Verrettes is a mountainous farming community in the notoriously poor Artibonite region of central Haiti.  Although it is only 75 miles north of Port-au-Prince, it takes about three hours to travel there by road.  The city of Verrettes and the surrounding areas have a population of about 170,000.  The community is poor, even by Haitian standards, with the majority of households living on less than $3 per day.  In a country where the  inflation rate has been over 30% for three years and a bag of rice costs over $50, the struggle to survive is evident.  However, because the region is remote it is largely unreached by foreign aid.  Since Haiti’s civil gang warfare began, Verrettes has been cut off on all sides and often suffers from drought.  

Education is highly valued in Haiti, but it is not free.  On average, it costs $25/month to attend school.  In Verrettes there are currently enough schools to support about 50% of the school age children, and many have shut down due to insecurity.  The majority of teachers have no formal training.   Sixty percent of those children lucky enough to enroll in school will not finish sixth grade.  Less than 1% of girls graduate from high school.

After highschool, the opportunities are even more limited. University education is extremely rare in Haiti and can cost more than 5 times a typical household’s annual income.  Although our students in Verrettes dream of becoming doctors, engineers, scientists, politicians and teachers, most will be doomed to abandon those dreams and continue the cycle of poverty and desperation. Unless opportunity changes. Unless education changes. Unless Hope arrives.