CBP/PROMISE FOR HAITI PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Promise for Haiti has built and operates nine Christian Schools in the Pignon area. To find out about a particular school click on the name of the school below.
Rocky Mountain Christian - Malariette
Meredith Christian - Terre Blanc
Sonshine Christian - Savanette
Morningside Christian - Guimby
Three Bears Christian - Fontaine
Salt & Light Christian - La Belle Mere
Bouqueronne Christian - Bouqueronne
St. Collette's Christian/Rotary - Santiak
Pella Christian - Ba Savanette
ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHRISTIAN was one of the first primary schools built by Promise for Haiti. It was built with funds raised by students in the US attending a Reformed Church in America youth conference called Rocky Mountain High in Colorado. The school is located just a mile west of the Pignon airstrip in the village of Maliarette. A new three room classroom addition was completed in the summer of 2010 to replace the outdoor space used for the lower grades. A small classroom space has been converted to a kitchen for the feeding program. 
Pictured at left is the original 5 room school built by funds from students who attended the Rocky Mountain High youth conference in Colorado in 1996.
Three new classrooms have recently been added which brings the total to 8 classroom spaces and meets all government regulations for the school.
This is the kitchen used for the feeding program. The day the photo was taken was a day food was not being served.
The chalkboards in all of the schools need to be replaced. Your donation toward improving the schools would be greatly appreciated. A new chalkboard is around $25 and two are needed for each classroom.
Rocky was the first school to develop a school garden, where students learned to grow, nuture and harvest garden vegetables like cabbage and tomatoes. The food can be used for the feeding program and for students to take seeds home to grow their own crops.
MEREDITH CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Meredith Christian School was built by Meredith Drive Reformed Church of Des Moines, Iowa and is located in the village of Terre Blance just a few miles west of Pignon. A three room addition was added in 2008 which brings the school up to the standard 8 room school. This fall new desks were delivered to the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classrooms and created much excitement, laughter, singing and gratitude. Plans are being made to replace the old school benches with new desks for all students that seat three students each and actually have room for books and writing materials! The teachers and students were most appreciative.
This is the 6th grade classroom when new school desks arrived! Students quickly claimed a desk, placed it in their room and immediately sat in it so no one else could claim it. Then the whole class broke into song, singing How Great Thou Art and A la'am kontan - which they sang at least 25 times! What a blessing to see their reaction and happiness.
This group from Pella, Iowa built and delivered 32 new desks for the students at Meredith School in November that were donated by a Marion Iowa Rotary Club. Another group from Des Moines, Iowa built 40 desks the following week. If you would like to donate a desk, click the donate button for $50 and three students will be overjoyed!
SONSHINE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Sonshine Christian School was built by the Sikkink (Minnesota) and Dykstra families (Iowa). The school originaly had five classrooms but an additional three classrooms were completed in 2010. Sonshine Christian is located near the village of Savanette and houses seven grades, pre-school through 6th grade.
Sonshine Christian School does not yet have a cookhouse for the feeding program. So cooks prepare the food for students under some trees. When it rains, meals cannot be prepared. A cookhouse costs approximately $1,500. If you would like donate to build a cook house at Sonshine School, click the donate now button and you will enable students to eat lunch rain or shine!
Meals of rice and beans, sometimes pasta or a small piece of mango or avacado are served at Sonshine three times a week. Here students are patiently waiting for all to be served before they begin. Students bring their own bowls and wash them at the well after lunch.
This photo shows an outdoor classroom at Sonshine before the three new rooms were built. Older students were housed under trees. During the rainy season this presented a major problem! Thankfully, three new rooms were donated by Second Reformed Church in Pella, Iowa and all classrooms now have indoor space.
MORNINGSIDE CHRISTIAN
Morningside Christian School was built by Meredith Drive Church in Des Moines and students are sponsored by Sunnybrooke Church in Sioux City, Iowa. It is one of the most difficult sites to get to as Guimby is located up on the mountain that overlooks Pignon. During the rainy season, travel to Guimby is almost impossible! But the scenery and setting are stunning and water is supplied to this school by a pipeline that was built by volunteers from the school to a nearby natural spring. 
Morningside Christian originally had five classrooms, but three new classrooms pictured on the right were added in 2010so the outdoor classroom in left of photo is no longer used. 
This photo shows students getting water and washing bowls at the tank that holds the water from the nearby spring.
Morningside Christian has a feeding program. Here cooks are preparing pasta for lunch. Each child brings their own bowl. If a child forgets their bowl, children share their ration of food. A prayer is sung or said after all the children in the classroom are served.
Latrines are required at each school location to teach children hygiene and to keep contamination from the area.
