SIGNAL BOOST PLEASE!!
This is the first time I’ve done something like this on Tumblr, but your help would be so appreciated! I’m a rising senior at Yale University and I’ve started an educational non-profit for high school students in Haiti. As a Haitian American who immigrated here, I’m a true believer in the education —-> success pipeline, but I also understand that there’s a whole toolset correlated with success that is often under-addressed both in America and abroad: the ability itself to translate your education into success!
So I started Citoyen Haiti, which aims to take high achieving high school students from schools all over Port au Prince, and bring them into contact with university students interested in non-profit/educational work (with a specific focus on Haiti) for five weeks. Students are separated into six sectors (Justice and Public Security, Finance and Economy, Status of Women and Women’s Rights, Communication and Media Arts, National Education and Vocational Training, and Public Health and Population) and are challenged over the course of those five weeks to learn more about how Haiti functions in each sector compared to the rest of the world, and to conduct comprehensive evaluations of so-called solutions already in place (ie do those microfinance organizations really work? Is MINUSTAH a sight for sore eyes or the cause of all that soreness? And so on.)
At the end of those five weeks, students will present to a symposium consisting of Haitian and Haitian-American business professionals on their findings and initiatives they’ve developed on their own to solve them. That means students in the Finance and Economy sector may create a business model that places federal subsidies in the hands of independent artisans, or students in the Status of Women sector may end up starting a chain of domestic abuse hotlines. Whatever comes out of this will largely be up to the students, who will be asked to identify what they feel is most important in affecting real change in their country today.
I’m asking all of you to take a second to reblog this and spread the word - we need more students to apply to participate (and there is a college admissions component to this too, if your student is interested!) and we definitely would appreciate donations since our payments for facilities usage, covering the costs associated with the students, and the costs of security for the duration of the camp itself are coming up and we’re still riding the financial struggle bus. Even $10 would go a long way! Even if you’re just down to show your support,liking our facebook page would do us a world of help on its own!
Thank you so much for all of your help and support. It means so much, and this can’t happen without you!!
ORCHESTRE SEPTENTRIONAL- TEMWAYAJ (by Herve Gilbert)
Konkou Chante Nwel 1999 - Jean Edner Tezil and Salina Charles
I know its not Christmas and we far from it, but if you grew up in Haiti you had to know about Salina Charles and her AMAZING voice.
(Source: youtube.com)
RAM - Zanj (by emmanuel2008read)
RAM - Fèy (Racine/vodou music) (by ambreginny)
Fey yo gade mwen nan branch mwen, yo move tan pase li voye’m jete. Jou we’m tonbe a se pa jou a m’koule, jou we’m tonbe a se pa jou a m’ koule papa le ya bezwen mwen kote ya jwenn mwen.
In 1991, a military junta headed by Raoul Cédras seized power in a coup d’etat, overthrowing the elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. RAM, a rasin band in Port-au-Prince, which had run afoul of military authorities before, first performed “Fèy” at the 1992 Carnival in Port-au-Prince, and then began to perform the song during their weekly concerts at the Hotel Oloffson. Despite no overt references to the political situation, a recording of the song was widely played on the radio and immediately taken up throughout the country as an unofficial anthem of support for Aristide. Playing or singing the song was soon banned under military authority, and RAM’s leader, Richard A. Morse, was subjected to death threats from the regime. In September, 1994, U.S. military troops arrived to oust the Cédras regime and restore Aristide to his presidency. “Fèy” was released on RAM’s first album, Aïbobo, in 1996.
New Photo on the Blog: Sunlight Dances off the Water in Labadee,. Hit up JustChuckinit for the full photo-gasm! by justchuckinit_travels // via Instagram http://instagr.am/p/WvT48KI66r/
Street Life in Port-au-Prince, Haiti ~ by Caleb Magnino
