Above: Flags Ceremony
November 24, 2023:
The school is currently educating and providing uniforms and meals for 133 children. Click below for pictures and a full report. To make a donation in support of this important ministry which supports the spiritual and entire well-being of children, families, and teachers in Haiti, click HERE. Please continue to pray for Haiti and Ascension School of Pouly!
Mission to Haiti from The Cathedral of All Saints, Albany, NY.
August 28, 2021
Dear Cathedral Friends,
Haiti has been devastated by the recent catastrophic earthquake with a death toll exceeding 2200. There is grief, loss, fear, stress, struggle, but mostly hunger. There are still major effects of the COVID pandemic…no vaccines, no tests are available.
While The Cathedral of All Saints continues to support our mission to The Church of the Ascension School in Pouly, Haiti, and its school, children and teachers, now there is additional desperate need. Deacon Carpenter says the funds for supporting the school monthly are running low.
We support the cost of the faculty of the school, which is $550 per month, and since the lockdown we have been receiving less than half that amount in donations. School is where the children receive not only education and encouragement in faith, but also daily meals. Please continue to offer the teachers and children this stability and support. We are asking you to be as generous as you can be for Haiti’s plight! Thank you!
With Love,
Deacon Sandy
Many thanks from our friends in Pouly Haiti for support from The Cathedral of All Saints !
Update from October, 2020
Dear friends in Christ,
A big thank you to everyone who participated through prayer and donations to support our Sister church in Pouly, Haiti. We received a very gracious amount over $2,500. A special shout out to 5 year old Everly who painted pictures for donations. She raised $500 with the help of her family! The money will go to Food For the Poor a Worldwide program to assist with food insecurity. The food will be purchased in Haiti and delivered to those in need in Pouly. We and they are so very grateful.
We continue to need donations for mission to support the school this year and appreciate all of your faithful support. Checks to support the school can be made out to the Cathedral of All Saints and sent to 62 South Swan St., Albany, NY.
God Bless You.
Deacon Sue Plaske
Update from Spring, 2020
The Church of the Ascension School in Pouly Haiti thanks you for your support. This picture was taken in February 2020, just prior to a visit from St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Delmar. Fr. Scott Garno and Erika Adams visited the school on our behalf to show our support, deliver supplies and visit with the principal and teachers. They had a tour of the newly constructed school rooms which are now in use and continue to be furnished with Blackboards and furniture.
The teachers and children were very happy to host the St. Stephen’s team for a day. Together they created a beautiful wall hanging with all the children’s hand-prints and names. Each of the older children wrote letters to send back to us about their studies.
Of course this all happened just prior to the pandemic outbreak. Thank goodness the trip was a success and the group came home safely.
It is hard to capture all that is going on in Haiti through this letter, which is a long time in coming. But, we have a few pictures to share along with a short report on the school to follow:
The photos above are of the older children in the three different classrooms with their teachers. These rooms may look stark to you but, it is an improvement over the crowded church where all the kids met previously. Cathedralites sponsored black boards and other school furniture to help the school. We also sent supplies with the St. Stephen’s team.
The following pictures are of the younger children and the report.
School Report:
Principal: Pierre Elicheba
Supervisor: Raphael Mackenson
Teacher of the kindergarten class 1 and 2: Baldé Elionise
Teacher of the kindergarten class 3: Jean Eveline
First grade: Janvier Roseline
Second grade: Morette Love
Third grade: Prince Roodny
Fourth grade: Bez Natacha Augustin
Fifth and Sixth grade: Pierre Wilthony
Cooks: Cadet Lorette, Joseph Tanide, Casnaque Lunie
As of now, the village of Pouly are seeing some manifestations of COVID-19 although they do not have testing abilities. The school is not meeting at this time and people are staying home much like what we are experiencing here.
Please continue to hold the school, the teachers, the children and Rev. Jean Jacques Deravil in your prayers for protection and provision as food is in short supply. Efforts have been made through food for the poor to assist with the cause. We can help by continuing our contributions that support the teachers and help with the Pouly village’s resources.
I have been speaking with Deacon Sandy McGowan about a gradual transfer of the duties and process in regards to the mission. Deacon McGowan is very excited to take on this role and we will begin to transfer the communications.
I will continue to be involved as much as I can and will be able to assist as needed.
