Worcester, MA 01602
Welcome to the website which explores the twinning relationship between Christ the King Parish and Immaculate Conception Parish in Les Anglais, Haiti. This past December our two parishes signed our second formal covenant agreement.
In the years ahead we will explore the relationship of these two wonderful parishes.
Telephone and email contact is difficult and Les Anglais experiences frequent power outages making email contact irregular as well. But I did want to offer some updated information about what we are doing for the students (and teachers) at Notre Dame de Lourdes Catholic School, which we are supporting.
There are now nearly 400 students in the school and they are supported by several full-time teachers, one for each grade. In addition, there are four kitchen workers, who prepare and serve the one hot meal that the students receive each day. For one thing, CTK is paying the teachers' salaries, which average 2,200 Haitian gourdes per month ($53/mo or $2.65 per school day). The kitchen workers receive 1,500 Haitian gourdes ($36/mo or $1.80 per school day). Thus far, we have paid these salaries for the months of November, 2013-February, 2014.
There are also photos of the current outdoor kitchen. You can see that it is very run down and needs to be totally rebuilt or the students will not have their one hot meal of the day. In Haiti, not to provide a meal at a school, the only hot meal a young person will receive that day, means the students don't go to school at all! Fr. Brutus, the first pastor with whom we worked, submitted the costs to build a new kitchen facility and we have paid for it. The cost was $1,100 (for rock, sand, iron, cement, boards, nails, and labor).
Our fundraising efforts at Christ the King have been very successful. About 100 of our families (couples, families and/or individuals) have donated toward this twinned parish outreach. Our savings are held in an interest-bearing account in the Diocesan Expansion Fund. They now amount to $23,534.53.
Thank you! God bless you! Pray for us!
Monsignor Sullivan
January 8, 2015