Respire Haiti Christian School
Respire Haiti Christian School began in the back of a church in 2011 after seeing so many of the children participating in the feeding program were not attending school. We began with 75 children and soon grew the next year to 365 students, we now have over 500 students at Respire Haiti Christian School. In 2012 we completed our first 6 classroom building and soon after built a 4 classroom building. We continued to build classrooms to meet our need for our students. As of 2018, our School Campus consists of 22 classrooms total including a computer lab, library and two special needs classrooms. Respire Haiti Christian School also has a temporary kitchen that serves 1200 meals a day (Breakfast and Lunch), a Direction Office that holds our administrators, supply storage and front office. Lastly, a shade structure where our students eat the second meal of the day.
Currently we have 540 students enrolled in our school, grades pre-k through 9th grade including 2 special needs classes. Our classroom size is maintained at 20-22 students for lower grades and 24-26 students per classroom for the upper grades. Each of our lower grades have both a teacher and an assistant in each classroom. Our secondary school (7th -9th grade) has one teacher per subject, with a total of 8 subjects.
Respire Haiti Christian School prides itself on focusing on the emotional, physical and mental well-being of each student. The majority of our students have come from restavek situations and some are still in this situation currently. Nearly all of our students have experienced some form of abuse and nearly all of them have experienced trauma throughout their short lives. Our teachers are educated in trauma informed education techniques and we strive to continuously train them regarding the importance of treating each child with love, encouragement and respect
In nearly all Haitian schools, corporal punishment is the natural form of discipline. We have worked extremely hard to make sure that this is not true for our school. Our Director of Discipline takes this role of overseeing discipline throughout the school extremely seriously (as does all of our administrators). We are constantly striving to improve the way in which our teachers interact with our students to make sure that they are always able to handle situations that may arise in their classrooms
Additionally, Respire Haiti respects the importance of the native tongue. Unlike most other Haitian schools, we begin teaching Kindergarten in Haitian Creole and introduce French in 2 nd grade(most other schools begin teaching immediately in French). According to top linguists, teaching a child in their native tongue encourages early reading and better comprehension skills. As a result, our students begin reading in Kindergarten.
Respire Haiti Christian School continuously ranks high throughout our area in Haiti. We strive to make sure that we are meeting each child’s needs.
Respire Haiti Christian School