If you have questions or would like more information on how to support, please contact:
smcgowan@cathedralofallsaints.com
Again, Thank you for your continued support and prayers.
We hope and pray that the children will return to school in the fall for their education and meals and that Haiti is able to make it through this difficulty without losing too much ground.
In peace,
Deacon Sue Plaske
Below is an account of the many ways in which The Cathedral of All Saints has served God and his children in Haiti in the past. The Cathedral continues to send hundreds of dollars every month to support a school and its children and teachers. Please make a donation to support this good work.
In 2012, there was a devastating earthquake in Haiti. The Cathedral responded with a missionary trip to an Episcopal church and school in Lascahobas. This church's rector, Father Jean Jacques Deravil, also oversees his home church of Le Spirit in Lascahobas and five other rural missionary churches. Each one of these churches is associated with an Episcopal school for local children.
Also in 2012, the Cathedral became partners with the Church of the Ascension in Pouly, Haiti. This church’s school enrolls 120 - 140 students per year and employs eight teachers and a principal. School supplies, water sources, health care and sanitation are all in short supply. The devastation of 2012 presented a real threat for the students, whose families could not provide antibiotics for infections. Now their school has a little electricity, all supplied by solar panels installed by our team.
In 2013, Bishop Love, Dean David Collum, Deacon Plaske, Alyssa Plaske, Drs. Tabitha and Peter Cole, and Karen Coulson went on a mission trip to Haiti. They visited the Bishop in Port au Prince and provided a Bible School Day for children, complete with Bible stories and crafts. But the main purpose of the 2013 mission trip was to visit the school at The Church of the Ascension in Pouly and focus on health care.
Alyssa and the doctors taught the teachers and children how to wash their hands using soap and a portable tub with a faucet attached. About 88% of diarrhea-associated deaths are attributable to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and insufficient hygiene: this had been the primary concern of parents.
Along with support from the Cathedral, the school at Pouly benefited from World Vision’s institution of a program providing food for daily hot meals. The school now has a depot: a concrete locked building where food can be stored safely and cooked daily by the parents. All of the above changes in hygiene and nutrition, made possible through simple acts of giving, have substantially improved the children's health.
Deacon Susan Plaske visited Haiti again in 2016 shortly after Hurricane Matthew devasted the coastal villages. Then the Cathedral, through Deacon Plaske, brought medical supplies, glasses, vitamins, soap, diapers, and first aid to The Church of the Ascension in Pouly.
The Church of the Ascension is where the children have been meeting for school. Church pews convert to school desks during the week. Supplies are scarce and much of the teaching is through repetition and song. Many of the parents of the children cannot read. We were humbled to find that children attending the school learn to read and then often teach their parents by reading the Bible to them. The Cathedral family has supported its mission to the church in Pouly by paying teacher's salaries for six years and with school supplies. Money was raised through a Cathedral concert in 2017 to begin work on a new school building
The Cathedral of All Saints continues to help build the school at Pouly and designated $6000- in 2018 for this work. The boys of the Cathedral Choir donated the $600- they earned from performing Britten’s War Requiem with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, which was matched with $600- from the Cathedral’s Chapter. The Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys also took a collection for Haiti from attendees of the 2018 Messiah Concert. Part of this money has been sent to improve school furniture and buy supplies. The children, parents, and teachers of the school in Pouly and Fr. Deravil pray regularly for the Cathedral and ask God to bless us.
God is at work in Haiti. A sewing project is now underway, with a sewing machine that was donated to the village women who gather daily to pray for the children. Many of the children have now graduated and have moved on to help at the school or have learned a trade to help their village. One of the young men from Fr. Deravil's church just recently began Dentistry school.
Our relationship with the Church of the Ascension is of mutual benefit. A trip to Haiti will make anyone realize that we have much more to learn from them than they need to learn from us. If you are interested in assisting in the mission, we ask that you make a regular donation to the Cathedral with “Haiti Mission” in the Memo. This is the best way you will ever spend your money. Please feel free to contact Deacon Plaske for more information and to learn how you can help make a bright future for these beautiful children who are filled with Joy in the Lord. We also seek partnerships with other churches in and around Albany to support this most worthy mission. Deacon Plaske can be reached at susanplaske@gmail.com.