Editorial Letter From APF Coordinator
For No. 21

Thanksgiving is a time to pause and remember, and also to look ahead with gratitude because God is with us and blessing us.  In 2008, APF will begin a year-long celebration of 20 years working with the people of Fondwa to improve their lives.  This issue of Nouvel Fondwa looks back on 20 years and ahead for the next 10 years.  So much has happened and yet there is still so much to be done.  We want to develop a stategic plan that will allow farmworkers to increase their income, to create opportunities for more permanent jobs in the area, and to provide water, plumbing, and electricity in many of the homes.  We hope to see our children who started in kindegarden at St. Antoine School, graduate from high school, continue their educations, and become the future leaders of Fondwa and throughout rural Haiti.  Some of them will, hopefully, become the teachers in the University of Fondwa.

The Sisters of St. Antoine have been a blessing to the people of Fondwa for which we are deeply grateful.  Their small community, which started in 1996,  is growing in membership, and they are now reponsible for the school, the clinic and the orphanage. They also look after the APF Visitor Center.

During this season of gratittude, we look back on our accomplishments and thank God and all who helped make them possible:  the launching of the new university, the reforestation program, construction projects such as the orphanage, the school, and now the beginnings of the Sisters Convent and the Unversity dorm.