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School Partnerships

May Update

May 24th, 2009
by Joanne.
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May 18th was Flag Day. Parents, teachers and students prepared a day of festivities starting with the whole school parading up and down the Matènwa road.

Ezner leads the 8th graders for the Flag Day parade.

Ezner leads the 8th graders for the Flag Day parade.

Bonise and Chrislene line up their kindergarten class for the parade.

Bonise and Chrislene line up their kindergarten class for the parade

  • “Flag Day makes me think of how we used to be enslaved but we broke those chains of slavery.
  • “Even though we are free, we are still not totally free because we are dependent on other countries.”
  • “We are an occupied country.”
  • “Perhaps we are physically free but not mentally free.”
  • “Our French education system is still colonizing us.”

After much music and food everyone moved outside to watch our soccer match.  The sun set with clouds moving in, promising rain.

MCLC Soccer Game

MCLC Soccer Game

Through The Haiti Twinning Program of Richmond, Virginia MCLC has a partnership with Lunchburg College. Kona, studying development, from Brown University (center)was visiting to see our arts programs.

Through The Haiti Twinning Program of Richmond, Virginia MCLC has a partnership with Lynchburg College. Kona, studying development, from Brown University (center)was visiting to see our arts programs.

We hosted a Lynchburg College group, and one student from Brown University.  We welcomed back Owen, a Lesley College student doing cultural and language immersion for the next 3 months. He is volunteering in our computer lab.

Matènwa artists and popular theatre performers for child rights: ( front to back)Maculese, Luciane, and Sonit, previously restaveks themsleves, attend the Mwen Se Ayiti Tou conference.

Matènwa artists and popular theatre performers for child rights: ( front to back)Maculese, Luciane, and Sonit, previously restaveks themsleves, attend the Mwen Se Ayiti Tou conference.

Members of Courageous Women, Women Artists of Matènwa and MCLC attended a conference of over 500 people called “Mwen se Ayiti Tou” (I am Haiti Too) sponsored by the Jean Robert Cadet Restavek Freedom Foundation and the Maurice Sixto Foundation. The conference was a call to action to end the Restavek system in Haiti. This event encouraged us in our work to promote dialogue and non-violence in our communities.

Sincerely, Co-directors Chris and Abner, Secretary Millienne

April Update

Apr 27th, 2009
by Joanne.
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Dear Friends of MCLC,

It is always a pleasure for us to write to you to thank you for your gifts. We also want to say hello to you and your families and tell of our last month’s activities.
We felt hopeful that rains would come earlier this year as the first evening rains came the last week of February, but then they dissipated. Many people have prepared garden beds for vegetables and have gotten their corn and bean seeds into the ground. Now we wait for sufficient rain. In addition to the doubling of food prices, President Preval says that we are about to face real inflation. We want to send a special thank you to our breakfast sponsors: you keep our children from severe hunger each month.
Teachers Lisa Brown and Valerie Bell from Nauset High School (Massachusetts, USA) gave seminars on class management, brain gym, and geography for our staff.
We said goodbye to three teachers from Segen after their 10 week teacher training. They learned to teach without hitting, dialogue with students, use Reflection Circles and Open Space, and make their own books and games. They saw how a school could help the whole community work together for change.
Our Local Arts Collaborative was awarded a grant from the Women to Women Committee of the Episcopal Church Women. The collaborative will expand their products that can be locally produced, bought, and sold with home grown materials. The artists are presently making straw hats that the children will proudly wear to promote local goods at our Flag Day celebration on May 18.

We end this month’s report with a Haitian expression of praise: Ayibobo!

Co-directors Chris and Abner
Secretary Millienne

February Update

Apr 9th, 2009
by Joanne.
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Dear Friends of MCLC,

I have just returned to Haiti. Neighbors have been saying how much they appreciated MCLC donors’ support in the months that followed the hurricanes. MCLC opened its kitchen and served anyone who showed up for the daily meal. “I was surprised to see some of the people who showed up,” said Co-Director Abner Sauveur. “People were really in need. People were running around with their belongings under their arms because they had no homes.”

damaged-home repaired-home  damaged-home2 repaired-home-2

Here are two of the  11 homes MCLC has rebuilt. We are still seeking funds to repair 25 homes @ 500 US each.

img_70061Representatives from the Fayerweather Street School in Cambridge (Headmaster Ed Kuh, Connie Biewald, Dorla White Simpson, Meg Bruton, Kate Hubble, Lauren Mueller, and alum Sam Slavin who is now working on the border of Haiti and the Dominican republic, as well as Tina Jaillet from the Atrium School and Lesely student Owen Thomas) visited for one week to build on our school relationships. Equipped with 24-hour translators, the group did demonstration lessons in math and science and spent a lot of time talking with our community members. They came down with bilingual Creole and English books made by their first and second grade classrooms as an official kick off of our Mother Tongues Books project. They felt our school garden was extraordinary. They plan to start a Fayerweather School garden. Just last week we pulled up 4 yams, the smallest weighed 22 pounds and the biggest one weighed in at 29 pounds!
Thank you so much for your gifts, which make this work possible.

