* * Local advocates are boosting education in rural Haiti

Here's an article I wrote for my Rotary International Club District newsletter...

“Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas,” says Blacksburg resident Steve Skripak. “It has vast slums. The need to help is infinite,” he shrugged. Over the last couple of years, Skirpak has become motivated to assist.

“I got involved in Haiti about three years ago, through my church, the Blacksburg United Methodist Church.” His initial involvement was to build a house for an earthquake victim. That work eventually led to the countryside beyond Port-au-Prince where he discovered an enormous need for education for the area’s children.

Steve works at Virginia Tech and is a dean in the college of business. So he’s intimately interested in education. “My first trip was in January, 2011 with a church group. We took a tour of a school near Mirebalais in the central plain. It is called Ecole Philadelphie and it was operating under surplus army tents. The floor was rocks. It was crude. I almost sprained my ankle walking in a classroom.

“The area had never had a school before. The school actually opened right after the earthquake, but the timing was coincidental. But because of the refugee issues after the earthquake, they ended up with a lot more kids than they expected. People were flocking out from Port-au-Prince, wandering, looking for any sustenance. These new kids joined the local population and the school opened with about 100 kids. Even older kids were in lower grades, because their previous access to education was so limited. Some 13- and 14- year old kids are still only in the third or fourth grades.”

At the invitation of long-time Rotarian Reed Kennedy, Skripak joined the Rotary Club of Montgomery County. Skripak said, “I came to a couple of meetings and decided to join about 18 months ago. Reed was encouraging about pursuing Rotary support for the school. He and I partnered with our Bryan Cloyd and Christy Brown from the Blacksburg Rotary Club to raise money for books for the school.” Since the opening of the school, the teachers had been primarily using chalk boards and the students took notes in composition books.

Skirpak, Kennedy, Cloyd and Brown pieced together $9000 to buy French-language textbooks and workbooks for each child in the school.

“We partnered with a Haitian Rotary Club so we could have on-the-ground representation to make sure the funds arrived safely and were properly put to use. The local club in Haiti verified that the books arrived as ordered, and the books are now being used by our students.”

School administrators and the Mirebalais Rotarians have developed an ongoing relationship as a result of this project. “This won’t just be a one-shot thing. For example, the past president of Mirebalais Rotary will be serving as the grand marshal at our commencement ceremony in June.”

The same group of four Rotarians is now working to put a larger book grant proposal together for six to ten other schools in Haiti. They ultimately hope to raise $100,000. The need is immense!

“They don’t have a system that sets people up for success,” continued Skripak. “There are no public schools. The unemployment rate is staggering. But if they can be educated to start and run businesses, to be good employees and workers, and to do for themselves, then they have a chance. They can be engineers, scientists, business people, or teachers, but they need the foundational education first. If they don’t get this education, 100 years for now they’ll be in the same shape.”

Once the grant gets going, Steve and his partners will begin raising money. They will look for other clubs to assist and will happily share credit with any individuals or clubs that will participate. If they get more money than they anticipate, they will find other schools to help.

“Education is the only way they will escape terrible poverty. We’re having a small impact, but many people working towards the same goal can make a big difference in the future of these kids, their families, and their communities. You can’t go there and come back home not motivated to help.

“What better can you do with your life than impacting the lives of other people?”