Our Covid Response
Dear Community,
I’d like to fill you in as to what’s happening at Pi Gwo Byen.
Shortly after the United States shut the boarders and went on lockdown on March 13th, Haiti followed suit on March 20th. We had a Greater Good International Board meeting on Tuesday March 24th and in that meeting decided that, because so many of our students normally eat their main mid-day meal as well as morning bread and cheese at school, and their family’s are food insecure, we would send weekly stipends of $10 to each Pi Gwo Byen family whether student or staff. This we have done weekly since March 26th. The teachers each meet with the families of the students in their classes weekly on Saturday to distribute the stipends. This also provides regular updates about our community.
We have continued to pay all staff salaries each month as we would normally.
In July the Ministry of Education decided that school will resume on August 17th for 8 weeks in order that all students may finish the interrupted school year. The term will be an 8 week session to finish off the 2019-2020 school year. School did start on the Monday the 17th, just this past Monday. However, Pi Gwo Byen did not resume for all students. After much thought and many meetings with teachers, we all agreed that it was still much too risky to put all students in class together. Instead we came to the idea that perhaps just the students in the 3rd level who are set to take the matriculation exam should resume. We spread the class of twelve between the three teachers who are each teaching 2 or 3 subjects which students will encounter in the matriculation exam. All students and staff wear masks during instruction time. Tables are disinfected every day before school starts.
We are modeling safe and sane practices regarding how best to be in school for classroom instruction in the community of Anse A Galets.
School is set to begin for the 2020/2021 school year on November 9th. We will begin to evaluate the safety and plan how best to move forward later this month after gaging the Corona Virus situation in Haiti.
As for the numbers in Haiti in terms of Covid-19 cases and deaths, it is virtually impossible to have accurate information. There have been many people in Anse A Galets who have contracted the illness, and sadly several deaths. I have not been able to get consensus on numbers.
We are scheduled to start our Earthship building project in January. This will only be halted if Covid-19 cases spike. We plan to build 2 or 3 class rooms in phase 1 in January.
So, you can see that we have tried to keep our spirits up and carry on in terms of supporting the Pi Gwo Byen Community.
We look forward to getting back to normal, as does every school community around the world.
With Gratitude and Hope,
Kelly