What TFWA Care did for... Hand in Hand for Haiti

Almost a decade ago, a devastating earthquake struck Haiti leaving at least 230,000 dead and injuring tens of thousands more. The country's already fragile infrastructure suffered incomparable devastation. The earthquake caused catastrophic suffering across the country. It has been a disaster on the most terrible of scales and, as always in a disaster zone, the youngest are among the worst affected. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of the population living below the poverty line on less than US two dollars a day. An estimated 55 percent are illiterate. Its people will need our support long into the future.

Hand in Hand for Haiti is a collective response to the humanitarian crisis following the catastrophic earthquake that hit the country on January 12, 2010. Its founders set out to build a sustainable school complex that offered a high-quality education for the neediest children of the city of Saint Marc. After generating extraordinary support from the travel retail industry, Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable, opened its doors on October 3, 2011. The Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable is located in the city of Saint Marc and is currently the city's largest employer, providing 60 local full-time and 35 local part-time jobs. The hurricane-proof, anti-seismic, sustainable school complex offers accessible education from pre-school to secondary school, in Saint-Marc, Haiti, in an area of great need.

Project in 2019

This year, TFWA’s grant will allow Hand in Hand for Haiti to build a free-standing, multi-purpose boys and girls sports prep building, adjacent to its sports complex at the Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable. The building will include a boys locker room, a girls locker room, each with restroom facilities, a sports equipment storage area and teacher/coach changing area. As the students mature and its sports program grows to meet the student’s needs, the new prep building will help us maximize use of the existing sports complex for games and practice and will give the Lycee the ability to host visiting teams for competitions and exhibitions.

This project will make a difference in the lives of its current and future students and the local community by instilling the values of sportsmanship. In addition, with the new sports prep building in the Lycee, Hand in Hand for Haiti can continue its ambition and expand to provide quality high-school diploma with a well-rounded experience for all its students. At the same time, the construction of additional buildings will continue to create new jobs both short-term and long-term to its locals. Together, TFWA Care and Hand in Hand for Haiti will contribute to a more promising and brighter future for this island nation.

Project in 2018

TFWA Care partnered with Hand in Hand for Haiti and helped fund the construction of a secondary classroom building at Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable this year. The school which is located 2.5 miles north of Saint Marc’s city center accommodates 386 of the area’s poorest children and provides 60 local fulltime and 40 part-time jobs. A secondary building was badly needed to provide to the school's growing population. Through the help of TFWA Care, the children that will have the chance to accede to 7th grade and finish their elementary education. The aid also contributed to the local economy and reassured that modern teaching methods that is opened to world but deeply rooted in Haitian culture is perpetuated.

The lasting gift of education.
Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable