HavServe Annual Fundraiser “A Night of Hope 4 Education In Haiti” Benefits Education Efforts

Feb. 6, 2013 - PRLog -- HavServe announced today the primary programs that will benefit from its first annual fundraiser called “A Night of Hope 4 Education in Haiti”, which was held at the First Alliance Church in Silver Spring, Maryland on Saturday, January 12, 2013.  The event featured authentic Haitian music, food, art and a live auction, highlighting the best of Haiti while continuing to bring attention to the ongoing need to make education accessible to everyone.

The organization chose the event date to coincide with the third anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, which is still recovering from the ensuing catastrophic devastation.  Attendees included concerned individuals, volunteers and notable members of the community, including Ambassador Bocchit Edmond, Deputy Permanent Representative of Haiti in Washington, DC, Senior Pastor David Faustin and Yolaine Faustin (Bread of Life Bible Fellowship), Reverend Latasha Morgan (Associate Pastor of the Purity Baptist Church and Urban Center), Dr. Calvin N. Baltimore (Senior Associate Pastor of the People Community Baptist Church), Terry Johnson, Owner/President of Riparian Broadcasting, Haitian singer and musician Tatiana Pierre, and Prof. Villard Anglade.

Today, HavServe Co-Founder, Carline Brice, announced that the funds raised by the event help to provide stipends for thirty unpaid teachers and coaches for the month of January in Lebrun village, and will aid in the rebuilding of the Nan Sable Community School (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUHEmvj_s1U)



Primary education is still very limited in Haiti’s countryside, and HavServe strives to address the problem one village at a time.  HavServe CEO, Joyce Hunter, citing World Bank reports, points out that “The education system in Haiti continues to suffer from rural neglect. It is highly-geographically centralized, with only 20 percent of education-related expenditures reaching rural areas, which account for 70 percent of Haiti’s population. Of the total number of universities in Haiti, 87 percent were located within or in close proximity to Port-au-Prince before the earthquake. To further illustrate this point, 23 communal sectors lacked a school, and 145 were without a public school, all located in rural areas.”

Brice and Hunter offer the following examples of ongoing HavServe programs implemented to help close the education gap in Lebrun, Haiti:

• Back Pack and School Supplies: provide less fortunate children in the 5 elementary schools in the communities the necessary school supplies they need.

• Teacher Training Program: Kristin Derry, a Canadian volunteer with HavServe has been working in the village for the past six months on strengthening the Lebrun education system, while providing teacher’s training and outreach to the community’s out-of-school children.

•   Planning for building a Multi-Purpose Health and Education Center with the support of Architect Gavan Lee from Ireland, to build an Internet-ready Health and Educational Center to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and skills to Haiti’s small villages.

In closing, Brice added, “Despite all the barriers – distance from school, burden of chores, unsafe environment, lack of one meal a day for children and teachers – 752 children and 42 teachers and soccer coaches are participating in the volunteering activities of HavServe in Haiti because we strongly believe that access to quality education is the way to beat poverty in Haiti. We are already looking forward to our next ‘Night of Hope 4 Education in Haiti’ in 2014 to promote access to education for all.  Meanwhile, we invite people to take a look at our website (www.havserve.org) and get involved by donating time and ressources as volunteer, donors, supporters in one of our programs and outreach missions to Lebrun, Haiti in 2013.”

See more photos of HavServe's work in LeBrun at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/havserve/sets/72157631468707126/

Individuals can also make financial donations via PayPal at http://bit.ly/W5tLvD or by mail to HavServe,P.O. Box 4173, Silver Spring, MD 20914; and via online donations at Donations@havserve.org

About HavServe

HavServe Volunteer Service Network (HavServe) is a volunteer-driven not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that supports community-led development through volunteerism in least developed countries. We believe that volunteerism benefits both society and the individual volunteer by strengthening trust, solidarity, cooperation, and reciprocity among citizens, and by creating opportunities to empower citizens to realize their potentials and shape the direction of their communities, their country, and the world.