Throughout the month of September, we’ve been sharing stories of the students impacted through CCH’s Education Ministries. In case you missed any of these, we’ve put them all in one place! Please scroll, read, and enjoy the impact our donors are making in Haiti. (If you’d like to help with “back to school” costs in Haiti, you can click here to donate.)
Emmy Parker – A Volunteer’s Perspective
For those of you who don’t know me (photo left), I’m Emmy Parker, a retired teacher and enthusiastic CCH volunteer/donor. My husband, Wood, is on CCH’s Board of Directors and we’ve been to Haiti more than two dozen times working with their education ministry in Jacmel.
Wood and I are so excited to celebrate the growth of CCH partner school directors (a.k.a. principals) and teachers over the past decade plus with CCH’s education ministry. The transformation from the spring of 2012 through the summer of 2025 really speaks highly of CCH’s Haitian staff and the partnerships they’ve nurtured with local educators.
In 2012, when we began our education ministry with CCH in Jacmel, I was so saddened to see that in school there were very few books for students and only one little piece of chalk for each teacher.
It was also so hard to understand how the whole day was taught in French by teachers who knew limited French themselves. In 2012, the children were very hungry, and their medical needs were immense. In 2012, when I asked directors what the schools needed in the form of professional development for their school, they answered “everything you know.”
They were hungry for strategies, skills and supplies to be better teachers. But they didn’t yet know what to ask for as we began our partnership.
When we first started serving in Haiti, we traveled there with teams of US teachers to provide in-person professional development for Haitian teachers. Since we cannot travel to Haiti now because of the violence and unrest, we’ve adapted by using Zoom teleconferencing, and more in-country partners like Summits Education.
Emmy at Mont Fleuri Primary School in 2017, demonstrating to teachers and students how to use unifix cubes manipulatives in math lessons. A teacher with his classroom (right) leading a hands on lesson the kids enjoy.
Now in 2025, the directors can specifically articulate the needs for professional development in certain areas. Four of the directors have gone through hours of training in six modules about effective schools. These four directors have now taught the modules to all teachers in the 11 schools through days of intensive and fun-filled training.
Three rural schools now have a nurse on site weekly and protein-enriched meals daily. The schools are now vibrant with teachers teaching in both Kreyol and French, with music and hands-on learning and joyful students who are cared for in many ways.
You made that partnership possible— and your support has provided over 13 years of education and healthcare to thousands of students. Will you consider a gift now to impact a child’s future for the next 13 years?
My heart sings with joy to see that the schools have books for teachers to use for story time and books for students to read during silent reading time. The schools are now striving for:
- Positive learning environments,
- Fostering meaningful learning through cultural and contextual connections,
- Producing deep understanding and promoting high order thinking,
- Assessing student learning, and
- Developing reflective practices.
Members of our US education team are currently meeting weekly with our CCH education liaison and discussing how we might further enhance the professional development. We wait prayerfully for a time when we can travel again to encourage our educator friends in Haiti. Until then, we will continue to try to meet their needs through online professional development, and in-country staff and partners.
We want every student who walks into a CCH partner school to feel welcome, valued, and ready to learn. A well-equipped classroom with eager teachers is what every child deserves. Please DONATE today to help each of these precious students and teachers get back to school
Anpil men chay pa lou (Many hands make the load light), Emmy Parker (CCH Volunteer & Donor)
CCH’s “Men Who Know”
Right now, children in Haiti face more than the usual challenges of going back to school. Gangs recruit boys as young as 12. Families face crushing inflation. Politicians fail to protect communities. Every day, the forces pulling children away from school, and into danger, are real and relentless.
That’s why CCH invests in education initiatives that do more than teach reading and math. We create safe spaces where kids learn values that protect them and strengthen their communities. This year, our education team launched “Men Who Know,” a curriculum developed by CCH partner, Days for Girls. In three schools, boys are learning about respect, responsibility, and how to stand up against abuse, exploitation, and disease.
CCH Community Development Liaison, Nazaire Leveille (left), instructs a classroom of boys at Lavanneau Primary School
As one teacher shared: “The kids really appreciated the training because they had a chance to express themselves and get to know their body better. Parents don’t really have those kinds of conversations with them.”
These lessons matter. They make gang recruitment harder. They prepare boys to grow into husbands, fathers, and leaders who choose respect over violence. Your support helps CCH keep education strong in Haiti, and expand programs that empower young men to stand up against evil and misinformation.
Together, we can ensure schools remain places of hope and transformation.
Charles’ Close Call
A while back, I told you about a 5th grader at EMEVO Primary School named Charles Wood. He had an accident last year that could have left him maimed for life, or worse.
Charles is your typical tween boy, always on the move and full of curiosity. While playing with neighborhood friends one weekend, he had a serious accident and cut his arm.
His parents bandaged him up and sent him to school the following week. But CCH School Nurse, Miss Betty Paul, noticed right away that something wasn’t right with Charles’ bandaged arm.
Miss Paul brought him to the school infirmary and then the CCH Primary Care Clinic. It turned out the injury had cut a vein and gotten infected. If Charles’ school hadn’t had a nurse on site that day, the situation could have been dire. But because of generous donors like you, he had the care he needed.
Charles Wood in May 2025 during his injury treatment (left), with CCH School Nurse Betty Paul (middle), and in June 2025 graduating from primary school.
