Thank you for your interest in Haiti!
If you would like to keep yourself up to date on my adventures in Bayonnais, please visit my BLOG for more information.
Read about the Bayonnais Peanut Butter Project
Read about the Haiti Peanut Butter Project
| OFCB Ministries | Learn more about Haiti |
| Why education is important | Read my BLOG |
| Meet the students (read their BLOGS) | "I have a recognition!" (see Freedom School) |
For nearly two centuries, subsistence farming has characterized the livelihood of 80,000 people in rural Bayonnais, Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. This is not uncommon. Following colonial independence in 1804, former slaves exercised newfound freedom by cultivating their own land in the countryside. Today, OFCB (Organization of the Christian Force of Bayonnais), a ministry founded in 1993 through the vision of five inspired individuals, provides this generation with a new opportunity: education. Subjects such as history, biology, language arts, social science, philosophy, and visual art are now available to this community for the first time. Adults and children comprise a student body that has grown from 103 to 1460, and for many, the rice and beans served at lunch may be the only substantial meal they eat all day. Not only have national exam scores been some of the highest in the country, OFCB has sent 20 students to Haitian colleges! In an effort to stimulate long-term development, the college scholarship program stipulates that each student return to OFCB upon graduation to serve the community for 10 to 15 years, depending upon the field of study. One college graduate has become a doctor, currently in residency, and will return to start Bayonnais' first health clinic! Deep in the heart of a country plagued by extreme poverty, political violence and corruption, the people of Bayonnais are finding new hope.
However, this hope is being challenged. Most graduating seniors are not able to continue to higher education in order to pursue a specific field of study. The funding simply is not there: a $3,000 to $6,000 annual cost does not factor into a farmer's budget. Trapped in a post-graduate limbo, many students spend a discouraging year(s), questioning the value of education and surely inviting similar questions from their younger peers. Please help us to invest in this and the coming generation by sending more students to college.
For a detailed history of OFCB, please read: OFCB History
If you would like more information, please visit www.ofcbministries.org.
