We Need a Baker!
May 12, 2012
Thanks to our partnership with Grameen Creative Lab, Haiti Partners and a new cooperative we’re starting in Haiti is anticipating a significant loan to start a bakery. Thanks to our partnership with BAR Architects, we’re getting the architectural design for the new building for free! BAR Architects, in partnership with Architecture For Humanity designed the Children’s Academy complex, which is where the bakery will be. The purpose of the bakery, in addition to making great products that people love and benefit from (there will be retail and wholesale), is to help cover operating budget of Children’s Academy. Additionally, the social businesses that we’re starting in partnership with all of our partner schools are intended to create an entrepreneurial culture among students, teachers and parents.
But…WE NEED A BAKER! Feasibility studies have confirmed what the locals have been saying. The area needs a good bakery! People have to walk way to far and for bread that’s not great.
There are are several bakers in Haiti that are advising us, including one that sells bakery equipment ; ). We need someone with extensive experience who can champion this project for six months to a year. Someone who can advise on best equipment to purchase, design of building, recipes and help train the staff.
Do you or someone you know have extensive experience running a bakery and a desire to engage in a super exciting and meaningful project for the next six to 12 months? Here’s where you’d be spending your time each day:
Yes, the site is as beautiful as it looks and the climate is near perfect. The kids and adults in the area couldn’t be more excited about this project. Mr. Monclair, 82 beams with joy everytime I (John) see him. If he’s told me once he’s told me a half a dozen times, “I never thought I’d see anything like this in my neighborhood in my lifetime.”
It’s about 2,700 feet overlooking Port au Prince. You’d lodge and have meals at John and Merline’s home and guesthouse 1.3 miles away. If you have the experience and are interested, email john@haitipartners.org
Click here to Learn more about construction of the Children’s Academy.
Posted in Haiti Partners, Lalo Community School, Social Enterprise for Quality Education | No Comments |
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Haiti Partners on Discovery Channel!
May 7, 2012
After the devastating Haiti earthquake in January 2010, we partnered with Briggs & Stratton to deliver 240 generators to schools, clinics, community organizations and others to provide badly needed energy so relief work could take place. This 5 minute video documents the effort and and the exciting partnership that made it happen.
To watch the full program, check local listings for the Giving Back program:
- Discovery Channel – Monday, May 14, 7:00 am EDT/PDT
- Fox Business News – Saturday, May 19, 3:00 pm EDT; 12:00 pm PDT
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Partnership is crucial to our to mission to help Haitians change Haiti.
Join Us to Make a Difference:
- Become a Change for Haiti Partner
- Learn more about business partnerships
Posted in Haiti Partners, Henri Christophe Community School, IMN Community School, Special Projects, STUDENTS Program | 2 Comments |
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New Project Pages Promote Transparency
April 30, 2012
Erik Badger
We’re pleased to announce two new project pages here at haitipartners.org: the Capacity Building3 and Social Enterprise for Quality Education pages. These pages consolidate all significant proposals, reports, media and updates from these two projects and make them easily accessible to the public.
Though we do not expect all of our constituents to dig this deeply into the minutia of what we’re doing on the ground in Haiti, for those who are interested, we want this information to be easily available.
These new pages are a part of our effort to raise the bar for transparency in the non-profit sector. We are excited to share these pages with you and hope you enjoy them.
Thank you for your interest!
Posted in Capacity Building 3 Training, Capacity Building 3 Training, Grants, Haiti Partners, LEADERS Program, Partner Schools, Social Enterprise for Quality Education, Special Projects, STUDENTS Program, TEACHERS Program, Vista Hermosa Foundation | No Comments |
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Planting Beans at Haiti Partners Academy & Happy Easter!
April 7, 2012
John Engle
April 7th is a big planting day in Haiti. About 20 community members came together at 5 am this morning to start planting beans on land where Haiti Partners Academy is being built. In Haiti this is called a kòve, which is a tradition for centuries. It’s like a work party or barn raising. People come together to work for a day or several days to get a big task done and a team of women cooks meals on site. As you’ll see in video, joking and laughter is an important part of the work.
Gardening by hand like this in hot sun is hard work. But members of Bawosya are committed to Haiti Partners Academy vision. Families of people working the land will receive half of the harvest and the other half will go to Haiti Partners Academy to help with budget.
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Activity Report from Bèl Platon Community School
March 29, 2012
Earlier this month Program Coordinator Benaja Antoine visited our most remote partner school, Bèl Platon Community School. While there, he facilitated a meeting between teachers and school leadership, gave a short training on earthquakes, and helped the school work through some issues it was having with its social business pilot. To read the full report Benaja submitted about his visit, click here.
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Meals at Cabois Community School!
March 28, 2012
Thank you to the Brelsford family, Heads Together Haiti, and everyone else who contributed to support Cabois Community School to provide meals this month! This program feeds about 150 people – students and staff – each school day and is a vital part of enabling students to learn well.
