Hometown Heroes - Haiti school started by Lake Charles church

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - It was 30 years ago that Good Shepherd Episcopal began their “Tend My Lambs” Education Mission in Haiti. The need for a school in a small village was great, so the church helped fund five classrooms.

“You teach people how to think,” said Glenda Williams, church member. “That’s their only way out of poverty and they know that. You can’t tell somebody to pull yourself up by your bootstraps if they don’t have any boots - Martin Luther King.”

The school has become a stabilizing force for the village.

“The very first thing we did was drill a small water well,” said Rev. Frances Boo Kay. “They were drinking water out of the river and getting dysentery and their babies were dying. So that cut the mortality rate in half. Just that one well.”

Enrollment at the school is now at an all-time high with over 500 students.

“We have gotten the most eloquent, beautiful letters from them thanking us for our contributions,” said church member Denise Rau. “There is no better gift than education. That’s the one thing no one can take away from you. No one can take that.”

And with hurricanes, earthquakes and civil unrest, church members know they are tending the lambs of Haiti.

“To show that we exist not just in our own little circle, but that we are global and we look beyond ourselves and we can see other needs,” said Williams.

The church’s annual fundraiser, “Fish Fry for Haiti,” is back again this year on Friday, March 11. Tickets are available at Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd by calling 337-433-5244. All proceeds go to the school in Haiti.

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