What's new at GOALS?

It's been a while since we shared any news here on our blog (but if you just can't get enough good news from GOALS, be sure you're following us on Facebook where we post updates daily), but that's just because we've been so busy doing some incredible things.

Just last month, for example, armed with compost and shovels (and dreams of lots of shade in the future!), GOALS kids planted 230 trees around the soccer field and around their village. The soil in Haiti is generally of poor quality, and saplings are mighty tasty to local goats, so our soccer teams have a big task ahead of them to make sure that the trees are regularly watered, take root and grow up strong! There's some more pictures here, if you're curious.

Earlier this summer, we hosted our very first mobile medical clinic in our brand new GOALS community center in the village of Destra, providing care to 178 patients in a safe and dignified space. Previously, we held clinics in outdoor spaces, lacking both privacy and hygiene, but we're always proud when communities come together and join resources to make things happen, lending chairs and tables to visiting doctors and nurses, and setting up tarps to create shade. Check out some of the inspiring photographs here. A shout-out to both the visiting medical volunteers and the local GOALS youth who volunteered to help out as well.

Like all of our kids, GOALS' newest little girls team has big dreams. Recently, their coaches led a little goal-setting workshop to help them think about what they want to achieve in life and how GOALS can help them get there. Want to grow up to be a goalie? Be sure to come to GOALS every day and listen to your coaches, for example! Check out what these girls in Haiti dream of with more photos on our Facebook page here.

And, in case you missed it, we had some very, very special visitors at GOALS recently: A film crew sent to document our work for FIFATV!

It was a busy summer at GOALS indeed! If you grew up playing sports, you know the myriad of benefits it brought to your own life, and you can imagine that theses benefits are multiplied for kids in Haiti who have so few opportunities. Every single day at GOALS, we're empowering young women, kids are gaining problem-solving and leadership skills through weekly community service projects and peer-led sexual health lessons; we're providing food and clean drinking water to all our players, helping kids to graduate high school and, of course, lots and lots of kids are playing lots (and lots!) of soccer!

But we can't do it without the help of our friends and supporters around the world. If you'd like to help children in Haiti play, learn and grow at GOALS, please consider making a donation to support our work.

Be sure to find out what's happening with the GOALS "Boul'anjri" bakery, literacy projects, soccer teams, and all of GOALS' projects! Follow GOALS on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to keep in touch and share with your friends about what's happening on the soccer fields of Haiti every single day.

 
 

5 reasons to send a child in Haiti to school with GOALS

Did you know that less than a third of children in Haiti attend high school? Education is not free, and many families cannot afford to pay tuition. Each year, GOALS provides some of the brightest and most promising students in Leogane, Haiti with the opportunity to go to school through our Dream Team School Scholarship program, and we need your help to pay tuition costs for the 2016-2017 school year.

Please consider donating $20 or even $10 to help us meet our goal of sending these kids to school!

Emilio with children

Here’s three reasons why you should consider making a donation to help a student in Haiti attend school:

  • First, students work hard to be eligible for a scholarship, then, they work hard to keep it. Along with getting good grades, GOALS meets with school staff to monitor behavior and attendance. A GOALS scholarship is not actually a gift.
  • Second, students give back through service and leadership projects. For example they may lead recycling projects or tutor literacy students.
  • We’re committed not just to sending kids to school, but to seeing them graduate. Our goal is not simply to send kids to school. Our goal is to build a generation of strong, capable, inspired and inspiring leaders who will create change in Haiti, starting in their own communities. Yes, it’s as lofty, awesome, and possible as it sounds.

Please consider donating $20 or even $10 to help send our hard-working Dream Team students to school! You can also learn more about the Dream Team scholarship program here, or meet the students here.

Orphanage games

Thank you for believing in a better future for Haiti with GOALS!

 
 

It's back to school time in Haiti!

All children deserve an education, but in Haiti, only 20%will ever attend high school and fewer still will graduate. It's been 5 years since GOALS started giving teens the boost they need to graduate high school. And our investment has paid off. In 2014, Cassandra was the first person in her entire village to finish school, and last year, thanks to your support, Olsen was able to attend university. These are huge accomplishments, and we at GOALS couldn't be prouder of these young people and their hard work.

But students like Olsen and Cassandra can't do it alone. Children whose parents struggle to provide as farmers and fishermen can't afford the books, uniforms and tuition costs to send their children to school. GOALS invests in these bright and dedicated students to give them the opportunity to grow up and become the leaders Haiti needs.

Please consider making a donation to support one of these students to invest in their education as the future leaders of Haiti.

Each one of the extraordinary students below needs help paying their school fees for the 2015 - 2016 school year:

Books: $50
Uniform: $35
Tuition: $235 - $389 (depending on grade level)

You can sponsor any of the students below or make a general donation to the GOALS Dream Team School Scholarship program. Scroll down to learn more about education in Haiti and how the GOALS provides new opportunities for children who would otherwise be unable to finish school.
 

A video detailing the reason for the GOALS 2012 Winter Ed Campaign and the plan of action. For further information about the campaign and to donate check out http://www.crowdrise.com/goalsedfund2013 To learn more about GOALS Haiti visit www.GoalsHaiti.org To meet our Dream Team Members Check out www.nationaldreamteam.wordpress.com For a more in-depth look at some of the challenges our kids face check out our next video at http://vimeo.com/54660218 Our final link is a message from the founder and director of GOALS detailing exactly what the Winter Ed campaign will allow us to provde the communities we serve http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96_kjMBoeEI *The music in the video is Timoun Yo Graciously provided by a great Haitian Musician Belo, if you enjoyed the music it and more can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Référence-Explicit/dp/B001EBW24G/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1


About education in Haiti
In Haiti, school can be prohibitively expensive at any age. The country’s literacy rate is 53% and secondary school enrollment is just 19%. Many rural areas lack schools, and poor communities can't afford both the tuition and the transportation costs to commute. In the village of Destra, where GOALS works, there are no primary schools and no secondary schools. The nearest paved road is nearly two miles away.

While primary school fees are more affordable, around $60 a year, secondary school fees are costly - around $350, and transport costs, books, school uniforms and exam fees add to the burden. Children from larger families may take turns going to school, with one child attending one year and another child the next.


About the GOALS Dream Team Scholarship Program
The Dream Team provides scholarships to students with strong grades, demonstrated leadership skills, and a commitment to local development.

GOALS is committed to seeing each student graduate from high school to create a better future for themselves and their communities, but students must maintain high grades to keep their scholarship each year.

