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Additional Photos | PDF Brochure Some Background Information… In
1991, I participated in a “pilgrimage of reverse mission”
to Haiti with an organization called Ministry of Money. Ministry of
Money’s focus is trying to help Christians be faithful regarding
the use of money and other resources, especially in this world in which
so many people lack the basic material things they need to survive.
One of the ways in Over the years, Don (and I along with him) was invited by increasing numbers of persons and groups in Haiti to try to help them fund or start grass roots organizations which somehow empower the poor. Eventually, Don left Ministry of Money and founded a new organization called Harvest Time. Harvest Time’s call is to work with Christians of exceptional wealth in the US and abroad, and to help them become more free to share their resources with the poor, and to do so in ways which honor the dignity of all persons and communities, and which work toward the realization of biblical justice. Now you may not consider yourself to be a person of “exceptional wealth,“ but the truth is that on a global scale, most of us are much more wealthy than we realize. To even have access to adequate shelter, food, modest health care, and education sets us apart from a vast majority of the world’s population. In any case, part of Harvest Time’s mission is to help wealthy persons work through the emotional, psychological, spiritual, familial, and cultural issues which often make it so difficult for persons with “more than enough” to share their excess resources with the poor. Harvest Time has intimate relationships with over 25 different organizations in Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, and inner city Washington, DC, and part of Harvest Time’s work is to help fund these organizations. Most of these organizations have been in existence for decades, and are very stable and autonomous. In a few cases, Harvest Time staff members have actually helped to give birth to some of these grass roots organizations, and SPARE falls into that category. In addition to working with SPARE, I am Harvest Time’s coordinator for all of its work in Haiti. I visit Haiti 4-6 times a year, and take a group on reverse mission an average of once a year.
How SPARE Came Into Being… SPARE is a very new organization, and we are “growing it” slowly but deliberately. The organization was established officially with the Haitian government in 2002, and its founder and director is a young man named Guy Morelus (“Guy” is pronounced with a hard “g”, and rhymes with “key”). Guy is 27 years old, and is a member of a Haitian family with which both Don McClanen and I have worked for more than 10 years. Guy spent his early years in Cite Soleil, a shanty town on the outskirts of Port au Prince. His mother somehow found a way to get to Miami when Guy was about 10 years old, and eventually Guy went to live with his mother in Miami. Most of his family was unable to leave Haiti however. Guy finished high school in Miami, and then attended two years of community college. This is a remarkable degree of education for a person born into the grinding poverty of Cite Soleil. In 2000, Guy returned to Port au Prince to take care of his sister, brother, and the six young children who live with them. I met Guy in June of 2001, and was very impressed with him. He is a young man of tremendous integrity, courage, spiritual depth, and Christian commitment. He also has a personal history of growing up among the poorest of the poor, and then finding his way through the street life and gangs of Miami’s inner city. In other words, he is “street smart,” and this is actually one of the greatest assets he brings to SPARE’s work with the street kids of Port au Prince. When Guy and I
first met, he shared with me that he had a dream of trying to start
an organization to help the poorest kids of Port au Prince find a way
to go to school and have food to eat. As grace would have it, I had
been searching for years to try to find an To sum up a long
process, Guy, his volunteer staff, and I discerned that what these kids
needed was a very comprehensive approach to getting back into school.
I have learned When we did serious
research to find out how much money was needed to take care of all these
things so that the kids actually have a realistic chance of succeeding
in school, it came to about $2.25 per day, or about $800.00 per year.
