Kominote
Hello WORK Family,
I hope you are doing well. This is Benoit, WORK’s Engagement Manager in Haiti. I’m excited to share with you Kominote, my photo blog. Kominote is a Kreyol word which translates to “community” in English and that's what this photo blog is all about. Through this blog, I want to share stories from this past month to give you a closer look at what’s happening in the community. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Our kids are back in school with more determination and willingness to learn to make this year a success. They are all excited but mostly grateful that they can go to school and get closer to their future dreams in life. You may recognize a few of our students, including Macson and Ruth.
It was really nice for me to shadow Ynel, the head of our education program, as he met with several family members about our new TapTap school bus which will be used to facilitate school transportation for our kids.
This project is something that we have been working on for quite some time now, and it was exciting to see our parents express their gratitude toward this program, knowing that their kids will be safer going to school and spending less than half of what they usually pay for transportation. You’ll see in some of the pictures Giordani and Ricot picking up the students from school. It’s great to see the joy and happiness of the kids. Having Giordani work so hard by taking the lead on this as our driver and Ricot who makes sure the kids are safe has been a perfect start to our year.
Now that school is back, so is Office Hours, our after school program. It’s really great to see Jacob, our tutor, and Marc Noel, our Education and Community Coordinator, taking the lead on this by being role models for our family members in the community. During my visit, I was able to catch up with Chelsie Bovilien, a 12-year old girl in the 3rd grade. She never misses a chance to come to Office Hours. I asked her, “Why do you like to come to Office Hours?” and she replied “It’s a safe place to be in the community. I was having some difficulties in math and with the help of the tutors, my grades are getting better now. It’s also a chance for me to make new friends and connect to other children my age in the community. So thank you for creating this space for the children in our community.”
With the year just beginning, I’m looking forward to a lot of our WORK programs starting back up. I was able to shadow Keslin and Armelie as they were hosting a Life Skills workshop. Life Skills is a six-month program that prepares families to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. With more than 21-family members participating in Truitier, it was really nice to see how involved everyone was. One of the things that caught my attention was listening to one of our family members Irene Elismond share how these classes are helping her to keep track of her profit for her coffee business. After being a business owner for many years, I’m sure it has taken a lot of effort for her to change old habits. Kudos to Armelie and Keslin for their patience to affect positive behavior change.
I also went out to visit one of our family members Fritzlene and her family. They have been a part of our program since the very beginning. Fritzlene is Carmitha and Marc Noel’s niece. Fritzlene is doing well living with her grandparents in Menelas and her son, Fritzleyson who is turning three this year. Happy and healthy, Fritzleyson is ready for his first year of school and Fritzlene is excited to send him to school for the first time. He is attending his first year of kindergarten at Elim Jardin d’Enfants. Fritzleyson loves being with his mom and loves playing in the mud.
Over the summer, Fritzlene had a job with us teaching French to our Summer Youth Program students who are in 1st to 3rd grades. She was really happy to be able to teach again as she used to teach in a school in our community. She recently graduated from our Life Skills program and wants to increase her knowledge by going to a professional school where she can learn cosmetology. Together, we are exploring this option and developing a plan.
We want to make sure if she does attend cosmetology school, she will have a job once she graduates. Fritzlene wanted to make sure I shared how grateful she is to you. She knows with your support it creates opportunities for her, her son, and other families to be successful in all aspects of their life.
I hope you enjoyed this month’s highlights. If you’d like to join our community by accompanying our families on a path to financial independence, we welcome you in supporting our families with a monthly donation.
For our families…,
Benoit