All students give back by volunteering at GOALS and at service projects which they plan and implement, demonstrating that hands-on involvement is as important as academic success. Past projects include health lessons and soccer activities for younger children, collecting plastic for recycling and beach clean-up days and painting public spaces.

About the costs
GOALS works with three schools in Leogane, Haiti which have the highest test scores in the region, according to published reports from the Haitian Ministry of Education. Costs vary slightly both by school and by grade level. Each student profiled above has slightly different needs, and their sponsorship costs reflect these actual individual needs.

Thanks to commitments from GOALS' Board of Directors to fully cover all administrative costs, 100% of your donation goes directly to supporting your sponsored student.


More facts about the GOALS Dream Team Scholarship Program:

  1. Nearly a third have lost at least one parent.
  2. Only 8 have parents who ever attended school.
  3. 100% of participants will be the first in their family to graduate from high school.
  4. None of the students live in permanent housing: All scholarship students live in post-earthquake tarp, tin, or wooden structures; none have electricity in their villages or running water in their homes.


Challenges:

  1. Muddy roads prohibit school attendance after a strong rain.
  2. While we’ve selected the best possible schools for our students to attend, the quality of education in Haiti remains low.


Successes:

  1. 96% of students passed their final exams last year, allowing them to progress to the next grade level.
  2. Extra funding last year allowed us to purchase durable solar lanterns so students could study after dark, even without electricity.
  3. In 2014, GOALS saw our first two students graduate high school! Olsen and Cassandra both became the first in their families to graduate high school - Cassandra was the first in her entire village - a huge accomplishment!
 
 

In Memory of Ansito Laguerre

In memory of Ansito Laguerre

Anyone who has spent time in rural, impoverished areas is no stranger to tragedy, and GOALS is no exception. We do everything we can to help our children grow up stronger, healthier, smarter and happier through our sport, health and education programs, but the barriers and injustices of poverty can sometimes overwhelm us.

Ansito Laguerre grew up with his grandmother and his brothers, also GOALS athletes, in the rural village of Destra, while his mother worked in Port au Prince. He was 11 years old when he first enrolled in GOALS literacy project, after our assessments revealed that he struggled with reading and writing. Ansito had attended school until third grade, but had been out of school for a while when he enrolled in GOALS' literacy program. He knew how to write some letters, and he was very good at copying, though he struggled to write his own name.

But Ansito, in many ways, was the perfect student. He didn't need anything to motivate him, other than his own desire to learn, and quickly excelled faster than other students. His literacy teacher says he was a bit of a trickster, poking fun just to get a laugh at your reaction, and he loved being the first one to finish his work, so that he could ask for more lessons to work on. GOALS has always been proud of all of our literacy students and we were pleasantly surprised to see just how quickly they progressed. Ansito finished the program with a test score in the "fully literate" range, having started as "semi-literate". Just when everything seemed to be looking up for Ansito, tragedy struck.

Ansito

Ansito was tragically killed in a mass casualty traffic accident that struck during the height of "rara" celebrations near his village. Rara is a Haitian cultural event celebrated each year in the weeks before Easter, and, like much of Haitian culture, it is a rich blend of Catholic and traditional African and voudou roots. In late March, 18 people, including our Ansito, were killed when a large transport truck plowed through a crowd celebrating this traditional Haitian rara. In a rural area, without access or transport to clinics and hospitals, Ansito didn't stand a chance at surviving his injuries.

Ansito's death is more than a tragedy, it is extremely frustrating for us at GOALS, revealing the injustices of poverty and taking a life just when things should have been getting better. We have cried alongside his brothers and his family, and we have placed his photo on our office walls to keep his memory alive as we continue bringing soccer programs, literacy, school scholarships, micro-enterprise opportunities and sexual health training to Ansito's family, friends, neighbors and teammates.

In memory of Ansito Laguerre, January 1st, 2003 – March 17th, 2016

Nou p'ap jamn bliye'w.

Welcome to the new GOALS center!

GOALS began with a dream that children living in poverty in Haiti would grow up healthy and strong, with new opportunities to play, and plenty of reasons to hope for a better future. It's a dream that the love of soccer can be used to create a better life - not just for a week or a month or even a year - the dream has always been about transforming entire communities for generations.

Party time! A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped make this possible!

In 2013, after a series of public forums and meetings with community leaders, we announced our biggest dream yet: a safe, public and dignified space to house all of GOALS' programs in the village of Destra. A place for learning and the exchanging of ideas; a place to receive visiting medical staff; a place for commerce; a place for local elections and public debates; a place that will withstand earthquakes, hurricanes and storm surges to last generations; a place built with local labor to increase future employability for unskilled youth just as much as to create jobs.

In partnership with our friends at Building Goodness Foundation who shared our vision, and with the support of our friends and supporters around the world, and with land donated by the community itself, we broke ground on the new GOALS center in late 2015. The project has had an even bigger impact than we had hoped for, creating an increase in economic activity in the village, leading new vendors to create new micro-enterprise businesses, and leading to full-time jobs for two of the previously unskilled GOALS youth who worked alongside Building Goodness Foundation teams to learn about construction.

We couldn't possibly be prouder of the new GOALS center. Check out the photos below (click for a larger version) to share in our excitement and be sure to check out the video of the party we held to celebrate!

Welcome to the new GOALS center
in the village of Destra!

GOALS staff often receive thanks and praise from parents, students and community members who are grateful for our accomplishments. But that gratitude is not ours alone to keep: it belongs to everyone who helped to make this project happen.

So, on behalf of all of GOALS' children and their families, our local coaches, the entire community of Destra, and future generations, I hope you'll take a couple minutes to share in that gratitude as a GOALS donor and supporter, by watching this video, to see just a bit of the joy that you helped to create, and allow us to say, simply, thank you.

In partnership with Building Goodness Foundation in Charlottesville, Virginia, GOALS inaugurated our new community center in the village of Destra, near Leogane, Haiti. Check out the celebrations!

Be sure to find out what's happening with the GOALS "Boul'anjri" bakery, literacy projects, soccer teams, and all of GOALS' projects! Follow GOALS on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to keep in touch and share with your friends about what's happening on the soccer fields of Haiti every single day.

 
 

How the GOALS bakery creates new opportunities

Bossan is a rural, poor and vulnerable area where GOALS has worked since 2011. Families subsist on fishing and agriculture, with little opportunity for formal employment. Like many places in Haiti, food security is a challenge as resources are scarce, and children often go to bed hungry at night. But children can’t grow, play or learn on an empty stomach. Providing food to GOALS participants is a critical part of our work.

