For those of you that have traveled to Haiti with me for more than two decades have seen the beautiful images of school children out in Port-au-Prince or the country side with their well pressed uniformed and joyful. We have seen these images for sure during our trips but we also know that a lot of the school children struggle with lack of resources while going through the school year and the biggest resource they’re lacking is textbooks.
Textbooks are not ubiquitous in Haiti. Parents usually struggle to find them and purchase them especially if you happen to reside in a remote community like Zorangé. At Hope for Haiti Foundation, we knew kids having access to textbooks was always a challenge and would remain a challenge for a lot of kids and families.
This year HFHF has tackled this problem head on. We wanted to provide relief to parents by having some textbooks available to purchase or rent from the school. This is our first year for this project and we will learn and improve on its implementation as we move forward.
On behalf of the team, I wanted to take the opportunity to share the challenge with you and seeking your support today and as we go forward. The minute we make textbooks available to parents we will have to keep that going for as long as the school continues to exist and the school will continue to exist, God willing.
I’ve taken a look at the textbooks per grade (1st grade to high school senior). For a first grader a parent has to put out about $50 for 12 textbooks (about $4 per textbook) and for a senior high student, the cost to get all the textbooks is $124 for 14 textbooks (about $9 per textbook). To purchase books for the entire school is about $35,646 USD or 4.6 million gourdes.
Our plan is to have books where parents can rent a textbook and return it at the end of the school year so that the book can be available for another student. We also want to give the parents options to purchase the textbook at costs as well because some parents would want to do just that.
But more importantly we want to enable each student to have their required textbooks for the year. This is a lofty goal since it is not very easy to get hands on the textbooks and which textbooks. Our school leaders have made the proper book selection based on the ministry of education curriculum and we’re working to have books available starting this year and going forward. As I’ve stated our first year will be a challenge to find the books and to pay for them but we’re determined to change the landscape for our parents and students of our school in Zorangé by giving the students access to textbooks.
Here are how the numbers break down:
- One book for a first grader: $4
- Furnishing an entire set with textbooks to a first grader: $50
- An entire 1 st grade class to get textbooks (24 students): $1200 USD
- One book for a high school senior: $9
- Furnishing an entire set of textbooks for a high school senior (14 books): $279
- An entire senior class to get textbooks (31 students): $8,649 USD
We wanted to give you, friends, supporters and partners, an opportunity to join us to meet the challenge of lack of textbooks to the students at our school.
Thank you for always answering the call for the last 26 years and we continue to count on your support, generosity and partnership.
— Elade
Jean Elade Eloi
Founder, Hope for Haiti Foundation
