By Dr. Sabine Thomas, Country Director, June 19, 2013
I have been equally anxious and excited to accompany our dedicated staff on community site visits, primarily to remote school sites and the heart of Hope for Haiti’s programs.
During my last two visits, I worked with our Education and Public Health staff. We walked and hiked through pristine serpentine-like, steep pathways naturally created between bedrocks. One visit involved crossing 16 times the same riverbed lined with slippery rocks! I simultaneously sweated, huffed and puffed, almost got dumped into the river by passing donkeys’ loads, laughed hard and endured the pricks of pineapple heads growing from the side of the road.
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| Arianne Pingledis, Program Manager, & School Director | Overlooking one of the school buildings & the bay. |
As we headed up the mountain tops, we were greeted by uniformed school children often skipping down the stone tops and farmers heading down to local markets to sell their crops; “bonjou mesye dam nap monte mon la”, meaning “good morning ladies and gentlemen, you are going to brave the mountain top” and we would reply “bonjou…wi” meaning “good morning …yes we are!” Hours later, after climbing rubbly and stony mountaintop, a school building emerges, with the Haitian flag flying high and children’s laughter echoing through the hills…
For our education visit, once we got settled in the school director’s quarters, our Education Program Manager, among other indicators, inquired about students’ performance and parents’ participation in their children’s education. The school director shared that the latter has decreased over the years. He believes this to be directly related to their lack of financial means to support their children’s education. For instance, he shared that coffee is a crop that used to grow widely in the area but has disappeared and along with it, financial gain for the community. Deforestation has affected this crop’s disappearance, as coffee needs shade from trees to grow. Another important fruit indigenous to the area is “sour orange” whose juice is readily used for cleaning meat and is a source of vitamin C. It is slowly disappearing because there is a greater need for the tree trunks to prepare wood for charcoal. The school director was keenly aware of the dire situation but helpless in the face of this deforestation epidemic.
Dr. Sabine Thomas, Country Director, and school children
For me the daily and often bitter reality of our community members came to life. The impact of deforestation directly affecting the parents’ ability to support and fully partake in their children’s education was clear. This conversation was of interest to all of us especially in light of Hope for Haiti’s initiative in Social Business to create lasting and sustainable community partnerships. Could coffee, as a crop be re-introduced in this community to help parents support their children’s education? Could there be a way to implement a social business that could help generate revenue and reinforce the education, public health, and nutrition programs in this community? Although we did not have answers right away, we definitely asked and will continue to ask those critical questions to the community members that we support and with whom we work.
The school visit often ended with school children reciting a lesson learned, singing a hand-washing song, or a playing an educational game. During my visit, we were blessed to have Mother’s Day serenades accompanied by drumming, as well as the alphabet song!
One might have various notions of site visits; and as I hope you gathered, ours at Hope for Haiti are long and rewarding work treks through some of southern Haiti’s most pristine landscapes and remote communities hoping to maintain sustainable partnerships.