When 21-year-old Guévara walks onto Grace Emmanuel School’s campus each morning, she carries more than a backpack—she carries 15 years of school memories.

Now in her final year of high school, Guévara is among the longest-attending students at GES. She first arrived in 2010 as a six-year-old preschooler, learning her ABCs under canvas tents on JiHM’s property in Source Matelas. 

“I don’t remember everything about those first years,” she said, “but the school celebrations—I remember those. Those were my favorites.”

Maudeline, one of Guévara’s preschool teachers, remembers her as “quiet and composed on her first day, always paying attention to lessons. She has always been very determined to succeed in life.”

In 2015, as a third grader, Guévara moved up the hill into the newly constructed classrooms for the first time. For the next several years, she would grow up in those bright, beautiful spaces, completing 9th grade there before the landscape of her life—and the school—changed dramatically.

High School, interrupted

Her high school journey (grades 10-13 in Haiti) did not begin in the fall of 2022 as expected. As violence crept closer to Source Matelas, schools across the area were forced to remain closed. Months passed in uncertainty before classes were finally able to begin in January 2023.

Only a few short months later, on April 19, 2023, while Guévara was taking exams, gangs launched a full-scale attack on Source Matelas.

Gunshots filled the air. “I ran,” she said. 

She made her way to Cabaret, where she eventually found her grandmother. By the end of that day, their home in Source Matelas was a distant memory. 

The remainder of her 10th-grade year, along with 11th and 12th grade, took place at Grace Emmanuel School’s first shared temporary location in Arcahaie. Her senior year has brought yet another move.

A Steady Faithfulness

Despite everything, Guévara has remained a dependable, hard-working student who always finds a way to show up.

“I can see this country doesn’t offer youth anything,” she said. “I have to work harder in school every day so I can have a different and good future.”

Guévara wants to become a nurse, with the hope of finding stable work that will allow her to support herself and her family.

When she is not in class, she already finds ways to do this, helping sell at the market or taking care of household chores.

She deeply values the people who have shaped her, like her aunt Mariline who is her most trusted confidante.

“She always tells me to focus on school so my life doesn’t go poorly,” Guévara said. 

Her grandmother, who raised her from infancy, remains her safe place.

“She helps me with everything I need,” she shared.

And her sponsors in California, who have supported her faithfully since 2013.

“I’m so grateful for all they’ve done for me,” she said. “They’ve helped my grandma and me with my education all the years I’ve been in school. I’m thankful for everything.”

How to Pray for Guévara

Her prayer request is simple and broad: pray for Haiti to change. Pray also that she will accomplish her dreams—“and make my grandma proud.”

As she approaches graduation this summer—at age 22—she reflects on what she will miss: “Everything. The programs, the celebrations, the gifts, the food… everything.”

After fifteen years of steady perseverance, Guévara is close to finishing what she began under the heat of those canvas tents. Her story is marked by disruption and displacement, but even more by endurance.

“I have to work harder,” she says, “so I can have a different future.”

And hard work, she has proven, is something she knows how to give—every day since that first day of preschool.

“I’m really happy for her to be close to graduation,” said Maudeline. “She’s always told me that she wanted to make all her family happy.”