Dear UTO,
It is an honor to be a missionary of The Episcopal Church, and an honor to receive thisgift, the fruit of gratitude of the faithful.
I am sending you some photos so you can see the work that you are all supporting through TheEpiscopal Church. I am the acting dean of the Faculté des Sciences de Réhabilitation de Léogâne (FSRL), located in Haiti. Wehave two bachelor’s degree programs: one in occupational therapy (OT) and the other in physical therapy (PT). FSRL is a department of the Episcopal University of Haiti, or UNEPH. The Rev. Donnel O’Flynn and I moved here to Léogâne in August of 2015, with the intention of providing leadership to open the programs.
Donnel taught English at the university for the first year. He is now back home in Kalispell, Montana, working as rector of Christ Church Episcopal. We Skype every night, and I go home about five times a year. The long-term plan is to continue to develop local leadership for FSRL. We have a wonderful administrator, Miselene Lafleur, who is a recent graduate of the nursing school and valedictorian of her class.
We are helped greatly by the generosity and hospitality of the nursing school here, FSIL (Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de Léogâne).FSIL opened the first bachelor’s degree program for nursing in Haiti in 2004. FSRL now has the first bachelor’s degree program in OT and one of only two programs in PT in Haiti. The Episcopal Diocese of Haitiis taking a leading role in development of the health professions and in the establishment of the rights of the disabled.
FSRL currently has 34 students in all four years. The first graduation, God willing, will be in December of 2019.
It will be a historic event! And you and all the donors to the UTO will have had a part in it, for three years now, through your generous gifts!
Thank you so very much! May God continue to pour out blessings on you and your work!
God’s peace,
Janet
Miselene Lafleur, Administrator of FSRL, with Dean O’Flynn in the FSRL office.
The Rev. Donnel O’Flynn and Janet O’Flynn on holiday at home, taken in Glacier Park, Montana.
Second, third, and fourth year students and staff of FSRL on October 5, 2018.
A student of occupational therapy, front right, providing patient education on hypertension, up in the mountains (Gros Morne).
Students of physical therapy learning how to position a young child at St. Vincent’s Center, another Episcopal Diocese of Haiti institution.