St. Charles Haiti Committee

2007-08 Goals and Annual Plan

submitted by Helen Lane and Leslie Dunne (May 2007)

Overview: Our sister-parish relationship with the Parish of Cavaillon and its many rural chapels began more than two decades ago. Now that Cavaillon has been divided into three parishes (Cavaillon, Gros Marin and Sudre) and a fourth (Boileau) is in formation. Although political turmoil and deepening economic woes complicate our efforts, our relationship with our Haitian brothers and sisters remains strong. We look forward to continuing and trengthening those ties.

Mission: The mission of the Haiti Committee is to support the twinning relationship with our sister parishes in Cavaillon, Gros Marin and Sudre in the areas of development, health, education and church infrastructure. Note: although we do work with St. Charles staff to coordinate the monthly tithe to Haiti (and promotion of Haiti in general), the committee’s activities are not supported at all by the tithe, either here or in Haiti. The pastors in Haiti use tithe funds for general church needs and the tithe process is considered a church to church relationship. Funds supplied by the Haiti committee are used for separate and specific activities.

2006 HIGHLIGHTS

Education: Thanks to the enthusiastic support of parishioners and friends, our Godparents Program is sponsoring 678 students for the 2006-2007 school year. This is a 22 percent increase over 2005. This year we have godchildren at six rural Catholic schools. Berrette, Boileau, Flamands, Roche Delmas and Sudre are elementary schools. The Gros Marin School includes both elementary and middle school grades. The great majority of our godchildren are in elementary school. St. Anthony’s Parish is Falls Church also supports 250 students at the Gros Marin School.

Lunch Programs: In 1996, inflation drove up the price of lunch program staples such as rice. $31,600 was collected for the 2006-7 school lunch programs. In addition over $4000 in donations to the Committee to be used where most needed was used to our lunch program support. This will be used to help support lunch programs at the six schools our godchildren attend. In 2005, $26,000 was collected and sent to Haiti for lunch programs at four schools.

School Construction and Education Programs: During 2006, $4000 was contributed to build additional classrooms at Flamands School. $3000 was contributed to this project last year.

Economic Development: This is a challenging area and the deteriorating national economy of Haiti complicates economic development efforts at the local level. The parish priests in Boileau and Gros Marin are working with Caritas (the local equivalent of Catholic Charities) to promote micro-credit programs and agricultural development. St. Philip the Apostle Parish of Lewisville, Texas, is now providing generous support for the development programs at Boileau. The St. Charles Haiti Committee provided $2000 for the micro-credit program at the Tete Source Chapel and this will be one of our targeted fundraising targets for the coming year to expand this program in this village.

Health: In previous years the St. Charles Haiti Committee has helped build and support rural clinics. In 2005, Gros Marin Parish received financing from a Spanish organization to build a clinic. That funding was contingent on Gros Marin finding a source of funding to staff and maintain the clinic; our Committee promised to provide the six to eight thousand dollars required annually to support the clinic’s operating costs. The Committee’s annual pre-lenten Haiti Carnaval raises funds for this clinic. The clinic opened in 2006 and the Committee provided $5335. The 2007 Carnaval netted $5700 for the clinic, which will pay for staff and supplies for the coming year. We plan to look to other types of fundraising requests to pay for future years’ support so the Carnaval can be used for other projects.

Support to Parishes for Religious Activities: Our parish’s monthly tithe for Haiti which averages about $1500 is divided between the parishes of Cavaillon, Gros Marin and Sudre. This works out to over $5000 per year per parish.

Bonding with Our Sister Parishes: Haiti Committee Chair Leslie Dunne and Pat Newman visited SW Haiti in February 2006 along with Father Tuck from St. Anthony’s. Father Dieuvelome, Father Lampy and Father Noemi visited Arlington in July. Father Gerry visited Cavaillon in January 2007. Travel from Port-au-Prince to Cavaillon has become risky due to banditry and a general lack of security. Since 2005 visitors must fly from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes which is less than an hour away from Cavaillon. The priests in our sister parishes are no longer visiting Port-au-Prince on a regular basis and we now rely on e-mail for communication and send funds by wire transfer. Letters, but not packages, usually make it through the open mail. The Christmas cards that many of our godparents sent for their godchildren were sent through the open mail on December 14.

Funding sent to Haiti:

Tuitions	$67,000
Lunch Program	$31,600
As needed	$5,900
Total	$104,500

The funds donated to be used as needed for education were split roughly as follows: $800 for school tuitions, $800 for administrative expenses such as postage and supplies and the remainder for the lunch program.

Students Sponsored: 678 at 6 schools: Boileau 250, Berrette 180, Flamands 129, Gros Marin 82, Roche Delmas 23 and Sudre 14

Funds Sent	Sept 8, 2006	$40,000
	Nov 30, 2006	$42,800
	January 2007	$21,700
Funds Sent for Clinic	May 2007	$ 5,700

Our Goals for the Coming Year include:

1. Fundraising to support ongoing and new projects in our sister parishes.
2. Promotion of our work and the needs in Haiti to the St. Charles and greater DC Metro Catholic community.
3. Improved regular communication with the pastors and key leaders in the Haitian parishes.
4. Improved monitoring of ongoing projects and identification of new projects in collaboration with the pastors and key leaders in Cavaillon, Gros Marin and Sudre, as well as those in nearby parishes of Pliche and Vieux Bourg d’Aquin.
5. Improved coordination with St. Charles staff regarding event planning, transfer of funds to Haiti and other administrative functions.

Planned Activities:

1. Work with Liturgical, Social Justice and other St. Charles Committees to promote Haiti at masses and other events during the year.
2. Seek new Haiti committee members and plan for leadership development, particularly for the sponsorship program.
3. Work with the Advocacy Committee to share information and action items on Haiti with St. Charles parishioners.
4. Coordinate the Haiti Godparent and School Lunch programs to sponsor at least 600 students in Berrette, Boileau, Flamand, Gros Marin and nearby parishes (Note: the lunch program provides a nutritional lunch for all students and teachers at the selected schools). Fundraising efforts will take place during summer 2007 and funds will be intermittently sent to the parishes during the school year.
5. Host a visit from the Haitian pastors to Virginia (coordinated with St. Anthony’s parish).
6. Write Christmas cards to send to sponsored students in Haiti.
7. Coordinate with Conversations with Creedon to provide a speaker relevant to Haiti and international issues. This would include participation by other parishes in the area and other Haiti projects they may have.
8. Visit Haiti (usually at least 3-5 members of the committee make an annual trip to Haiti to visit the parishes, talk with the priests and monitor our projects).
9. Coordinate the 2008 Haiti Carnaval. This event serves to celebrate the work we do in Haiti, raise awareness (and funds!) for our activities and includes dinner, dancing and a silent auction.