2022-23 School Year

Katherine Harrison

September 30, 2022

The September cover for ATI's calendar

The Haitian school year was originally scheduled to begin Sept. 5, but with the problems currently plaguing the country the Minister of Education pushed the start date back one month.

As you likely know, life in Haiti is made more difficult recently by unrest and upheaval. Our village is largely unaffected by the chaos, as living at the top of a mountain provides a certain level of geographic protection. But to say there is no effect on our operations or mission would be disingenuous. To be honest, it's a little worrisome getting money to Samuel these days. I worry about his safety and I worry about my options to send money becoming more and more limited. Rioters just this week damaged the Haitian bank Samuel and I use to transfer money for our projects and programs. For now, he can't utilize that bank and we are using our constant fall back, Western Union. I've consciously tried to use the bank for years because I felt the security was perhaps better than at a WU location. (I won't even get started on the various bank transfer fees.) Western Union is extremely important to Haitians because that's the main vehicle for how the diaspora sends money to their families and friends.

However, we'll do what we need to make it work. We push forward and despite the chaos covering the country, our operations continue.

The new school year starts next week! This post isn't a fundraising post so I won't focus on numbers here. Below are the areas that need cover.

- tuition support: Not all the students can afford the tuition but the school permits their attendance anyway because it's the right thing to do. ATI hasn't been great about a true sponsorship program because of the intensive paperwork that would be involved. (By "ATI" I mean me!). But I feel like that should be our next step. I struggle with it because I don't want to "highlight" some students and not others but the truth is, support for one student is support for the school.

- lunch program: we provide a hot meal of rice & beans every day with supplemental chicken for added protein. This is the only hot meal most of these kids will receive each day; it's impossible to press how important this program is. The yearly numbers will be posted here.

- nurse salary: we pay Nurse Legina a stipend and transportation costs to travel to Piton weekly to be available for the students as well as the wider community.

- teacher salaries: The Haitian government theoretically provides teachers with pay. The teachers in Piton are at a disadvantage in two ways: 1) they work on top of a mountain with no easily-passable road in a village that most consider to be unimportant; and 2) google Haiti news. :-( It's only right to provide them with a steady income which also allows them the resources to travel for teacher training.

My thinking right now is to launch the end-of-year campaign early and run throughout the 4th quarter of the year rather than wait for Giving Tuesday. For now, enjoy these pics from the summer.

2022 Summer School activities

Thanks for being here.

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P is for Protected

By Katherine Harrison • July 27, 2026

Casual observers of the Temporary Protected Status crisis for Haitians and other nationality groups, including a senator from Ohio, enjoy saying "the T stands for temporary," as though we aren't aware. To emphasize only that T is for Temporary and ignoring that P is for Protected is short-sighted, self-serving, and completely misses the main point of the program. These are people who are fleeing situations in their home country that you nor I can imagine. They flee, learn another language, another currency, another culture, AND attempt to make a living to support their families in the US and sometimes their home country. Another detail people tend to ignore is that the TPS program itself does not offer a path to citizenship or residency. No, that is a completely different maze of departments, rules, costs, and attorneys that an already-intimidated immigrant must navigate. And while navigating, they are easy targets for bad advice or worse, scam artists looking for easy money. Yet another detail glossed over is this: TPS beneficiaries are held to the same legal standards as everyone else. TPS absolutely does NOT protect against criminal behavior. They risk deportation as a consequence of breaking the law. Today's ending of TPS for Haitians is so egregiously against our country's stated ideals of Refuge and Opportunity: Welcoming people seeking freedom, safety, and a better life. Haitians are being told to return to their home country where they will certainly encounter one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises that is being fueled by gangs using guns FROM THE USA. Yes, it’s been a long while since Haiti was granted TPS status in 2010. In hindsight, the status maybe could have been revoked some years later. But what to do when the country has devolved into its worst state since 2010? Apparently, this Christian country says, “sorry; temporary.” Keep in mind: Our own State Department says "Do Not Travel to Haiti," providing warnings with such strong language as "murders, kidnappings, robberies, assaults, sexual assault...." yet the country is deemed safe enough for the return of 350,000 Haitian bodies. Our own FAA has banned all flights to Port-au-Prince. To deport, the government will have to use charter aircraft, or military aircraft. Note: when the US government sent flights back to Guatemala recently, the cost to the US taxpayer was $8,000 per deportee. Multiply that by 350,000 Haitian TPS holders: $2.8 million of taxpayer dollars. TPS beneficiaries are providing valuable services to U.S. society and contributing to our economy; they are paying taxes into the US economy and will NOT receive any benefits back from the government (Soc. Sec., unemployment, Medicare); their reward is being in America. The lives of Haitian TPS beneficiaries will certainly be endangered by their return. They will be targeted by gangs for the simple fact they had the courage and means to leave the country in the first place. And since the US government has announced that deportees will have a certain amount of US Dollars in their possession upon deportation, lives will be lost on the off chance that money can be taken. The entire country of Haiti is beyond her breaking point; sending hundreds of thousands of souls back there will further stress and destabilize the country.

Public Latrine Construction 2026

By Katherine Harrison • July 5, 2026

Thanks to the support of a generous and practical-minded supporter, we built our first public latrine in July 2026! It is situated between the two villages we serve, Piton & Piton West, on the footpath used by the local villagers, and those coming from further away. Activities in Piton have increased greatly. The population has more than doubled due to the arrival of refugees from the Port-au-Prince area and villages in between. More people visit these two mountain top villages now more than ever, and the need for a public latrine is urgent for the sake of sanitation. This post will be updated with photos as construction continues.