About The Haitian Project

Our School is highlighted in blue!

The Haitian Project, a 501(c)3 non-profit, is a Catholic Mission which supports and operates Louverture Cleary School (LCS), a tuition-free, Catholic, co-educational secondary boarding school for economically under-privileged Haitian children.

Imagine living in a place where…

• More than one million primary school-age children simply have no access to education.
• Nearly 80% of the population lacks basic reading and writing skills.
• One in eight children die annually before the age of five, mainly because of malnutrition.

The Haitian Project was founded in the early 1980's by St. Joseph's Parish in Providence, RI, to provide humanitarian aid and relief to the people of Haiti. Louverture Cleary School began as a response to one of the greatest needs of Haiti: education. Once a school with a handful of students and big dreams for the future, Louverture Cleary School has now grown to feed, house, and educate 350 bright and enthusiastic students from the poorest neighborhoods of Haiti.

In response to their free education, LCS students are active leaders in service to their community. Each day, students can be found cleaning their neighborhood, caring for sick and orphaned children and disabled adults, and challenging the notion that theirs is a country devoid of hope. LCS students receive a top-notch education - a tool that will help them as they seek to rebuild Haiti. The Haitian Project operates by a simple and powerful motto:

"What you receive as gift, you must give as gift." -- Matthew 10:8

Our Mission

The Haitian Project through Louverture Cleary School, its Catholic, co-educational boarding school in Haiti, educates and nurtures academically talented and motivated students from the poorest Haitian families to maximize their potential and enable them to work toward building a Haiti where justice and peace thrive.

Our Goals

• To educate students of all faiths through an academically challenging program in a Christian community rooted in service to others.

• To provide a safe atmosphere that nurtures students intellectually, spiritually and physically, fostering in them a concern for the environment and global community.

• To promote the advancement of women, by providing educational opportunities that encourage young women to continue their education and to be role models for others.

• To instill in students the desire and motivation to remain in Haiti and to work not only for self-improvement, but also for the betterment of all Haitians. 

• To develop and enhance leadership qualities in students, preparing them to make social and economic contributions to their community and their country.

• To promote career and post-secondary educational opportunities for students in Haiti.

• To collaborate with other agencies or religious organizations who are committed to similar ideals for Haiti. 

• To increase awareness in all Americans of the plight of the Haitian people, as well as their hope for the future. 

Our Charism

Drawing on Pope John Paul II’s clear teachings on the spirituality and purpose of human labor, The Haitian Project community has grounded itself in the spiritual and practical reality that work is both internally and externally transformative.  Through our commitment to working first and foremost for the benefit of others, we have learned that we can improve ourselves and the world around us simultaneously. 

By living our specific charism, we have discovered that work done voluntarily for the benefit of others is a powerful, grace-filled catalyst for personal metanoia and environmental change. In this context, the success of our labor not only increases our sense of personal dignity and transforms the world around us, but it also deepens our trust in God and our willingness to serve.

Led by the Holy Spirit and enabled by the abundant gifts He provides, we have discovered that work done voluntarily by a community of people drawn from all sectors of society acting in unison creates a quality of solidarity reminiscent of the early Christian communities recorded in Acts.

Like the early Christian communities, our community has flourished since we accepted our specific charism of working for others [Christian Service] and began living intentionally in accordance with the following three principles:

What we receive for free, we must give for free.  [Mathew 10:8] This is the basic motto of our community—it is the fundamental call to service.

If anyone is unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.  [Second Thessalonians 3:10] This principle is not merely about survival, it is about fulfilling our responsibilities as social beings and to one another. In a community, everyone is to be personally industrious. We are all called to work and produce.  We are not to live solely off the labors of others if we are capable of making a contribution ourselves. We are also reminded that as Christian brothers and sisters we belong to one another.  When we fulfill our personal responsibility to a community, we become a catalyst for justice and charity.

If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all. (Mark 9:35)  This gives direction to our zeal for service.  It sends us to serve the weakest and most marginalized. We capture this concept in the Kreyol phrase “tet amba”.  Usually this means “upside down” or “chaos”, but to us it is the reminder to pass below and support from the bottom up. 

We are also reminded that “our” work is part of a plan beyond our comprehension. Humbly recognizing that all good things come from God, we accept that work with God requires letting go of ourselves and our pride.  While leadership and chain of command are important, all must participate equally in the work since we have the same duty and the same dignity before God.

Hearing the call to join this community and live this charism, we have a choice to respond with a simple “yes” for a period of weeks, years or a lifetime.