While this is more than most child sponsorships I am aware of, all I
can say is that it is well thought through, “road tested,”
and contains no “fluff.” In fact, we are finding that it is
very difficult to make this amount enough! Just recently, for example,
gas prices shot up almost overnight by 600%. The result was that the
price of taking a “tap tap” (small buses or pickups which
is the way the poor in Haiti get around) increased from 1 goude (about
4 cents) to 6 goudes overnight. So just like that the cost of getting
the kids to and from school each day increased
Who Is Responsible For SPARE in the US? SPARE initially came into being as part of my (Bryan Sirchio’s) work with Harvest Time in Haiti, and Harvest Time is still very closely related to SPARE. For a number of reasons, however, in the Fall of 2002, SPARE became part of my own local church’s mission outreach. I belong to Community of Hope United Church of Christ in Madison, WI. Community of Hope shares a building and education and mission programs with an ELCA Lutheran Church called Advent Lutheran. Together, these two congregations call themselves Madison Christian Community, or MCC. So SPARE is now officially an outreach of MCC. How Does The Program Work? It's really very simple. Sponsors are asked to make a commitment to being in a sponsoring relationship with one of our students for one school year. This commitment involves the following: 1. A financial commitment of $800.00: If at all possible, we ask that this amount be paid up front in one lump sum. It is simply much easier for us to handle it this way administratively. If this is not possible, then two payments of $400.00 each would be the next most preferable arrangement. But of course if it is simply not possible for you to work in this way, then we can make other arrangements, including monthly payments. But we are hoping to avoid a scenario in which we are needing to send out monthly bills or statements to anyone, or having to spend time and energy contacting folks if they forget to pay. In any case, we want to be flexible and sensitive to your financial reality, and encourage you to contact me (Bryan) to discuss this if you have special needs in this regard. 2. Co-sponsorships are possible: We have found that some folks are very interested in being sponsors, but they cannot afford $800.00 a year. Please know that it is possible for several smaller gifts from different individuals or groups to be pooled in order to sponsor a student. For example, a few of our students were sponsored by four different individuals who each made payments of $200.00. In some of these cases, two of the four persons were interested in actually communicating on a regular basis with the student, while the other two simply wanted to make the financial contribution but did not want to write or receive letters. So in these cases the student has 2 co-sponsors, and communicates with them both. This is wonderful, but in order to avoid unnecessary complication, no one student can have more than 2 official sponsors in terms of the letter writing requirements (outlined below). We have found that the most difficult thing of all is finding people willing to do the letter writing and to communicate with a student regularly. So, please don’t let the $800.00 figure be the only reason you chose not to become a sponsor. It has not happened yet, but we are open to the possibility that some folks may be very interested in the relational part of the program, and yet have absolutely no money to be able to contribute. We may also receive cash contributions from folks who want to support the work without being personally involved. If and when this happens, we may be able to put this person and the cash gifts of others together in order to create a sponsorship. 3.
Do You Have Choices Regarding Age and/or Gender of Student? 4. A Relational Commitment of one e-mail or letter each month. Of course it takes money to send these young people to school and to feed them. But perhaps the most important thing of all is the relationship you will develop between yourself and your sponsored student. We ask that you write (e-mail or snail mail) once a month, and your student will be asked to write you once a month as well. The only “rule” we have regarding this communication is that the students are not allowed to ask you for any additional financial support for themselves or their families, and that you contact either Guy or Bryan before you promise or attempt to send any additional gifts to your student. We have already found that if some kids have more generous or wealthy sponsors than others and are receiving material gifts that others don’t receive, this easily leads to jealously and resentment on the part of those who go without. 5. Evaluate At The End of the School Year: We really want to make it easy for sponsors to end this relationship after one school year if they need to for any reason. So, at the end of the school year, each sponsor will be contacted and given an opportunity to critique how things have gone, make suggestions as to how to improve the program, and decide whether or not to renew the commitment for another year. 6. How Soon Can A Sponsorship Begin? Sponsorships can begin immediately, as soon as you contact us and let us know that you are ready to make this commitment and we have a chance to personally discuss (either on the phone or through e-mail or mail) all relevant details. As mentioned above, we have some students in school who do not have sponsors, and they would love to begin this relationship. If you enter into a sponsoring relationship during the middle of an academic year with a student who is already in school, we will ask you to pay a pro-rated amount which will see the student through the end of the current school year. You will then be invited to reevaluate the experience and commitment at the end of the year, and decide if you want to recommitment for the following year. So, for example, if you began even as late as May with a student, you would pay immediately for May and June (assuming you can pay for both at once), and then you would decide if you are going to renew the commitment for the next year. 7. When and How Much Do You Pay? A. If You’re Starting Your Sponsorship at the Beginning of a New School Year and… 1. Paying the $800.00 in one sum for the year: A check or money order for $800.00 is due August 1 in order for the student to start school in September of that same year. 2. Paying the $800.00 in two payments of $400.00: The first payment is due July 1, and the second payment is due January 1 (5 months after the initial payment). 3. Needing some other payment schedule: Please contact us to establish mutually agreeable terms. B. If Starting During the School Year With a Student Already in School: Please contact us to set up a pro-rated payment for the balance of the current school year.
