New Student Sponsorship Program

Katherine Harrison

March 29, 2024

Tags: 2024, sponsorship, unrest

New Student Sponsorship Program

The Story

We began our most important programs early in our journey as ATI. To this day, the lunch program is our most important one; begun in 2015. I tried out a very unstructured version of a sponsorship program early on, but didn't have the resources to do it much justice. I know of other sponsorship programs and the administrative work it requires can be overwhelming - particularly for one person. Then I was diagnosed and there were definitely not enough resources for the next 6 years.

Last year as my health improved exponentially, I could expend more energy toward improving ATI but didn't yet know how that would look. As the year came to a close, a previous donor who hadn't been engaged for a while, reached out to me inquiring about a student sponsorship program. She wanted to sponsor (specifically) five children in honor of her recently-passed mother. It hit me like tumblers falling into place: it was time for a proper sponsorship program. Thank you, Cassandre David-Washington. By remembering us, you breathed new life into what has become a game changer for our little village.

So here we are. It's a lot of work, especially up front, but it's so much fun. Collecting data from Samuel, double checking birthdays & spelling, which students are refugees from PAP, connecting a picture to a name ... it all sounds straightforward but wires get crossed in the shuffle. Core data (and make no mistake -- nonprofit work is mostly core data) quickly becomes a quagmire of language gap, European vs. American formatting, and human error. Samuel and I have a rare working relationship and we get things worked out over Facebook Messenger daily.

It's been a joyful process, designing the program, bookmarks, webpage hierarchy (not as joyful). There is much to come. I'm proud of what we've accomplished with this program in its first 6 months but there's much more to come. This program promises to be as significant as the lunch program in wholly different ways. It reaches farther into the operation of the school, which has become the center of ATI. By supporting these children, we're supporting their families, and I believe we're creating positive generational change in Piton. Which will naturally spread and touch other villages.

This is how we are fighting against the chaos and darkness in Haiti. So much heartache in such a little island, said my friend, Suzan Hicks. On the edge of despair, we ask each other, "What can we do about this broken world?"

This is what I do. And you can join me!

Visit the Sponsorship Page to take an active part in hope!

Thank you 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.