Mission statement: As members of St. Simon Church, we commit ourselves to loving the |
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Hearts to Haiti Program is always looking for more hearts to help out! |
What is St. Simon Hearts to Haiti?
St. Simon
Hearts to Haiti ministry manages the relationship and fund-raising activities for the St. Simon Catholic Parish twinning commitment with the
School of the Infant Jesus in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Twinning with a school from an undeveloped country is a great privilege; a sacred task, an opportunity to experience the joy of giving and receiving. It is an answering to the call to demonstrate and manifest God’s love in action.
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Helping Haitians Help Haitians
Education is a gift that multiplies in sharing. We help the Haitian Salesian Sisters to educate and feed approximately 900 children and to house 50 girls without family support. St. Simon Parish has been supporting improvements since 1997 such as repairing earthquake damaged school buildings, adding solar panels and a water filtration system, constructing an indoor cafeteria, better bathrooms, and a computer room. We’ve also supported improved teacher training and student scholarships. In 2002, the school grew to include 7
th – 9
th grade and a technical school. It is the only school to offer this educational level within a large urban area. The school is highly regarded for the quality of education it offers. In the official exams, 99% to 100% of their pupils routinely pass. Over the years, the Salesian Sisters have helped many families in this disadvantaged Haitian neighborhood escape their extreme poverty.
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Relationship-building
St. Simon parishioners routinely travel to Haiti to visit the School of the Infant Jesus (link to photos). Sr. Marie-Mercie, a Salesian Sister teaching at the School of the Infant Jesus, visited St. Simon Parish in 2014 (link to photos). The school children in Ludington and Haiti have shared songs and questions via SKYPE. It was inspiring to see a teacher, who had lost the use of her legs during the 2010 earthquake, leading her 4
th grade students in a joyful song. Frequent power outages at the School of the Infant Jesus used to make it challenging to schedule SKYPE and e-mail conversations. Although their power outages continue, we can easily photos and ideas by cell phone now. During 2017, we are celebrating our 20
th anniversary of Twinning Partnership.
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Current Goals
In response to parent requests, the Salesian Sisters plan to add 10
th – 13
th grade to the School of the Infant Jesus. Due to a lack of space, they will build the eight classrooms, a library, audio visual room, administration room and director office above the existing elementary school classrooms. They plan to renovate and enlarge an existing student assembly room to benefit the younger students also. The project cost is $738,977 with $58,000 already collected by St. Simon Parish and $ 425,507 from other sources. As of Jan 2017, $255,470 remains. Follow this link for project drawings and budget.
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Finances
Donations can be sent to St. Simon Parish office at 702 E. Bryant Rd, Ludington, MI 49431 with Haiti Outreach in the memo line. Expenses have been generally less than 1% of monies collected due to donations-in-kind and shared parish resources. From 2011 through 2016, an average $12,000 per year supported the school feeding program and $24,000 per year provided for other needs at the School of the Infant Jesus.
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Facts about Haiti
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