For many years Health for Haiti donors have supported a sewing program in rural Haiti. In the past, it was possible for us to bring machines, fabric, and sewing supplies a couple times a year to share with the teacher and students. Sadly, the end of the Health for Haiti class in 2020 and the subsequent collapse of stability and security in Haiti marked the end of our ability to deliver supplies for the project. However, despite the challenges, the sewing program moved forward. This valuable initiative, fueled by generous donors, a dedicated teacher, and eager students, has never waivered from its goal of providing opportunities and transforming lives.
Today we are proud to bring you messages, pictures, and videos directly from the students and their teacher. There were happy for a chance to share their thoughts, hopes, and thanks with all those who support the Health for Haiti sewing program.
In the top picture above you can see the teacher, Mr Ovila Édouard, drawing a pattern for the students and explaining details about the process of reproducing it. You can also see a small sample of the fine work completed by our students.
This is a sample of the school uniform for our kindergarten students.
There are almost three hundred students in the school and most of the students’ school uniforms are made by our sewing students.
This is an incredible service for the school students and their families and a wonderful opportunity for the sewing students to practice their skills in a meaningful way.
Below, you will see messages that come directly from some of our students and the sewing school teacher. Thank you to Pastor Berlando for conducting the interviews, and to Schneider for providing translations.
“My name is Andremène D. I’m a beginner in the class and I really like it.
I want to thank everyone who has contributed to help support the sewing school.”
“I’m Lovely S. I’m proud to learn something that will help me, and I appreciate this opportunity it.
Today, I will begin my work on paper, but I hope I will sew with fabric soon for my family. Thank you to the donors for giving us this opportunity to learn a useful skill for the future.”
“I’m Fransil S, I’m from another village but I travel hours just to take this opportunity of learning about sewing clothes and to hopefully serve my community better in that area.
I’m proud because I already sew clothes for my kids. I want to say thank you the donors who decided to help fund this good project and I want you to know I will be praying for everyone who has been supporting the sewing class for us.”
“Hello, I am Vania E. I live in a different village, but I come here for the class to learn how to sew clothes. I come here to learn more and to be able to go back to better serve my community.
One thing I hope to see for the class in the future is getting materials we can practice with, such as sewing machines with pedals. This will allow us to make more progress and move forward with what we have been taught.”
“My name is Innocent E. The sewing class was very interesting to me because sewing has been something I have liked since I was a little girl. I found this class to be a great opportunity to learn good technical skills and to invest in my own machine to sew clothes for my family and others from the village.
I would like to take this special opportunity to tell our donors, thank you so much, because without their support today I would not be an advanced student in sewing. When I am sitting at my machine and working, I am filled with pride, because having the ability to transform pieces of fabric into whole clothes is amazing. It makes me feel like a genius.”
When asked what her biggest achievement has been so far, Madame Estimable replies, “One of my top memories is something I made for a lady who had to go to a wedding ceremony. I am proud that the dress she wore to that wedding was my work.”
Madame Estimable concludes by saying, “I want to say thank you again to everyone that made this possible for us. I’m praying for continued support and help so we can continue with this important class in our community.”
“Hello, I am Mackenson. It is a pleasure for me to be part of the sewing class even though I do not have a lot of free time in my schedule. (Mr. Mackenson is a teacher at the school in Grande Saline.)
With what I have already learned from the class, I can say that I am already using my skills to serve my community. My intention is to give my 100% to the class.
I am praying that our donors do not give up on us because they are investing in key careers that will benefit a lot of the people in our community, especially the young people.
It is my dream to see our class become a big professional school.
Even though we have not had a graduation, from the time that class began until now we have several students learn excellent skills and are ready to move on. I hope to see people from different other areas become part of the class. So far, my best experience is a shirt that I made. It was a good experience for me, but I learned that this work requires a lot of practice. However, I have many other tasks to do that sometimes prevent me from having enough time to practice. Right now I am grateful for the opportunity to congratulate Pastor Berlando and all of our donors who never stop believing in this great class.”
“Hello, my name is Love-na B. I live in a neighboring area. I travel here just to be part of the sewing class. I must cross the big river to come to class. However, sometimes it’s hard to cross and I must go to another area to find a way to cross and be present for class. My goal is to become an expert in sewing and then take my skills back to my village so that I can serve my community. We have only one tailor in our community that person is very old and there is no one else to provide this service. In my opinion, it is important to have an initialive to learn new skills. I encourage all young people to come and learn something new. This is the best way to give back to your community and keep it strong.
Thank you!”
And finally, we will hear from our dedicated and talented sewing teacher.
“Hello, I am Ovilla Édouard and I am the teacher of the sewing class. Today is a pleasure for us to have the opportunity to share about our sewing classes. We appreciate all the past support and things have been going well for our class. However, recently we have been dealing with several difficulties that have prevented us from allowing some students to graduate. We now have the goal to hold a graduation this July for students who are ready.
We urgently ask our donors, please do not give up on us. We must be more determined and focused than ever because now things are different. Before, we used to receive tremendous support such as donated machines, fabrics pieces and other sewing supplies. Now there’s almost nothing.
We understand that this is a result of great instability in our country, but we hope to find a new way forward. Our students cannot have enough practice and submit their work because we need some sewing machines with pedals that do not require power to be used. If we had machines like this it would attract more students. Now we have limited energy that can support only two machines and for a short time. This makes our students discouraged. So, we really hope to get some sewing machines with pedals. This would really help us.”
When asked for more information about his plan to hold a graduation this summer, Mr. Ovila responded, “We must assign them a final work project to prove their skills. There will be a jury to judge their work, we will need to prepare certificates for them, they will have graduation robes and hats as our first graduated class. We also want to thank all our donors for recognizing the discipline and hard work of our students. Their generosity has been a tremendous help to our community. Thank you so much!”
Thank you to our Health for Haiti donors who have continued to support this important initiative over the years. We look forward to sharing future updates as the sewing program continues to teach new skills that are bringing critical services to Grande Saline and beyond!
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