At OOI Education Center in Tapion (or Centre Educatif OOI Tapion), school will begin tomorrow for 2 groups of children! With 20 children in each group, the first includes ages 3-5 years old, and the second ages 6-8 year old. This will be the first opportunity for learning for both groups of children!
Tapion, one of the 4 sections of Tiburon, does not have a local school. Some children living in Tapion travel long distances - up to 9 miles, often by foot - to attend school in the town center of Tiburon. However, most do not have the opportunity to attend school at all because their families are unable to pay the school fees and provide transportation. (Over 80% of schools in Haiti are privately owned, but even public schools require a fee for attendance, in addition to the purchase of uniforms and school supplies).
OOI does not want a family's inability to pay school fees to hinder a child from receiving an education.
In Tapion, our first Dome structure was built to serve as a disaster relief depot for the community, but it will not be in used for this purpose until we are further along in the development of the community. With the available space and the eager desire for education by the community members, the families and the OOI team have all pulled together to provide the first learning environment in Tapion.
The children, their families and community could not be more excited. God is so good! Thank you for your support and prayers as our efforts continue to help this community to grow and thrive.
A big THANK YOU to Jocelyn and Maxo for going above and beyond to help our neighbors!!
For those of you who are reading this post and are not familiar with our project, OOI has initiated a community development project for Tapion, Tiburon. It is targeted to benefit hundreds of families by minimizing the compounding problems of poverty resulting from limited economy, lack of access to resources, political instability, and natural disasters. The full design of the community will include a school with 6 classrooms. We are currently seeking partners to support our efforts.
In Tapion, Tiburon, the community members do not want to be aid dependent and are eager for the opportunity to generate their own sustainable possibilities. Our development project is providing new economic opportunities for families to succeed independently. Our team has identified and employed local members to become the workforce for the project. Through this work experience, they are receiving hands-on training that will help them in the future to obtain or create long-term employment.
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