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Matènwa Yearly Update 2011

Jan 10th, 2012
by Joanne.
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“Anpil men,chay pa lou.” “With many hands,

the load is not heavy.”

 

Dear Friends of Matènwa,

We have exciting news to report; it has been a year filled with progress and promise. But first, we send you our sincere thanks for joining hands with us to make it all possible.

Your support and confidence give us the determination to prove every day that children in rural Haiti can learn in the language they all understand, without being hit or humiliated. We are determined to make this model the norm in schools across Haiti.

It has been 15 years since the Matènwa Community Learning Center (MCLC) began as a one-room schoolhouse. Now MCLC provides a preschool to ninth grade education and an arts campus with life giving programs that are shaped with the collaboration of many educators and activists from in and outside of Haiti. Instead of the common image of rote memorization, dictation, corporal punishment, and dictatorial classroom management, one sees hands on materials, critical thinkers, authors, and collaborative leaders for peace and justice.

As we celebrate 15 years, we celebrate you ~ our long-standing and our recent supporters. With many hands, the way forward is made possible.

With love and appreciation, Chris, Abner

& Juliette

 

 

Progress and Promise: Mother Tongue Books

“If you could only see how the children’s eyes light up when new Mother Tongue Books come to Matènwa. They love these books so much!”
(Writer and MTB mentor, Connie Biewald)

Books written by children for children are beginning to show a child centered way to meet Haiti’s need for reading material written in Creole for elementary school children. It’s literacy, it’s empowerment, it’s real cultural exchange as these trilingual (Creole,

French, and English) books are published and exchanged between Matènwa and US schools.

Early work has been supported by Rotary Clubs: Port Au Prince, Puerto Rico, and Skidaway, Rotary International, the Fayerweather Street School, and the Basic Science Partnership. There is much promise in this growing initiative. We encourage you to join in, through classroom and service learning projects, and through your financial support.

For examples of Mother Tongue Books, see: www.fayerweather.org, the “Matènwa” tag. A site for kids is in progress: www.lago.ht. To get involved contact Saskia: saskiavanvactor@yahoo.com.

Progress and Promise: In the News

Through the years, Matènwa educators have been collaborating with prominent Haitian linguists Yves Dejean (above) and Michel DeGraff (below) to further the cause of classroom instruction in Creole for Haiti’s children. Haiti’s Department of Education passed the Bernard Reform in 1979, stating that instruction should be in Creole through the 4th grade to promote Universal Education. Implementation has been very slow. But, there is promise and Matènwa has led the way. Articles in the Boston Globe, “The Power of Creole” by Leon Neyfakh and on BBC NEWS, “Should Creole Replace French in Haiti’s Schools?” by Cordelia Hebblethwaite, both cite Degraff’s work in Matènwa. Through his research, Degraff has witnessed the unsurprising: Children succeed if educational programs are offered in a language the students understand. DeGraff states: “Haiti will never be able to rise to its potential if you have 90 percent who cannot be instructed properly. Once you open up that reservoir…. Imagine how many well prepared minds you would have to try to solve the country’s problems.”

 

FACES, a world cultures magazine for children ages 9-14, devoted its Fall 2011 issue to Haiti. Among its features were interviews with 11 Matènwa students. Here is a sample interview:


“My name is Chrisla Fleurant. I am 9 years old. I am a fourth grade student at the Matènwa Community School. I live in a family of 10 people. My mother and my father are the ones who work to give us what we need. I love my country very much because it is a beautiful country that has a lot of  fresh air, beautiful sun, and nice temperatures. We also have a beautiful culture that has a time for everything and a language that many other nations enjoy,”

Peace and Justice Award

The Peace and Justice Award was given by the City of Cambridge, MA to Chris Low in June 2011 in recognition of her work to build bridges and create community  between and among people, crossing divides of neighborhood, ethnicity, gender, race, and class. Family and friends were present to join in the applause!

