WELCOME TO DOXAED
DOXAED is a department of DFI that is totally committed to educating poor people in Haiti. DFI has been providing free education to over 200 children in the village of San Pèd, Haiti, since the creation of École Doxa in 2005. In the future this type of effort will be extended to other regions of the country as well.
Ecole Doxa: Children, Building, Teachers, Etc.
Following is an executive summary of a school project DoxaEd is seeking to implement in Haiti to benefit the children of San Ped. We hope it helps you understand our education program in general and our comitment to the education of the children of San Ped in particular.
1. INTRODUCTION1
It is believed that education developed from human struggle for survival and enlightenment. Haiti is a country of scarce natural resources that struggles to survive. For Haiti’s development and advancement, substantial investments must be made in its human resources and the education of its citizens. The framers of the 1987 Haitian Constitution recognized the importance of education for the Haitian society in stipulating that the first responsibility of the State and its territorial divisions is education of the masses, which is the only way the country can be developed (1). This understanding and our love for children, particularly the poor, led, in September of 2005, to the creation of Ecole Doxa (School Doxa in English) in the village of San Ped, Haiti. San ped is a small community of predominantly cultivators, located near the Dominican Republic border.
Since its creation, the school is housed inside a makeshift church building that barely protects the children from the elements. Limited space inside the church has already become an impediment to the school’s growth.
The objective of this report is to propose a school building project for the children of San Ped to correct this present precarious condition and to give more children access to education. This construction project is intended to give a choice to the hundreds of minds that would be otherwise wasted. The saying rings true still; a mind is indeed a terrible thing to waste, even the mind of an unknown child in a remote Haitian Village.
2. EXISTING CONDITIONS
A. San Ped Educational System
According to the Haitian Constitution, Primary schooling is compulsory under penalties to be prescribed by law. But Encarta Encyclopedia reports that in practice access to education is sharply limited by school location, the cost of school clothes and supplies, and the availability of teachers. Only about 51 percent of the primary-school aged children actually attend school”(2). Also, according to the Interim Cooperation Framework (ICF), about 500,000 children still do not have access to primary education and the quality and effectiveness of education is very low (3).
The exact number of unschooled children has not been surveyed, but Encarta and ICF rightly described education in San Ped, with perhaps its disproportionate share of the 500,000 children that still do not have access to primary education.
B. Ecole Doxa
Pastor Exalus, who pastors the Church of God of San Ped which houses the school, and I opened Ecole Doxa in 2005 to assist the children that the system left behind and the parents without the financial means to send their children to any schools. Since the opening of Ecole Doxa in 2005, the school provides free education to all the children that are in attendance. Additionally, Ecole Doxa also provides to most of these children free uniforms and the teaching materials needed for the school year.
During the last school year, 2006-2007, 186 school children attended Ecole Doxa, 101 boys and 85 girls. The school had four classes and four teachers (one teacher per 47 children). The average age for girls is 11 years and the boys’ average age is 12 years.
3. FUTURE CONDITIONS
The proposed building improvement will occupy approximately 16,000 square feet and is designed to include nine (9) classrooms, a computer room, library, general office area, auditorium, kitchen/cafeteria area, and maintenance/storage spaces. Each classroom will have an area of 600 square feet and will seat comfortably 35 students, with an annual attendance of 315 students for the nine classes. With this proposed construction, in any given year, Ecole Doxa will literally take 315 children off the street.
The provision to educate these children will be a major educational improvement for San Ped. In the sense that an educated and intelligent community is essential to the welfare of a region, all the socio-economic aspects of this community will be positively impacted by this new construction. In the short term, the seed of education, being planted in these children, will improve their welfare, the social structure of the community, and will strengthen the communal bonds among parents, children, and teachers. Over the long term, the seed will yield its harvest. As these children go on to complete their education, some will return to San Ped as engineers, doctors, agronomists, school teachers, nurses, etc., and not only San Ped but the entire nation will cash on the return of this project’s investment.
4. ESTIMATED CONSTRUCTION COSTS
The estimated overall project is $ 492,000.
5. ECONOMICAL ASPECTS
The economic benefits of this project for the community of San Ped cannot be quantified in monetary terms. However, the project is economically viable in many ways. This project to educate the children of San Ped will be a catalyst to socio-economical developments of the community. As the UNICEF puts it “Education is not just a good thing in itself. The evidence shows that it is crucial to reducing poverty, improving general health, halting the spread of HIV and AIDS, and enabling people to play a full part in their communities and nations.
In the absence of public institutions in San Ped that provide jobs to the residents, the school will become the major employer in the community. It is estimated that nine (9) teachers, one (1) IT instructor, two (2) cooks, and one (1) janitor will be full time employees of the school.
6. FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
A. Funding
Ecole Doxa was created to help the poorest children of San Ped have access to education. Since its creation, my vision of the school has been limited by my family’s budget. But the overnight growth, generated by the parents’ pressing need to educate their children, has renewed my vision and moved me to write this report. This new vision is deeply rooted in the conviction that it is a strict duty of human justice and truth not to allow fundamental human needs to remain unsatisfied and not to allow those burdened by such needs to perish.
The financial means to fund this project are not currently available. But, this report is written with a sense of urgency and the optimism that the proposed school construction for the children of San Ped represents a bona fide project that can appeal to any individual, any government, and any non-profit or philanthropic organization with the financial resources to assimilate in their own educational program and fund either in part or in its entirety. This report is in essence making a case for these children and is an invitation to these aforementioned entities to invest in this project.
It is also expected that some modest but necessary contributions will come from the community itself. Their contribution can be materialized by donating their time to help build the school, which will tremendously save labor costs.
B. Operational Costs
The projected annual costs to operate the school during the first few years of the new construction are estimated to be 340,000 Gourdes (Haitian currency) or $ 9,100 (US).
7. CONCLUSION
Ecole Doxa’s main objective is to foster educational growth and help the poorest children of the San Ped area to have access to education. In the sense that education is always intertwined with every facet of human achievements, it must therefore be argued that the realization of this project will also promote social, cultural, and economical growth in San Ped. Since its opening day, the school has been having a positive impact on the community. The parents are overjoyed that their children are now being educated. In 2006-2007, the school had provided for the education of 186 children. This project will increase that number to 315 students per annum.
The realization of this project in San Ped will be a major achievement for the community. This project is intended to be an investment in human resources. Ecole Doxa believes that Haiti deserves no less than a well educated generation of youth that is ready to take the destiny of the nation to the cross roads of progress and to assure that Haiti remains in the community of the civilized nations. As the great accomplishments in human history are somehow rooted in education, it is my goal to build a school in San Ped that will be a fertile ground where these great accomplishments can flourish, a ground where every poor children of San Ped is given the opportunity to plant the seed of their dream and future.
The entire report can be seen by clicking the following link Report
1This article is written by Patrick J. Honore, PE. Patrick is the current president of Doxa Foundation International and the founder of Ecole Doxa.
References:
(3) Interim Cooperation Framework (ICF) Report 2004
Doxa Foundation International
239 243-0730
2828 Via Piazza Loop
Fort Myers, FL 33905
doxa@dfi-inc.org