“O Holy Spirit, descend on us; we have a mission for Haiti. O Holy Spirit, descend on us; we have a mission for the world.”
Richard Joseph, superintendent of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Hinche in Haiti, opened his meeting with the Haiti Education Support Team (HEST) Aug. 15 by leading the team in song. The words were a petition to God, and the voices were full of thanksgiving.
The diocesan HEST raises money for the Diocesan Bureau of Education in Hinche. In this way, HEST directly supports the Diocese of Hinche much in the same way that individual parishes in our diocese support individual parishes in Hinche.
Over the course of a ten-day journey through the Diocese of Richmond, Joseph spoke at five parishes about the needs of the schools in his diocese. By the end of that time, Joseph and HEST had gotten very close to raising the $29,430.80 they needed to pay three supervisors in the Diocese of Hinche.
Previously, HEST supported one supervisor, while the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame paid for eight additional salaried supervisors. In June, the expiration of the original Kellogg Institute grant whittled the number down to two.
Joseph stressed the importance of keeping on at least five of the nine supervisors employed in Hinche.
“Two people cannot supervise the entire area,” he said. “We have 150 schools. Sometimes, they might take a day to get to, because there are no roads. They use motorcycles, but sometimes they have to leave them and walk for two or three hours to get to the school.”
That meant HEST now had to pay three salaries, rather than one. Kathy Gross, who serves on HEST and has known Joseph since 2006, said it was on the strength of his speaking abilities and personal warmth that the funds were secured over the course of his trip.
“It’s always about telling stories,” said Gross.
Since 2018, the disintegration of order in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital, has prevented diocesan delegations from traveling to Haiti.
Gross explained the importance of Joseph’s visit. “It renews people’s interest,” she said. “People in this diocese want to support education in Haiti.”
Two decades of education reform
Unlike parishes in our diocese, which typically support one parochial school at most, there are 57 parishes in the Diocese of Hinche supporting 150 schools.
“In their geographic area, there are more remote areas, and they construct chapels – bamboo structures – and a priest will go there regularly to say Mass for those people,” said Gross. “Not all of those chapels have schools, but many do.”
“Sometimes we can have 70 or 80 kids in one classroom,” said Joseph – and many of the classrooms to which he refers are the bamboo chapels, where children squeeze into pews.
Since becoming superintendent in 2006, Joseph has overseen education reform, with assistance from HEST and the Kellogg Institute.
“Before, they were using the colonial French system,” said Joseph.
More than 90% of Haitians are monolingual Haitian Creole speakers, which is linguistically distinct from French.
“Now, we do both French reading and Creole reading,” said Joseph. “Before that, all the teaching was done in French. Imagine trying to learn from first grade on in a foreign language.”
In Hinche, there are many parish primary schools without a corresponding high school. After ninth grade, students must take a national exam in order to continue their education.
“Richard came up with the idea of making a pre-test [for the national exam] because most of the students had never taken an exam before,” said Gross.
“When they learned how to take a test, steadily and surely, the scores have been going up,” she continued. “With the pre-exam, we can see the students’ weaknesses before the state exam.”
HEST supports scholarships for students who qualify for secondary school via the Shalom Fund.
Joseph returned home Aug. 16 to help with a teacher training program, another initiative he and HEST have pioneered.
Two decades ago, when Gross joined HEST, many teachers had no formal training.
“Most teachers at that time hadn’t finished high school, some even primary school,” she said. “There was a massive need for teacher training.”
When Joseph arrived back in Hinche, primary school teachers from across the Upper Plateau in Haiti were gathering at Sacred Heart High School in Papaye for training.
Joseph encourages teachers to interact with students and ask questions, rather than lecturing from the front of the classroom.
“I tell them, we should have active students, we should involve them,” he said.
Progress despite challenges
In our diocese, Joseph spoke at St. Mary’s, Richmond; St. Edward the Confessor, Richmond; St. Bede, Williamsburg; Holy Family, Virginia Beach; and St. Michael, Glen Allen.
In addition to administrative staff and teacher training, Joseph said schools in his diocese need food and electricity – and eventually, libraries, chemistry laboratories, and laptops.
“I was really impressed with Richmond schools – here, they have materials, whatever they want,” said Joseph. “They have some kind of school breakfast. In Haiti, sometimes they come to school without eating.”
Though HEST continues to raise money for these necessities, $29,430.80 will be earmarked for three supervisors. Kathleen Dowdy, chair of HEST, told a story about one anonymous parishioner, highlighting the concern many have in our diocese for our brother and sisters in Hinche.
“We asked for $7,000 for each supervisor,” said Dowdy. “One parishioner said, ‘I’ll give you $10,000.’ When he came back with an envelope, the check inside was for $15,000.’”
John Beall, HEST secretary, gave his opinion: “That’s a ‘Glory to God’ moment,” he said.