Sometimes more than hard work is needed to succeed - the 1,000 preK-12 students at St. Antoine-St. Augustine School in Haiti need sponsors to provide them with necessities like a daily hot meal, school uniform and books.
For a donation of $180, a Signal Mountain resident could provide for one student for an entire year.
American Haitian Foundation Executive Director Jack Davidson, of Signal Mountain, stands inside a trailer full of 33 containers of shoes, laptops and household goods bound for Haiti."The key to Haiti is education and jobs," said American Haitian Foundation board member JoAnne Denise, of Signal Mountain, adding that for the price of a soft drink per day someone could sponsor a student's education. "The people need to be self-supporting."
Haitian families are just able to pay about $10 per year for their child's education or offer to volunteer at the school instead, she said.
"Every year we take students' photos in order to look for people to sponsor them," said AHF Executive Director Jack Davidson, of Signal Mountain. "Students swap shoes to be able to wear the best pair in their photo."
In a recent adoption fair at St. Augustine Catholic Church, parishioners committed to sponsoring 200 of the students, leaving 800 more in need of adoption.
"We started at St. Augustine, but we would like other churches to host adoption fairs," he said. "It's a great opportunity for churches to do social justice and help serve the poorest of the poor in Haiti. We still have lots of kids left."
Davidson, a parishioner at St. Augustine Catholic Church, began helping Haiti 18 years ago and established AHF in 2000. The organization has raised more than $5 million to build a school, homes, churches, roads, bridges and to educate and feed thousands of children each year in Haiti.
"The pressure for good grades is huge in Haiti," he said. "A lot of the students speak English, French, Creole and Spanish."
Prior to Christmas, the students will receive 33 drums full of shoes, 45 laptops pre-programmed with Microsoft applications and household goods sent by local residents through AHF. All total, 3,600 shoes ranging from cowboy boots to tennis shoes to sandals and more will be shipped over. Shoe donors also sent pens, pencils, paper, book bags and word finds. The project resulted from AHF volunteers seeing the need for shoes in Haiti, while there helping with education.
"Usually when I return from Haiti, I have something pressing on my mind," said Davidson. "Last year I noticed how many people in the country did not have shoes."