One of the biggest purchases provided by the 2024 Matching Grant was new desks for our classrooms. This replacement was overdue, but until this time, it simply was not financially possible. But then the question came of what to do with 70 bulky old desks? As it turned out, our trash was destined to be someone else’s treasure…
After spending the first two years of our sons lives an ocean apart from them; this past year has been spent making up lost time. It's been a year of teaching them that they belong; a year of showing them how treasured they are; a year of embracing them as SONS and BROTHERS; a year of enduring hardships...
Being invited to their home was a very big deal for us and for the family. Allemagne proudly told us that her eldest son, Schneider, built their home for them a few years ago. He is only 16, yet serves as the man of the house. The home is a mix of tarps, sticks and sandbags with a plywood door. The ‘kitchen’ is a shelf carved into the hillside where the home is perched. Jovany and Sebastien showed us the one bed they shared with their mom. Schneider sleeps on a mat on the dirt floor.
We found out about Natacha’s grandfather, who had since passed away, a few weeks after Angeline arrived. She told of how she was the one to wash and dress him. She would help him with using the bathroom and with meals. When they would go anywhere he would always have his hand on her shoulder. He liked to sing and tell Natasha stories. He was not only her grandfather; he was her friend. When he died, she said she felt a great loss...until Angeline arrived.