*Click here for more pictures from Cabois Community School.
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Social Business with Partner Schools
March 15, 2012
While there are debates about schools and education policy in the U.S., few would argue with this: every child deserves a quality education.
In Haiti, however, the system makes this practically impossible. So how can we both help individual schools and also find creative ways to address issues with the system?
The problem is that over 90% of primary schools are private and rely entirely on fees or outside support for their survival. In a country where about 80% of people live on less than $2 (two U.S. dollars) per day, no matter how badly parents want their children to succeed through getting an education, they often simply can’t afford it. An unthinkable choice too many Haitian parents face each year: between feeding your family or keeping one of your kids in school.
Thus, many Haitian schools end up scraping by with chronically underpaid teachers, a lack of even basic classroom materials, and facilities that are dreadfully inadequate. And that’s for the kids who get to go to school.
In the search for creative, sustainable solutions, we’ve been working with Grameen Creative Lab, to start social businesses with our Partner Schools. This will generate additional income to help the school’s budget to educate its students. To learn more about this concept, view the video above. This is also a way the generous support people are giving to Haiti Partners’ students will go even further.
We’re so grateful for the chance to keep finding creative solutions, with you, with our Haitian colleagues, and with the communities where we’re working.
Thank you,
John Engle & Kent Annan (co-directors)
*For more photos of Bèl Platon Community School social business pilot, click here.
*For more photos of social business meeting with 30 teachers and principals of 4 school, click here.
Posted in Annonciation Community School, Bèl Platon Community School, Cabois Community School, Haiti Partners, Henri Christophe Community School, IMN Community School, Partner Schools, Social Enterprise for Quality Education, STUDENTS Program, Vista Hermosa Foundation | No Comments | Email This Post
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Always Be Playin’ – WOZO with LIG Playmakers
March 10, 2012
Here are some images of fun and joy as film crew captures Life Is Good Playmakers with WOZO Choir. They’ve already produced a CD and WOZO is part of the music. It is going to schools and educators throughout Haiti. Now they’re creating a DVD. We love Life Is Good Playmakers in Haiti and are honored to be in partnership with them.
Posted in Partner Schools, STUDENTS Program, TEACHERS Program, Youth Choir | No Comments | Email This Post
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More Open Space Community Meetings
February 22, 2012
This past Sunday afternoon we had another open space meeting with members of community where Children’s Academy is being built. Nearly 200 attended, ranging in age from 1 – 85. See photos and video below. The theme was “How do we work together to make sure our children are getting a good education?”
Twelve breakout sessions were proposed, at least 6 of them proposed by kids 15 and under. I participated in a session proposed by Tobenson, just 12 years old: “What type of education should children receive?” Watching the community engage in both the construction of the school and in thinking through the vision for Children’s Academy is a source of hope for all of us involved.
Click here to view more photos.
Posted in Circles of Change, Haiti Partners, Lalo Community School, Open Space, Partner Schools, Reflection Circles, STUDENTS Program | No Comments | Email This Post
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The Voice of the Children
February 20, 2012
by John Engle, as told to Jonathan Chan
Sometimes, you can’t help but wonder if we’re making a difference that reaches all the way to the core of the problem. Some days it can be unclear. Other days you see the difference in action, right in front of you, and that’s what helps you keep on.
A few weeks ago, I was at a community meeting being held on the land of the Children’s Academy. Many of our meetings utilize the Open Space method, which has a segment where people propose topics, which become small group discussions. People participate in the topics that interest them. We had well over two hundred people there, from ages two to eighty two, all talking about their vision for the new school, the role of a school in the development of a community, the type of social business the community would establish to help create jobs and provide a sustainable source of revenue for the school, etc. When the breakouts began, I played the role of a “butterfly”, someone who goes from group to group, just taking the conversation in. As I walked around, I noticed a dynamic that I usually see in Haiti: one person in each group, the one with the most education –usually a man – would dominate the discussion, leaving very little room for others to speak up, especially the children.
This is one of the cultural norms I’ve struggled with since coming to Haiti 20 years ago. From the early days of French colonialism, Haitians have lived under oppressive rulers who lead through violence and fear, and this type of leadership is now prevalent in every aspect of society. My colleagues and I have always worked to respect the autonomy of Haitian organizations and institutions, but this broken model of leadership meant that we were seeing practices that we didn’t agree with. Students being hit for answering a question wrong, leaders acting like dictators, pastors not listening to the concerns of their congregation.
