Dear Warren,

Solar Power has just begun the transformation Bouvier School and the entire Community! The solar-energy has just been installed for an excited and grateful Bouvier community. Changing their lives forever! Bringing an end to the school’s energy-poverty. Enabling them to become self-sustaining through simple, entrepreneurial ideas, providing power for lighting, computers, pumps for bathrooms and irrigation, and so much more.

​ The parents, teachers and children cannot express their thanks enough in words!

Dear Warren,
Welcome back to your page. Well, the teams in Haiti have been working through so much with the rainy season slowing everything down!    But they are now coming out of the extreme weather and moving ahead on the final preparations ... and  now we should see the solar installed at the end of this month!!!

Here is a short THANK YOU video that John and I recorded for you when we were in Haiti... it was a lot of fun, and Jack the school dog even got in on the action! 

This Solar Project may be taking more time to prepare for than expected..... but we are insisting that everything is done properly and as professionally as possible  -as we are changing lives FOREVER with the completion of sustainable energy for the school and community!

Details of where we are up to are below. Check it out, we are up to Stages 5 and 6 (the last stages) - this Month!
All going smoothly!  

One day John and I would love for you to visit Bouvier School with us when this is completed. See first-hand the impact. Hear the thanks in person. Meet some if the families. Know that you've personally made a difference to hundreds of lives.................a good thought.        We'll write again soon.
​Cheryl & John

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The 2015 Haiti team at the Mission. A big thank you with big smiles! L-R: John, Cheryl, Jack, Anita, Tash, Dave, Jae. Small team. Big Vision.

STAGE  1: APRIL 2015 - COMPLETED          
We appointed A DEPUTY PRINCIPAL AND COMMUNITY LIAISON to oversee and lead the upkeep of this Solar Project (partnering with the School Principal who is more focused on the educational needs of the school) - to liaise with the parents and community who will undertake the preparation and infrastructure developments. His name is Jackson Volcy. We appointed him and his young family to become ‘caretakers’ of the school – particularly on weekends when all teachers head back to their farms or trek back to their families the city.

STAGE  2: APRIL 2015  - COMPLETED           
We MET WITH PROJECT LEADER AND NEWLY-FORMED PARENT COMMITTEE TO OUTLINE ongoing maintenance work and preparation that is essential before the solar power can be installed. The school has been subject to flooding in extreme weather and drainage had to be installed. The foundation of the school is a huge cement slab which has to be coated in polished cement so that it does not deteriorate.

STAGE  3: MAY / JUNE 2015  - COMPLETED             
BOUVIER PARENT COMMITTEE undertake the drainage needed at the school.

STAGE  4: JULY - SEPTEMBER 2015  - NOW COMPLETED  - BEHIND SCHEDULE .... BUT COMPLETED IN SEPTEMBER's  EXTREME CONDITIONS!          
BOUVIER PARENT COMMITTEE under the leadership of the Deputy Principal Jackson Volcy, has been formed to oversee the men carrying and donkey-transport of hundreds of bags of river-sand from the river below Bouvier School. This sand will be used in the cementing of the floor. Polished cement flooring will ensure that the foundations of the building remain strong for the weight of the upper storey and solar panelling. UPDATE: This part of the project was meant to be completed by the end of July. Due to the rainy season and this affecting the loads of sand that had to be carried up Bouvier Mountain - and could not be carried in the rains, (nor could sand be carried wet, as it increases the weight exponentially) this part of the project where we are totally reliant on man-power and donkey power to carry hundreds of kilos of sand up the mountain; has now only just been completed! They are amazing!

STAGE 5: Scheduled for JULY/AUG 2015 - NOW to BE COMPLETED OCTOBER 2015
A PROFESSIONAL CEMENT- FLOORING company will now undertake the flooring. and we will also send a team up to Bouvier to re-paint the school and finalise all electrical wiring, building and plumbing needed - ready for when the solar company will install the power for the fully-painted and completed school and clinic.

STAGE  6:  Scheduled for AUG 2015  - NOW to BE COMPLETED OCTOBER 2015          
SOLAR POWER INSTALLED AT BOUVIER SCHOOL !!!! A local, professional company will install the 

Preparation for Bouvier School Leading up to the Installation of Solar Power.

The Journey for Bouvier School to 
Solar Power and Becoming Self-Sustaining

The old way - cooking for the children over a charcoal fire.

Bouvier Mountain community, a six-hour trek deep into the mountains behind Haiti’s capitol of Port au Prince, can be described as a microcosm of all the ills of Haitian rural society: rampant poverty, endemic unemployment, illiteracy, non-existent public services and schooling, and families trying to eke out an existence through simple farming amidst often unsanitary living conditions. Smoky air fills thatched residences. Many Haitians do not have access to electricity or gas stoves for cooking. Most families cook using biomass fuels such as charcoal that release harmful smoke into the air. They often cook inside their unventilated dwellings or temporary tents where this harmful smoke is trapped. According to the World Health Organisation, Haitians suffer many of the highest rates of cardiovascular diseases and cancer in the world.
 [http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS2011_Full.pdf] 

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In the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

After the devastating earthquake in January 2010, about 250,000 residences in the city were demolished and 1.3 million people were internally displaced. Some of the homeless victims moved in with family or friends in rural areas such as Bouvier Mountain. The majority moved into temporary ‘tent cities’.  
Bouvier Mountain continues to be an area where families survive transiently, coming and going depending on if they can provide for their families through farming simple crops such as yams and beans.