Flooded Road Sandy

After a particularly busy hurricane season in 2012, roads into the village were twice flooded so badly that villagers were completely cut off for days. No one could make it into town to find food at the local markets. GOALS responded to calls for help, leading UN military into the region to distribute food and clean water. Children and adults braved the storm to come receive as much bread as we were able to pack into the UN vehicles which could make the trek.

GOALS staff identified this as a significant problem and chose to address it by creating a local bakery, which would serve a critical economic need, beyond providing locally produced food and increasing food security in the region.

Snack time at GOALS with bread from our very own bakery!

Bread is a simple and cheap staple of the Haitian diet (along side rice, beans, and plantains) and is often the only meal children and rural farmers can afford for breakfast. While a meal of rice and beans costs about $1, a large roll costs about $0.10, and makes for a popular breakfast, along with locally produced peanut butter or a banana, and is affordable for nearly all. Haitian children are often sent to school with the coins needed to buy bread along the way.

But in Bossan, with no place to purchase bread, families commuted to the city, spending precious means on transport costs rather than food. Bringing bread directly to the village eliminates this extra cost, allowing families to maximize their food budgets.

GOALS decided to call our bakery the “BOUL’anjri” with an apostrophe because BOUL in Haitian Creole means “ball" or, usually, "soccer ball” and "boulanjri" is the word for bakery. We have a soccer bakery, so it is a BOUL’anjri!"

At GOALS, our mission is to make daily life easier, while helping to shape a better future. This what we work for every day: Healthy, nourished children who gain confidence on the soccer field and have the opportunity to grow up and make their communities a better place.

The GOALS bakery promotes local food consumption, reduces transport costs for rural villagers, provides food for GOALS children, and, in a region with widespread unemployment, it provides GOALS youth an opportunity to learn critical job skills and increase their future employability.

The bakery employs four staff, and 10-15 people purchase bread in bulk to resell for a profit daily. Surveys estimate that those with a formal income in Haiti provide for 8-10 family members, which means roughly 200 people directly benefit from the income the bakery generates.

GOALS teens learned small business skills and the bakery trade while volunteering at the GOALS bakery.

GOALS is dedicated to increasing environmental stewardship. Food insecurity stems from many factors in Haiti, but one contributor is reliance on cheap imported food from over the border in the Dominican Republic. These cheap imports, such as eggs, ketchup, and spaghetti undermine the Haitian economy and the Haitian farmer. Food security will never be possible in Haiti without a population who both can and will support itself with domestically produced foods, and growing the market for bread baked in Haiti from locally milled flour is a step in this direction.


About the GOALS Community Bakery
The problem:

  • Most families subsist on $2 a day, but a serving of rice and beans costs about $1
  • Extreme weather floods roads, isolating rural communities for days at a time
  • Food is expensive and labor intensive, and many children in go to school hungry
  • Imported food undermines the Haitian economy and local farmers
  • Families spend $1.25 to go to the city to buy food
  • GOALS spent nearly 10% of all programmatic expenses on food in 2014-2015

The Solution: The GOALS Community Bakery

  • Provides formal jobs for four employees
  • Creates an informal income for 15-20 GOALS parents who buy and resell in bulk
  • Bread is cheap: A large roll costs about 10 cents and makes for an affordable breakfast, along with locally produced peanut butter
  • Offers work experience and job skills training to GOALS youth
  • Provides an inexpensive and local food source, allowing rural families to save on transportation into the city
Meet Sofonie, 17, and her grandmother.

Be sure to find out what's happening with the GOALS "Boul'anjri" bakery, literacy projects, soccer teams, and all of GOALS' projects! Follow GOALS on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to keep in touch and share with your friends about what's happening on the soccer fields of Haiti every single day.

 
 

Meet a GOALS family

We often share stories of children whose lives have been transformed through GOALS' programs and the power of sport for development (such as Olsen, Esteri, and all our students). But what about their families? How are their families and their daily home lives changed? Read on to find out...

Meet Andremene Desir.
Madame Desir was born in the village of Destra and has lived there her entire life. Surrounded by sugarcane fields for miles on three sides and the ocean on the other side, Destra is in many ways, a typical poor, rural, Haitian village. There are no formal jobs, and the closest schools, markets and paved roads are miles away.

In Madame Desir’s “lakou” (Haitian communal courtyard), there are two houses, one is a tarp shelter which GOALS helped secure for her in 2010 after the earthquake, and one is a single room wooden shelter with a dirt floor. Together, these shelters house a total of six people: Madame Desir, her husband, and her three children and one nephew, who participate in GOALS' programs. A fifth child lives elsewhere.

In the five years that her children have been participating in the GOALS programs, their village has seen many changes - from the first public toilet, to privacy shower stalls, and even the village's first high school graduate. Along the way, fewer teenagers have gotten pregnant, and the village's children - including Madam Desir's -  are growing up healthier, stronger, and with big dreams for their future.

But what about Madame Desir herself?
Though she has never held a formal job, Madame Desir has enough land to grow food to feed her family - plantains, potatoes, eggplant and peas – and occasionally enough to sell. She also helps prepare food for the GOALS programs one day a week.

Like many adults her age in the village, Madame Desir never attended school, but she jumped at the chance to enroll in GOALS’ literacy class. She was unable to even write her own name when GOALS first assessed her as a candidate to enroll, making her fully illiterate. After several months of hard work, Madame Desir scored a 10 (out of 24 possible points) on our assessment, placing her in the “semi-literate” category.

Before Madame Desir received a water filter from GOALS, she relied on the local community pump, which, fortunately, is very close to her house. Though water from the local pump is untreated, like in many rural areas, there simply isn’t any option for clean water to drink in the village of Destra, so a small portable filter, like the Waves for Water system which GOALS procured for her, are a good solution.

Now, Madame Desir uses clean water from her filter to drink and also to wash the food from her garden, and to wash her face and her body after using the toilet. With her filter, Madame Desir says she feels healthier and that her family “avoids microbes” such as “kanal boulee” (urinary tract infection) and “vant fe mal” (stomachaches).

