplies and educational materials for teachers & schools & soccer balls, jump ropes and
other games
• Continuing education for principals
• Secondary education through 12th grade for one student in Cape Haitian and now in college
• Salary supplements for teachers at the Ecole Baptiste

Your donations, participation at concerts with the SU Brass and other fund-raisers continue to help make this outreach in Haiti sustainable. For more information, contact the United Church of Fayetteville to speak to a member of the Outreach Committee.