Contributed photo/Nate BodenstabHOULTON — At the Houlton Rotary Club meeting on June 27, the club was introduced to the speakers of the day, Tanis and Esther Derolus, guests of Rotarians Craig Bean and Dennis Ashley.
The Derolus family educated the group on Colegio Evangelico Moriah. This is a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade Christian School serving the needy Haitian and Dominican children on the outskirts of San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic.
Haiti has suffered from political unrest over the past three decades. Many Haitians have crossed the border into the Dominican Republic seeking asylum without the documentation of birth certificates or passports. These Haitians struggle to find work that will pay them more than a few dollars. They are taken advantage of because of having no documentation and they have no legal status. They speak French or Creole and not the local Spanish. The children of these workers are often left on their own all day.
The Derolus family noticed that there were many children playing in the streets with no apparent place to go during the day. The Derolus family decided to go from house to house to see if there were children who could benefit from a school. There are no public schools in the Dominican Republic. The couple wanted to provide a quality education and health care for the children guided by Christian principles as Tanis is a pastor. Tanis is Haitian and he moved to the Domincan Republic in 1993. He met Esther there and they were married in 1996.
With their vision and faith, the couple were able to open their school in 1998 and they housed ten students in their living room. Later with help from a couple from Maine who provided resources a new school building was under construction in 2002.
The school grew quickly and by 2004 the school was able to place the children in different rooms, teaching different grade levels and with certified teachers. By 2009 the school became certified through the 12th grade by the Dominican Ministry of Education.
There is now an effort is to start a food program. The children’s parents often have little money and the children often come to the school hungry. The Dominican Ministry of Education has ruled that the children should be fed on campus so the school is raising money for an open air cafeteria. The next project is to acquire books. A class may only have one book for the teacher and the children would benefit from having a book to follow along. Currently the classrooms have bench seating which is not working out so well as the proximity of students so close to each other is distracting.
Single desks would aid the student’s learning. The Foundation supporting Colegio Evangelico Moriah raises eighty percent of the costs of the school with the rest of the money being raised by parents who are able to pay the nine dollar tuition. Some other outside help is available. This year saw the first group of students graduating from the school and many are going on to college. For more information or to donate the website is colegiomoriah.org.