 
 

A quick (video) visit to the GOALS fields in Leogane, Haiti

Thanks to a fantastic volunteer who stopped by to visit us, we have a fabulous new video to share with you, straight from our Carrefour Croix soccer field in Leogane, Haiti! GOALS program manager extraordinaire Jean Kendy talks about the importance of soccer and education in Haiti, and the video features some pretty incredible smiles (and hugs!). Take a peek!

GOALS program manager Jean Kendy talks about GOALS' sport, health, education and environmental programs, and why soccer is important in Haiti. Check out GOALS in action!

 
 

GOALS' Top Ten Favorite Moments of 2015

Every single day, hundreds of kids become a little healthier, a little stronger, a little smarter and a little more confident through GOALS' soccer, nutrition and education programs. How can we narrow that down to just ten favorite moments?

We had to leave out quite a few things, such as our program manager graduating university and, though we were seriously tempted to make this a top eleven favorite moments list in order to include this hand-washing rap, in the end, we left out several truly inspiring moments, including  this youth-led orphanage outreach day and preparing our students for university.

Like everything that we do at GOALS, this top ten list is a mix of serious impact, fun moments, and lots of young people making it all happen. Let's get to it. Here's our top ten favorite moments of 2015:

10. Playing (and winning!) a match at the national soccer stadium in Port au Prince!

Our girls were thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase their hard work at a tournament held in the Haitian capital. They were so proud and couldn't stop talking about it for weeks! So inspiring! Check out the pictures here.

 

9. Taking the time to review our impact

How, exactly, do GOALS' soccer programs come together to transform both individual lives and communities? In March, we took the time to review a year's worth of data to look at how participating in GOALS reduces teen pregnancy, builds health and shapes futures leaders, using 30 teen girls in the village of Terrasonson as our data sample. Check it out.

 

8. Releasing our beautiful infographic annual report!

We love bragging about the work our kids and coaches are doing every day, and it seems like each year our Annual Report is even more beautiful than ever. Want to know how many patients we treated at mobile clinics, how many soccer matches we played this year, or what percent of our teens know how to prevent pregnancy? It's all in our Annual Report! Missed it? It's here.

 

7. This.

There's just nothing that can be said about how awesome this is.

 

6. Recycling field trip!

In November, we took a field trip to visit a plastic bag recycling program to learn about what happens when we collect trash from our soccer fields and communities. We had a lot of fun (and learned a lot, too!). Check out the photos from our trip on our Facebook page here, or, to learn more about GOALS' environmental impact, including our community gardens, composting and recycling program, check out this article in GreenSportsBlog.

 

5. Adding a new little girls team

At the end of 2013, and throughout 2014, we made an effort to begin working with more younger girls. After lots of one-on-one outreach to parents and community meetings, we transformed two little boys teams (ages 8 - 14) to mixed-gender teams in 2014, and, with help from some super-star GOALS alumni players, we added our very first all little girls team in 2015. They even had their very first match against a team visiting from out of town, which ended in a tie, 0-0.

 

4. Saying thank you

2015 was a year of gratitude for GOALS. We had lots of fun saying thank you and good-bye to our first board president, and couldn't resist dancing a little bit while thanking some supporters. Our students even practiced their English to say thank you.

 

3. Constructing the GOALS Community Center!

After five years in operation, we've finally broken ground on a new community education center to call our own; a safe and dignified place to hold our literacy classes, mobile clinics, and ongoing education programs. Construction began in August and is on track to complete in March 2016. We can't wait! In fact, we've already begun planning a huge community party to celebrate the occasion!

If something THIS awesome only ranks as #3, can you imagine how incredible #2 and #1 are going to be? Are you excited? You should be. Keep reading....

 

2. Opening the GOALS bakery

The GOALS bakery opened up in April, providing locally produced food for our kids, creating four new jobs and providing job skills training opportunities for our older teens. In addition, several GOALS parents (and grandparents!) purchase the bread in bulk and resell it, topped with local peanut butter, to create a small income for themselves. Obviously, it was a highlight of 2015 for GOALS!

Click here to meet some of the people whose lives are impacted by the new GOALS bakery.

 

If that wasn't already enough awesome for you, are you ready for our number one absolute favorite moment of the year? Here it is...

1. This moment in literacy class

Our favorite moment of the entire year? This sweet moment between Peterson, 18, who is helping his mom, Withnie, with her literacy lessons before class. Peterson and Withnie both enrolled in GOALS literacy program this year, and successfully completed the program.

We had many amazing moments in our literacy class, whether it's seeing individual progress, the proud smiles of hard work and accomplishment, or just seeing it all come together on a daily basis, but this photo of Peterson and his mom captures so much, we had to share it as GOALS' #1 favorite moment of 2015.


Thank you for your support and for believing in a better future for Haiti with GOALS. Be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for more updates directly from the field in Haiti.

Happy New Year!

 
 

GOALS Shortlisted for Football for Good Awards!

We're thrilled to announce that GOALS has been selected as a shortlisted finalist in the inaugural Football for Good Awards, hosted by Coaching for Hope and judged by the UK Professional Footballers' Association and a panel including representatives from FIFPro World Players' Union and the Union of European Football Associations. We are thrilled and honored that the work GOALS coaches and kids are doing on the soccer fields of Haiti impressed these judges enough to be selected as a finalist from over 130 applicants from 30 different countries!

The Football for Good Awards are inspired by this sentiment:

“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language that they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair.”
— NELSON MANDELA

And nowhere else in the world is that more true than here in Haiti, home to some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in the world - and, some of the most optimistic and hopeful.

How did GOALS stand out amongst all of the other entrants from around the world? Simply by telling our story. And here it is:
We all know the capacity football has to change lives, but GOALS pushes the football for good model to accomplish more than ever before, proving that the love of the game can create long-term sustainable change even in the most challenging and poverty-stricken environments – exactly where it is needed most.

Haiti is one of the most vulnerable places on the planet, ranking 168th out of 187 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index. Only half of the population will ever attend school. Political instability, crime, hunger, disease and natural disasters are a constant threat.

But that is not the GOALS story.

GOALS’ pitches in Haiti are little more than fallow farmland with hand-welded metal posts, and our kids often come to the field hungry, but they have big dreams, and, like any player ready to kick-off, they carry with them hope and optimism that they will ultimately be triumphant.

And they have good reason to believe.

We’ve seen children who grew up kicking plastic bottles barefoot on the beach recruited to play semi-professional soccer. GOALS’ mixed-gender teams are winning tournaments, proving that boys and girls can both do anything. Our coaches are going back to school to become even better role models for their teams, and we’ve nearly eliminated teen pregnancies amongst GOALS participants.

