Sponsors Offer Hope To Haitian Students

In April 2005, the mission team at St. Joseph Parish in Vanderburgh County learned that teachers at their “twinned parish” of St. James in Plaine du Nord, Haiti, were not being paid due to lack of funds. The team researched charities that were challenged with similar situations and created a plan to help keep St. James Parish schools open. It involved tuition help for parents and a source of income for teacher’s pay.

In 2007, St. Joseph parishioners Butch Feulner and Diane Bassemeier, with the help of the mission team and support of other parishioners, launched the Student Sponsorship Program. Fifty students were able to attend school that first year. Today, 90 K-through-sixth graders and 96 in grades seven-12 at St. James Parish schools – and 24 university students – are supported by the SSP. As awareness of the need has grown, the team’s goal of helping more students has become a reality.

Mission teams visiting St. James interview students in need of assistance. Sponsorship is then arranged through the SSP. Connections between students and sponsor(s) are made through photos and notes sent from students to their sponsors via visiting mission teams. Bonds are formed and continue throughout their years of schooling. To sponsor a student through the St. Joseph mission team, individuals/families are asked to fund $300 annually per student in grades K-12,  and $1,500 annually for a university student.

“Students’ hopes rely heavily on having sponsors that can help them through the system,” Feulner said. “With a lower fee, sponsors are easier to find for the students in K-12 grades; however it presents a new dilemma for the mission team when funds for university level students are not available.”

With university sponsorship costing $1,500 per student per year, many sponsors do not continue their support for a variety of reasons. Without a way to fund their university classes, education stops for those high school graduates. They are not automatically offered opportunities to further their education. There are no scholarships to obtain. Unemployment is 70 percent. Jobs are scarce. Those selected as university students are the brightest of the brightest, and are carefully chosen based on grades and recommendations from the pastor.

In 2010, Feulner and the mission group he was with visited the home of a high school girl being sponsored by SSP. “The family showed us through their very humble house and allowed us to take their picture in front of their home.” Feulner said. “The girl – very bright with an exciting, smiling spark – stood next to her mother. Her mother was probably no older than 35 but looked far older – unclean, in a raggedy dress, with disheveled hair and worn skin; evidence of a hard life.

“It occurred to me what a stark contrast there was between the two,” he added.  “What could we do for that girl to keep her from having to go through everything her mother did? What can we do to keep her mother from enduring even more of the difficult life she has lived?”