Sion Fonds school in Masson



Sionfonds school in Masson, Haiti

Sionfond’s Masson school in up-Pettionville is in the mountains, beyond Pettionville, a hillside town connected to Port au Prince the capitol of Haiti.

To reach Masson one must hike, three hours, up a switch back trail. On the mountain there is no electricity. Water comes from hillside springs. Most families in the community are cultivators feeding their families with what they grow. They have little opportunity to make the money that would pay the tuitions for their children to attend private schools. There are not enough public schools in Haiti for most children to attend, especially outside the capital and they are not free.


Inside the school at Masson
preschool class room

When families have the funds to send their children to school they do. People in Haiti deeply value education and seek to give their children, and Haiti, a better future through education.

Often a student may be able to start the school year but for a variety or reasons is not able to complete the year and pass on to the next grade. Some years they may have to skip school altogether for lack of funds or illness, or they need to help the family work in their plot of land to provide food for the family.

Generally school grades and ages are; between 3 to 6 years old a child should be in preschool, between 6 to 12 years old primary grades, and between 12 to 18 or 19 years old, secondary school. A student must complete the school year and pass the grade level exams to move on to the next grade, consequently there are students of every age, in every grade level in Haitian schools.

Sionfonds allows all children at our Masson and Gaviollon schools to attend for free. In Belle Anse we offer full and partial scholarships for hundreds of children at well established schools, in that community. We provide school supplies and uniforms and shoes when they are available. Our Goal is to support the families of this community in sending their children to school in hopes that it will alleviate some of the crushing poverty they struggle with every day providing for their children.



Students at recess


You can see from these picture what Masson school is made of. With its canvass roof and tin siding, on wooden frame it seems amazing that so many children can pack themselves in each day to learn from their teachers. There are about 150 students, and 6 teachers with 25 students each at Masson. They are taught in French and Haitian Kreyole. The primary form of instruction is traditional recitation. The teacher calling out, and the students responding or repeating. Reading, writing, mathematics and French are the core subjects. When supplies are available art and sewing are also taught.



A peek inside Masson school!

Masson School may not look like much to our eyes but it is an invaluable gift to these children and their families. Your donations allow these children to attend school, and hope for the future to be brighter and have more opportunities, than that of their own parents. In Haiti illiteracy is just a little less than 50%. Most of these children come from families with three or four kids and the entire family lives on less than $1 a day.

Thank you so much for supporting the children at Masson School.

An excerpt from our grant proposal to the Ashton family foundation who granted Sionfonds $20,000 to build a new school at Masson

The community of Masson is perched atop a mountainside a steep 3-hour walk straight up from a quarry just outside the town of Pettionville. There are few other schools within walking distance and none that are free. Public schools in Haiti are not free they may only cost $10 or $20 a year, plus books, uniforms and shoes, but it is more than most of Haiti's rural population, that live on less than one dollar a day, can afford. Sionfonds school in Masson provides free education to all the children who attend. The school serves 150 students as well as provide a much-needed gathering place for the community. Adult education and job training opportunities would also be possible once we had a more secure structure to store materials in. The community and parents will help with building the school and donate the land to build on. We also will peruse offers we have had to bring in other charitable organizations to bring in teams of volunteers to help in building the school. We hope to begin construction in the spring of 2008

with completion in time for the start of school in September of 2008. With the completion of the school Sionfonds will be able to implement other projects we have projected for the future of the community. Already we have had Haitian boy scouts come to the school for camping trips and American boy scouts complete their eagle badge projects by supplying the school children with book bags and supplies. With the completion of the building we will be able to bring groups of teachers and young people to do out reach, teaching and form lasting bonds and impressions of a country so close but so different than the rest of North America. Sionfonds will also periodically bring medical teams to work in the community the school building will serve as a clinic and housing for visiting doctors and nurses. The school building itself and the participation and gratitude of so many desperately poor people with little o r no hope of bettering the lives of their families may be measured in several ways. Attendance in the school and the consistent attendance that will be possible once the weather is not a factor will improve test score and children passing from one grade to the next. Fewer children will leave the community to go to school in the city as house servants or restavecs in exchange for education. Parents may not have to leave the community to seek jobs to pay for schooling of their children. With free education comes the possibility that families will be able to use their meager monetary resources to care for their children, and fewer may be sent to orphanages as their only hope for consistent meals, healthcare and a better life. The gift of a school building will not just help the children of today or tomorrow but for generations of children. Haiti has long been a country of poverty and upheaval it is our belief that by educating Haiti's future, it's children; Haitians will be empowered to bring their country into a more stable and prosperous state.