By investing in the love of football and the belief in a brighter future for Haiti, GOALS embodies the spirit of football for good, empowering youth and communities to make their own positive changes through the love of the game and the power of football for good.

So, how does it all work? GOALS uses football in Haiti to engage youth in sport, health, and education programs which improve daily life while developing leadership for the future following this simple philosophy:

  • First, in order to play football, kids need a safe, clean, and healthy environment. GOALS responds by organizing football teams to clean up litter in public areas, plant trees and recycle old materials.
  • Second, kids can’t play football without strong, healthy bodies, so GOALS helps football teams plant vegetable gardens, invests in local food production through our community bakery, provides a daily meal and clean drinking water for youth and improves community health by hosting mobile clinics and health seminars (WASH, nutrition and sexual health).
  • Third, football teams need coaches and team captains who are strong leaders and role models, and opportunities for advancement. GOALS provides school tuition assistance programs for youth and professional development for local staff, empowering and mobilizing communities to develop their own projects to improve shelter, leadership, and infrastructure.

The Football for Good awards will be held in early December. But whether or not we are selected as the final winner, here is what makes our kids, coaches and programs a winner every day:

  • 500 boys and girls in four different villages participate on a daily basis, and outreach to players families, schools and other soccer clubs has impacted an additional estimated 7000 people.
  • Two GOALS-supported student athletes, Olsen Saintyl and Cassandra Cirrus became the first in their families to graduate high school; Cassandra was the first in her entire village to graduate and Olsen was honored at school for having the 2nd highest grades in his class.
  • Before GOALS began working in the village of Terrasonson, all but oneof 30 children we registered one the girls team suffered from chronic food insecurity, defined quantitatively by how often they were able to eat and qualitatively by how often they felt hungry. By coming to GOALS programs where they receive a hot meal,children who were previously eating only once per day are now regularly eating twice a day. As a result, based on height and weight measurements, one-third of children who were underweight at their first weigh-in moved closer towards a healthy weight at their second.
  • Nine GOALS players recruited to train with the Haitian national U-17 and U-15 teams; Two GOALS athletes were on the squad which placed 2nd in the 2014 inaugural CONCACAF U-15 girls’ championship
  • The GOALS community bakery, opened in 2015, provides a local source of food for our soccer teams, created four new jobs, and provides an informal income for GOALS parents who buy in bulk and resell for a profit.
 
 

LAST CHANCE! Can you help GOALS win $50,000?

What would you do if you won $5000? Or even $50,000? Would you use it to help a friend in need? Save some for the future? Do something nice for yourself? That’s what we would do!

In partnership with Crowdrise and Life is Good, GOALS has a one-time opportunity to win $5000 (and up to ($50,000!), by getting as many $10 donations as possible from our network of dedicated supporters -- that's you!

There's just a handful of organizations competing in this challenge, so we have good odds of winning. But we need the help of every single one of our supporters.

Can you help us make it happen? Here's how:

  1. Check out the GOALS "Life is Good" Challenge. Pitch in $10.
  2. Share the link on Facebook and tag 10 friends to challenge them to donate $10 too. Or, tag 9 friends and 1 enemy...we don't mind.
  3. Pat yourself on the back and reward yourself by browsing GOALS' inspiring Facebook photos to see how your $10 is used to support kids and communities in Haiti every single day.
  4. Sit back and bask in the glow of the the gratitude that we send your way. Can you feel it? No? Repeat step two and you will!

If you can help us win $5000, we’d use some of it to do something nice for our friends and partner communities (we need a new latrine near the soccer field in Bossan, and would like to help Olsen attend university in Port au Prince), put some aside for our emergency fund, and also do something nice for GOALS (we really need a new motorcycle!).

And with $50,000? We could put 30 kids in school next year ($15,000), feed our 400 participants every day for a year ($20,800) AND build a new latrine and get ourselves a new motorcycle!

Please help us take advantage of this unique one-time opportunity from Crowdrise and Life is Good: Donate $10 and challenge 10 friends to do the same!

New to GOALS?
GOALS uses soccer in Haiti to develop communities in Haiti following this simple philosophy:

  • First, in order to play soccer, kids need a safe, clean, and healthy environment. GOALS responds by organizing soccer teams to clean up litter in public areas, plant trees and recycle old materials by reusing them for new projects.
  • Second, kids can’t play soccer without strong, healthy bodies, so GOALS helps teams plant vegetable gardens, invests in local food production through our community bakery, provides a daily meal for youth and clean drinking water for families and improves community health by hosting mobile clinics and health seminars.
  • Third, soccer teams need coaches and team captains who are strong leaders and role models, and opportunities for advancement. GOALS provides school tuition assistance programs for youth and professional development for local staff, empowering and mobilizing communities to develop their own projects to improve shelter, leadership, and infrastructure.


Why support GOALS?
Community involvement: GOALS partners with and invests directly in Haitian communities. 17 out of 19 staff members are local Haitian community members who identify needs and solutions.

We're different: While hundreds of organizations operate in Haiti, GOALS is one of only a handful which are locally led, permanent, and independent of religious belief.

Gender inclusive: GOALS invests equally in boys and girls; Half of our players (and 47% of our staff!) are female.

Impact: GOALS is committed to making the maximum impact possible, while keeping administrative costs low. In fact, we didn't even have an office for several years - we worked in an outdoor gazebo and ran for cover when it rained!

Want to donate more than $10?

  • $20: Provides peanut butter sandwiches from the GOALS bakery for our "Guppies" kids soccer team for a week
  • $35: Buys school books for one scholarship student for the year
  • $50: Ships a box of soccer gear to Haiti
  • $100: Buys flour, butter and salt to bake bread for the GOALS community bakery for one week Fundraising is challenging for GOALS, since we spend all of our time in Haiti operating programs, but it's a necessary part of continuing our work. On behalf of our dedicated local staff, our hundreds of participants and their families, a huge thank you for believing in and investing in a better future for Haiti.
 
 

Recycling, composting, gardening and more: How GOALS kids learn to protect their environment

GOALS' environmental initiatives were recently featured in an article on the Green Sports Blog!

