Haiti’s Bercy School Offers Life-Changing Hope for Students
by Greg Buzek
(Thanks to Joe Skorupa for writing this) You may have heard Haiti has been grappling with protests and economic hardship, yet despite the challenges, 165 students at the Bercy School continue to attend classes and improve their lives with the gift of life-changing hope.
The Bercy campus is a place where local students and 35 orphans, who live in family-style homes, receive a quality secondary education, medical treatment in a new clinic, clean water, and meals. Many of the facilities on the Bercy campus were built using funds contributed by RetailROI.
“The ongoing progress at the Bercy School is amazing and in such a short period of time,” says Diane Cerulli, account manager at Aptos. “Every time I hear about the school I discover something new is happening. They are constantly thinking about what they can do next to help the students.”
Since 2018, the Bercy School initiative has provided a major lifeline to students struggling to live in the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. This effort includes providing 142,000 meals, giving clothing to 500 neighbors through a Community Clothing Depot program, building nine homes for neighbors, teaching 165 children, achieving a 100% student pass rate for the national 9th grade exams, offering training to 41 teachers, creating 275 jobs, and operating the only medical clinic serving a community of 10,000 people.
The strong support for the Bercy School project is well known within the Aptos organization, according to Cerulli. In addition to fund raising, Aptos has sent teams to Haiti to encourage awareness and hands-on involvement.
“We have even conducted team building sessions and customer service training at the Bercy School for teachers and those working at the on-site hotel,” says Cerulli. “This was a great way for our team to tap their own skills and pass them on to others. After the training sessions you could see the energy on campus dramatically improve.”
More recently, Aptos partnered with LifeSong for Orphans to conduct a shark-tank-style competition called Pitch Haiti. This program was designed to encourage local business ventures that are new, innovative and have the potential to create jobs for students once they graduate.
Business leaders were recruited for the judging panel, including Noel Goggin, CEO of Aptos, and Andy Lehman, vice president of LifeSong for Orphans.
More than 40 Haitian entrepreneurs applied online for the competition. Ultimately, 20 were selected to give 20-minute pitches and answer questions from the judges. In the end, two winners were selected – one is a 19-year-old man named Pierre who makes backpacks and the second is a 30-year-old-man named Raoul who produces bags of plantain chips for markets and restaurants.
Each of the two entrepreneurs received a pledge for a $5,000 investment so they can increase their volume of production and hire additional workers. In a country where the average Haitian lives on $2 a day this investment will go a long way.
Although the nation of Haiti continues to struggle “our basic mission continues undeterred,” says Andy Lenhman. “Haiti needs the Bercy School, RetailROI and Lifesong for Orphans more than ever. We have to lean in.”
To find out how you can help RetailROI, click here.
To find out more about LifeSong for Orphans, go to: https://lifesong.org/