Haiti Twinning Ministry
College St. Martin – 12 Student Scholarships
Message from Fr. Alex Muddu
Change for Haiti Twinning Donations as of June 2021
As many of you are aware, our parish has enjoyed a special twinning relationship with College St. Martin de Porres in Hinche, Haiti, that began in 2006. Our twinning was part of the Diocese of Richmond’s Haiti Twinning Ministry, which began in 1985. Donations collected from our parish on a quarterly basis were sent to College St. Martin annually to fund scholarships for a specific number of students. Because of this community’s generosity, St. Mary’s was able to send funds this year to cover scholarships for 12 students!
However, over the course of this 2020-21 school year, due to a staffing change at College St. Martin, communications between our parish and the school administrator became difficult to the point that, for a short time, we were unable to determine if our funds had been received. Once receipt was finally acknowledged by the new staff, it was incumbent upon them, as part of our twinning agreement, to provide St. Mary’s information related to the students we sponsor: their identification, grade, final exam scores, and pass/fail status for the school year. Although we did finally receive this information late, unfortunately, it was obtained after many attempts, coming from various sources, and was not provided in the timely and direct manner as it had been in the past. Many thanks to Dorothy Summers for her relentless efforts to track down the details related to our donations and for preparing the enclosed insert about the students we sponsored this year.
Due to the difficulties in obtaining confirmation that our funds are being used in the manner in which they are intended, St. Mary’s Parish Council has made the difficult decision to end our direct twinning relationship with College St. Martin.
Funds already collected this year for the Haiti Twinning ministry (in anticipation of our donation to the next fiscal school year) will be directed to the following organization:
· Diocese of Richmond – Haiti Education Support Team (HEST).
· HEST works directly with the Bureau of Diocesan Education (BDE) in Hinche:
o To support and sustain the education of teachers and students in over 170 Catholic schools, twinned and non-twinned, in the Diocese of Hinche.
o To pay for four supervisors who visit every school in the diocese and report back on each school's progress.
o To send students to secondary schools with scholarships from a diocesan endowment fund known as the Shalom Fund.
· During the 2020-21 school year, the Shalom Fund provided 17 scholarships to deserving students, all chosen by the recommendations of principals, as well as the BDE.
o HEST receives an autobiography and a progress report for each student at the end of each semester.
o If the student is unable to keep up his or her grades, the scholarship is taken away and awarded to another deserving student.
Going forward, as long as our parish continues to collect donations as part of the Diocese of Richmond Haiti Ministry, funds will be directed to the Shalom Fund as a way of following through with our parish’s commitment to provide scholarships for deserving students.
Interested parishioners are also welcome to donate online:
· Go to the Diocese of Richmond, Haiti Giving webpage: https://richmonddiocese.org/haitigiving/.
· Next, choose “Education” and your donation will go directly to HEST.
