On March 22, 2015, 16 CSUSA teachers and three dentists from Coral Springs, Florida boarded a plane headed for Pétion-Ville, Haiti, with a
mission to provide much-needed educational and dental care for students at the Genecoit Vertus School of Excellence, a K-8 tuition-free school in Haiti.
The weeklong trip consisted of activities with the students such as reading, playing football and soccer, jumping rope, helping pick up garbage around the school, and distributing toys and bowls of rice and fish to the students daily.
Gene Vertus, a CSUSA employee and coordinator of the trip, said the students were eager to learn and were grateful for the food they received, some of which they shared with siblings and friends.
“Like a flawless assembly line, we passed down food to the students who waited patiently for the only meal they would have that day,” he said. “It was such a gratifying and humbling experience.”
A small group of teachers also assisted three Florida dentists who provided the students with free dental checkups, fluoride treatments and possible extractions.
“This free dental care was a first for our students, a necessity we all take for granted,” Vertus said.
Besides the more than 40 students who needed extractions, Vertus described how the three dentists performed a 3-hour surgery on a 4th grader named Lovenson. Lovenson suffered from decay in his tooth that had reached his jawbone, a condition that can be fatal if left unchecked.
“This was a life-changing surgery that needed to be done,” said the lead surgeon who operated on Lovenson. “If this was the only student we had worked on, I would have felt that our mission had been accomplished.”
Vertus said the experience was nothing short of life-changing and life-saving for both the students and his team. Although the trip lasted only a week, he said its impact will be felt for a long time.
“Seeing those students’ eyes and smiles light up when we opened a book, taught them a math problem and simply loved on them was something that words cannot describe,” he said. “We came to Haiti to make a change in these students’ lives, and we left having been the ones who had changed the most.”
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