Teachers in Haiti do much with so little

The Catholic Virginian
February 3, 2014 | Volume 89 Number 7

by Jean Denton
of The Catholic Virginian

Of the nearly 40 parishes of the Richmond Diocese twinned with parishes and organizations in the Diocese of Hinche, Haiti, many have included projects constructing school buildings, providing school supplies and lunch programs and paying or supporting teacher salaries.

Consequently, the education of thousands of children in the Central Plateau has improved markedly over the last 30 years.

While this has made an enormous impact in those parishes, more than half of the 149 Catholic schools of the Hinche Diocese are in communities that don’t have the benefit of a twin.

Enter the Richmond Diocese’s Haitian Education Fund.

The HEF was established 12 years ago to twin with the Hinche Diocese’s Catholic Education Office (BDE) in support of the overall work of the Haitian diocese’s school system.

Paul Keller, who helped start the HEF with then Bishop Walter F. Sullivan and others, recalled that the effort began with supporting a few parishes in building schools with their Haitian twins. But he said school construction soon began in a number of twinned parishes in the Hinche Diocese and was proving to be “a perfect project for parish twinning.”

So the HEF and BDE began to work on the broader challenge of “working to form a real school system, evaluating all the schools and needs and solidifying standards,” explained Mr. Keller, a member of St. Paul Parish in Richmond.

One thing they learned at the time, he noted, was that “the variation in the quality of schools (throughout the diocese) was astonishing.”

Since then, Keller said, the HEF, BDE and twinning parishes “have traveled a wonderful journey of mutual learning for all involved, coming to know our common concerns and ways to work together.”

“Our challenge is to make education better in the Diocese of Hinche,” he said, “and the beauty of the twinning program is that there’s such a broad array of needs and resources that we all can direct our projects to complement each other rather than duplicate efforts.”

In recent years, HEF and BDE’s efforts have focused primarily on teacher training, which they identified as a pressing need.

Indeed, it is no small concern for parish schools in the rural Hinche region where teachers themselves rarely have more than a ninth grade education and some have completed only sixth grade.

HEF Vice-chair Colleen Hernandez pointed out that in twinning with BDE at the diocesan level, “We can help on a broader scale.”

“A twin parish can’t always improve the education level of their teachers, but BDE can,” she explained.
“The BDE sets the curriculum and analyzes test scores. When the students don’t pass the tests, many times it’s because the teachers don’t have the training to teach them well.”

With so many teachers and so little funding, the necessary training is hard to come by.

But with HEF financial support, the BDE has employed supervisors to regularly travel to schools throughout the diocese to observe, evaluate and advise teachers in the classroom and provide on-site in-service training to teacher groups.

Last fall, a delegation from the HEF board of directors traveled to Hinche to visit face-to-face with the BDE board. Ms. Hernandez explained that although many of the HEF representatives visit Haiti periodically with their own parish twins, “it had been a long time since we’d been there as a board, and we wanted to enhance our relationship and show our support.”

The HEF group came away impressed.

“It’s amazing to see how dedicated they are to what they are doing and how hard they work,” Ms. Hernandez said. “It’s not like they each have one job — they all have five jobs or more that they are handling at once.”

Coming together was gratifying to the Hinche board as well. BDE Director Richard Joseph said, “The trip by the HEF was very important because we had the chance to discuss together the priorities of the diocese and the projects of the BDE this year for Catholic education in Haiti. It helps us have a common focus for improving education.”

Kathy Dowdy, HEF chair, said, “I was so impressed with the progressiveness of their vision for the role of education in the diocese and their regard for sustainability in their programs.”

Ms. Dowdy has been to Haiti numerous times with her parish, Holy Spirit in Virginia Beach, that is twinned with St. Jude Parish in Baptiste.

At the meeting, the BDE gave the Richmond delegation a book outlining their priorities and strategies, Ms. Dowdy said.

“Their vision is constantly looking ahead,” she said, noting she was particularly struck by a new initiative to involve parents in schools. As a retired teacher, she pointed out, “That’s one of the most difficult things to do.”

Mr. Joseph said the BDE values the relationship and support of the HEF “in sharing thoughts, ideas and opinions on the needs of the schools in the (Hinche) diocese and the best way to improve education in Haiti.”
Ms. Dowdy said she indeed sensed the BDE’s openness.

“They really appreciate everything we do. They take it and run with it, and you’ve never met a more hard-working group of people. They’re on it 24-7.”

The HEF is funded exclusively by individual donations. With a current budget of about $16,000, the HEF provides more than half of the BDE’s operating funds including a sizable portion to support the work of the BDE supervisors.

Until this school year, three supervisors covered about 1,300 teachers in 149 diocesan schools. However, a three-year grant from Catholic Relief Services and the Kellogg Foundation allowed the diocese to add seven more supervisors last summer.

At the fall meeting, the BDE reported that the supervisors had been able to visit every school at least once last year and met separately at least monthly with all primary and secondary school principals.


For HEF representatives, the visit “was a real affirmation that they are doing good work that is making a difference,” Ms. Hernandez said. “It is remarkable to see how much they can do—and with so little. It makes us want to do everything we can to support them.”