IAFL Founding: Inspirations and Visions of the Past, and the Hopes of Future

In the past four years, IAFL has continuously worked to eliminate the extreme poverty and hardship of students attending the school that Marie Thadal attended at a young age before immigrating to America and becoming the first of her family to attend college. What is more extraordinary than her overcoming obstacles and achievements as a Cosmetic Chemist is her wish to do better for her community at home. She does not want to do good just for herself and her immediate family but also for the little girls at Ecole Mere Louise, who she is convinced would benefit from early and consistent exposure to education.

With the help of donors and volunteers who the vision of IAFL has touched in the past four years, Thadal has managed to directly sponsor the education of the Ecole Mere Louise students by purchasing books, uniforms, or other learning tools such as keyboards for Piano lessons or Robotic Kits for STEM exposure. However, the work of IAFL does not stop at just direct academic assistance. After all, a student who suffers from hunger or illness would find it difficult to focus on their studies. For that reason, IAFL has been and continues to be committed to lending a helping hand with food, and medical supply assistance anytime the community finds itself facing a difficult challenge. Climate change is one of those upcoming challenges that worries our founder.

IAFL’s sight is now set on assessing how Climate change will affect the community and its students as temperatures rise yearly. Climate change has been linked to increased frequency and intensity of destructive weather events, such as floods and hurricanes. But National Geographic reports that the effects of our warming planet can pose an even greater danger, especially to poor communities. For example, Agriculture is the most important economic sector in many developing countries and is heavily dependent on weather patterns and environmental conditions such as pests, epidemics, and sea-level rises. Thus not only does Climate change threaten the access to housing for these communities, but it also affects their livelihoods and physical well-being. With these effects in mind, IAFL will begin its strategic planning to combat these adverse effects in the Haitian community surrounding Ecole Mere Louise. We, at IAFL, are incredibly thankful for the contribution of our donors and volunteers in the past four years and invite you to take the next step with us as IAFL addresses Climate change to further our vision of transforming children’s lives.

Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/151201-datapoints-climate-change-poverty-agriculture