Below is an excerpt from La Vallee Alliance's most recent newsletter. If you are interested in contributing to their sports uniforms/school supplies drive and/or their school kitchen project, please visit the La Vallee Alliance website here.

--

Dear Friends of LaVallee Alliance,

Thank you again for your interest and support of our efforts to help the people of LaVallee de Jacmel, Haiti. As you can see from the note from Florine, your donations are making a real difference in the lives of LaVallee students. We have several new projects underway to tell you about!

We are excited to be planning our trip to Haiti, scheduled for the second week of June. We have been meeting with key members of the NGO community here in D.C. involved in the Haitian relief efforts and plan to meet with their counterparts in Port au Prince. We hope to partner with these larger organizations, draw attention to our mountainous rural community, and learn from their expertise as we plan our future programs.


St. Therese Laviale School


Need Sports Uniforms and School Supplies

In preparation for our trip, our team in Haiti has asked that we bring sports uniforms and school supplies. The community sports director has asked us to collect soccer and basketball uniforms to outfit four teams of fifteen students. We are collecting black or blue sport shorts and black, red, or white basketball uniforms in adult small, medium or large sizes. We are also collecting the following school supplies: string backpacks, basic pens, #2 pencils, and composition notebooks. If you would like to donate any of these items, the three of us will be collecting them at our homes from now until June 5th.

School Kitchen Project


Example of a school kitchen


Our team has also asked that we help build a kitchen for the St. Therese Laviale School. As you know, even before the earthquake, families in Haiti struggled to feed their children. It is a harsh reality that many school-age children go all day without food or clean water. The World Food Program assists in feeding the children of rural Haiti by providing meals at their schools. However, the program requires that each school have a safe storage space and a kitchen in which to cook the meals.

St. Therese Laviale School does not have these facilities and thus has not been able to participate in this program. After our kitchen project is completed, approximately 250 students will receive a simple meal of rice and beans at school. For some, this is the most nutritious meal of their day.
Our team in LaVallee has estimated the cost for the kitchen buildings and supplies to be $10,000. We will buy all of the materials in Haiti and hire Haitian workers to build this kitchen. If you would like to become a partner with LaVallee Alliance and the World Food Program on this project, your cash donations would be greatly appreciated.

La Vallee recently provided the following update on the school:

---

Antonica shared with us the urgent need of getting the children back to school as quickly as possible. Thanks to all of you, much progress has already been made. Last week we wired funds collected at our event to the team in Haiti, and the next day construction began on a temporary structure to house 610 students at St. Paul’s School. Thanks to donations we have continued to receive over the past several weeks, we were able to send additional funds last week to complete this temporary school building. This means students were able to return to school last week for the first time in over three months. We hope that we can replicate this project for the numerous other schools that have been damaged in LaVallee.

Here are pictures of the St. Paul’s School project, showing construction underway and the completed temporary school building.


The La Vallee team


The students


Under construction



The need continues to grow as students who had been attending schools, now destroyed, in Port-au-Prince have returned home. Our team in Haiti is currently gathering student data and identifying those in need of help.

we are wiring funds so that Antonica can begin buying seeds and gardening tools to create self-sustaining family gardens. This pilot project will launch 15-20 gardens, and as funds increase we hope to be able to sponsor a garden for many of the five thousand families of LaVallee.

Thanks to all of you who have already contributed; Antonica and our team in Haiti are overwhelmed by your generosity. Currently, the LaVallee Alliance’s efforts are the most visible signs of relief and recovery in the area. We are making great progress, but the needs of LaVallee continue. It is only with on-going support that the people of LaVallee will be able to rebuild and create a self-sustaining vibrant community.

Apologies for not posting these sooner - these pictures were sent to us from our partner in Haiti along with the previous update, found here: LaVallee Update

Please see below for an update from our partner organization in LaVallee!

------

It has been over two months since the earthquake devastated my county. We are so grateful for the support from people all over the world who are trying to help us recover from this disaster. LaVallee is home to over 40,000 people and includes more than 8000 students. We have over 60 schools scattered among the rural mountainside northwest of the port city of Jacmel. After the earthquake, we formed a team of civic leaders to survey the damage. We have at least 3000 homes that have been damaged, and most of the schools cannot be occupied. The government has requested that any structure made of concrete that shows damage not be used for school. The children have been anxiously awaiting the return to school and will probably be attending school throughout the summer. Now that the rainy season has begun (earlier than in previous years) it is crucial that we provide some kind of shelter for the students so that they can return to school. Our team has attended many meetings represented by major NGO’s and still, we have not seen many tents, damage assessments or plans for reconstruction.



The money raised by this project could not have come sooner. We are going to build 14 classrooms out of wood to combine the existing 28 classes (2 classes per structure). We will buy the material from local sources and use the labor of the men of our village. We had previously attempted to build a school shelter out of bamboo and tarps given to us by UNICEF, but as of last night, a major storm came through Haiti and destroyed our tents. The nuns who run the school were very distraught because they were afraid that the books and school supplies would be ruined, causing further loss. The trauma of the earthquake can still be seen on the faces of our children. Many showed fear when we asked them to enter the tents because of the nightmares caused by the aftershocks. Many of our students are living outside without a roof over their head and have become afraid of any sort of building.



I want to thank everyone again for all of their support. Rebuilding Haiti, and my village of LaVallee de Jacmel, will take many years, but I am hopeful in the partnership of the strong spirit of the Haitian people and the worldwide donor community that, together, we can build a stronger Haiti.



Your Friend,

Antonica Payen


-----------------