Schools for Schools Partnerships 

Schools for schools Partnerships were started in Puerto Rico thanks to Anna Grimaldi Colomer. The Interact Club working with the Parkville and Commonwealth schools spearheads an annual Heart for Haiti community celebration, which has led to funding of the Matènwa Library. It is one outstanding example of what can be done. We are hoping that other schools and clubs will get involved. Please contact Pam Smith at pam@fesmith.com

Progress and Promise: In the Gardens

Across rural Haiti, most families survive by farming small plots of depleted, non-irrigated soil. Little attention is given to improving the knowledge or techniques used by farmers even though such skills determine the very survival of the family. But in Matènwa gardening is an integral part of the curriculum, and the school garden serves as hands-on experience, breakfast food, and a demonstration site. Students and teachers make a wall to stop erosion. Children work together at school and bring these techniques back to their home gardens.

Home Gardens for Ten Families

Thanks to a grant from Pacific Rim Voices, MCLC has initiated a home gardens program. In 2011 ten families each received 2 water drums, 2 gutters with installation, kandelam plants for live fencing of a 10 square meter space, and wire fencing to keep out goats and chickens until the live fencing grows to a secure height and width. Luisine speaks about her garden: “I have already benefitted from my garden. We have eaten from it and sold from it. I live close to the water pump so even though the rains were not coming I walked to the pump and carried buckets of water to my home each day.”

Ten Communities Embrace the Matènwa Model 

For more than a decade, MCLC has served as a model for what education might be in rural Haiti – a place that respects the rights of children, offers instruction in Creole, includes both core academic and arts classes, provides teacher training in pedagogy, content, and classroom management, and prepares students as critical thinkers capable of improving their lives in their mountain community. This year, with many thanks for a grant from The Boston Foundation and support from Beyond Borders, MCLC is bringing its model to ten surrounding communities. Our goal is to reach out to schools across Lagonav.  How wide an impact we can have depends on your compassion and generosity to support our work.

 “Everyone is very motivated to work together. We give a little theory and then go try it. Walter, (one of the Home Gardens beneficiaries) is explaining how organic composting has made his vegetables flourish.” Says Creole Gardens Outreach Coordinator Abner Sauveur.

Progress and Promise: Arts and Music

The MCLC Arts Colony comes to life! Our beehive buildings are providing arts, crafts, and music classes with support from you and the Magpie Giving Circle and from the Hand/Eye Fund.

 

 

 

 

There is much enthusiasm as the community works to create jobs and income. We need your help to market items for local and international sales.

Progress and Promise: Building Friendships

Last year, teachers asked for educational games. Volunteers brought Bananagrams donated by the company, and other games to play. It worked so well that in July 2012 we will start another exciting experiment.We invite those of you who speak Creole (adults and children), or who can afford a translator, to come share your talents with the Matènwa Community. Matènwa children and adults will express what they would like to learn and we will try to match those interests with volunteers’ desires to teach. Volunteers can come for one to four weeks.

Contact: chriswlow@aol.com

 

Progress and Promise: With your help!

We began many new initiatives this year. Many children and parents of Matènwa are putting their heart and soul, their mind and strength into working for a brighter tomorrow. Will you join us?

Give alternative gifts for holiday presents:

  • *82 cents/day~$25/month will provide books and breakfast for a child for a year.
  • *Less than $1/day~$30/month will cover a child’s education for a year.
  • * 1.50/day~ $550/year will provide the fencing, tools, and seeds for one home vegetable garden.
  • * 200 /month~$2,400/year will support a teacher’s salary.
  • *250 /month ~ $3,000/year will support change in one of our surrounding community’s school and garden for a year.
  • *Mother Tongue Books ~ create and publish in your classroom; contribute to Matènwa’s MTBs publication initiative.
  • *Art and Music ~ help us to market local crafts; come to Matènwa and teach a skill.

Please send your tax-exempt contribution to:

Friends of Matènwa
P.O. Box 494
Lincoln, MA. 01773

Stay in touch! www.matenwaclc.org

Best wishes to you for the 2012 New Year from all of us in Matènwa!

December 2011

 

August Update

Sep 1st, 2010
by Joanne.
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Hats off to you!

After the earthquake it was very difficult for a majority of schools to continue, but with your support we were able to run our programs and help the greater community.  School finished at the end of July.

