For Pastor Mario Augustave it is not strange to see 50 children packed into a tiny classroom with chalkboards in hand and the hot sunlight streaming through the windows. In fact, he was the one who helped make it happen. Although this may seem like terrible conditions for students, being packed into a small room to learn math with 50 other children is the best these children can have in Haiti.
According to the CIA’s World Factbook, the total percentage of people who can read and write in Haiti above 15 years of age is 60.7% which is a far cry from other Caribbean countries which are 90% and above. These literacy rates are due to a limited amount of schools in the country.
For people like Augustave, education is one of the most important issues in Haiti to tackle. “Without the proper education of Haitian children, the country is continually left vulnerable,” Augustave says. “The children are the future, and an illiterate future is almost guaranteed to go nowhere.”
Children in the makeshift school in Haiti smiling for the camera.
And yet, it seems the Haitian government is not interested in the future of their nation.
“When I was growing up in Haiti, every school I knew was private. I didn’t think there were public schools in our country. I can imagine that it’s worse today,” said Adeline Francois, a current New York resident who lived in Haiti until 1994.
It is worse.
According to sionfondsforhaiti, the government is only responsible for 10% of schools in Haiti. Haiti as a whole has only 15, 200 primary schools, of which 90% are non-public and managed by communities, religious organizations, or NGOs.
Community, religious organization, or NGO – run schools, need constant funding from those outside – usually United States and Canadian residents – to keep their schools running since they are non-profit organizations. Because they are so reliant from funding from the outside it is difficult for these schools to be properly functioning. Necessities like bathroom and plumbing is rare, school supplies like textbooks, notebooks, and pencils are of limited supply, and sometimes teachers cannot be paid; essentially doing volunteer work.
The state of the school that Mario Augustave and organization Voices For Haiti is managing.
“It is hard,” Augustave says. “But we are doing God’s work in Haiti. Right now I am going around churches in New York to collect funds to build a well at the school. People don’t think they are doing much by putting in a dollar, but to the kids over there in Haiti, it means the world to them.”