A series of teams from Canada and the US were dispatched to the northern city of Gonaives in the fall of 2011.  The FMC’s primary school there had been lost during severe hurricane-related flooding in 2008, and since then children had been going to classes in the church itself and other scattered venues

The first Canadian team in October worked on the foundations for a new 8-room school. The team was led by the Verona, Ontario FMC and Pastor Jeff Nault, who also had led the first Help Haiti Heal team in 2010.   The team of 13 also included persons from Smiths Falls FMC and Whitby FMC.

                

Another Canadian team followed in November, led by Grant Sigsworth, HHH Coordinator.  The team of 15 came from FMCs in Ontario (Whitby, Peterborough, St Catherines), Weyburn, SK, and Lapeer, Michigan as well as the Ajax (ON) Alliance Church including worksite lead, Phil Raby.  This team finished the foundations and erected the lower walls of concrete blocks.

Both teams, bolstered by a dedicated crew of 15 or so Haitians from the local church, worked diligently and made significant progress.  The teams were lodged at a FM guesthouse in the nearby community of Mapou where in early 2011 a work team led by the Belleville (ON) Centennial church had completed a large primary FM school.  Both teams were blessed to worship with the host Gonaives FMC, and the teams’ pastors preached through a translator.