Haiti Partnership

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.

Good News and Bad News

Dear Haiti Friends, News trickles in about massive flooding in the southwest of Haiti.  A flash flood in Leogane has caused a great deal of destruction and loss of life. The following message is from the Medical Benevolence Fund which is a supporter of Hopital St...

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Melodie Celeste

Dear Haiti Friends, A plea for unity in Haiti from our friends at Melodie Celeste, St. Pierre, Mirebalais: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYjfppvxVsI Best line in the song:  "Division will not lead."  We need that message in the U.S., too.

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Haiti and Gangs

From the Haitian Times online newspaper, here is a collection of articles about various aspects of the challenges of the gang warfare in Haiti: Special Report - Gangs in Haiti: A deeper look - The Haitian Times No easy solutions, alas. 

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Haiti 10-year plan summary released

USAID has produced a strategy document in response to the Global Fragility Act intended to guide the US in reacting to Haiti's government crisis and precarious situation.  While there are not a lot of specifics, it does talk about the shoring up of Haitian police and...

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Celebrating 20 years in Haiti

Dear Haiti Friends, I was privileged to be along on the first couple of trips St. Stephen's, Austin, TX made to its new partner school, St. Etienne in Salmadere, Haiti.  That partnership is now 20 years old, and almost unbelievable change has come to Salmadere...

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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.