FARMINGTON – One small bowl of rice once a day is the only food for many Haitian children.

A 10-day mission trip to Haiti in 2007 to work on a church construction effort opened Kathi Goings Caton’s eyes to the plight of schoolchildren in two villages, she said. When she saw it, she felt a calling from God to do something. She answered that call.

When the blocks for the church didn’t arrive and she came down with a cold, she had a chance to play with village children and help the pastor’s wife take photos meant to help find sponsors for children.

She decided to sponsor two children herself and offered to bring 10 names back to find sponsors here.

As her cold turned to bronchitis, she went to bed but couldn’t sleep. With no power at the pastor’s house, she used a flashlight to get up and write in her journal. She felt led by God to do more, she said. She may not have slept but felt an amazing energy in the morning, she said.

She couldn’t work so she talked with local missionaries about the children, trying to determine how much it would take to feed 210 children.

“I knew then that I was coming back,” she said.

When she got home she developed a nonprofit program, S.C.H.O.O.L. Inc., an acronym for Schooling Christian Haitians Out of Love.

“It’s a passion and brings a smile to my face. I’m beaming all the time I’m there,” she said,

The program seeks sponsors for the children. She found 19 sponsors when she returned home and has raised that number to 40 sponsors for the 150 children in the program. Each sponsor pays $240 a year or $20 a month for one child’s tuition, one uniform, books and $5 is saved for the future feeding program.

“Children need nutrition to retain information. Many are fortunate to get one meal a day of rice or rice and beans. Now children are eating mud cookies because they can’t afford the rice,” she said.

Caton estimates a feeding program for the 210 students will take $30,000 per year.

Since that first trip, Caton and her board of four volunteers here have held bake sales, craft fairs and collected bottles to raise funds. In her spare time, she likes to photograph wildlife and recently made her photos into Christmas cards for her latest fundraiser.

Her ultimate goal is to help the teachers better educate the Haitian children.

Visual aids, bulletin boards and supplies that may be outdated for American classrooms are wonderful for Haitian teachers, she said.

During a trip back to Haiti in August, Caton taught the teachers about flash cards and incentive learning. Now, she has a box of stickers for incentive charts and other supplies to take with her in January. She also wants to develop flash cards students can take home to learn with their families, she said.

She hopes to help the children and teachers become more self sufficient.

“It will help their future. Education is their only hope for a healthier and happier life,” she said.

Caton runs the family business, Goings Electric, and works about 55 hours a week. She’s raised three stepchildren and four foster children and has 10 grandchildren. Her evenings are spent on her computer making connections with people willing to help.