I was being reminded over and over again of this brokenness in Haiti’s leadership, as I walked from group to group. That is, until I saw Fertude. Fertude is a colleague in our network who’s worked to help Haitian leaders break free from these oppressive cultural norms. As part of the Civic Empowerment Project, she led over 100 grassroots leaders and educators through a 3 month training course in civic engagement and participatory leadership. Here, in her breakout group, I could see the direct impact of her work. Every single person was speaking out and weighing in. No one was excluded, no matter what their occupation was, or how much education they had attained. And in particular, it was the children who will benefit from Children’s Academy that were being encouraged to use their voice. The children, who will go on to become teachers, leaders, pastors, and entrepreneurs. The children, who will change Haiti for the better.
It’s for moments like this that we’ve devoted a lot of time and effort, working with our Haitian colleagues to develop practices that help people develop skills in communication and collaboration; tools and methods that help people to break free from oppressive cultural norms. The reach of these programs is growing; we’ve held trainings at hundreds of churches and schools across the country for thousands of teachers, leaders, and pastors. Many other partners are taking a keen interest in our work, seeing how vital it is to Haiti’s future.
But there’s still a long way to go. That’s why we’re so grateful for the support of all those who have contributed to this work over the years. Without you, we wouldn’t even have made it this far. Together, let’s see how much further we can go.
Posted in Circles of Change, Lalo Community School, Open Space, Partner Schools, Reflection Circles, STUDENTS Program, TEACHERS Program | 2 Comments | Email This Post
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Stories of Hope and Joy
February 6, 2012
A recent experience touched us deeply and caused us to feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude to all those who make our work possible.
We were filming a piece that’s going to be on the Discovery Channel in March. It’s the story of Briggs and Stratton giving 240 generators to Haiti Partners after the earthquake and the difference these generators are making in schools and churches—in lives of Haitians who were dramatically affected by the earthquake.
Ms. Maecno, a mother of two children at one of our partner schools, shared how she thought their education would end with the collapse of the school. But, because of our partners, their school continued. And Genia Clergeau, then 12, shared how her family lost everything and her school collapsed. Although she and two of her siblings were obliged to move away to attend another Haiti Partners school, she said, “While it’s difficult being away from home, I’m thrilled to be going to school and getting a good education.”
We can’t underestimate what a source of hope and joy a good school is for children and their parents.
Thank you for your partnership in this work,
John, Kent and everyone at Haiti Partners
Posted in Haiti Partners, Partner Schools, STUDENTS Program | No Comments | Email This Post
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Haiti Partners in Christian Science Monitor
January 28, 2012
Click here to read an article in Christian Science Monitor about Haiti Partners work in social business to improve quality of education in Haiti.
Posted in Annonciation Community School, Bèl Platon Community School, Cabois Community School, Cité Soleil Community School, Henri Christophe Community School, IMN Community School, Lalo Community School, Partner Schools, PARTNERS Program, Social Enterprise for Quality Education, Special Projects, STUDENTS Program, Vista Hermosa Foundation | No Comments | Email This Post
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Two Years After the Earthquake – Video Update
January 12, 2012
Today is the 2nd anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti. It will be marked across the country by services of remembrance for the dead, but also the celebration of life. Meanwhile, the work of building a better future goes on. We’ve filmed a special update video to bring you up-to-date on the situation in Haiti, as well as the progress you’re making possible through Haiti Partners’ work in education. We’re grateful for your continued commitment and prayers, today and in the days ahead.
Posted in DISCIPLES Program, Haiti Partners, Henri Christophe Community School, LEADERS Program, PARTNERS Program, STUDENTS Program, TEACHERS Program | 2 Comments | Email This Post
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Community Open Space Meeting at Children’s Academy
December 5, 2011
Yesterday’s community open space meeting on future site of Children’s Academy convened more than 300 people. The meeting opened with Haiti Partners Youth Choir singing welcome song and closed with them too. Participants and planning committee were thrilled with the meeting. Notes were taken, will be typed up and will shape philosophy and program of Children’s Academy.
I (John Engle) had two older men, independent of the other, come and tell me, “I thank God that I’ve lived long enough to see this. I never imagined in my life that Bawosya would have a wonderful program develop like this.”
Haiti Partners is thrilled to be in partnership with Architecture For Humanity and their affiliate BAR Architects in design and construction of Children’s Academy. Click here to see the architectural plans and other documents and photos.
We’re also thrilled to be in partnership with Grameen Creative Lab toward creating a social business that generates revenue to help pay the school budget.
Click here to download vision for CHILDREN’S ACADEMY .
Photos from top to bottom: closing circle of open space mtg, small group break-out session, foundation/cistern for first building of Children’s Academy. Click here for more photos.
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Children’s Academy – Community Engagement
December 4, 2011
It’s exciting to see community involvement in construction of Children’s Academy. Below is video and photos of foundation being dug and also of folks clearing land in preparation for a large open space community meeting to discuss “The Role of Education in Development of a Community.”
Below that is a video of a community meeting in November. There are 55 community members (2 groups) participating in Circles of Change training, which helps develop communication and collaboration skills. They are also doing research toward developing a business that generates revenue for the school.
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