Haiti

French Booklets are a Great Success

June 6, 2019Kids and Community ServiceCommunity Service, Haiti, handmade books, literature, Reading, summer readinghomeschoolhappymess Leave a comment

Once again we are so grateful to teacher John and his French 2 students from Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center in Chicago. The students have created a set of 100 beautifully written and illustrated books and sent them to us to share with Haitian children.

Our friend Susy, of Haitian Education Initiatives was headed to Jacmel, Haiti. She promised to bring the books directly to her students in Haiti.

Susy writes,

Many thanks to John, your students, and the members of Wonderland BookSavers for creating, donating and distributing the charming illustrated stories for the children at Haitian Educational Initiatives’ Cayes-Jacmel campus.

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The children absolutely loved them!

It was a hot, sunny Saturday morning in early May at our weekend craft, feeding, and job training program and the Papillons (30 kids aged 3-9) had just finished making headbands as their craft project. They were charged with sitting quietly for 15 minutes until lunch was served and you can imagine how hard that was for them to do! Fortunately, I had your books with me and distributed a pile at each table.

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The children opened them up at once. Some at the far end were worried they might not get one but there were plenty for everybody. They marveled at the stories and illustrations, reading aloud rather than silently, as is their custom. There was a lot of trading around so the children could sample several, then they took turns reading their book to the whole group.

Book-making is a novel idea in Haiti: kids are not offered creative challenges like John’s students are. Since most Haitian students learn by rote and don’t have creative materials at home or at school, they don’t get to draw and write imaginatively. Your books truly astounded them. Thank you for providing such pleasure and inspiration! Congratulations to all the American students, teachers, and organizers who made this project possible. It was a great success.

John wrote,

Thank you so much for the photos and kind letter. I read it to all of my French 2 classes yesterday. I also showed it to my principal and it made her cry 🙂 I am so happy we have continued this relationship and hope to have even better books next year!

If your class is interested in participating in this amazing project, we know children all over the world would enjoy your novel creations! Send us a note, and tell us what language you would like to explore!

Handmade Books Arrive in Haitian Hands

May 1, 2018Kids and Community ServiceCommunity Service, Haiti, Haitian Education Initiatives, Reading, Steuben Metropolitan Science Center, Wonderland BookSavershomeschoolhappymess Leave a comment

We are so gratified to have received this letter and these wonderful photographs:

Dear John and Josh and Wonderland BookSavers,

The children of Fondation Jean Bellande Joseph in Cayes-Jacmel send heartfelt thanks for the beautiful books created by the students in John McMillan and Josh Cummings’ French classes from Von Steuben Metropolitan Science Center in Chicago, and delivered to us by Allie through Wonderland BookSavers.

The books were a stunning success!

First, there were enough for everyone, which is a big issue in the distribution of gifts. Very few students have books of their very own outside required textbooks and access to our growing library.

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Our kids immediately grasped the hard work that went into the composition and illustration of the books, and the laminating insured their longevity – so necessary in Haiti.

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There was a book about a pig given to one of the girls who shared the same name and that provoked a torrent of giggles. (Her friends all that that was very appropriate.)

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Standing up to read your books was an important exercise in public speaking.

Our students, aged 3-19, are in primary and secondary schools in a semi-rural area outside Jacmel, on the South coast of Haiti. Their parents are subsistence farmers who live on about $1.25 per day. Most of their parents are illiterate and really struggle to keep their kids fed, clothed and in school. We provide scholarships, food and job training to 67 kids in this area who spend every Saturday with us. Many of the kids in the photographs are much older than they look because their growth was stunted by malnutrition in early childhood but they are thriving now with us!

You might be interested to know that the administrator of our program, who is a Haitian Education Department official, said that most Haitian children would not be able to produce books like this because they are not encouraged to do any kind of creative writing. They generally learn by rote and don’t have the resources or tradition of branching out into projects like this. We have challenged our kids to develop books of their own and I hope they’ll be inspired by your models.

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Please thank all the students whose talent and care brought such delight to our kids.

