Schools in Haiti have been open for in-person learning since August 2020. They finished up their 2019-20 school year in October, and began their 2020-21 year in November. We’re pleased to report that there has only been one week of interruptions to the current school year. That was in February 2021 due to nationwide protests about the disputed term end of President Jovenal Moise.

CCH is still not accepting volunteers/travelers to Haiti yet, as the political instability makes it unsafe at the moment. However, our dedicated education volunteers have still been able to hold virtual trainings via Zoom with our partner school teachers and principals. And CCH staff in Haiti are still providing on the ground support to school staff.

EMEVO teachers greet their students at the beginning of the school day (November 2020)

Teacher Training

The principals at CCH partner schools have seen the benefits of CCH teacher training seminars over the past several years. They now take an active role in sharing their challenges with CCH Education Liaison, Dave Pierre, and requesting training topics for their schools. CCH has a good repertoire of training topics under our belt, and we’re expanding to do even more.

Here are some teacher training seminars we’ve done (or plan to do) that are new this year:

  • New teacher “CCH Basics” (New teachers have joined CCH partner schools in the last year or two, and those school principals have requested that CCH do a one day “basic training” program just for the new folks. Those will focus on: positive classroom management techniques, silent reading time, morning messages, and how teachers can deal with their own frustration with difficult students.)
  • Preschool art lessons (At the request of 2 CCH partner preschools, CCH volunteers, Emmy Parker and Cheryl Eagan, put together a training on how to lead preschoolers in collage art projects.)
  • Health education lessons (CCH is piloting a new School Nurse program at our 3 main partner schools: EMEVO, Lavanneau, and Mont Fleuri – see more info about this pilot program below. Dave is working with US volunteers, school principals, and CCH Clinic physicians to identify health education topics and lessons for the School Nurse to teach different age students.)

School Nurses

We’ve been providing school based health clinics for all students several times per year at our 3 main partner schools for the past several years. One thing we’ve learned from these mobile clinics is that it is a huge burden (both time and money) for parents to bring their kids to the clinic in town. And these scheduled health check ups can’t take the place of acute medical care when kids get sick. Therefore, these school communities would benefit from a regular, consistent presence of a healthcare provider closer to home.

Lavanneau School student, Collin, gets a check up at CCH’s school based health clinic (October 2020).

Based on that feedback, CCH is piloting a new School Nurse program at EMEVO, Lavanneau, and Mont Fleuri, starting in April 2021. School Nurses have been interviewed and selected and are now undergoing pediatric training at St Michel Hospital and the CCH Primary Care Clinic in Jacmel.

We’re very excited to get this up and running. Nurses will have dedicated space for consultations and OTC medication at each school, and they’ll be there 2 days/week. When not assisting sick children, School Nurses will teach health education lessons as requested by the school principals.

The “pilot” phase will be now through the end of this school year in June/July. Then over the summer we will take stock and tweak our approach based on what we learned so we can move forward with a larger scale School Nurse program next school year.

New Principal

Pastor Rejois used to run the Mont Fleuri school and church. He remains “School Administrator,” but he has hired a new principal for the Mont Fleuri primary school – Louidor Égalité. Dave Pierre has known Louidor for years and Louidor is very invested in the CCH training philosophy. Louidor even attended Mont Fleuri’s “new teacher training” so he could catch up on some of the strategies CCH has taught his teachers over the years.

Dave says, “Everything I suggest is really welcome. He’s very open,” when he describes his working relationship with Louidor. We’re hopeful that this new school staffing will continue to strengthen CCH’s impact in the Mont Fleuri school and broader Mont Fleuri community.

Videos

Want to see more? Check out these most recent CCH videos on our YouTube channel.

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