Wonderful Wilna
An interview with Wilna Narcisse Her role with Haiti Scholars
By Emily Harvey
Wilna with her kindergarten class in 2014
Wilna on her wedding day this year
Wilna Narcisse is the director of the preschool program at Centre D'Etudes Lumiere. She has worked at the school for ten years. As a result, she knows every student and family that is part of the school. This year Haiti Scholars is beyond excited that Wilna will continue her partnership with us to help ensure the scholarship program is successful. Wilna's role is to create reports on each student's progress in school, meet with families, help us develop and maintain a successful program.
During our last month’s zoom meeting we were able to talk to Wilna about her position at the school and working with Haiti Scholars.
What inspires you to work with Haiti Scholars?
You guys – to see that you live very far from Haiti in another country, you don’t even know the kids or their parents, you’re of a different nationality but yet you are so strongly committed to support the kids and help them. That helps me realize how great it would be for me, as a Haitian, to help and support the kids.
What are the main challenges you face?
Sometimes it’s really hard to find the parents - some don’t have a cell phone or cell phone number making it difficult to contact them. Even parents that do have cell phones are still unreachable.
The parents don’t always help me with the kids. I’m doing the majority of the work to keep them in school and managing communications. It’s even more difficult for the little kids, since some parents don’t know how to read and write. So when we have a letter for the kids, the parents have a hard time understanding what is being communicated t th
to them.
What are your hopes for moving forward with Haiti Scholars?
I pray that God can keep providing and giving Haiti Scholars the means to continue supporting the kids.
Your favorite memory related to Haiti Scholars?
During quarantine for COVID-19 when Haiti Scholars sent resources to Pastor Valcourt to make food kits and sanitary kits for the parents of the kids. That touched my heart and I will always remember that.
The kids are a great source of blessings for me. On the day of my wedding, all of the kids came to the marriage ceremony and they all gave me thoughtful gifts.
Favorite bible verse
I love the bible – reading it, learning about it. My favorite verse is from 1 John 3:18, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
Our final thoughts
The Scholarship Team continues to meet on zoom with Wilna every month for updates and discussions. During each meeting, Wilna radiates her love for the children for whom she serves. We are grateful for her work, direction, and passion, and love to strive for the best education possible for our scholarship students. In addition, she is instrumental in implementing the Saturday program. Beginning this October, on a monthly basis, staff will meet with our scholarship students. We are excited to share more shortly about this awesome program. Mesi Anpil, Wilna!
Wilna on zoom, sharing her thoughts about working with children at Centre D'Etudes Lumiere and Haiti Scholars
