Several years ago, after the horrendous earthquake in Haiti, a young student named Pierre-Louise was invited to complete his college education at Siena College, after his university in Haiti was destroyed by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake which killed between 46,000 and 316,000 people. Siena College is a Franciscan institution which is about 3 miles from our home here in the Capital Region. While attending Siena College, Pierre- Louise participated in liturgies at our parish church, Christ Our Light Catholic Community in Loudonville. He met our pastor, Father David E. Noone, and in one of their conversations, he shared his dream of starting a secondary school in his village of Fontaine, Haiti. His village offered no schooling opportunities beyond the 6th grade. In fact, there was not even electricity or fresh water in Fontaine. Therefore, Pierre-Louise's dream was rather colossal. Nonetheless, the Spirit, moved Father David to be open to Pierre-Louise's vision and the dream has materialized into a rather awesome reality. Fontaine now has a well, some electricity and a secondary school for over 130 students.
We are pleased to introduce, Dufrene Ysmail, the student Bob and I are sponsoring. He is 16 years old and that his smiling self in the photo above. He has written to us several times and we have responded with letters and photos. We hope to meet Dufrene someday. In the meantime, we are happy that he has this marvelous opportunity of a high school education that we take for granted here in the USA.
Do a web search of Friends of Fontaine and view the 9 minute u-tube video to learn about this unbelievable outcome to one young man's dream.
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