During Advent Maryann Donohue-Lynch, Associate Executive Director of the Office of Mission and Ministry of the District of Eastern North America, on behalf of Brother Dennis Malloy FSC, Visitor, asked each ministry to raise funds for the Saint Jean Baptist de La Salle School in Port-au- Prince, Haiti. Realizing our Advent commitment to Adopt-a-Family, the Lasallian Ministry Team and Campus Ministry asked to move our Haiti Solidarity Week to the week of January 26th with a special dress-down day for Haiti (Hands Out for Haiti) scheduled for Thursday, 29 January, near the conclusion of our celebration of Catholic Schools Week with our theme: “Enter to Learn—Leave to Serve.”
Mrs. Donohue-Lynch wrote in her letter: Greetings. On behalf of Brother Dennis Malloy, Visitor, I invite you to join us in our annual DENA Advent Haiti Appeal to raise funds for Saint Jean Baptist de La Salle School in Port-au- Prince, Haiti. We know that you already have fundraising commitments during these Advent days but ask that you consider doing something, no matter how modest, to help support this ministry that bears, in hope, the name of our Founder.
There is great hope in the Cazeau neighborhood of Port Au Prince. When Collegio Saint Jean Baptist de La Salle opened in October 2012, it began with one hundred students. Today, with your assistance, the school has tripled in size and serves over 300 youngsters from pre-K to 6th grade.
I am pleased to report that the Women and Children’s Health and Nutrition Center, a joint initiative between the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception has opened its doors to serve the local community. Recently, while in Haiti, it was stated to me, “Everybody understands the function of schools, but people are less aware of the important role of women in the first stages of children’s development.”
Consistent with our District’s Vision and Action Plan for Ministry that encourages partnership with Lasallian ministries overseas, the Office for Mission and Ministry over the past few years has organized several delegations to the school. La Salle University and Manhattan College are engaged in faculty-student mission-immersion trips to the school and to the Mother and Child Center.
With your past generosity, the District has: established a fund for scholarships, assisted in procuring books and uniforms, provided the resources to hire a Haitian English teacher, funded school celebrations for special occasions, purchased a refrigerator for the recently constructed cantina, ordered a back-up electrical battery system for the school, and installed solar lights on the campus, creating a safe educational environment for the community. Finally, we are in the process of providing funds for a new vehicle for the school. Simply, thank you!
In conversation with the administration of Saint Jean Baptist de La Salle School, these needs have been identified for the Haiti Advent Appeal of 2015:
1. Continue funding the endowment for student financial aid.
2. Create a safe athletic field by literally “leveling the playing field”
3. Assist with sports equipment for the school.
4. Purchase lunch tables for the older students.
The Lasallian Ministry Team and the Office of Campus Ministry ask that you please support these efforts:
- View the video below to give you an idea of the extraordinary work that has been done for these most needy of people;
- Promote the Hands Out for Haiti collection on Dress-Down Day, Thursday the 29th by encouraging more than the $5.00 minimum or sending in an additional gift by check to La Salle Academy for this cause.
Thanks in advance for your assistance in this important effort for our brother school in Haiti. We know of your generosity so frequently shown in our requests to aid the needy and we ask you to be generous once again! $11,300 would allow us to provide tuition for 40 De La Salle students (@ $200 per student), $500 for the sports equipment needed, $1,000 for creating the athletic field, and $1,800 to purchase the 15 lunch tables requested (@ $120. each)!!!
Brother Frederick Mueller, FSC
(on behalf of the Lasallian Ministry Team and the Office of Campus Ministry)