Today, I’m so pleased to report that Charles has graduated from Primary School and is continuing his education at a different school this fall. He told us, “Miss Paul takes good care of us. She gives us free medicines and she is always here for us. I feel like my life changed because of what she did for me.”
“During the school year I enjoy doing my homework, and playing outside. This summer I loved the summer camp at my primary school. I have also been working in the garden with my parents, two brothers and two sisters. I am looking forward to making new friends at my new school next year.”
As we prepare for students to head back to school in Haiti, Charles shows us how CCH School Nurses provide vital, life-saving care for kids in Haiti.
Students and Teachers Attend Summer Camp (July 2025)
Summer Camp in Haiti looked very different several years ago. US-based volunteers planned every detail and carried in the supplies to make it happen. But since 2020, that has changed.
The Haitian directors and teachers at our partner schools designed and led summer camp entirely on their own, putting into practice all they have learned. What began as professional development has grown into a teacher-led, summer camp experience at each rural school.
The children were fed physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. And the teachers? They are building new skills with every camp. They can now point to what they need next: more training in literacy, curriculum development, classroom management, and ways to connect lessons with real-life experience. They are eager to keep learning and are growing in confidence as teachers, shaping classrooms that inspire curiosity and resilience in their students.
While teachers honed their classroom skills, students enjoyed stimulating camp days where they played soccer, built with Legos, sang songs, and shared nutritious meals that gave them strength to learn. For most, those meals were a critical part of sustaining them during the summer break from school.
Every child deserves the chance to learn, to be healthy, and to grow into the smile that will shape Haiti’s tomorrow, and you are the one who helps make that happen. Thank you!
s we prepare for students to head back to school in Haiti, Charles shows us how CCH School Nurses provide vital, life-saving care for kids in Haiti.
Guiyana – The Unofficial Welcome Wagon at Her School
Two years ago, our CCH Education staff chatted with two adorable third graders at Lavanneau Primary School. Guiyana (photo below) grew up going to Lavanneau alongside her siblings (3 brothers and 3 sisters).
It was the beginning of the school year and Guiyana had just met Herculine, who was new to school that year. Being the gregarious, welcoming child she was, Guiyana had taken Herculine under her wing and they became fast friends.
But Herculine was suffering from bellyaches and skin problems (likely for most of the summer). Now that she was at a school with a school nurse, she was finally getting the care she needed.When we first started serving in Haiti, we traveled there with teams of US teachers to provide in-person professional development for Haitian teachers. Since we cannot travel to Haiti now because of the violence and unrest, we’ve adapted by using Zoom teleconferencing, and more in-country partners like Summits Education.
10-year-old Guiyana (left) and Herculine (middle) at Lavanneau Primary School in September 2023. 12 year-old Guiyana (right) in June 2025.
Once Herculine was feeling better, Guiyana could enjoy her favorite parts of the day—lunchtime and recess—with her new bestie. The two girls spent hours giggling, skipping rope, and playing together.
Fast forward to today… Unfortunately, Herculine had to move again after third grade and wasn’t at Lavanneau this past year. Many families in Haiti are experiencing upheavals and relocations due to gang activity throughout the country. As a result, we are seeing big increases in students at CCH partner schools.
Today, Guiyana is starting fifth grade, and she’s still as outgoing as ever. Over the summer break she has been helping her family with chores—her favorite ways to help are doing the dishes, sweeping, and mopping. She only wishes she had more books to read. Guiyana told us, “My favorite parts of school are when I am discovering new things and making new friends.”
Iron Fish Are Swimming in Students’ Lunches
This past school year, daily lunches in Haiti changed, and so did the children.
The Community Coalition for Haiti’s school nurses created a new diet to fight anemia and malnutrition, adding vegetables, bean sauce, smoked herring, and other iron-rich ingredients to the meals. At the same time, our schools began using iron fish—a simple tool that adds essential iron to food during the cooking process without changing the taste.
The results have been remarkable. Children who once suffered daily from headaches, stomachaches, and fatigue are now gaining weight, growing stronger, and staying healthy in school. Principals call the difference one of the most impactful initiatives so far.
Cooks preparing lunch for the children, children unloading lunch supplies from CCH’s blue truck and a student eating lunch at school
By the end of the school year, weight checks showed real improvement, and gastroenteritis cases in Lavanneau Primary School dropped noticeably. None of this progress is possible without you.
As the new school year begins, our donors are providing more than books and lessons, they are delivering the nutrition and healthcare children need to succeed in the classroom.
Easing a Mother’s Burden
Youbencka’s family lives in the community of Lavanneau, which is 8 miles away from the Primary Care Clinic operated by Community Coalition for Haiti (CCH) in Jacmel. Eight miles of hilly terrain and one river to cross. It’s a lengthy, expensive, and bumpy motorcycle taxi ride to the clinic when someone needs medical care.
But thanks to donors like you, five-year-old Youbencka got the childhood vaccines she needed, right in her own neighborhood. In April, the CCH vaccination nurses partnered with our school nurses and visited 3 partner schools to offer free vaccines to children who needed them.
Youbencka’s mom told us, “Before, it was a real challenge. We used to travel over 40 minutes just to get to a vaccination site. Sometimes we missed appointments because we didn’t remember the dates, or we arrived too late. It wasn’t easy. Having the vaccination available right at school makes a big difference. It’s just a short walk now. We no longer have to worry about transportation or taking so long to go to other place.”