How Are Sponsorship Payments or Tax-deductible Contributions Made? All payments or contributions should be made via check or money order. Payments should be made payable to Madison Christian Community, and sent to: SPARE How Do We Contact SPARE in the United States? All correspondence at this point should go through Bryan Sirchio at the address above. Bryan and his office assistant Greg Rasmussen can also be reached by e-mail; info@sirchio.com, or by phone at his office at (608) 294-8716. How Do We Contact SPARE in Haiti? You can communicate with SPARE’s Haitian director, Guy Morelus, through e-mail at: spare2002@hotmail.com Thanks so much for taking the time to learn more about this program. We hope to hear from you! . |
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Sponsorship
Program
Aiding
which
Ministry of Money carries out its mission is by taking groups of people
to so-called “third world” places in order to be touched by
the lives and faith of some of the world’s poorest people. The
trip in which I participated in March of 1991 was led by Don McClanen,
Ministry of Money’s founder and director. To sum it up, Don and
I hit it off, and I was eventually asked to work with Ministry of Money
as a consultant. I began to help lead these trips of reverse mission
(called “reverse” because the real focus is on Haiti and its
people changing us rather than the other way around), and felt called
to focus on Haiti in particular.
organization
to which I could refer many of the teenage street kids I was encountering
on my trips to Haiti. I wanted to help these young men and women go
to school, but their needs were way beyond anything I could respond
to on my own. I could not find the appropriate organization through
which to help these beautiful children of God. Then it occurred to me
that perhaps Guy could establish such an organization with a little
help from me and Harvest Time. I spent a lot of time with Guy helping
him think and pray through how to give birth to this organization. During
a trip I took to Haiti in June of 2002, we finally decided it was time
to bring this new ministry into being, and so we promised the first
15 students on our list of over 85 boys and girls that one way or another
we would help them get back into school in September of 2002. When I
say, “one way or another,” what I’m alluding to is that
we did not yet have sponsors for all 15 of these kids. 10 of these students
currently have sponsors (as of January, 2003). The rest of them are
in school because Harvest Time, through some of its donors, put up the
rest of the money needed to get all these young people in school. Our
goal is to try to find additional sponsors for these other students
by the end of this school year. 
over
the years that it does not make much sense to pay for tuition, for example,
if a child has no money for books, transportation to and from school,
uniform, shoes, supplies, and most importantly, for food. There is a
Haitian proverb which states, “an empty bag cannot stand straight.”
In other words--students cannot study well when they are malnourished.
So in addition to education, feeding these young people on a regular
basis is a top priority of SPARE. In fact, if SPARE did nothing other
than feed these hungry kids each day and make sure that they are at
least literate, I would consider this program very much a success. 
dramatically.
These are the kinds of unexpected changes which simply are part of the
Haitian reality, and which make running businesses and organizations
in Haiti so terribly difficult. And yet SPARE is continuing to work,
step by step, and with God’s help, we are growing stronger all
the time. We have every reason to believe that SPARE will continue to
grow into a very significant organization which will educate and feed
Haitian young people for years to come. That being said, we also want
to be very upfront with all our sponsors and potential sponsors and
acknowledge that we are all learning as we go, and that any and all
work in Haiti is fragile and volatile at best, because Haiti itself
is fragile and volatile.
