Education: The patrice lumumba school (pls)

The Patrice Lumumba School is a community-based school whose mission is to provide high-level education to all children regardless of their religion or ability to pay the school fee.

The school also accepts young people who left school too early and have now aged out of the public school system. PLS provides them with a second chance at education. The current enrollment is 274 students.

Ecoworks International has been supporting the Patrice Lumumba School for the past twelve years. In that time, we have contributed to the construction of classrooms, enclosing walls, and the gate. This helps ensure the children’s safety during recess, and when they are dropped off and picked up. The school is located near the main national road, which is heavily used by trucks traveling between the Haitian capital and the Dominican Republic, a  scene of far too many preventable accidents.

We also support the teachers, the curriculum’s expansion, the early-childhood reading library, the new emergency lunch program, and the edible garden.

The school’s co-founder and director, Magistrate Ralph Lapointe, is a dedicated leader and teacher. In addition to PLS, he also teaches at the Ganthier high-school and the Quisqueya University’s Education Department. He is the former Mayor of the Commune of Ganthier and has been Ecoworks International’s Senior Strategic and Program Advisor for thirteen years.

During his tenure as mayor, Professor Lapointe obtained funds to build rural schools, including an impressive one in Marre-Roseau. He also obtained funding to support local smallholder farmers. As a result, the region’s communities hold him in the highest regard and trust his leadership.