Business and Technology Institute (BTI), Les Cayes
The Bishop Tharp Institute (Business and Technology Institute) of Les Cayes, Haiti is an academic Institution affiliated with the Episcopal church of Haiti. The Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) agency of the national Episcopal Church of the United States founded the school in 2005. The institute operates with a board of directors, chaired by the Bishop of Haiti, and made up of representatives of various constituents of the United States and Haiti. The Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Atlanta, Georgia, has been in partnership with the Bishop Tharp Business and Technical Institute (BTI) in Les Cayes, Haiti, since 2009 providing scholarships, funding for a guest house, guest lectures and special projects. In 2017 Epiphany established an Entrepreneurship Institute to provide coaching and financial support for BTI students who complete the coursework and submit promising business plans.
solar energy system
BTI is home to more than 1700 students and is dependent upon the very unreliable electrical grid in Les Cayes. While there is a small solar system in place to provide electricity to portions of the administrative offices and guest house, the Institute is in great need of a much larger system in order to meet the needs of its growing student body, the professors and the many groups and individuals who transit through the facilities on a daily basis. This mecca of higher education allows for many movers and shakers in the NGO community to interact with each other, with Pere Kesner Ajax and with students in a dynamic manner that fosters cooperation, learning and best practices to be shared.
solar energy academies
BTI will be one of three locations hosting Solar Energy Academies beginning in the fall of 2018. Paired with entrepreneurial classes the intent is to provide young Haitians with both the technical skills and the business knowledge to gain employment in and potentially start their own solar energy companies in this fast growing sector of the economy.
