Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Latrines for Leogane

Latrines for Leogane

    Thanks to so many donors and time put in by our fall and winter mission teams, we have made a lot of progress on our new Leogane elementary school. The permanent foundation for all of the classrooms is in. The school director’s office has been built in cement and secured with the metal door and windows. The new school kitchen is complete with Haitian style cook tops to make the food for the elementary school and high school. The temporary classrooms have all been built in wood and tin, which will last 5-7 years in this condition (if needed). 


    Our next major piece to work on at this school is toilets. This latrine building will contain five Haitian style toilets. Currently there are no toilet facilities at this location, which makes it very difficult for the children, teachers, and community surrounding the school. 


     The cost of building these latrines will be $12,500. We have a team traveling to Haiti this month and would love to have the money to get this building underway while our team is there. Our goal would be to have the funding to finish these latrines by the end of the month. 

UPDATE: As of April 10th we have about half of the funding needed for this project! Taran will be meeting with one of our Haitian crews tomorrow to start digging. 

For those able to give to help us bring in the remaining $6,000 or so, please visit our donation page for this project by - CLICKING HERE - 

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Worcester Center for Community Development
Thank you to the numerous, dedicated volunteers that have put in countless hours over the past few months! Thank you to those that have faithfully donated towards this project! We are nearing the end of the first phase of the remodel for the new café in Worcester!

Worcester Massachusetts is the second largest city in New England. The 01605 zip code is our primary area of focus for our Center for Community Development. Several parts of this community are very economically depressed. Many of the young people that we work with struggle with difficult home environments, daily food, and a lack of adequate positive influences. 

Healthy Households
By providing strong mentorship relationships for teens, offering parenting classes, and supporting local families with services, we seek to foster an environment where healthy households can develop.

Education
Eighteen percent of young people in this zip code are not able to graduate high-school and only 47% ever realize any type of higher education credentials. Our after-school homework time programs work specifically to help students improve grades and better their overall learning and relational skills. 

Jobs
Currently, only 38% of the folks in this community have a full-time income. We work to help our program participants to develop job skills and provide the type of training that will allow them to gain full-time employment. Long-term, this will help to increase the median household income in this zip code (currently one of the lowest in the state) and allow a higher percentage of our participants to become future home owners.

Church Involvement
Currently, we estimate that less than 2% of those under 18  in Central Massachusetts are connected to a church on a regular basis. We are working to change this by creating ways for young people make better connections to the local church. 

In order to grow our programs and see the long-lasting impact we strive for, we will continue to expand our facilities. We aim to break ground on a new building later this year. To move to the next phase of construction and keep up with our current program costs in Worcester we need to raise $227,597 by the end of 2019. 

Would you consider partnering with us financially to help with the costs associated with this new space? - Click Here -