A Lambton College student from the Dresden area is looking forward to traveling to Port-au-Prince, Haiti on a mission trip this spring.
Mark Charbonneau, 18, is joining about a dozen other Lambton students on the mission trip from May 8-16, through New World Community Inc.
“I think it’s going to be an eye opener,” Charbonneau told the Sydenham Current. “A life changing experience to provide services in a third world country.”
Charbonneau, a graduate of Lambton-Kent Composite School in Dresden, said they will be learning about the Haitian culture, working in orphanages, and spending time teaching the children in Haiti how to speak English at the English in Mind Institute in Port-au-Prince.
“There is a group that actually just got back two weeks ago,” he said. “They said the experience was really good. They told me some tips on what to do and what to be careful of, but they said it was a great experience, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
Charbonneau is studying in the child and youth worker program and is looking forward to gaining some valuable experience on the trip.
“I’ll get to meet the youth in a third world country and understand what it is like to live their lives everyday,” he said. “I think it’s going to give me an appreciation for life here compared to what it is there.”
He said a fellow student in his program stepped up to organize the trip for anyone interested.
“I jumped right on the bus. I’ve never traveled to a third world country. The fact that I get to go there and teach English and at the same time bring back their culture. They speak Creole, so I’ll get to learn some of their language as well. I think it is going to be an awesome experience.”
Charbonneau said they are doing some fundraising to off-set the cost of the trip.
“It is almost $1,900 a person and we have another $3,000 group fundraising goal,” he said. “We’ve done little bits here and there. We’ve made a little bit over $1,000 so far. We still have a couple fundraisers coming up this month… we’re going to do a bake sale at the school.”
Charbonneau said friends and family have donated towards his personal fundraising efforts, and anyone interested in donating some funds can so directly on his gofundme.com page he created.
Here is a video about the English in Mind Institute in Port-au-Prince where Charbonneau will be volunteering:
English In Mind Institute (EIM) from Tighe Boudreaux Kellner on Vimeo.
