St. Mark’s and St. Andre — Over Twenty Years Together
The Latest from Canon Serena
Long-time St. Mark’s member Canon Serena Evans Beeks, D.Min., is US Coordinator for Haiti Episcopal School Partnerships. Over the past 20 years, whenever political conditions allowed, she has traveled to Haiti, sometimes several times a year. Read her latest posting below about the country, the people, and our paternership with St. Andre in Trinon.
Deployment of Police Support to Haiti
Dear Haiti Friends, The U.N. special mission to support the Haitian police force, to be led by Kenya, continues to evolve. After the Kenyan government agreed to take the lead, a Kenyan court blocked the action, saying that Kenyan police were in short supply and...
Dine In, Help Out
Dear Haiti Friends, If you are in the following zip codes: 01002, 01003, 01007, 01035, 01038, 01039, 01053, 01054, 01060, 01062, 01063, 01072, 01075, 01096, 01375, you can have a soup supper to benefit a Haiti partnership delivered to your home February 10th! If...
Haiti Funds Transfer Update, Episcopal Church/School Partnerships
A message for those in the Haiti Church/School Partnership Program: I have been notified that the Haiti Partnership account is once again available for our deposits. You may revert to the original protocols for the transfer of funds by check or wire. These protocols...
Interesting Job for Kreyol Speaker
Dear Haiti Friends, I send this job announcement which came to me courtesy of Cindy Corell in case you know Haitian-Americans in your community who might have the right skills. It looks as though they must be US Citizens or permanent residents, so TPS residents...
UN Forces to Haiti – what’s happening?
Dear Haiti Friends, Here's an article from today's Haitian times about the UN's deployment of police support to Haiti: https://haitiantimes.com/2023/12/06/kenya-police-deployment-haiti-5/ As you can see, "high level meetings" are being held while the Kenyan Parliament...
Haitian Women Collective
Dear Haiti Friends, I want to commend to you the work of the Haitian Women Collective whose newsletter appears below. If the education, general health, and reproductive health of girls and women is an important part of your partnership, you may wish to watch the two...
Things changing by the minute in Haiti
Dear Haiti Friends, It's still difficult to get accurate news from Haiti, but the following seems to have happened: 1. Mirebalais: After the attack on the Partners in Health/University Hospital in Mirebalais at the end of last week, the local police and a...
Update on the Haiti Hospital Attack
Dear Haiti Friends, If you have friends in Mirebalais, you have undoubtedly herd from them that a gang has apparently relocated from Port-au-Prince, possibly in advance of expected UN police assistance. People are attempting to shelter in place. It goes...
The Closing of the Haiti-Dominican Republic Border
Dear Haiti Friends, Several of you have asked about the closing of the Haiti-DR border and the dispute over canal construction. Below is today's issue of the Haitian Times with some articles about the conflict. I do not know a lot of details, but have...
News from Haiti
Dear Haiti Friends, I know you're tired of hearing from me this week! One more thing: I've just received news from a friend about yet another very sad kidnapping of a family member in Haiti. I want to remind everyone, please, please, if this happens to friends...
The partnership of St. Mark’s with St. Andre’s Episcopal Church and School in Trianon, Haiti began in 2001. That year, one and then two parishioners began making regular visits, taking with them the offering from the St. Mark’s School’s Christmas Eucharist.
The relationship grew until 2007, when St. Mark’s members were able to make our first group visit. Since then, groups from the church and school have visited annually when conditions in Haiti have permitted.
Students at St. Mark’s School took the lead on such projects as a new four-room classroom building, a water project, and new school uniforms. Support from St. Mark’s pays teachers’ salaries, covers the occasional hot meal, and provides for repairs on the water system—which was damaged in the hurricanes of 2008—and the replacement of the old classroom building, which was damaged in the earthquake of 2010.
St. Andre’s was the first church and school on Haiti’s central plateau established by Bishop James Theodore Holly when he founded the Episcopal Church in Haiti in the early 1860s. Since its founding, St. Andre’s has offered a primary school for the children of local subsistence farmers. In Haiti, only 50% of the children have access to any education at all.
Please pray for the people of St. Andre’s, especially the children. If you can, give your financial support.
