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Monthly Updates

Monthly Updates from Chris and Abner

May Update

May 24th, 2011
by Joanne.
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Dear Friends of Matènwa,

 It is always a pleasure to tell you about what has been happening at the center.  For starters, the library construction is advancing.  We have smoothed the cement walls and will be putting up the framing for the roof.  The Mother Tongue Books project is going extremely well.  All the students are very interested in reading during morning silent reading because they are reading their friends’ work.  We also bought more Creole books from the Caribbean University in Haiti.  They like these books because they are about children their own age and animals.

In the garden tomatoes and plantains are growing despite the drought we are experiencing in Lagonav.  Thank you Jamie Rhoads for bringing us lots of seed to allow more of our families to start their vegetable gardens.  Fifth graders are excited that they successfully grew and harvested some wheat?  They plan to grow more of this.

We are spreading our model.  Eighteen school teachers and directors from the AJPDG, an association of several communities on Lagonav, for a campus tour.  They would like to copy our model that integrates agriculture with primary education.

Music teacher Fefe and his students are preparing songs for our Flag Day Celebration.  The school band continues to play at our Thursday meetings.  They love to play music.

Frieinds, that’s what we have to report.  We hope you enjoyed it.

Millienne and Chris on behalf of MCLC

March Update 2011

Mar 10th, 2011
by Joanne.
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Bonjou dear friends of MCLC,

Visitors

Three teachers, the principal, and 2 bi-racial students who served as translators, visited from Fayerweather Street School. They brought new Mother Tongue Books made by their pre-k through 4th grade students. They brought and taught strategy games for which we had asked. They provided guidance on class management and how to make our lessons more concrete. We worked with microscopes looking at water drops and vegetable tissue.

Local Arts Center

Several adults and students are engaged in weaving trash receptacles and chairs, embroidering bags and clothes. We feel confident this project will eliminate our plastic trash problem by encouraging neighbors to buy local goods.

Open Space

We had a Saturday meeting with teachers and community members from Gransous, Bwanwa, Masikren, and Matènwa. The theme was: How do we build a democratic community? The discussion topics that emerged were very interesting. “Can a community develop in the midst of conflict? What is democracy? Can a community develop when there discrimination?

Whole School Meeting

Students share their feelings about what went well at school and didn’t go well for them, praising each other for positive behavior. After that several classes share something they have been working on in their classroom.

MCLC Friends, we hope you are pleased to receive this information.

Direction Committee Secretary Millienne Angervil

Translated by Chris Low

December Update

Dec 31st, 2010
by Joanne.
1 comment

Dear MCLC Supporters,

We thank you for our dedication to the vital work happening in the Matènwa Community.  Haggerty School (Cambridge, Massachusetts) librarian, Karen Kosko, connected us to FACES children’s magazine.  We have been working on two projects: one featuring 10 students between the ages of 9 – 14 and one longer photo interview of a junior high student for FACES’ Fall 2011 publication.

 

 

My name is Peter-Frantz. I am eleven years old. I was born and raised in Haiti. I live in Nan Jozen, La Gonave. My school has a library where I can do research. I like Haiti very much because it has a beautiful culture and a beautiful language: Creole. I like to drink coffee because the Haitian coffee is the number one coffee in the world. In my country people have lots of respect for others regardless of where you are from. I am proud to be Haitian.

MIT linguist professor, Michel DeGraff, has a grant this year to work on technology-enhanced and Kreyòl-based education.  He is currently at the stage of working with an evolving team of educators and programmers to produce a suite of Kreyòl and computer-based games for the teaching of 4th grade math.  He has been working with the MCLC teachers this year, having made four visits to the site so far to brainstorm and plan a controlled experiment to evaluate the effects of such games.

You can see an excerpt that’s currently being translated (with voice-over) on plate tectonics, along with another video on photosynthesis at http://haiti.mit.edu/2010/10/22/blossoms-video-with-kreyo/ . The original videos are at http://blossoms.mit.edu/video/adam.html and http://blossoms.mit.edu/video/vandiver.html.  Also in the works: subtitles for a calculus video from MIT’s OpenCourseWare: http://haiti.mit.edu/2010/10/13/mit-ocw-videos-with-creole/

Michel is still looking for more programmers with knowledge of Kreyòl and 4th grade math, further down the road we’ll need help from researchers familiar with Haiti, educational technology and experience in assessing educational interventions.