Haiti has a long history of environmental devastation. Deforestation, for example, dates back to the 18th century and continues today. GOALS responds by planting trees and community gardens, helping youth to understand the importance of environmental stewardship. Our soccer players know that they can't play soccer on a field covered with trash, and they spend time keeping the field clean each week and gardening together as a team to help grow food for after-practice snacks! Here's a sneak peak at the article via Green Sports Blog:

"The fields also need to be cleaned of trash, including bottles and food scraps—which the kids handle, under the direction of the coaches and with the help of a local organization that recycles bottles...Last year, GOALS kids collected 3,700+ plastic bottles to be recycled. And, compost piles dot the landscape as well, so coaches and kids learn what waste goes where."

Read the entire article on Green Sports Blog, and browse through the image gallery below to see how GOALS players receive an environmental education while pitching into protect and improve their local environment, starting right on the soccer field.

 
 

Meet John Daly!

John Daly

This summer, GOALS announced the creation of a special scholarship to honor volunteer and Dream Team school scholarship program founder Jovan Julien, and all the work he has done to ensure that GOALS' most promising young leaders have the opportunity to attend school, whether or not their families can afford the tuition costs.

The GOALS Dream Team school scholarship program has seen dozens of teens return to school, and two students have become the first in their families to graduate high school, a huge accomplishment in Haiti, where less than 20% will ever even attend high school at all. Cassandra was the first in her entire village to graduate high school, and Olsen was honored for receiving the second-highest grades in his entire class. We couldn't be prouder - and more grateful to Jovan's vision and ongoing support!

The Jovan Julien Honorary Scholarship was created to support one student who demonstrates exceptional leadership qualities and a dedication to creating a better future not only for themselves, but for their community as well. And that is exactly why, with Jovan's help, GOALS selected John Daly Pierre to receive this special scholarship for the 2015 - 2016 academic year.

John Daly stands out amongst hundreds of GOALS participants for going above and beyond the minimum requirements. For example, he has logged more volunteer hours than required to maintain his GOALS soccer team eligibility, joining in on extra community service projects, such as leading activities for little kids in his neighborhood and performing in skits to teach health lessons to his community.

Check out this video of John Daly, Sterlin and Wisly leading GOALS kids in an interactive "animasyon" (call-and-response) activity (that's John Daly in the dark blue shirt):

GOALS scholarship students lead a fun "call-and-reponse" activity called "animasyon" in Haitian Creole. GOALS invests in talented young leaders, such as Wisly, Sterlin and John Daly to help them get the education they need to contribute to their community's development in the long term.

John Daly has attended school in the past, but he's also fallen behind when his family has been unable to pay tuition. With eight children to care for, his family has understandably struggled. But he has big dreams for the future:

"School is important for me because you can’t advance or succeed without school," he says. "School makes a big difference in my life; it exposes me to new things and ideas... I would like to be a policeman (or a doctor) to help my country, to help myself and my family. I would also like to fix the road to my village so that life in my community can improve, because if there is no road, there won’t be development of the community."

John Daly would also like to thank everyone who has contributed to the Jovan Julien Scholarship Fund to send him back to school, and, if I may add on his behalf, everyone who has made a donation to the GOALS scholarship fund this year! See below for a note from John Daly:

It reads:
"Today is a beautiful day to write the staff GOALS even I haven't many words to say. But I'm happy the program Dream Team, it gives me possibility to go to school without money, I'm very happy for that. I thank you very much 'cause you sending me to school. I got a dream, a dream when I finish school, I want to be a doctor and my favorite subject in my school are math and English. Thank you very much for all things."

John Daly at school

Please click here to make a donation to the Jovan Julien Honorary Scholarship fund in support of Jovan and John Daly, or, click here to make a general donation to the Dream Team school scholarship program.

GOALS is determined to see John Daly and all of our students, achieve their dreams. On behalf of John Daly and all of our GOALS Dream Team students, thank you for believing in a better future for Haiti and for investing in our students to make it happen and for being a part of their success.

As we say in Haiti, "Mesi mil fwa!" or, thank you one thousand times!

Meet the GOALS 2015 - 2016 Dream Team!

Be sure to find out what's happening with the GOALS "Boul'anjri" bakery, literacy projects, soccer teams, and all of GOALS' projects! Follow GOALS on Twitter and Like us on Facebook to keep in touch and share with your friends about what's happening on the soccer fields of Haiti every single day.

 
 

Creating safe, dignified spaces for learning

In 2010, GOALS began with some very big dreams.

We dreamed that children growing up in poverty in Haiti would have shoes, food, clean water and reason to hope for a better future. We dreamed that with access to health information and increased confidence, girls would finish school without getting pregnant. We dreamed that a generation of Haitian youth would dream bigger and achieve more through the power of football.

Over the past five years, communities, soccer coaches and youth leaders in Haiti have come together  - with the support of soccer fans and donors from around the world - to make these dreams happen. GOALS has nearly eliminated teen pregnancies amongst our youth; our first students have graduated high school; we've seen children who grew up kicking tin cans on the beach recruited to play semi-professional soccer.

And GOALS responded by dreaming even bigger.

Going beyond soccer, we launched our community bakery program to provide jobs, micro-enterprise opportunities and a more sustainable food source for GOALS kids, and our adult and youth literacy program is providing second chances for children and adults.

Local communities have always eagerly joined GOALS as a partner, sharing what resources they have to make soccer, service, and education programs happen for their children. Landowners lend space for a soccer field, families donate their time to projects and neighbors bring a chair or a table to host visiting teachers. One way or another, GOALS programs have always succeeded, even with little more than a tarp for shade.

Erika before and after

But tarps shred over time, and temporary structures are vulnerable to wind and rain. Coaches, parents, and kids have always asked GOALS to establish a safe and permanent place for community activities. A place where kids can study and learn. A place to shelter down during hurricanes and flash flooding. A place where doctors can visit patients and a place where teen girls can learn about their health.

After months of planning, and nearly two years of fundraising, in partnership with the families of village of Destra who donated a plot of land, and in partnership with Building Goodness Foundation GOALS has begun construction on a new community education center to provide a safe, permanent space to house our programs.

Construction

Children and adults will learn to read within the new center's walls. It will house political debates and elections and accommodate visiting medical staff at mobile clinics. In a community where most families survive on less than $2 a day, the GOALS center will bring new jobs, commerce and new opportunities to the area.

Thank you to everyone who donated to make this dream a reality, and stay tuned to follow the construction progress!

 
 

GOALS' Annual Report 2014 - 2015

Sifting through our favorite photos and reviewing GOALS' accomplishments and impact to produce our Annual Report each year is always uplifting and inspiring. And, with the help of our volunteers, our reports are both beautiful to read and equally effective at sharing the GOALS story of how our soccer programs develop local leadership and transform rural Haitian communities.

