The Mobile Learning Center (MLC)
The Problem
One of the biggest problems paralyzing progress in Haiti is poor education. Only 65% of children between the ages of five and twelve years attend school. Of the 65%, only 25% of them complete the 6th grade. Even worse, the quality of education in Haiti is inadequate leaving an entire population unable to improve their lives, their country and poorly equipped to compete in the global world.
The Solution
The Mobile Learning Center (MLC) was created to address this problem, focusing on the poorest children in Haiti: orphans and street kids. Our approach is not to replace their existing education if any, but rather to add value to it. By going “mobile” and utilizing technology we are able to reach more children at a lower cost than the traditional method of opening a school.
We load our specially equipped truck with laptops, hundreds of books and a projector and go to various sites (mostly orphanages) around Port-au-Prince. Our trucks can navigate even the roughest, bumpiest roads to get to the otherwise isolated students. While on site, children are able to check out books, use the computers to participate in the world renowned “Imagine Learning” literacy/ESL program, as well as research topics on the internet and watch educational films. FFCIN volunteers are there to guide learning and assist where needed. Our goal is to help at least 100 students make it to college and 1,000 reach high school level within 10 years.
One of the biggest problems paralyzing progress in Haiti is poor education. Only 65% of children between the ages of five and twelve years attend school. Of the 65%, only 25% of them complete the 6th grade. Even worse, the quality of education in Haiti is inadequate leaving an entire population unable to improve their lives, their country and poorly equipped to compete in the global world.
The Solution
The Mobile Learning Center (MLC) was created to address this problem, focusing on the poorest children in Haiti: orphans and street kids. Our approach is not to replace their existing education if any, but rather to add value to it. By going “mobile” and utilizing technology we are able to reach more children at a lower cost than the traditional method of opening a school.
We load our specially equipped truck with laptops, hundreds of books and a projector and go to various sites (mostly orphanages) around Port-au-Prince. Our trucks can navigate even the roughest, bumpiest roads to get to the otherwise isolated students. While on site, children are able to check out books, use the computers to participate in the world renowned “Imagine Learning” literacy/ESL program, as well as research topics on the internet and watch educational films. FFCIN volunteers are there to guide learning and assist where needed. Our goal is to help at least 100 students make it to college and 1,000 reach high school level within 10 years.
An Innovative Approach to Education and Change in Haiti
Alies's Memory
Jacmel is a good distance away from his home in Port-au-Prince and ended up being the home of one of his fathers’ other “women”. This woman had 7 children. His father dropped him off at this other woman’s house and told him that he would come back for him in a few days. He said that days went by and his father never returned.
Days, weeks and then years went by and he never heard from or saw his father or mother. Alies watched as the children of this other family went to school. He was left to fend for himself. He was also used for child labor. It was Alies’s duty to work for the family. He would have to run errands and carry water for the family. Five years later, when he was 12, he decided to try to find his way back to Port-au-Prince and to his own family.
He had observed buses coming and going from a station located right outside of town and thought that they surely must be going to PAP. So, one morning he was sent to the market to buy some sugar. The Madame had given him 5 gourdes which at the time was about 1 U.S. dollar. Now those 5 gourdes are about eight cents. Instead of buying the sugar, he went and got on a bus. He said that once he got on the bus he could tell that it was going the wrong direction. It made a loop and then took him back to Jacmel. The bus driver took pity on him and asked him what he was doing. Alies told him that his father had left him 5 years ago and had never come back and he wanted to find his family. Out of pity, the bus driver told him to get on the top of the bus and let him ride for free. He went the whole way over the steep mountain pass to PAP on the top of the bus. At the very least it is a crazy dangerous ride, but riding on top? I can’t even imagine.
He remembered the general area or “zone” where his family had once lived, and so when he arrived at the station, he asked people around him for directions. He ended up walking to his old house only to find that they had moved. Luckily, neighbors were able to tell him where they had gone. As any child would be, he was so excited to see his mother and his sisters. However, when he got home, his mothers’ response to his showing up was; “Your father is going to kill you”. Alies said that he asked his mother why they hadn’t come for him all these years, but got no response. There was no happy reunion. He hid from his father for quite some time before revealing that he had found his way back.
He couldn’t help but note that his mother and father put their money into sending his little sisters to school. He felt bad that he was not able to go. Now here he is years later working hard at gaining an education, working and growing in life.
As the long miles went by, I just let him talk. I think that it was somewhat more painful for me to hear this story. Being his mother, my heart ached for him. But as always, children are forgiving. A few minutes later Alies said “I love these good people, they try so hard”.
