At a Sunday forum earlier this year we heard from the Rev. Sam Owen, priest-in-charge of L’Eglise du Bon Samaritain, about the New York Haiti Project. This partnership is building a new Episcopal school and church in the village of Matel, Haiti, and also seeks to develop the Matel community’s capacity to earn income and help the school become self-supporting through the construction of a mill to grind their millet and corn. The mission team went there this summer and have now installed a new mill so the local farmers don’t have to travel far away and pay to mill their grain. Here is a link to a video of the mill in action. Now the Matel farmers can keep that money in the community and draw others from nearby villages to contribute to their economy. Here is another link to see link to see short video of Sunday worship which shows the new temporary building for the school
Below is some text from the letter of thanks to Ascension for our donation to this project.
Your donation helped us finish the grain mill in Martel. A group of ten of us, representing six parishes in our diocese, recently returned from a weeklong visit in Martel. We visited the grain mill, we worshipped and prayed with the people, and we celebrated our work together. Overall it was a spirit-filled journey, full of joy, hope and heartbreak.
Just prior to our trip we were happy to learn that the United Thank Offering awarded a sizable grant to the New York Haiti Project for the construction of the permanent school/church building. Upon arriving in Martel we were pleased to see that the community has constructed a temporary building so that we can open the school in September. The church and school in Martel will be called St. Luke’s.
Thank you again for your support of this project. We believe that the relationships we are building between the people of our diocese and the Episcopal churches in the Diocese of Haiti will bear fruit for many years to come.
The Rev. Sam Louis Owen, Priest in Charge
Haitian Congregation of the Good Samaritan Episcopal Church
777 East 222nd Street
Bronx, NY 10467
