LifeFunders for Month: August 2016

Build Haiti

My name is Fr. Raymond A. Olinger. I am a member of The Society of Our Lady of Guadalupe of San Francisco. I live in Melbourne, Florida where I celebrate Mass in a Chapel in my home. I also work out of Sacred Heart Church in Orlando.


One of our members of our society is Fr. Amogene Charles, T.O.R. of Petionville, Haiti. All of the priests associated with us celebrate the Tridentine Latin Mass. I am raising funds to support Fr. Charles and his work in Haiti.


Fr. Charles is responsible for one other priest, seven seminarians and some 13 nuns and postulants. All are Third Order Regular Franciscans. They run two free schools, plus are responsible for forming young seminarians and nuns in their novitiate. Also, Fr. Charles suffers from a blood disease which requires expensive medication. He has not been able to purchase that for the past several months.


They lost the building they were staying in as a result of the earthquake in Haiti in January, 2010. They lived under the stars for a long time, then in tents. Currently they have, through contributions, built  the shell of a two-story building of concrete block construction. You can see by the pictures that the building has a roof but no windows or doors. The building has two wings, one for men the other for women with a common kitchen in the middle.


Cost to complete this building totals $295,400. Separated into individual projects the costs are:


1) Windows. 133 @ $250 each or $33,250.

2) Doors. 81 @ $150 each, plus 3 large doors @2500 each, total $19,650.

3) Ceramics for floors, both sides, $48,000.

4) Electrical System up to code total $38,500.

5) Finish construction, entire building total $40,000.

6) Painting. $35,000.

7) Plumbing – kitchen, showers, toilets, $31,000.

8) School supplies, living expenses, $50,000


Grand Total: $295,400.

None of the monies that came to Haiti as aid after the disastrous earthquake came to Fr. Charles and his group. I hope you will support their noble effort at preserving and spreading the Holy Catholic Faith in Haiti. God bless you.

Adult and After School Education

At
MRLC, we offer children and adults in the urban disadvantaged community of
Reading, PA free educational opportunities to help them become all God created
them to be. For the 2016-17 school year, we are:

Providing free, quality learning
opportunities and skills development for children in grades 3-7. Offerings
for children include:

    • Canvas (a program of arts and sports)
    • Robot Lab (teams building programming LEGO
      robots)
    • Music Lab (students using an iPad and
      GarageBand to learn about and express themselves in music they compose)


Last school year, we served nearly 80 students just at Northwest Middle School (grades 6-7). This year we are adding Glenside Elementary so that we can also serve students in grades 3-5. Students love the fun learning they experience and in end-of-year surveys overwhelmingly requested the opportunity to participate in MRLC after school programs in the coming school year (some even asked for summer programs!).

Providing quality no cost learning opportunities
and skills development for adults via a pay-it-forward approach. Current offerings
for adults include:

    • high school equivalency
    • English as a Second Language

Our high school equivalency students take the four exams that are part of the GED® program. 83% of our students pass each exam on the first try.

The
residents of the city of Reading are young (median age 29.1 years), mostly
Hispanic (61.8%), followed by white (25.6%) and black (8.8%). 39.6% of city
residents live in poverty. In 2013, the median household income of Reading City
residents was $25,567.

According
to Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer
service, “the urban poor
in America often face increasingly concentrated pockets of poverty, especially
in urban neighborhoods, which also battle gangs, lackluster educational
opportunities for minorities, reduced access to healthy foods, single-parent
homes or children being raised by grandparents or other family members, and an
increased sense of social isolation.”

Please join with us through your giving to address the issues of poverty and lackluster education opportunities by funding MRLC programs for the deserving children and adults of Northwest Reading.