In Haiti only approximately 20% of eligible-age children go on to secondary school. With the help of Morton Memorial Presbyterian Church in Chickamauga Georgia, we are changing those statistics in the area around Larevwa. Since the 2014 founding of EMEL the school attendance rate in and around the village of Larevwa has grown to be very near 100% of all age-qualified children. The fact that the school is free and provides a hot lunch each day has broken down all previous barriers to the children attending school. We have observed that the dropout rate for all students from Preschool to eighth grade is less than 5%. So far every student who has graduated from sixth grade had chosen to go on to secondary school. In the fall of 2016, EMEL had six students that were graduated from sixth grade and moved on to seventh grade, since then, the number has grown to nearly 120 children. In 2016, we made a commitment to pay the tuition of all of our students who wished to continue their education, as long as they qualified. In order to qualify for the scholarship they had to first pass the Haitian government test that permits them to move on and they are required to write an essay about how they will use their education to benefit their community and the country of Haiti. We have made arrangements with the Wesleyan School in the neighboring village of Chaumeile and St Timothee Episcopal School a few miles down the road to allow our students to attend seventh through twelfth grade. We pay their tuition along with other necessary costs, except uniforms. The partnering schools communicate regularly with us concerning the student’s progress and send us a copy of the student’s report card. All of the students have access to our Taryn Center computer lab and are encouraged to take advantage of the available educational materials. The secondary students come to the Taryn Center each Saturday to attend English and music class and to use the computers.
The folks that make up Morton Memorial Presbyterian Church in Chickamauga, Georgia are showing God's love by sponsoring the education of these children. They have expressed the joy that comes from making such a huge difference in the children's lives. I've heard them say that while they don't have many children attend church on Sunday, they have lot's of kids in Haiti. When the children in Haiti heard about how the folks at Morton where making their lives better, they immediately named themselves the Morton Kids.
The number of Morton Kids grow each school year. It has been necessary to go outside the Morton congregation and give others the opportunity to join them in providing an education to these beautiful children.
