This year, the Greta Home and Academy is teaching children from the local community along with the boys and girls who board at the school. During the day, they learn necessary skills with a foundation built on Christ.
Pamela Krebs is an intern who is serving at the Greta Home and Academy by providing administrative support and planning children’s activities and an upcoming Christmas celebration.
The air was charged with excitement. Clothes were clean and pressed, and hair bows and shoes were tied. Little feet scurried about with shoes clacking on the tile floors. Children crowded around bathroom mirrors, taking last looks. Pencils were sharpened, and the boys and girls stood ready with anticipation. Today is the first day of school.
This morning the Greta Home and Academy opened its doors to accept 48 children from the surrounding community in Lèogâne, Haiti. These boys and girls will not only go to school, but also attend morning devotions and lunch each day with the children living in the home.
After morning devotions and prayer, the children all lined up to raise their country’s flag while proudly singing their national anthem. Then it was time for classes to begin. Each child sat at attention as they soaked up their lessons in math, science, language, Haitian history, and grammar. As for the little kindergarteners (ages 3-5), their day was spent leaning their ABC’s, numbers, shapes, and developing social skills.
Here at the Greta Home and Academy, we use a Christ-centered curriculum called Mwen Kapab! (meaning I can! in Creole) that was developed by a Haitian organization that meets government standards and strives to produce prepared, skilled, motivated, and responsible Christian young men and women.
Reportedly, more than 50 percent of school-aged children in the country, about 1.3 million, do not have access to an education. Only about half of the population can read and write, and Haiti has the lowest enrollment rate for primary education in the Western Hemisphere.
By providing a quality education that is Christ-centered, we hope to not only impact the children and their families but also their communities and their country both academically and for the Kingdom of God.