Dear friends,
The visit in Haiti was very productive and much was accomplished. After a five-city tour in the North, we are now certain that not all Haiti is a war zone! Only Port-au-Prince, its surrounding areas and the connected roads going to the North and South are very problematic and dangerous.
As for the YMCA we were able to consolidate the Governance: four board members have accepted to continue serving and three new ones were recruited. Board meetings will resume in September.
Gwénaël and Alayna visited the YMCA Community Center in Caracol, met the staff and abundantly spoke with a civil engineer about urgent repair jobs that need to be addressed on the site. Board member Jean Mirvil is very supportive of the initiative.
The project to upgrade the Community Center in Laboule continues. A mini soccer field fenced last December is now being grassed, so the Y could start with mini-soccer tournaments in October.
An evaluation of the National Office state was conducted: the support polls of the porch at the entrance of the building are now being consolidated. Deep cleaning and fresh painting will be addressed later as well as computer equipment and office furniture needed for a reopening of the national office in October.
Bainet and Camp-Perrin were not visited this time again but as promised, Bainet will be transformed to a YMCA Community Center before December 2024 and Camp-Perrin will be upgraded.
Concept paper and budget will be discussed at the board meeting in September.
Back to Canada, conversations continue with Quebec YMCA with regards to Alayna’s training and stay in Montreal and the meeting with Ottawa YMCA was a success: M. Trevor Mc. Almont, M. Morgan Bello and Ms. Katie Sexton were very interested in pursuing the conversations with regards to a partnership between our two YMCAs. The next step on their side is to inform their board while we provide them with more information about our short and long term needs.
Dear friends, thanks for your continuous support, YMCA d’Haïti is steadily recovering and concrete steps are being taken to reopen the national Office in October.
Gwénaël
…that they all may be one!