Over the past few years, the Covid-19 pandemic along with the political instability in Haiti had made it difficult for our family to go on our annual trips to visit the school and Canaan village. As you may know, over the past 6 years, our family has been sharing our lives with the people of Canaan, Haiti and working together to bring educational tools to the children. In the summer of 2019, thanks to your generous donations, we were able to install solar panels for the school & health clinic and bring a technology platform to supplement the learning of the primary school students. It is now the first place in the area to have 24/7 electricity. Our 2020 goal was to create a library for children of all ages at the school in order to expand their scope of knowledge and imagination. Both the school director and parents committee identified that this was the #1 need. This was a very exciting project because it would be the first library to be built in the region. Through the project, we hoped to bring a bit of light in the lives of the children of Canaan while continuing to cultivate hope and pave a better future for the kids. Hannah and I’s high school club, Valley to Valley, wanted to provide educational support to the children in Canaan, so throughout the 2019 school year, we raised $1700 via fundraisers, bake sales and holiday tree lot. To provide around 300-400 books, we needed to raise between $3000-4000. My sister and I uploaded a fundraising video which many of you saw.
Link to the fundraising video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzVOXbKKb9A
Within the span of a couple weeks we were able to raise more than our goal, and in 2021, we were finally able to build the library for the children in Haiti. They now have a shelf filled with 373 books. With the efforts of everyone who has supported this process, we were able to turn a small Canaan school into a model example for the surrounding areas.
The children were excited and fascinated by the books and have been able to take and return them even while school was out!
