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Charles works with patient at Dumay clinic.
Charles and family in Port au Paix.
Charles with patient at the Centre De Sante Communautair De Dumay. |
JEAN HERARD CHARLES AND
THE HOPE FOR THE CHILDREN OF HAITI SCHOOL
Jean Herard Charles, or Charles as he is called by his friends, has become an integral part of Healing Art Missions (HAM) in recent years. He first worked with HAM in 2002 as a translator for Dr. Janine Flood, OD during a medical mission working at the health clinic in Dumay, Haiti. Dr. Flood quickly recognized Charles intelligence, humor, strong work ethic, honesty and integrity, and began to train him as an eye technician. HAM was working to develop an eye clinic in the Dumay health clinic and under Dr. Flood’s tutelage and guidance; Charles quickly came to run the eye clinic. He also continued to work as a translator during HAM’s medical missions to Haiti and became one of the most trusted of HAM’s associates. In 2009, our work in Haiti was significantly challenged by major changes in the structure and location of the Dumay health clinic, and Charles became our eyes, ears and spokesperson in Haiti. Without Charles, it is hard to imagine we would be opening the new Dumay Health Clinic in the coming weeks. He has continually proved himself dedicated and vital to our work in Haiti and continues to be our greatest asset there.
Charles grew up on the north coast of Haiti, in Port au Paix, where he still lives with his wife, Angelina and three children, Jeffenson, Sentrina and Kevenson. He did his early schooling in Port au Paix, but lived in Florida in his late teens and early 20’s where he learned English and attended Junior College before returning to Haiti. While the majority of Haitians we meet talk of leaving Haiti for a better life in the U.S., Charles is committed to staying on the island to raise his family and work for the improvement of the country. He has clearly demonstrated this through his work with HAM and other humanitarian groups. In recent years he noticed that many of children in the neighborhood where he lives, an area of Port au Paix called Baudin-Gros Sable, were not attending school because there was no primary school in the area. In Haiti, sending ones children to school is expensive and given that 80% of the population lives in poverty, there are many children who go without an education. He saw so many children living in his neighborhood without the opportunity for an education, he realized that in the next 15 years these children would likely end up in gangs and threaten the safety of the neighborhood, Last year he decided to do something about this and with his own money and initiative, started a primary school in his neighborhood, the Hope for the Children of Haiti School.
The Hope for the Children of Haiti School is a rough cement block building with four rooms squeezed onto a small lot a few doors down from Charles house. He bought the property with his own money and paid the teachers out of his pocket from the paychecks he receives from HAM and the other group she works for as an eye technician. Over 200 children now attend kindergarten through fifth grade classes. The curriculum follows that set by the Haitian government and includes math and science as well as reading and writing French.Classes are based on the grade level, not the age of the students, as many teenagers in the neighborhood are illiterate and are attending school for the first time. Charles and the staff meet with the parents each month to inform them of what is being taught and how their children are performing. Parents are asked to pay the equivalent of $25US per year for tuition, books and materials,though Charles does not expel the students if their parents can’t afford to pay that amount. He has been working with the Ministry of Education to make sure the school is certified, though they have imposed certain requirements. Their primary concern was that he replace the rotting tin roof on the school, which was completed this past summer with funds from HAM. The Ministry is also requiring that his teachers be certified beginning in the next school year.
Beginning earlier this year, HAM began providing financial assistance to the Hope for the Children of Haiti School, paying for the teacher’s salaries each month. The new cement roof we funded will be able to support a second floor of classrooms, which will be needed soon given the number of students wanting to attend school. But doors and windows are currently mere openings in the cement and the outhouse facilities remain incomplete.Additional funding is required to complete the work started on the school, not to mention any expansion. Many of the parents of the school children have been asking if Charles would start a night school for the adults as so many of them are illiterate. He wants to begin such a program, but his building has no access to the electrical grid, and no lighting fixtures or wiring yet run. So many great ideas, so much potential; but neither Charles nor HAM currently have the funds to adequately support such potential.
The Hope for the Children of Haiti School demonstrates another example of the initiative and drive of a Haitian community to create a better situation for their children. By supporting Charles school, HAM is directly investing in the front line of Haiti’s future, the children. This school is another example of the many valuable programs HAM supports in Haiti.
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Sign for The Hope for the Children of Haiti School.
Students in school at The Hope for the Children of Haiti School.
Before and after photos of newly repaired school roof.
2009 construction to add classrooms to school.
Class in session at The Hope for the Children of Haiti School. |