Sincerely,

Chris Low, Executive Director

November Update

Nov 30th, 2010
by Joanne.
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Dear Supporters,

A picture tells a thousand words.  With all the disheartening news one can get very discouraged and feel that contributing to Haiti is like throwing money into a hole in the ground.  The Matènwa community assures you that your contributions are making our land fertile and the growth of the children’s accomplishments in their social and  academic lives tangible. They are making holes in the ground to plant trees, fruits, and vegetables.

When you feel that Haiti is caught in an endless cycle of despair remember MCLC’s school cycle and discussion circles. Each annual cycle shows progress, their circles encourage critical thinking skills and self-determination.

The MCLC teachers’ work is vital to a successful collaborative model.

Please share these pictures to tell the positive story.

 

 

 

 

 

Preschoolers in the Garden

 

 

 

 

 

Whole School Weekly Meeting

 

 

 

 

 

Story Time in the Library

 

Every dollar counts. Thank you for remembering us each month.

Sincerely,

Chris Low in behalf of MCLC

October Update

Oct 12th, 2009
by Joanne.
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Dear Friends of MCLC,

One evening, about a year and a half ago, two male friends in the community of Matènwa came to my home there. “Chris, remember how you have spoken to us about vasectomies? We are ready. We want you to find a doctor to come here and do vasectomies. We can no longer feed our children. We don’t want to risk having any more.” “You’ll chicken out at the last minute,” I laughed. “No, we are serious. We’ll sign a contract right now. There are other men, too.”


That dream became a reality this past month. Seven men had vasectomies and are now feeling more in control of their lives. One man stated, “Here are my children. These are the kids I did this for.  I can now take good care of them and bring them up well. And here is one of the 3 other children that I am helping. I took him in before I had children. Thank you, I was very thirsty for this.”


Another man stated, “For me my only complaint is that I didn’t do this earlier. I already have 3 girls. I should’ve only had 2 children. But I have 3 and will take care of 3. And even if I have more means in the future, I don’t need to have more children, I’d rather help some other children whose parents can’t help them. I should adopt some.”


Thanks for your continued support of the Matènwa Community Learning Center. This is another self-determined step towards the reduction of restavèks (children in servitude) in our community.

Directors Chris Low and Abner Sauveur

August Update

Aug 28th, 2009
by Joanne.
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Dear Friends of MCLC,

Even through the summer, there are many activities happening at the Matènwa Community Learning Center.

Ridge and Christie cam to visit in June. Christie teaches at St. John’s High school ( one of our partners) and Ridge just graduated from St. John’s. Etienne was their guide and translator. Etienne is our language teacher for English and Spanish. Etienne is one of our school librarians. You can read about their trip on Ridge’s’ blogspot.

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During July our staff held classes for children that needed more one-on-one instruction. MCLC teachers received some individual training time. For a week each morning Meg Bruton, Tina Jaillet, Kathryn Delacourt, Sarah Roche, and Owen Thomas observed in individual classrooms and then worked together with the classroom teachers to design lessons and games for the next day.

In addition, for 3 weeks the staff had professional development time to practice speaking French and English.

Most impressive was their personal growth during the Education Is A Conversation Program on Children’s Rights. (See www.kathleencash.com <http://www.kathleencash.com/> ). This program consists of twenty two-hour sessions. It is a very effective methodology Kathleen Cash designed to stimulate people to have active discussions and role plays about problems in their community. This program enables communities to uncover deep underlying root causes as opposed to just treating surface symptoms of their problems. For MCLC staff, male teachers began to comment that the conversations were rich, but if they did not start being role models in the community for Children’s and Women’s Rights, nothing would change. In a society where men hold so much of the power, we were pleased to see that they saw themselves as part of the problem and the solution: they need to model respect for their wives and participate in chores that are traditionally for women and children; women’s rights means equal rights for all, not taking away men’s rights.

Thanks again for your continued support!

Sincerely,

Chris Low and Abner Sauveur Co-directors
Millienne Angervil Secretary

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