THREE BEARS & ME CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
There is actually a logical explanation for the name of this school. Three members of the Bear family and their daughter Michelle (Me) from California visited Pignon and were so touched that they donated the funding for this school in the village of Fontaine, which is about five miles east of Pignon. Getting to Three Bears is sometimes tricky as you do have to forge a stream just outside Pignon. Many of the teachers are hired from the Fontaine area but some of the teachers at Three Bears walk from Pignon each morning for over two hours to get to the school.
Three Bears & Me Christian School has eight classrooms, including the new addition completed in 2009 donated by Second Reformed church in Pella, Iowa. Notice the sticks on the roof that are drying in the picture above. They will be used later to provide the fire for cooking the rice and beans for the feeding program.
This is the newly constructed cook house at Three Bears. The cooks are preparing the meal of rice and beans using rocks to hold the large kettles and sticks that have been dried for fuel. The students will be served in each classroom from large plastic containers.
The well at Three Bears & Me has gone dry, so water has to be carried in containers for cooking, drinking, and for students to wash their bowls. A well runs anywhere from $7,000-$12,000 depending on how deep and how many attempts it takes to find water. If you would like to help build a new well at Three Bears School, click the donate button and designate your donation for a badly needed well that will also serve the surrounding community in Fontaine.
SALT & LIGHT CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Salt & Light Christian School is located in the remote area of La Belle Mere, about 6 miles south and west of Pignon. Trying to forge the river to get to the school has left many visitors stranded in the river so travel to this school in the rainy season is virtually impossible. Salt & Light Christian School was built with a "reverse offering" initiated at Third Reformed Church in Pella, Iowa in 2007. The Brand family decided to use the $25 given to each of the four of them and multiply it to build a school. The result was over $20,000 and a new school!
Students are washing their bowls after lunch (left) Pictured on the right is the makeshift kitchen before the new one was built. The money for the well, new kitchen and latrine was donated by Student Ministries from Third Reformed Church, Pella, Iowa. On a summer mission trip in 2010, the students finished the roof of the kitchen and also built 20 desks for the school, as children who attend Salt & Light carry their own chairs from home. The school still needs 50 more desks and more chalkboards. Your donation of any amount can really make a difference for these students in La Belle Mere!
This is a classroom at Salt & Light Christian. Students bring their own chairs as the school only has 20 desks. Please donate now to provide a desk for three students for only $50!
BOUQUERONNE CHRISTIAN
Bouqueronne Christian is one of the newer schools, built by one of our partner organizations, Community Coalition for Haiti (CCH) from Vienna, Virginia. The school opened in the fall of 2010 and is located in the village of Bouqueronne and has eight classrooms, a cook house, latrine, well and school garden.
The community was so excited about the new school that they started classes even before the cement floor and benches were finished. Students started without uniforms and sat on cement blocks! They were so excited to finally be able to go to school. 
Today the school is complete, with a well, cook house, latrine and school garden. Pictured is the well at Bouqueronne Christian School. All school wells are open for the community to use so the well not only serves the school but provides clean water for the surrounding area.
The feeding program at Bouqueronne Christian provides three meals a week. Older students deliver the large bowl of food to each room where it is served.
In this photo, the HELP (Haitian Education & Literacy Program) scholarship team from the US is updating records and taking new photos for sponsors. Students are lined up waiting for their photo.
ST. COLLETTE'S CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
St. Collette's Christian School located in Santiaque, will become part of the Promise for Haiti/ Comite de Bienfaisance system in the fall of 2012. Rotary International funded the entire school and provided a well, cook house, latrine, cistern and even solar lighting so students can study outside the school at night. Currently, St. Collette's houses grades K-3 and will add a 4th grade in the fall of 2012. St. Collette's Christian School is located on the back side of Mt. Pignon with a beautiful view of the mountain as shown above.
One of the unique features of St. Collette's are the three solar lights installed on the school grounds. The lights come on at dusk and provide light so students can come and study their lessons at night. St. Collette's School also has a latrince, kitchen, well and a cistern for water supply in the dry season.
PELLA CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Promise for Haiti and the Comite de Bienfaisance are excited to announce that construction of the new Pella Christian School in Bay Savanette is complete. The eight room school, complete with well, cook house and latrine is being completely funded by its sister school, Pella Christian, in Pella, Iowa. Supervision of the building project was provided by Many Hands 4 Haiti, one of our partner organizations. The school opened in the fall of 2012 with 154 students in grades K-3.
There was much excitement as people gathered at the new well on the Pella Christian School site. The community is also using the clean water from the well.
On a visit to the new school as construction was beginning, representatives of Pella Christian School brought prayers students from their sister school in Pella, Iowa had written to place in the foundation of the school. Pictured are Tim & Lucia VanMannen and Marcene Schwab from Pella with Evenel Osias, an administrator at Hospital de Bienfaisance, explaining the prayer cards and inviting the community to pray with them before placing the cards in the foundation of the school.
A huge crowd gathered to help place prayer cards in the foundation of the school building under construction. There continues to be much excitement as the school opened in the fall of 2012.
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