IF PIGS COULD FLY - HAITI!

Once upon a Facebook post, I was misinterpreted.
Ok, well, maybe more than once.

My family, students, friends from Palo Alto Friends (Quaker) Meeting and Congregation Beth Am and  have helped establish and support a small non-profit dedicated to Haiti, 100%.

If Pigs Could fly - Haiti! is not, was not and is not, about miracles or flying pigs. It was a young girl's wish, when she first learned of the debacle of the Kreyol pig - or the alleged debacle of the Creole pig -( terminology depending on how left your leanings) - it was her wish to replace the pigs and piglets, if she could convince her classmates and school, to save coins in their piggy banks, strategically placed in each classroom.

As a French-American child, Marie Josee was unfamiliar with the English skeptical idiom, "When pigs fly..."

So, it wasn't an attempt to be snide about what it would take to resurrect the Haitian countryside from erosion. It wasn't an attempt to joke about what it would take to educate, make education available, to poor, rural, remote communities. It wasn't sarcasm at what it would take for the 70% of literacy to decline, among Haitian adults, throughout Haiti. It wasn't hinting of miracles or acts of deity.

It was just a wish, on the part of one child, that she and her classmates could make a world of difference to the part of the world she loved and called, "My Mountain."

"Not because, " she wrote, "Not because the mountain belongs to me, but because I belong on the mountain."

That was almost a decade ago. The girl is now a young woman, the children she played with have grown up. I remember another thought she shared in her film, "My Mountain." She shared with us, her audience, her viewers, "If I come back to my mountain in 10 years, I wonder what will happen to the children of my mountain? Will they still be around? Will they be alive?"

Two are now restavek and living in tents in the fallen city, Port au Prince.
Two have died - a lack of access to a hospital was the likely cause in each instance. Only four children in the film have been able to continue in school - and only because of support from outside the community, support from If Pigs Could Fly - Haiti!

What else has changed? Well, "If Pigs" is now a genyouwhine non-profit, with and EIN, a board, a bank account, a website and a Face Book presence. The needs of course haven't changed, but If Pigs has built - with community participation - a home, rebuilt a school, furnished a classroom and built one of the all-around best school latrines with 20 kilometers!

If Pigs has: started a sewing boutik, supported the purchase of sewing machines, supporting training in piecework, and is looking for a market for embroidered artisan dresses. If Pigs has supported the women's Mammas Making Mamba peanut butter project, which serves locally made and home ground peanut butter to primary school children in two schools. If Pigs works because our team in the community work with us: Toma (Elisee Abraham), Kloteed, Destin, Madame Vab, Gran Dodo, Ti Eli, Pastor Diedonne Abraham and Pastor Felix Abraham. And others.

If you are so moved, please consider a small donation once in a while?  Like, on January 1, Haiti's Independence Day?  Or Haitian Flag Day on May 18?  Or, Christmas, in time for next year's tax season? Any time is the right time to do right, as my mentor Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached in more than one sermon.

In contrast, perhaps, to some NGOs, large NGOs, who have been criticized because their efforts have not been visible, If Pigs leaves more than a paper trail. You will hear from us, and see us, on Facebook. And you are most welcome to visit. Bring strong legs and a strong heart. No experience necessary. Again, as directed by Brother Martin, "Anyone can be great, because everyone can share." Come on up to Morne Bouton, the place my daughter, Marie Josee called, "My Mountain." You will see not just what we need, but what we got. What you and we, together, can build on.

Join us on the mountain top, and find the "Donate Now" button at
www.ifpigscouldflyhaiti.com

You will meet our resident team, lots of details about our projects, and non-profit effort.  We put the "non" in "Non-Profit," as 100% of all donations goes to the effort and the workers in rural Haiti.
--Please know that we have no administrative costs, no overhead, no office expenditures, anyen ditou to expense from your contributions.  Mesi anpil anpil!

THANK YOU BROTHER LANGSTON HUGHES

HOW THIN A BLANKET - BY LANGSTON HUGHES

No one, and certainly not I, could add any words to Brother Langston's poetry.

He knew well our people in rural Haiti...

Sadly, there's little that's changed since Brother Langston's 6-month sojourn there, in the 1930's.

There is so much misery in the world,

So much poverty and pain,

So many who have no food

Nor shelter from the rain,

So many wandering friendless,

So many facing cold,

So many gnawing bitter bread

And growing old!

What can I do?

And you?

What can we do alone?

How short a way

The few spare crumbs

We have will go!

How short a reach

The hand stretched out

To those who know

No handshake anywhere.

How little help our love

When they themselves

No longer care.

How thin a blanket ours

For the withered body

Of despair!

Our community's needs and development are now supported by Facebook Causes Page: IF PIGS COULD FLY - HAITI! 

Thank you for reflecting on this post.  If you would like to help the community in the mountains of Haiti, please start here:
http://www.causes.com/causes/529435

WATKLIFF, NOT WYCLEF - WATKLIFF TRANSFORMED

Here are photos from 2008 taken 2 weeks apart.

The urchin in the "before" has been transformed into the student with his art work in "After."

After what?

See, I made a unilateral decision.

Yup.
Definitely not kosher, and certainly not a first in the history of well-intentioned blan in Haiti.

I decided what Watkliff needed was: School and peanut butter! As he was not yet 4 years old, I had to plead his case with our school Principal, Dieudonne Abraham.

So, after not too long a time, we see Watkliff, in the summer school, and with 2 weeks of peanut butter under his belt, hands on math and art projects, Watkliff has found his metier...See him here, creating with materials he'd never seen and then, how proud he is as his teacher, Principal Dieudonne, looks over his work.













The photos just to the left here are a year afterward. Watkliff has been a year in the Brothers' Abraham School. Tuition is only $55.00 US for the year!

The following summer, I see the Principal and Watkliff interacting, and I observe Watkliff studiously at work. There, he holds a pencil, a colored pencil, grasping correctly and writing, copying. Here, he explores shapes and sizes of geometric blocks.












Haiti, here is one of your future engineers!

Why not? Watkliff!

Principal and Teacher Dieudonne (John)explores measurement of length with linking cubes, (cubes and other stuff, all schlepped up the mountain on the backs of mules over these several years).











Watkliff is no longer a poster child for Darfur, he now has status.

In Haiti, his status, his social capital, is now that of a "student," a "schooled" child, one who attends school He gets to wear shoes - when he goes to school. Support from www.ifpigscouldflyhaiti.org has provided his family with a goat to raise. If they are successful, they can cover school fees and his shoes. Ideally, this is less of a charity and more of a modest step in the form of "jobs creation" for education.