Welcome to the Haiti Scholarship Blog! A few months ago, maybe around October, Jim posted a status on his Facebook page, and we’ve been dreaming and scheming ever since. Jim’s idea: raise money to grant scholarships to students in Haiti so they can afford to attend school.
In Haiti, private schools account for 92% of primary schools. This means that in order for students to attend the majority of schools available, parents and students must be able to afford tuition, books, and uniforms. Because of this, only 65% of school aged children are actually enrolled, and those enrollment numbers drop to less than 20% at the secondary level.
Haiti Scholarships was created to address the financial hardships that keep many students away from obtaining an education, an education that can open doors and lead to a better future for them and their families.
So what have we been up to since October? Well, we got a board of directors together that is willing to go through the ups and downs of starting an organization. We started to develop a website--it still has some work to make it more user friendly, but it’s slowly coming together. We’ve been working on getting our incorporation and tax exemption paperwork together and filed, so all donations are tax deductible. We’ve been working on our scholarship application, and establishing all the procedures needed to ensure donations are processed and delivered directly to schools.
Most recently we hired a media intern, Lindsey, who will be taking charge of our social media. We’re also working on developing a logo that represents who we are and what we want to achieve.
I hope you will be a part of Haiti Scholarships. Check out our website. Follow our blog. Like our Facebook page. Join our Twitter. So many options to stay in touch and learn how to be involved!
Thank you,
-Alex
