All About Us!
UCLA Students for Haiti Solidarity was founded in 2015 at UCLA by three previous Los Altos High School students. We work year round to raise money for our sister school SOPUDEP located in Port au Prince, Haiti.
SOPUDEP is a non-profit organized by Rea Dol (assisted by her husband Jean-Jacques Bataille). It contains multiple facets, and fundraising efforts are dispersed between the different projects.
Facets of SOPUDEP
EDUCATION: providing free K-12 education for 80% of its students, including children and adults
MICRO-ENTERPRISE: organizing a micro-credit cooperation for women to encourage them to create their own businesses and become financially independent
COMMUNITY HEALTH: funding a fully Haitian staffed mobile medical clinic comprised of volunteer nurses and doctors offering their services and basic medications to some of the most deprived locations
VOCATIONAL: training in carpentry and tailoring for women and men
The SOPUDEP School
Our main focus is the SOPUDEP school, which works to provide a free, substantive education to children and adults. Currently 90% of schools in Haiti are private and too expensive for most families to afford. SOPUDEP is one of the very few schools that is completely free for students. Currently, SOPUDEP operates in Petionville, Port au Prince servicing over 800 children and adults. Up until recently the school would provide one hot meal a day to students (until main source of funding was no longer able to contribute). The current SOPUDEP site is on government owned property and faces constant pressure from officials for eviction.
The new SOPUDEP : In 2009 the Los Altos Haiti Solidarity Club purchased a plot of land at 83 Delmas, Petionville. This land was purchased to become the new SOPUDEP site. The final vision for the school includes three stories of classrooms, a water cistern, a community amphitheater, computer lab, orphanage, and college night classes. Since our initial journey started in 2009 the new SOPUDEP is almost to completion, with all three stories built and final touches being made as funding is received. It should be operational this Fall 2018.
As a club, our main goal is to raise funds to send SOPUDEP seniors to college in Haiti. To read more about the students and fundraiser, please check out our "Donations" and "Student Profiles" tab!
Read more about SOPUDEP on their site : http://www.sopudep.org/
Please feel free to contact if you have any questions or want to become involved in any way!