About Us
Rotary is an organization of business and professional men and women united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world.
Haiti Outreach’s vision is for Haiti to become a developed country, with adequate clean water, food, sanitation, medical care, roads, electricity, education and job opportunities for all. Their mission is to collaborate with the people of Haiti to build and maintain community-initiated projects that advance their development.
We would like to invite you and other Rotary Club’s to participate in an exciting Rotary-sponsored project that will help change the lives and futures of Haitians by greatly increasing the educational opportunities for their children. It is a multi-Club, multi-District, multi-Country collaborative effort that we hope will continue and grow for years to come.
Three Rotary Clubs formed the initial partnership with the first commitment to build a public secondary school in the Haitian town of La Victoire – an area of over 10,000 people in the Central Plateau region of the country, with no public school available beyond 6th grade. This is an area of the country where Rotary has already had very strong and sustainable success with the innovative Safe Water Plus initiative. The Safe Water Plus Rotary Project raised funds to build new wells, rehabilitate many more, and create latrines involving over 100 communities in the Central Plateau of Haiti.
The Partnership’s first school project has now been accomplished, and we are on to our next one! While the cost to build these public secondary schools is small by U.S. standards ($240,000 for a basic school, $300,000 including electricity, computer lab and library), it is more than what one Rotary Club might be able to raise on its own. So it is an excellent opportunity for many Rotary Clubs to join forces to make an incredible difference in the lives of many children in this country. As this effort continued into 2009 and 2010, many other Rotary Clubs have now joined the Partnership. Many more are needed to make our next school a fact by 2012.
As you see on the Home page, we now intend to build upon the success of building the school in La Victoire by raising funds to build our next public school in the town of Rankit. Our vision is for this partnership to continue with the construction of additional schools in other Haitian towns and possibly a post-secondary technical (trade) school in the same region. The opportunities to collaborate and make a major difference in Haiti are significant and the need for our service is very real! Will you join us??
If you are a Rotarian, we would also welcome the opportunity to attend a future meeting of your Club and provide a presentation about this project, as well as to answer any questions. We also invite you to email or call us for more information.
Sincerely,
Patrick Joyce
Minneapolis City of Lakes Rotary ClubRichard Slieter
Rotary Club of BrainerdSteve Gasser
Rotary Club of HutchinsonDale Snyder
Minneapolis Uptown Rotary Club and Haiti Outreach