Two nuns from Haiti are in Dieppe, New Brunswick to sign an important agreement that will benefit hundreds of young Haitians.
Sister Gisèle Chaperon and Sister Kaline Honoré will work at the future Sgt. Mark Gallagher School, in Rivière Froide. The vocational institution is being built in memory Mark Gallagher, a Canadian RCMP officer who died in the Haiti earthquake in 2010.
The project was initiated by Richard Blaquiere, a retired teacher from Woodstock, N.B, who was touched by Gallagher’s tragic death.
“[Mark Gallagher] reached out to people, believed strongly in education, believed in the potential for the Haitians to help themselves. Everybody who knew Mark suffered after his loss.” says Blaquiere.
Blaquiere is president of Friends of Mark Gallagher, a group that raises funds for the construction and furnishing of the school.
“It’s really a huge project … and it’s a good Canadian story”.
Blaquiere’s project has brought support from many partners, including the Gallagher family, the RCMP, the federal and provincial governments and the Association québécoise pour l’avancement des Nations unies (AQANU).
The school will offer 5 training programs to 125 young Haitians. “Sister Gisèle, who is the education supervisor for Rivière Froide, where the school is being built, suggested … that she will have the best equipped vocational school in Haiti”, he says.
At Blaquiere’s suggestion, the nuns are staying at the home of the widow of Mark Gallagher, Lisa.
“I told [Lisa] ‘Here’s the chance for them to know Mark through your eyes, through the eyes of the woman who loved him’. And it’s her chance to get to know the sisters, the people who are going to keep his name alive in Haiti,” he says.
In October, if all goes well, the Sgt. Mark Gallagher Memorial Vocational School will be opened. Richard Blaquiere already has new ideas in mind for the future of the school. The project will cost $1,3 million de dollars.
“The idea is to see how the sisters do over the next few years… The land is ready for another building. Perhaps, in a few years from now, once they have the capacity to do more, we’ll look at bringing in a couple of other programs into it,” he says.
Richard Blaquiere, president of Friends of Mark Gallagher, talks to Gilda Salomone about the Sgt. Mark Gallagher Memorial Vocational School, Haiti.
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