As the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding this year, they will also be celebrating an additional accomplishment: the grand opening of an elementary school in Haiti on June 15.
In collaboration with the non-profit Water and Educational International, the Delta Research and Educational Foundation established the Water and Educational International Student Collaboration for Haiti Outreach Opportunities for Learning (WEI SCHOOL) project in 2012 that seeks to provide “an adequate school facility to include clean water for school children in Haiti,” according to a statement.
A school in Chérette, a village southwest of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, was rebuilt with bigger classrooms and new technologies that will promote a “hands-on global service learning experience.” There will also be unlimited access to fresh, clean water to meet the needs of the 300 students who attend the school.
“As a former elementary school teacher, it has been my experience that providing the proper educational tools and creating a positive learning environment to school instruction … enables students to excel in and outside the classroom,” National president of Delta Sigma Theta, Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre said in a statement.
WEI will control all managerial and financial entities of the school, as well as its legal and daily responsibilities. However, the school’s administration has chosen to name the school Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Elementary School at The Cynthia M. A. Butler-McIntyre Campus in recognition of the funds that were donated by members of the sorority in support of the Clean Water Haiti Fund in 2010, and the grant from the Delta Research & Educational Foundation that provides clean water onsite at the school.
According to the statement, the school’s reconstruction is the “first of many initiatives to alleviate some of the challenges in obtaining a quality education in Haiti.”
“Although we no longer see the images of Haiti in the news, the women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority have not forgotten the devastated faces of our Haitian brothers and sisters after the earthquake three years ago,” Butler-McIntyre said.
Source: Amsterdamnews.com
