Leading up to December 16th, SUNY Broome‘s BIO/HST 104: Health for Haiti course collected donations during their “Christmas for Kids” raffle to bring some joy to deserving children in rural Haiti.
The Health of Haiti course was launched in 2014, focusing on community development efforts to combat the effects of poverty in Haiti. Students not only travel to Haiti to receive an immersive experience throughout their coursework, they additionally engage in service projects that address the Haitian’s community needs. “Christmas for Kids,” a 50/50 raffle, is one of the service projects.
The goal of the raffle was to raise around $1,000 to be used toward a holiday party for a couple hundred children in Haiti. With the help from SUNY Broome and the surrounding community, including many former Health for Haiti students, 340 raffle tickets were sold. Over $1,300 will be sent over to two different schools in Haiti.
“This a great thing that you do for our kids,” said Mr. Dorcent Berlando, principal of one of the benefitting schools, to SUNY Broome. “They are having a difficult year and they face all sorts of problems, but now they feel great joy that they will have a holiday party.”
The Health for Haiti course doesn’t just give back around the holiday season. To learn more about the efforts done all year long, visit https://healthforhaiti.org/.