Very best wishes to you all,

Susy Whitcomb

Haitian Education Initiatives

Meeting with Susan Whitcomb to Discuss the Hurricane and Haiti

October 24, 2016Kids and Community Service501(c)(3), book lovers, Cayes-Jacmel, children's book clubs, Community Service, current-events, Haiti, Haitian Educational Initiatives, Haitian-Creole, Hurricane Matthew, Inspired by Literature, Jacmel, Wonderland BookSaversmadelinelangdon Leave a comment

Last Friday, we met with our long-time community partner, Susy Whitcomb, the Founder and President of Haitian Educational Initiatives. Haitian Educational Initiatives was established as a response to the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. Hurricane Matthew has razed Haiti, and we have been supporting Haitian Educational Initiative’s recovery efforts following the natural disaster.

Headlines about Haiti and Hurricane Matthew from BBC, Reuters, and The Weather Channel

During the 2015-2016 school year, we undertook the task of donating $1,099 worth of Haitian-Creole books to Haiti. Haitian-Creole has only been a written language since 1979, making Haitian-Creole books incredibly rare. First, we held a community event at the Barnum School in Bridgeport to raise awareness. Then, we partnered with the corporate healthcare business ZappRx. We met with the ZappRx PR team in Boston when we donated 2,000 books with ZappRx stickers to the Reach Out and Read program at Tufts Floating Hospital for Children. In exchange, Zoe Barry, the Founder and CEO of ZappRx donated us funds she won from the contest ONEin3, which is sponsored by the mayor of Boston. One of the initial reasons we decided to transform into a 501(c)3 was so that we could accept these funds and purchase Haitian-Creole books.

Our Sneetches community event at Barnum

posing with some of our books donated to Tufts Floating Hospital for Children

Haitian-Creole books

Children reading our donated Haitian-Creole books

We sat with Susy to discuss the conditions of the children, their families, their homes, and their schools. Haitian Educational Initiative’s schools in Jacmel and Cayes-Jacmel both sustained damage, and the school in rural Cayes-Jacmel was afflicted with severe flooding. Fortunately, our books were not harmed; proper precautions were exercised to ensure that our books and other school supplies were not damaged by the hurricane. For the most part, the children and their families were safe, but 80% of their crops and livestock were swept away.

Susy affirmed that since the children are equipped with education, during these dire times, the children are actually more apt and able to recover. Unlike their parents, the children can read, and have a breadth of academic knowledge. At school, the children have also learned crafting skills to create goods to sell at the market. These goods range from clothes, to sunglasses made from plastic bottles, to bracelets and jewelry, to pottery, and many other items.

A Haitian bowl made from a special paper mâché technique

Susy showed us pictures of the school in Cayes-Jacmel. In the pictures, rapids of muddy brown water race over the concrete platform of the school. The school in Cayes-Jacmel is open air, and consists of a concrete foundation with posts from which a tarp is draped over to provide shade, or protection from rain. Susy explained that now the school is being excavated from the thick layers of mud and debris.

Flooding in Haiti. Photo credit: HECTOR RETAMAL/AFP/Getty Images

While most of the children and families Haitian Educational Initiatives serves were unharmed, a fourteen-year-old boy was injured during the hurricane. Susy explained how the boy, who attends the school in Cayes-Jacmel, was crushed by a tree, breaking both of his legs. He is receiving medical attention, but the medicine in Haiti is not very advanced, and this injury could have severe, lasting effects. We have asked Susy to put us in contact with the boy and his family, and we hope to assist him in any possible way. We are hoping to deliver him some books and other school supplies so he can continue studying while he recovers.

After meeting with Susy, we presented her with a check written by Reid to support the relief Haitian Educational Initiatives is providing. If you wish, you may donate to Haitian Educational Initiatives to provide food, clean water, and the basic living necessities here.

Presenting Susy with relief funds

Additionally, at the end of our meeting, Susy presented us with gifts from the children in Haiti. When we donated the children in Haiti books and school supplies, we also sent poster pals, which are banners with notes of love, drawings, and pictures from us and school children in our area. In return, we received paper mâché figurines and pottery.

We are very grateful for our wonderful friends in Haiti and we will continue to assist them and Haitian Educational Initiatives in every way possible.