In 2008, the Vassar Haiti Project successfully built a school for 250 elementary school students in the rural village of Chermaitre, Haiti. However, kindergarten classes still had to be held in the neighboring church. The church is a basic stone and wood structure that has fallen into major dilapidation over the years. In March 2012, the school was hit by a severe storm that caused one of the church walls and parts of the roof to cave in, leaving the kindergarten students without a safe classroom. Insufficient shelter means putting a halt to their education; thus, the need for reconstruction is urgent.The Education Initiative is doing everything we can to raise the necessary funds. For this particular project, we are using a crowd-funding website, StartSomeGood. Crowd-funding websites are hubs of information on projects that need support. If a website visitor is drawn to a particular project, they can donate to it online instantaneously. Through Liking, re-posting, emailing, and other means of virtual sharing, this has the potential for a big "snowball effect," reaching people from all over the world who don't yet know about the Vassar Haiti Project.The link to our campaign is: http://www.startsomegood.com/venture/vassar_haiti_project/campaigns/show/help_build_a_kindergarten_in_chermaitre_haiti.

"Working on this campaign has opened my eyes to the importance of sustainable development, the value of teamwork, and the elation of feeling a sense of purpose. It has shown me how intelligent, dedicated, and passionate the members of Vassar Haiti Project are. Seeing the project come to fruition has been extremely rewarding because I am confident that, with your help, our work will pay off, and Chermaitre will soon have a new, safe kindergarten structure."

Donate in someone's name as a meaningful gift for their birthday, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's Day, or Lunar New Year's Day! The project only receive funds if we meet the Tipping Point of $2,500 in the next 58 days!