There are many needs in Haiti, more than anyone in America can imagine. We are truly blessed and are in a position to help our much less fortunate neighbors to the south. With 70% unemployment, the people of Haiti don’t need volunteer labor from us. What they need from us is help in funding projects to improve their access to very basic human needs. We feel that Christ has called us in this endeavor, and we welcome you to join us. Together we can make a difference!

Ezekiel Lutheran’s Haiti project began in 2002, when five members of Ezekiel went on a Food For the Poor (FFP) pilgrimage to Haiti. After seeing the destitution there and consulting with FFP staff, they decided to embark on a project to build twenty-five, two-room houses and the necessary toilet facilities.

Thinking that this might make a wonderful ecumenical project, they approached the River Falls Ministerium, a coalition of the pastors of the churches in River Falls.  The idea was well received and Ezekiel (ELCA) was joined in the project by St. Bridget (Catholic), Church of the Covenant, United Church of Christ, Luther Memorial (LCMS), The Assembly of God, and United Methodist churches.  The twenty five houses and associated sanitation blocks were completed by a Haitian contractor under FFP supervision.

The village dedication in Haiti in 2004 was attended by ten River Falls people representing four of the churches involved, FFP staff, the contractor, and the villagers.  Following the dedication ceremony, a meeting was held with the villagers to discuss their most pressing needs.  They decided their two most urgent needs were a health clinic and an elementary school.  Initially the health clinic was chosen as the next project.  Then two and a half years of turmoil erupted in Haiti and FFP clinics were being robbed of medicine and drugs for sale on the black market.  The remote countryside location of the village caused FFP personnel to be concerned about the safety of a nurse working in a place where medicine and drugs would be stored.

Then an important meeting took place.  Since FFP didn’t think it was safe for us to go to Haiti, they flew Fr. Emmanuel Sainteliat, the priest from the area of our village, to Florida so we could meet with him.  His first comment to us was “What we really need is a school.”  We had seen their school building and knew that what he said was true.  A Haitian engineer, hired by FFP, studied the building and deemed it not worth fixing.  We realized that we needed to change our project.  Pencils and paper have no value on the black market, there wouldn’t be a nurse in isolation, and the school already had six teachers.  We could simply give them a decent, safe, building.

The two story school was completed and dedicated on November 9, 2010. The completed school includes 12 classrooms, an administrative office, a teachers’ room, a cistern water system, a playground and toilet facilities. It serves 650 students from first through ninth grades. In addition, pre-school and kindergarten are held in a refurbished portion of the old school. The school is solidly built with steel reinforced concrete and survived the disastrous earthquake of 2010 without a crack. It is a blessing to the people of Ganthier Village.

There are also other needs related to this project.  The average current salary paid to teachers and staff is about $130 per month, and a staff of 34 is needed to run the school. It costs about $300 per year for a student to go to school, a prohibitive cost for many.  Of course, tuition costs can be reduced if other funds are available to support the teachers. We are currently sending $2500 per month to the school to help with teacher salaries.

This money is raised through: the annual ecumenical “It Takes a Village” valentine concert held at Ezekiel, member support through Ezekiel’s Starfish Program, and through generous support of other members of the River Falls community at large. Eventually, we hope to add a small health center to the school, which would allow a nurse to be part of a larger staff, where isolation and safety wouldn’t be such an issue.