And then there’s extreme crime such as child abduction, rape and trafficking.

In Bouvier, before 2009, families were being torn apart more by these three evils, than by their poverty. Their children were at constant risk of being abducted, raped or trafficked as they trekked the huge distances to attend primary school in the city. 

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The derelict Meeting House in the background - where the dream of Bouvier School began.

The parents had a dream. They gathered as a community under the leadership of their itinerant pastor and mentor – Reginald ‘Reggie’ Celestin. Reggie had spent his life journeying to the remote and ‘invisible’ people that are the most marginalised in his country. They love him and they trust him.

They decided that even without immediate funds, they would begin to educate Bouvier children themselves. Four volunteer teachers from Bouvier and Carrefour (Reggie’s Mission-base in Port au Prince) began teaching the children in the only building on Bouvier mountain – a 5m x 8m derelict ‘meeting house’ perched on the steep slope– used for church on Sundays. The four men (pictured on the right here), gave up their farming lives to teach four grades – facing the four corners of this building. The dream was underway. Reggie’s Mission started getting the word out that help was needed. 

Then the earthquake hit in 2010 and the derelict building lost most of it’s walls. The parents and teachers put up donated U.N. tarpaulins for walls, and kept the dream alive.

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The Dream

On the long trek to Bouvier Mountain: John points the way to the mountain where we are heading.

The children from Bouvier Mountain community - 2012

Pastor Reggie and I discussing Bouvier plans.

Bouvier School's first volunteer teachers.

The children are taught in the old Meeting House prior to 2012.

Bouvier Community dreamt of a simple, purpose-built  school that could withstand Haiti’s harsh elements:
- With four walls and classrooms
- With clean water for the children to drink (the nearest river-water is an hour trek down the steep mountain and water contamination is also an issue in a nation plagued by water-born diseases)
- With all the children SPONSORED so that families in Australia can partner with us to ensure the children receive an education and one meal a day
- With adequate teaching resources and chairs for every child
- A safe school that one day could possibly have teacher’s accommodation and even a clinic as well
- And an agricultural plot for passing on the teaching of farming
- And – maybe even … one day… SOLAR POWER - permanently impacting the entire community – dramatically reducing their energy poverty and ushering the school into self-sustainability and further educational resourcing via the internet!

...and Reggie still dreams that this school might become a prototype to then replicate across his nation. Imagine simple, safe, self-sustaining schools – for future generations - regardless of how marginalised and poverty-stricken they are… 

I trekked to Bouvier Mountain in 2011. One year after the earthquake. I met the most precious children being educated in their derelict building. 
I caught the dream. 
I and my husband John, decided to register as a charity, to begin our work in Haiti. With the help of a core leadership team of precious family and friends like Michael Crossland - who helped share the dream with you, Warren, we were under way.

Frontier Projects Haiti is launched in Australia

Four years later and we are now a registered charity in Australia – Frontier Projects. 
But we are different. 
We are small. 
We are hands-on. 
We are families and community….linking to other families and communities in need -  in Haiti & three other nations including our own. 
We help rescue the lives of children and young adults caught in poverty, trafficking, lack of education or safe living conditions. 

And we have a passion that sets us apart… “Every cent gets sent”.

In Haiti, these last four years, we have journeyed and partnered with family, friends, Aussy community leaders and our Haitian families and leaders from Bouvier and Carrefour to:

·      Level the land in Bouvier we purchased through the generosity of friends and families. (2011)
·      Build a simple, safe, school with four classrooms and guttering to harvest rain-water(2012), with Principal’s Office (2012), an undercover outdoor area (2013), a kitchen (2013), a gas stove for safe-cooking (2013), a teacher’s apartment (2014) with verandah (2015) and a Clinic (2014-15).
·      Sponsor most of the 150+ children and their teachers.
·      Provide safe water storage. In 2012 a Canadian-based NGO team partnered with us to provide water tanks with simple, inexpensive and revolutionary filters.
·      Provide every student with classroom furniture and each teacher (we now have seven!) with the resources they need.
·      Provide temporary power via a small, diesel generator.
·      Provide multiple, donated laptops to introduce the children to computer-based learning and hopefully one day – internet based learning and the world wide web!
·      Undertake a maintenance program for the school as it has weathered

And now here we are in 2015.

Solar Power now About to Transform Bouvier School and the Entire Community!

And then Warren, you gave to the Project so generously - ensuring the full realisation of the dream.
And now the solar-energy is about to be installed for an overwhelmed, excited and grateful Bouvier community. Changing their lives forever.
Bringing an end to the school’s energy-poverty.
Enabling them to become self-sustaining through simple business ideas, providing power for lighting, computers, pumps for bathrooms and irrigation, and so much more!
The parents, teachers and children cannot express their thanks enough to you in words. 
'Merci' is what they say but their smiles say so much more!

So where are we up to?

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The building team......... We train the builders & labourers to undertake all the project stages.

The students line up before morning class.

Inside one of the classrooms.

The roof area where the Solar panels will be installed.

More photos and detail of the progress through these stages will be added here over the coming months...