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!