12283: U.S. funds school with a vision (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

U.S. funds school with a vision

By Michael Deibert
Reuters
Posted June 8 2002

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti · In the dusty Haitian village of Sano, nearly 200
high school students gather in the early morning light to sing Haiti's
anthem, The Dessalinienne, as they hoist the Haitian and American flags in
front of their ochre three-story classroom building.

The two flags are symbolic of the dual nature of the Louverture-Cleary
School and the vision at its heart.

American donations fund the charter school, which is dedicated to providing
a first-class education for disadvantaged children from the nearby capital
Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.

After languishing for years, it has been re-energized by the partnership of
a group of American and Haitian employees and volunteers.

School director Patrick Moynihan is a 36-year-old American who left a
high-paying job as a trader with Louis Dreyfus five years ago to work full
time improving the school after what he called a "spiritual awakening."

"How does someone in the States `earn' a car and someone here `earns' dying
of tuberculosis on an island in the Caribbean at 7 years old?" Moynihan
asks, a baseball cap shading his eyes from the bright Caribbean sun.

He approaches his work with a near-religious zeal about what he sees as a
powerful mission in a poor nation where schooling is often cut short.
According to a 1998 World Bank report, 53 percent of Haiti's children aged 6
through 12 were enrolled in school. Among those 13 to 18, that figure
plunges to 14 percent.

"Yeah, most of these kids come from a fiscally disadvantaged backgrounds,
but my dream is to have an alumni meeting with 10 doctors, three senators
and a couple of lawyers, people who have benefited from the education they
got here and stayed to do something for the county," he said.

Around the school courtyard, same-sex dormitories rise three stories amid
royal palms, the classroom building and a cafeteria. A short distance away,
two buildings under construction rise from the brown earth. Students and
teachers take turns during the school day helping paid laborers with the
less dangerous parts of building new classrooms and dorms.

The school is Catholic-affiliated though open to all and is free except for
a nominal meal fee that can be paid through a work-study program if the
student's family cannot afford it.

Louverture-Cleary's mission is to select the top students from the poorest
neighborhoods around the capital, provide them with an American-level
education and encourage them to remain in Haiti after their studies instead
of traveling abroad to find work as many of their countrymen have been
forced to do.

"School, education, it gave me the chance to win back my life," said Simon
Samuel, a 25-year-old Louverture-Cleary graduate who works as an
administrative assistant at Xerox's Haiti headquarters in Port-au-Prince. "I
want to work and eventually make my own business and go back and help the
poor."

Louverture-Cleary students often go on to administrative or office jobs with
placement help from the school while pursuing higher education at one of the
capital's universities.

Despite administrators' attempts to create a learning-friendly environment,
some harsh realities of life in Haiti occasionally intrude.

Students from some of the capital's rougher neighborhoods, such as the gang
haven of Cité Soleil, spend some weekends at the school if violence flares
up.

"If they had to stay in places like Cité Soleil, they might never get the
chance to help other people," said Garry Delice, the school's Haitian
principal and a former teacher Given Haiti's problems -- political violence,
endemic poverty and an electoral impasse that has prompted donor nations to
suspend $500 million in desperately needed aid -- the efforts of the
Louverture-Cleary school may seem tiny.

Moynihan, though, never doubts the value of what he and his staff are doing.

"Elements of Haitian society are very split apart at the moment, but there's
hope that maybe these young people will be the glue that holds society
together," Moynihan said. "They're going to lead this country into a
different time, and it's going to be amazing."



Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel


_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com