First Presbyterian Church of El Dorado supports the following Global ministries:
In 1977, Dr. and Mrs. Gardner Landers of First Presbyterian Church, El Dorado, Arkansas heard about the desperate medical needs of the Haitian people. They volunteered to help and eventually developed a routine of making two trips a year to the impoverished island. Together with their surgical team, they provided sight-renewing surgery and eyeglasses to thousands of people.
Then one day in 1981, Frances Landers overheard Father Jean-Wilfrid Albert, Haitian chaplain at the Presbyterian-Episcopal Sainte Croix Hospital in Léogane, reluctantly tell a heartbroken child that there was no room for her in the mission school. That incident inspired Mrs. Landers to do something to ensure that the priest could say yes to children asking for a chance to learn.
Armed with photos of several hopeful children, Mrs. Landers returned to El Dorado and raised enough money through this church, her family, and her friends to build and operate an 8-room school at Mercery village and to set up 3 small schools in nearby mountain communities.
From one person's effort and one small school in 1981, the Haiti Education Foundation has grown to involve churches and individuals in states from Florida to Oregon. Over 7,000 children and young adults are enrolled in the 34 elementary schools, 7 high schools, and vocational school scattered among the mountains of Haiti's peninsula.
The mission of the Haiti Foundation, Inc., is to provide an education to the children in parts of five parishes in the southern mountains of Haiti.
Bon Berger School
First Presbyterian church, starting in 2014, began supporting the adoption of the Bon Berger school in the tiny village of Danot, Haiti. Bon Berger is one of 35 Haiti Education Foundation supported schools in southern Haiti. This effort provides for the payment of the salaries of ten teachers and administrators, plus the books and supplies for the 254 children attending school there. This school ensures that these children have an education and quality of life that would not otherwise be possible.
In addition, funds are provided through Trinity Hope, a Tennessee Christian based non-profit which provides a nourishing meal to all at the school daily. For many of these children, this is the only meal they receive each day.
The $23,000 raised annually by a special campaign at FPC makes all of this possible. This most generous commitment makes an unbelievable impact upon the lives of so many children and their families in Haiti.
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