Live from Leogane: Orphans International Partners with Haitian School Founded by Orphan


"My father, Ambroise Beauliere, wrote our school's mission statement forty years ago to provide private education at the best possible quality at the lowest possible cost. He wanted to create responsible citizens to be able to give back to society," Principal Philippe Beauliere told me on my 21st trip to Haiti last week.

The school, l'Ecole de la Redemption, consists of a three-story, 17-classroom facility that after the earthquake of January 12 has operated out of 17 tents erected in the courtyard. Children across most of Haiti are too traumatized to enter a concrete building.

Founded in 1974 with two wooden classrooms, the school is now an earthquake-resistant three-story structure that withstood the devastation of January 12. "My father, who passed away in 2002, was an orphan whose first education experience is Haiti was a classroom held underneath a tree. He and my mother went on to be school principals." The school has now partnered with Orphans International Worldwide (OIWW).

...

Orphans International is working with Skype to connect the school to the Worldwide Web. "When our Connectivity project is complete," Philippe told me, "our school will become part of the Haitian Ivy League." Plans are now being formulated through N.Y.U. Polytechnic Institute for the best way to connect the structure to the Internet. What else could a school need than Connectivity? Foreign volunteers.

Read the full story at Huffingtonpost.com