 

Anes and Marsha

Marsha, a teacher from Vermont, is training Anes to insert pictures into his Mother Tongue Book template.

During July we had several visitors come and help us in our library. We thank teachers Dena and Sarah from Chicago. Dena catalogued and shelved many books and trained a couple new teachers on how to keep it organized. Sarah participated on all levels from administrative meetings to translating trainings sessions. We thank Marsha from Vermont and Ingleed from Fayerweather Street School in Cambridge for helping us in the computer lab to develop the Mother Tongue Books Project with our staff and for giving lessons to Anes who has moved from fourth grade to the computer lab. Anes is replacing Benaja Antoine who has moved on to a job with Haiti Partners. We will miss Benaja, but are happy to announce that in this new position he will be spreading some of the same educational methods that MCLC has been promoting for the past 15 years to other parts of Haiti.

 

Ingleed, Marsha and Juliette, travelling back to the Ansagale, Lagonav dock. Here they are having the classic common "flat tire experience". Never a dull moment!

With a grant from Rotary International, MCLC has started a year long project to train several teachers from MCLC and other schools in our network how to produce Mother Tongue Books with their students. The MCLC computer lab is the center for this activity.  Many schools will benefit, receiving locally authored stories in Creole.

Sincerely,

Chris Low & Abner Sauveur, Co-directors
Millienne Angervil, Secretary

July Update: Summer Activities and Training

Aug 21st, 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.

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 : 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

November 2002

Nov 1st, 2002
by Chris.
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November 1, 2002
Dear Friends,

The Matènwa Community Learning Center (MCLC), now in it’s 7th year of providing a productive education for children and adults, has been growing steadily with the generous financial help of their supporters outside of Haiti and the continued dedication of it’s community teachers and local leaders.  Visits from several committed friends from abroad have been providing opportunities for the educational growth of several groups that have emerged from the center.  For example, with the collaboration of Women’s Rights International, the Courageous Women’s group is raising social awareness of the plights of young Haitian women; with the help of artist Ellen Lebow, the Women Artists of Matènwa now have a viable business selling their hand painted silk scarves; with the help of musician Lisa Brown, a local band is equipped with instruments and MCLC is developing an elementary music program.  Much positive energy has been focused on this small mountain community on the island of Lagonav over the past several years.  As a result, MCLC has received many visits from educators and development workers from the mainland of Haiti, as well as the United States.   These visitors were either seeking training from the center or wishing to collaborate to further MCLC’s mission to spread alternative education practices into the private and public schools of Haiti. Through example and teacher training, MCLC feels it is accomplishing its goal.  Teachers are now rethinking their use of rote memorization in French and corporal punishment as educational methodologies.  At a time when their society is struggling to move from a history of slavery and dictatorship to a democracy with peace and justice, good education models are essential.

We believe the first step to a peaceful world is a peaceful classroom. MCLC teachers are eager to eradicate the traditional system of disempowering students through corporal punishment and verbal humiliation.  These traditions create unproductive frustrated youth by stifling by their creativity instead of celebrating it.  MCLC teachers run model classrooms where children experience the teacher as one who respects their rights and listens to their ideas.  Teachers see their role as a guide encouraging students: to learn to educate themselves; to respect each other’s opinions; to feel comfortable giving and receiving critical analysis to problems they are facing in and out of the classroom; and to recognize their responsibilities in their community.  The students and teachers discuss, document, and then implement what they feel are sound principles for the classroom.  Producing their own set of rules and consequences allows them to decide what is just, and hold themselves accountable.  This kind of education promotes a sense of empowerment through diplomacy and justice.

Haiti has two official languages, Haitian Creole and French.  At MCLC all community meetings, teacher training, and school courses are conducted in Haitian Creole.  French is being taught as a second language.  French is only spoken by 5% percent of the Haitian population and this 5% resides in Port au Prince. Yet in the countryside, almost all schools still have their students memorizing information in French.  Concepts are often difficult for teachers and parents to explain even in their first language because they have only memorized these concepts from French textbooks without fully comprehending their meanings.  Given this complication over language, it is no surprise that 80% of the population is still illiterate.  This year, 8 out of 14 of our sixth graders passed the national exam; this is higher than the national average.  We believe their success is due to the fact that they are being taught in a language they understand.