Sincerely,

Chris Low, Co-Director

Fayerweather: Beginnings of a long term partnership

Nov 11th, 2008
by Chris.
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During the Month of October Fayerweather Street School, a small progressive school in Cambridge, MA, hosted two teachers from Matènwa, Millienne Angervil and Benaja Antoine. Millienne, a 2nd grade teacher spent 5 weeks observing and teaching in the 1st/2nd classrooms. She also visited several classes where she observed or taught Haitian songs. Benaja Antoine, Matènwa’s office manager and now librarian, spent a week being trained in Fayerweather’s wonderful library by Connie Biewald. During the exchange, both Haitian teachers lived with Fayerweather families and were treated to a variety of activities on the weekends including a birthday party, a view from the Prudential building, the Museum of Science, a Duck tour, an ice skating show, a Haitian dance class, and a Sweet Honey and The Rock concert.

On October 23rd Fayerweather’s Diversity Committee sponsored a joyful community evening where parents had the opportunity to spend time with Millienne, Benaja, and Chris Low, cofounder of the Matènwa Community Learning Center. Millienne shared some of her impressions of Fayerweather, “What impressed me most was seeing how much love the Fayerweather teachers give their students. The children feel so at home here. It made me recognize that I have not been giving my students enough love. It makes me want to hurry home so I can start to show my students this kind of love.” Joanie, a Fayerweather 1/2 teacher, talked about how Millienne’s questions helped her to reflect on her own practice. We plan to deepen this relationship through teacher visits, sharing of student work and materials, joint curriculum development, and student exchanges over the Internet.

During a MCLC slideshow presentation 7th and 8th grade students reflected on how they could benefit from this exchange. “Wow, no garbage after meals at their school. We make so much garbage.” “I would like to have a school garden at Fayerweather like theirs.” “We only have a small compost compared to what they do.”

In February 2009, members of the Fayerweather staff will visit Haiti a second time. This group includes Fayerweather’s head of school Ed Kuh and six Fayerweather teachers. For more about Fayerweather Street School, please visit www.fayerweather.org

Hike for Haiti Yields Funds for Matènwa Community Learning Center

Oct 15th, 2008
by admin.
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The Belmont Day School is an independent school that began partnering with the Matènwa Community Learning Center (MCLC) about a year ago. This year, students, family and friends pitched in to support the children of Matènwa through a fun and healthy activity. Here’s their story.

Hike and Hope for Haiti

Chris Low and Benaja with Belmont Day School Students

Eighth grade French students organized a fundraising hike to raise awareness about the needs of the Matènwa Community Learning Center in Haiti. We began our partnership last year when French teacher Jennifer Friborg introduced her seventh grade students to Chris Low, Cambridge-based educator and Matènwa school co-founder. Last spring these students took part in an e-mail pen-pal exchange with the school in Matènwa.

Students and faculty alike were so impressed by the ways in which the school is spreading democratic ideals by teaching children, providing community activities for adults, and serving as a teacher-training center that BDS embarked on this ongoing partnership. Over its thirteen year history the school has become a leader in progressive education in Haiti, a country where only 50% of children go to school.

In response to the urgent need for food following the early fall hurricanes, the eighth grade French students led a special fund-raiser.

imageTeachers and students throughout the school participated in a 1-mile hike through the woods surrounding BDS. The French students had placed signs along the trails to highlight important landmarks in Haiti as well as photos of the school. The eighth graders’ hike was sponsored by family members, friends and faculty in order to help them reach their goal to feed all of the 230 students at the Matènwa Community Learning Center for one month.

The goal of feeding the school for a month was reached and surpassed by the school community raising over 3300 dollars. And along the way, the whole school became more aware of the country and familiar with the Matènwa Community Learning Center.

We are grateful for the care and concerns that the students at the Belmont Day School show for the students of Matènwa.

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