The primary item on the agenda today was to visit the John Branchizio school in Port Au Prince (PAP).
Well before the earthquake, Mercy & Sharing embarked on a project to build an orphanage about 40 miles north of PAP. The decision to do this turned out to be prescient.
The John Branchizio school in PAP is in the city. Prior to the earthquake and before the Williamson orphanage was opened the facility was used for both the care of orphans (many of them handicapped) and the education of children under the care of Mercy & Sharing and children in the local community. Needless to say, it was very congested and couldn’t really do the best for the orphans or the schoolchildren. When the Williamson facility opened the orphans were moved out and the place became a school. When the earthquake hit it did a lot of damage to the school. The security walls crumbled and had to be rebuilt before the school could resume it’s purpose of educating the local children. Fortunately, Canadian forces helped in cleaning up and reconstructing the wall to establish the necessary security. The Canadian love their country and their flag. This is something that they left:
The Canadians, I love them!
With the special needs kid moved out and the young orphans up at Williamson, the Branchizio School has become that, a school. The children have scored at the very top of the government standardized tests. the children get at least one nutritious meal a day. The children wear uniforms and are very orderly in class despite crowded conditions. Here’s an example:
These are children that are eager to learn and their parents are making sacrifices to enable that because they realize that, although they may be uneducated, the hope for their children is in getting them educated.
Yet, there is a dark side. Recently the Branchizio School was broken into. Uniforms were stolen and a handwritten note was left on a wall. It’s seems that some gang from Cite Soliel took exception to what M&S was doing. the cost of educating a child in the school is about $200/yr. All that the school ask is for the parents to buy the uniforms which cost between $10 and $20. The motive being that the school is not just a handout. Apparently, some of the gang-bangers took exception to this and decided to break into the school. It could have been an inside job. Here are a couple of pictures:
The message.
The door.
The perpetrators will be identified. They are people with no concept of the overall implications of their actions. If restitution isn’t made and the perpetrators aren’t identified soon the school will be shut down until the matter is reconciled. In a culture such as this, people know people. Things don’t happen in a vacuum. When it is realized that the break-in was damaging to the locals the perps will be turned in. That’s just the way it goes. People act in their own self interest.
The Branchizio school is doing wonderful things. It is great that the orphans and disabled children were move out. Until you visit something like this you can’t imagine how disadvantaged children and families can put such effort into the hope of achieving a better life. They do work at raising themselves up and they do care.