Following the devastating January 2010 earthquake, an initial damage assessment process determined whether buildings were safe (green), sustained limited damage (yellow), or were unsafe (red). For the highest immediate impact, yellow tagged houses have been flagged for repair and are being repaired through various programs. (*taken from the miyamoto website)
Miyamoto, a seismic engineering company, has repaired over 9,500 homes in the last 3 years following the earthquake. A few stats that I gathered at the cocktail that Randy and I attended to celebrate this huge achievement by Miyamoto and their partner orgnaizations (of which Adoration is one of them)
Adoration was able to partner with Miyamoto shortly after the earthquakce to do a yellow house project. Miyamoto worked in the community of Cite Aux Cayes and Cite Jeremie, where a number of families from Adoration’s community live. And so Adoration partnered with Miyamoto for a 200 house project (total project cost was $300,000 USD) We were able to do this project with generous donations from supporters, individuals and companies from Canada who responded with financial donations after the earthquake. One of the things that we really appreciate about Miyamoto is their focus on educating the Haitians, that is our whole purpose at Adoration and so we felt that this project fit in well in helping in our community while meeting the goal of education.
It was exciting to attend the cocktail a couple of weeks ago, meet the people who are making a huge difference in how Haiti is being rebuilt and see how our small organization was able to contribute to the rebuilding and relocation of people back into their homes.
For some interesting videos and more information on the work Miyamoto is doing in Haiti check out this link.
Abner Demosthene is the Assistant Director of the Secondary Program here at Adoration Christian Centre. He is married to Marceline Providence and they have two little boys. Their names are Westymburg Abner Fils and Abdias. Abner was born in the Delmas area of Port au Prince. He lives a couple of taptap rides to the school.
Abner has an engineering degree. Abner has been teaching for the past 10 years, teaching Grades 4 through Philo, (Grade 13). He also has been using his engineering degree this past summer with the building project that Adoration Christian Centre has been doing. He has been in charge of the 50 houses that have been built. Abner has been a great asset to the committee with the knowledge that he has. Without his help this project would not have been the success that it was.
While working at Adoration Christian Centre this year Abner teaches 12 hours a week. When he is not teaching he watches the other teachers teach and also monitors the behaviour of the students. He loves teaching because it is in his heart to do this. There are many other things he could be doing but he wants to save time for this.
In his spare time he loves to read his Bible and other books. If given the chance he would love to visit Canada with his family.
Got what, you may ask? And why are you so excited maybe another question?
For the past two years Adoration Christian Centre has been in the process of registering the organization with the Haitian government and yesterday we received the paperwork saying that we are registered.
God has been with us during this difficult journey. We have been truly blessed. We are now regisitered. Please pray for the registration of the school and further registration work of the organization.
Dalizien Erneste is the Director of the Secondary School Program at Adoration Christian Centre. He was born on July 3rd, 1974 in Pilate. Pilate is located in the northern part of Haiti. He moved to Port au Prince for schooling and for jobs here and currently lives within walking distance to the school. He is getting married on December 26 of this year.
Erneste obtained his teaching diploma at teachers college and has enjoyed teaching Grades 7 through Rheto, (Rheto is Grade 12), for the past 10 years. The reason he likes teaching so much is because when the children come to school they don’t know a lot but when they leave they have been given knowledge and information in their lives. Through schools we can educate children to lead a better life.
In addition to being the Director of the Secondary School Program he also teaches French to the Grade 7 and 8 students.
In his spare time he loves to read books and do gardening. If ever given the chance he would love to travel and see other countries around the world. We are blest to have Dalizien Erneste as one of our teachers at Adoration.
