Barrette school

Geographical situation
This school is located in Barrette, a small town in the region of Petit-Goave, about 2.5hrs from Port-au-Prince.

Description
• 238 students
• 8 teachers, all volunteers
• 1 severely damaged building with 4 “classrooms”; 3 open-air “classrooms”
• 1 “kitchen” area, severely damaged
• 1 latrine area, severely damaged

Assessment of the building
The building has suffered severe damages (over 50%) from the 2010 earthquake. Classrooms built in cement blocks might be repaired, though costly. But unfortunately the school is on a marsh land, which is unstable and floods frequently. According to local authorities, rebuilding is not allowed on this parcel of land. Therefore the school director has looked for and found a new lot.

We have blueprints, construction quote and plan to rebuild this school on a new, safe parcel of land, in the same town of Barrette. The new Barrette Community School plan includes 8 classrooms, with independent access and good luminosity. A kitchen, restrooms, a small library and a school director’s office will be built.

Construction began at the end of September 2012 ; after a great start, work was slowed down due to Hurricane Sandy at the end of October. Mrs. Gladys Doebeli Rocourt visited the site in January 2013 and was pleased to see progress: Foundation and 1st story walls are almost completed, and soon work on the 2nd story will begin (after the Carnival holiday).

The school opened on-time, on 10/1/2013 and it functions as expected.

In the perspective of other objectives of RHN, Gladys Doebeli Rocourt worked with the teachers of the school of Barette.
Pedagogical workshops, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons.
During those workshops, the following points have been raised during opened discussions:

Observation of the teachers in class Tuesday and Wednesday mornings
Explaining how to use the library: organization of classes, book references, registration cards etc.
Role and attitude of the teacher
Place of the student in the process of learning
Technical approaches of teaching Reading, Grammar, Mathematics, Kreyol, Sciences.
The particular context in Haiti: Haitian Creole and French. The necessity to maintain the learning of French but also to give Creole its rightful place.

The workshops went from 13h30 to 16h30.

Latest update
Thanks to your donations we were able to buy furniture for the school with desks and benches which seat 3 students. The furniture is made in Haiti with local materials, which allowed us to contribute to the local economy.

We are currently building a school yard for this school.

BARRETTE SCHOOL