With two new programs launched this year (the the 'Boul'anjri' Community Bakery to feed our hungry soccer players, and literacy classes for GOALS' parents), we had to leave out a few of our other favorite accomplishments (such as recycling almost 4000 plastic bottles!).

GOALS' 2014 - 2015 Annual Report is below and you can view a larger PDF version here.
Leave a comment or send us a tweet @goalshaiti to let us know what you think! 

What do you think?
A huge thank you to our immensely talented volunteer designer Sally Limb in San Francisco! If you're interested in learning more about GOALS' revenue and expenses, our complete financial statement can be viewed here.

 
 

From Ohio to Haiti: Service learning with GOALS and Hastings Middle School

At GOALS, there's many reasons why we use soccer as a tool to spark long-term change in rural Haiti. Besides providing access to areas which lack both infrastructure and community programs, sport is effective at increasing gender equality and developing leadership, teaches life skills and critical health lessons right on the soccer field, and provides hope and opportunities for children who need it most.

Another reason why we love soccer? As a universal language, it provides a great way for children around the world to get involved and make a difference!

Students at Hastings Middle School, in Columbus, Ohio, for example, recently conducted a service learning project about Haiti with their French teacher, Miss Kelly. After researching the language, culture and history of Haiti, students chose to raise donations of soccer balls to send to GOALS.

Clockwise, from top left: Students show off the One World Futbols they've raised; Presenting their Power of Play project to the entire school; Testing out the One World Futbols at a fundraising match; More French students from Hastings Middle School in Upper Arlington, Columbus, OH.

I'll let one fourteen year old student tell you all about their experience:
A Difference, by a Hastings Middle School student from Columbus, Ohio

The Haiti Service Learning Project definitely was something that changed my view of the world. When I first heard that we would be doing something to help Haiti, I thought to myself, that’s likely to ever happen, like they need our help.

But then we started the research.

My group was assigned to make a video clip about the conditions in Haiti. At first glance, I assumed that we’d be able to blow our project off and just come away with some sort of scrap material. I was convinced that Haiti needed no help whatsoever...But as I scrolled through the pictures, I began to see that that wasn’t true at all. It wasn’t always safe there, the streets were filled with junk, there was nowhere that even grass could grow because the ground was a mass of rubble and houses stood only partially built.

I was stunned. I felt like I was almost always right...But this time, I’d been horribly mistaken. Haiti really did need help.

While gathering information on Haiti’s conditions, I also learned about One World Futbol, and what they were doing. Children in Haiti were being given balls to play soccer with, because soccer was one of their ways of staying happy and fit even in a home that was in such poor condition. In pictures showing children playing soccer before they were given the indestructible balls by One World Futbol, I saw deflated soccer balls, balls made from trash, and balls that had been stuffed full of plant material and tied back together with a string. Balls that never lasted more than one game.

But One World Futbol has been changing that, one ball at a time. They’ve been donating soccer balls to help the children of Haiti keep on playing soccer with balls that can’t be broken or deflated, balls that will last for hundreds of soccer games instead of just one.

Seeing what One World Futbol and GOALS Haiti were doing made me want to do something to help out. If an organization such as this one was making such a huge impact on people in need, then I wanted to do what I could to help. This was a way in which I could help, a way in which I could make a difference.

I definitely feel like I did make a difference in this project. I learned so much, and now I can pass that knowledge on to other people. Also, working on the project is helping my class be able to spread awareness and raise money to donate to One World Futbol and GOALS Haiti. Even if we just raise enough to donate one ball - one ball - I know that we will make a huge difference.

And I’m proud of that. I gained a lot of empathy and knowledge from this project, and I hope that everyone else did, too. I know that everything we did for this project will stick with me forever. And I’m happy that it will. I know that I’m helping to make a difference in the world, and that feeling is like no other.
 

A huge thank you to the student who wrote this, to all the students who participated in the project and their friends and families who supported them, and especially to Miss Kelly, who is clearly an incredible teacher! Here's what she had to say about the project:

Is play important? Why?
8th grade French students at Hastings Middle School have been asking themselves and others these questions while working on a service learning project to raise awareness about the power of play.

In discovering more about the Francophone country of Haiti and about the difficulties that impede play opportunities in poverty-stricken countries like Haiti, we were able to get a glimpse into what life might really be like in a world where play opportunities are limited.
What we realized made us want to help!

The Hastings Middle School French students raised 44 soccer balls through One World Play Project to donate to GOALS, and enough money to pay the shipping costs!

If you're a teacher looking for a creative service learning project, or you need a project for your Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah, Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts, senior service project or any other community service requirements, you can learn more about how to collect new or gently used to donate to GOALS kids in Haiti here, or send us an email to get in touch!

Curious how the students' video project about Haiti turned out? Here it is!

Uploaded by GOALSHaiti on 2015-08-31.

Soccer balls
 
 

Announcing the Jovan Julien Honorary Scholarship

The Jovan Julien Honorary Scholarship will be awarded to a student demonstrating excellent leadership in honor of Dream Team founder and GOALS volunteer Jovan Julien.

It's been 4 years since Brown University alum and GOALS volunteer Jovan Julien established the GOALS Dream Team Scholarship Program, giving teens in Haiti the boost they need to graduate high school.

In recognition of the impact he's had, GOALS is establishing the Jovan Julien Honorary Scholarship to be awarded (with Jovan's help!) to a Haitian student showing incredible leadership skills but needing help paying school fees to attend high school. We're reviewing applications for this special scholarship throughout the next few weeks, and we can't wait to announce and introduce the winner.

 
 

A thank you letter from Kervens

Meet Kervens. Kervens is from Darbonne, a peri-urban area which was heavily affected by the earthquake of 2010 and has struggled to recover. Kervens attends school thanks to a GOALS Dream Team scholarship and is on track to become the first person in his family to graduate high school.

He recently wrote a letter (with absolutely beautiful penmanship!) to thank GOALS for sponsoring his education through the GOALS Dream Team School Scholarship Program, and to explain why it's so important to him. It reads:

From: Kervens Montinant
To: GOALS
Objective: Gratitude

I really don't know what I would do if GOALS didn't take it upon themselves to pay for school for me, because my parents have always had trouble paying.

A scholarship is important for me because it allows me to concentrate on my studies and not worry.

