Small School For Father Bohnen

We are looking for people who want to help 26,000 children survive.

Haiti is an extremely poor country. 70 % of its inhabitants live in constant undernourished circumstances. Every day people die of hunger, disease or a simple infection. There is hardly money for food, let alone medical aid.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the Antillean island Hispaniola. Haiti is approximately 2/3 the size of the Netherlands and has eight million inhabitants. A country with a unique history and culture; Haiti was the first free Negro republic to exist after a slavery uprising against French oppression. Haiti was once known as the ´Pearl of the Antilles´.
However… Haiti also has a different side: a dark history of death and destruction. Cruel dictators like the Duvaliers (pap Doc) have plundered the nation, leaving its people destitute. For years intimidation and terror were part of daily life. Sometimes there are signs of hope and poor and exploited citizens still have hope just by trying to survive each day.

Pater Bohnen
Father Bohnen came to Haiti in 1954. He stimulated slum dwellers to set up schools for their children and provided them with educational material and teachers. Whether these schools were Catholic, protestant or neutral was not important to him.

The schools belonged to the parents and they could count on Father Bohnen for support. It became a great success: 190 schools with 26000 children who receive education and a hot meal (probably their only meal) each day. The largest dining club in the world. These children have a chance for a better future thanks to father Bohnen´s work. His successors Père Damien (Belgium) and Père Zucchi (Haiti) work very hard to keep this project going. To help this project your financial support is indispensable. Grant the children of Haiti a place in your heart.

Desperation, Report from a visitor
Haiti is an island of misery and despair. The slums are hell! People are born in misery and die in misery. I visited the slums, smelled the stink of open sewers and experienced the desperation of daily life there. A true hell. The hell.

But I also visited a few of Father Bohnen´s schools. A miracle! In those 190 schools, sometimes made of stone but often just a shelter made of corrugated sheets, 26,000 children are educated each day and receive a hot meal of beans and rice.

In this enormous organisation 900 teachers and 400 other employees earn a living.

Oasis of hope in a world of pure desperation.

This is a very deserving cause.