With your financial help, MCLC can continue to train teachers in other schools.  This would effectively multiply the number of children that will have a positive, non-violent school experience. Your financial and educational exchanges have helped the center grow into a community development center that is addressing educational, health, social, and economic needs. What we need now is to find committed friends that are willing to make a yearly contribution for the next five years to assure the sustainability of this project.

For only 20 dollars a week, you could be paying a teacher’s salary to teach 22 school children.  For 10 dollars a week, you can cover a year’s worth of classroom materials.  For 5 dollars a week, you can contribute to our library project. Where else can you put your money and know you are providing a chance for so many children, so directly?  Please consider taking this opportunity to be a five-year partner of the Matènwa Community Learning Center.  Together we can help the poorest children in the Western Hemisphere build a better future for themselves.

Live more simply, so others can simply live.
Chris

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
One of the most successful tools that MCLC uses to promote literacy in the early grades is the CLE method that Rotary International introduced to us several years ago.  Children listen to stories or have an experience that they then recreate in skits, illustrations, and words.  Their stories are then published into hand made books that they can reread over and over again and share with other students. This affirms their creativity abilities to work in their language and validates their language as equal to the French language.  Having beautifully illustrated published storybooks in schools is the next step in creating successful school libraries for children in Haitian schools.  Traditionally they have only had French exercise books to memorize. They have not had the experience of reading for pleasure or being read to for pleasure by a parent or teacher. Rotary Petionville now wants to make this possible for children in our Haitian schools. They want to start the ball rolling for children to enjoying reading at a very early age, using books with illustrations of Haitian children in countryside settings. Children that they can identify with and therefore to reading about them.

The Courageous Women’s Group (CW), made up of female teachers at LCMC recorded two more of their popular theatre plays for radio.  Women’s Rights International has been collaborating with CW to promote and develop their work.  Their plays reflect the most common problems that young women face in Haitian society.

We opened our new preschool building this September with a class of 22 four year olds and 20 five year olds.  Donations from Angela Burke has turned this place into wheels of fun.

We welcome twenty-seven year old Sarah Roche from Chicago this year who is a volunteer teacher.  She is teaching English in grades 1-7 as well as two evening adult sessions.

Robert Magloire and I have been publishing a bi-monthly newsletter called “The Community is Speaking.”  Robert interviews people on topics of the environment, current events, and health issues.  The newsletter is printed in 16 font in order to give all the adult literacy graduates something to read.  It is  a way to help them hold on to and increase their new ability to read in Haitian Creole.

Artist Ellen Lebow and I began a silk painting project two and half years ago.  Going strong, the sixteen women have aided the Matènwa economy with sales of over 2000 scarves and baby blankets in the US fairs and shops.  For more information, email Ellen at Lbo@cape.com

Open Space (OS) is an alternative way of running meetings where participants are invited to meet on a specific theme but they create their agenda at the beginning of the meeting. People break up into smaller groups throughout  the day to discuss the topics of most interest to them. They have the freedom to move between groups.  MCLC has been offering Open Space to the local community to discuss development issues. We find that this non-hierarchical method allows for all voices to be heard.  So far a water committee, reforestation committee, and soccer committee have emerged from these O.S. meetings.

Collaborate efforts between Courageous Women and Charles Provilien, with a local male nurse, has turned this house into a mobile clinic on two occasions.  CW hope to receive more training in order to turn this into a Women’s Clinic and First Aid station.  Harvard Medical student, Joel Sawady, and Harvard Health Administrations Student Rebecca Weisman, did some volunteer training of the women during the summer of 2001.

Lisa Brown, professional percussionist and music teacher at Wellfleet High School, brought three of her students to experience Lagonave and communicate through music.

Nancy Casey, a math professor, will be coming in January to help our director, Abner Sauveur expand the school vegetable garden and begin two new projects that the community has been asking for:  goat cheese making, chicken coops and composting.