Haitians

Hello!

As I was walking across the ANIJA campus today I passed a Haitian lady whose huge smile showed her perfectly white teeth. I don't know why she was smiling but thanked God for allowing us to work with Haitian children as part of our ministry.

When we first came here over eight years ago, there were no Haitians at our school. Kids Alive's mission is to work with kids at risk but as we looked around we thought, "The kids who are most at risk here are the Haitian kids." They are often poorer than Dominicans and have come here looking for a better life. They often encounter prejudice. We returned to Canada and when we came back here a few years later we were excited to see that a literacy program had been started with Haitian children. Now they are fully integrated with our oldest Haitian student in Grade 4 this year.

On the week-end we had a chance to visit a Haitian village (called a Batey) on another part of the Island. I could not imagine having to live in such conditions.

By far, one of the nicest houses in the Batey
ELEVEN boys sleep on the two sets of bunk beds

Haitian girls in front of a wooden house

Haitian boy and his stuffed animal

It's just a matter of time before
this house is washed away over the cliff

Please pray for our new friends who are seeking God's direction for their ministry in that area.

And praise God with us for the smiles that we see on our campus.

Marcie Cooper

P.S. If you'd like to sponsor one of our children go to www.kidsalive.ca (in Canada) or www.kidsalive.org (in the United States.) Cute kids are waiting!