The end of summer has been eventful for HavServe, and we are thrilled to report that our volunteers on the ground in Haiti helped hold a successful summer camp with 488 children and adolescents and 40 local teachers. This year, we held our camp in our new building. This newly erected center allowed us to handle the logistics for organizing and serving food with much greater efficiency than before.
Water & Infrastructure
We had Gregg Sanders from Texas who came to serve with us for one week, continuing his work on a project for water accessibility in Lebrun. We also had Yohan Blount, an electrical engineer from Gaithersburg, Maryland who conducted the planning and drawing for solar energy installation for our new infrastructure. They both were pleased with their experience working with us and are already planning to come back to Haiti next spring. Part of our work in the field is to help others understand the collective struggles that many communities in Haiti face and help find solutions to the problems for the populations we are serving. With this in mind, Gregg and Yohan are making a commitment to help provide clean drinking water and access to solar energy for our children.
Lebrun has been subject to a lot of rainfall lately so we are taking this opportunity to get involved in planting fruit trees and gardening. The harvest from the community garden was amazing this year, and we have been able to produce an abundance of vegetables, including tomatoes, cucumber, corn, sweet potatoes, and mayok, among others. We even have three big moringa trees blooming in the garden and we are sharing seeds and educating the parents of our school children of the nutritional value of their leaves.
Back to School
It’s hard to believe that summer is already drawing to a close and it’s back-to-school season. After nearly two months of HavServe in Haiti, it’s a time for us to take a few days for planning, reflection and getting ready for the opening of the new school year.
We will accommodate 130 children in the school as of September 9th and are working closely with our school partners to see that all the other children in need of schooling have access to a classroom!
Rose Lord, one of HavServe’s veteran volunteers, and others are planning to join us before the end of September for our Women’s Self-Reliance Program. If you are able to support our initiative through any means possible – by spreading the word, donating, or even joining us in future trips – we will be forever grateful for your generosity.
We encourage you to keep us in your thoughts as we send warmth and thankfulness to you.