Over the last 10 years, our school has gone from educating 40 students under a few tarps to a growing campus with 10 classroom structures serving 160 students.

Our Story

What a journey the last decade has been. It all started with six women at a church in Des Moines, Iowa wanting to help a country in ruin following the devastating Haiti earthquake in January 2010. There was a suggestion at the church to gather hygiene supplies to send in aid packages to support the people of Haiti, and through the help of many, several cases of supplies were shipped down through a third-party partner. And that's really where our organization's story begins. In a crazy series of events, those same aid packages that were originally sent to Haiti made a 1,800-mile round trip back to us. The initial frustration of our failed first attempt to lend a helping hand led to an understanding that we could do better and get involved in recovery efforts more directly. So, we decided to speak with a local Haitian family to search for other ways to help.

The Vilmael's grew up as part of the La Biche community, and the size of their hometown and the size of our small founding group was a great match. This community connection gave us immediate credibility that would have been otherwise difficult to establish, and it's what made our educational work possible. And so our efforts in La Biche began.

The Six Degrees of Separation name comes from our group of founding women and our belief that meaningful connections and relationships are all around us. For our organization, that connection is with the Vilmael's. It's with our students and teachers. It's with the La Biche community. After all, as human beings, we live just one or two or six degrees of separation away from one another. We are all connected. The name was natural then, and it is a guiding light for us now.