When I finish school, I'd love to be able to attend university. My dream is for me to become a successful agronomist and with the scholarship with GOALS helps me with, I am confident I will achieve this dream. I need for GOALS to pay my school because my parents don't have the money to pay for all of us three kids to attend school.

My favorite subjects are biology and social sciences.

“I give special thanks to GOALS for helping me not only to play sports, but also for paying my school tuition. I would have so much difficulty without this scholarship.”
— KERVENS

Please consider making a donation to the GOALS scholarship fund to help Kervens and other students attend school and achieve their dreams. Kervens deserves the opportunity to receive an education and reach his full potential, and the rest of us deserve the opportunity to make the world a better place.

 
 

The best and the brightest students in Leogane

Meet the GOALS Dream Team and help us send them to school again in 2015 - 2016!

What is the GOALS Dream Team?
The GOALS Dream Team school scholarship program seeks to break the cycle of poverty by providing school merit and need-based school tuition scholarships to students with strong grades, early leadership skills, and a demonstrated commitment to local development.

GOALS is committed to ensuring that each of our scholarship students succeed in all areas of their life, and are committed to seeing each one graduate from high school to create a better future for themselves and their communities.

Who is GOALS helping?
This fall, 29 students will return to school with a GOALS scholarship.

  • Sondy pulls all-nighters during exam times, even though he studies by candlelight at night.
  • Wisly worked odd jobs during the summer to put himself through primary school since his mother passed away.
  • Venise believes having an education will make her a better mother for the child she had at 14.
  • Junia dreams of becoming a nurse, having struggled with her own health.

Their stories of triumph over adversity are both heartbreaking and inspiring. Of these 29 students, none live in permanent housing: All of them live in tarp, tin, or wooden structures. None of the students have electricity in their villages or running water in their homes. Nine of them have lost at least one parent, only eight have parents who ever attended school and every single one of them will be the first in their family to graduate from high school.

A video detailing the reason for the GOALS 2012 Winter Ed Campaign and the plan of action. For further information about the campaign and to donate check out http://www.crowdrise.com/goalsedfund2013 To learn more about GOALS Haiti visit www.GoalsHaiti.org To meet our Dream Team Members Check out www.nationaldreamteam.wordpress.com For a more in-depth look at some of the challenges our kids face check out our next video at http://vimeo.com/54660218 Our final link is a message from the founder and director of GOALS detailing exactly what the Winter Ed campaign will allow us to provde the communities we serve http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96_kjMBoeEI *The music in the video is Timoun Yo Graciously provided by a great Haitian Musician Belo, if you enjoyed the music it and more can be found at http://www.amazon.com/Référence-Explicit/dp/B001EBW24G/ref=ntt_mus_dp_dpt_1

Why do students need scholarships?
In Haiti, school can be prohibitively expensive at any age. The country’s literacy rate is 53% and secondary school participation is just 19%.  Many rural areas lack schools, and poor communities can't afford the tuition and the transportation costs to commute. In the village of Destra, where GOALS works, there are no primary schools and no secondary schools. The nearest paved road is nearly two miles away.

While primary school fees are more affordable, around $60 a year, secondary school fees are costly - around $350, and transport costs, books, school uniforms and exam fees add to the burden. Many parents tell GOALS they are forced to choose between feeding their children or sending them to school. Children from larger families often take turns going to school, with one child attending one year and another child the next.

How can I help?
Each one of these extraordinary students needs help paying school fees, books and uniform costs for the 2015 - 2016 school year.

You can sponsor an individual student or make a general donation to the GOALS Dream Team School Scholarship program.

 
 

Literacy update!

Over the past few weeks, we've been getting ready for our second round of literacy classes, meeting with parents and soccer coaches and enrolling children who need help learning to read and write. Each child enrolled has been out of school for at least one year and most haven't attended beyond 3rd grade. In some poorer areas where GOALS works, nearly all the adults are themselves very low-literate, so increasing the number of literate children will have a significant long-term impact. 

Elancia

Along with enrolling new students, we've been following up with our previous group of learners the past few weeks, to find out more about the impact of GOALS' literacy program.

The Joseph family, for example, with 7 children, is one of the poorest in the village of Destra, where GOALS has been offering sport, health and education programs since 2010. Elancia Joseph is 10 years old, but small enough to easily pass for 7. She and her sister Jessa, 13, both enrolled in and excelled in GOALS’ literacy program.

Recently, Elancia's father told us he was surprised to see Elancia take some rocks and use them to show her little brothers and sisters how to count on the dirt floor of their home. “I learned that if you can’t count very well, that you can use rocks to help you. Before, I couldn’t count at all,” Elancia said.

Her soccer coach says that there’s been a big change in children such as Elancia. “Before, they were illiterate, but now, they’re teaching the alphabet to other kids and telling them about all the activities and that they should enroll too!”

Jessa

But perhaps the most unexpected outcome of Elancia’s participation was the shift in her parents’ attitude. After a lifetime of poverty, and having never had the opportunity themselves, some parents, themselves illiterate, don’t believe that their children have the capacity to learn, and therefore don’t want to make the huge sacrifices and investment needed to afford tuition fees and send them to school. However, Francique Joseph, Elancia’s father told GOALS, “When she came back from literacy class, I saw that she could read and was doing her homework, I could see the importance of school.”

We knew that our plan to measure the impact of our literacy classes couldn't capture the entire generational impact it would have: Children born to literate mothers, for example, have higher survival rates, and not surprisingly, literate adults earn more than those who cannot read and write. But the tests we did take showed that students were learning a significant amount - and quickly.

Ten year old Frisno's first test and final test, side by side. In the first test, on the left, he simply rewrote the questions.

Our students' average test score was 5.4 before class, placing them in the “pre-literate” category, which means that they may be able to recognize and form some letters, or perhaps write their name. For example, several children wrote a string of letters, such as “hlaorhs”, each of which were correctly formed, but together did not form an actual word. In the final test, students scored an average of 16 points, placing them in the semi-literate category as a group, but individually, half of the students scored 20 or above, placing them in the fully literate category.

But we didn't predict the impact GOALS literacy program would have on parents like Francique Joseph. Like Elancia and Jessa's father, many parents began to believe in the capacity of their children to learn after seeing what they were capable of doing. After seeing their children excel in GOALS' class, nearly all of the families enrolled their children, including Jessa and Elancia in school the next year.

It's not easy, and Elancia still misses school some days when the road is muddy and she is stuck in her little village, and she worries that she won't be able to go at all next year.

But for now, Elancia says she is doing "just fine".