Written by Rebecca Maesato
Days, weeks and then years went by and he never heard from or saw his father or mother. Alies watched as the children of this other family went to school. He was left to fend for himself. He was also used for child labor. It was Alies’s duty to work for the family. He would have to run errands and carry water for the family. Five years later, when he was 12, he decided to try to find his way back to Port-au-Prince and to his own family.
He had observed buses coming and going from a station located right outside of town and thought that they surely must be going to PAP. So, one morning he was sent to the market to buy some sugar. The Madame had given him 5 gourdes which at the time was about 1 U.S. dollar. Now those 5 gourdes are about eight cents. Instead of buying the sugar, he went and got on a bus. He said that once he got on the bus he could tell that it was going the wrong direction. It made a loop and then took him back to Jacmel. The bus driver took pity on him and asked him what he was doing. Alies told him that his father had left him 5 years ago and had never come back and he wanted to find his family. Out of pity, the bus driver told him to get on the top of the bus and let him ride for free. He went the whole way over the steep mountain pass to PAP on the top of the bus. At the very least it is a crazy dangerous ride, but riding on top? I can’t even imagine.
He remembered the general area or “zone” where his family had once lived, and so when he arrived at the station, he asked people around him for directions. He ended up walking to his old house only to find that they had moved. Luckily, neighbors were able to tell him where they had gone. As any child would be, he was so excited to see his mother and his sisters. However, when he got home, his mothers’ response to his showing up was; “Your father is going to kill you”. Alies said that he asked his mother why they hadn’t come for him all these years, but got no response. There was no happy reunion. He hid from his father for quite some time before revealing that he had found his way back.
He couldn’t help but note that his mother and father put their money into sending his little sisters to school. He felt bad that he was not able to go. Now here he is years later working hard at gaining an education, working and growing in life.
As the long miles went by, I just let him talk. I think that it was somewhat more painful for me to hear this story. Being his mother, my heart ached for him. But as always, children are forgiving. A few minutes later Alies said “I love these good people, they try so hard”.
Written by Rebecca Maesato
I wanted to relate a story that my son Alies told me on the way to Jackson Hole WY. He started to reminisce about when he was a child. Without showing any emotion he told me this story.
When he was 7 years old his father took him to a city called Jacmel. He said that he remembers being so excited to be going on a trip with his father.
When he was 7 years old his father took him to a city called Jacmel. He said that he remembers being so excited to be going on a trip with his father.
Volunteer Stories
My husband, two daughters (12 and 14) and I visited Port-au-Prince in late July 2010. Like so many before us, we experienced a wild Haitian ride of mixed emotions- elation, shock, overwhelming love … but also heat. It was the most meaningful trip the four of us had ever taken. So great in fact, that a short eight months later, we were getting off the plane in March, 2011, for another mission to see old (and young) friends at Jimmy Bonhomme’s, Leslie’s, Mother Theresa’s and Gertrude’s.
We hadn’t been on the ground for more than a few minutes when we knew the trip was going to be a success because we were in the custom’s line...and not one of us was sweating! Was that a breeze we felt? The airport was just as crazy; maniacal bag handlers running everywhere, screaming, arms and legs flailing about, but this time, it was no longer intimidating. It was actually a little comical. The long walk down the side of the airport was shorter this time because we sprinted into the waiting arms of Rebecca, Patrick, Jimmy and Bony.
Our group was small - our family of four, a high school history teacher, his student and her mother (all from Florida), a young woman from Canada and Rebecca’s niece, Laura. We all had different but related reasons for being down there - to start something, to do something, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. In the mornings, we tutored the boys and continued the work of the group before us, preparing the donated computers, organizing the library, making library cards for the kids and brainstorming ways to implement a mobile tutoring center.
During the week, we rented a school bus - bigger than a tap-tap. Three times we filled it with kids from different orphanages and homes and got them out of their day-to-day environment. We took two groups to a sugarcane museum near Aristides’ house. Another day, Rebecca found an empty soccer field in one of the nicer neighborhoods not far from the mission house and convinced the owners to share it with us. Taking two busloads of kids from Jimmy Bonhomme’s to participate in their first Field Day was a thrill. Remember that feeling you had as a kid when you got to miss school for Spring Field Day, running around with your friends, summer approaching, and no worries at all? Now multiply the enthusiasm exponentially and you can imagine how happy these kids were. They were out of their minds with glee. We set up an obstacle course, relay races, water balloon fights, balloon stomps and capped it off with a full game of soccer. Apparently, Jimmy Bonhomme makes it a priority to teach the boys soccer - and it shows (the guys from the US did not fair so well).
There is no doubt that you measure success a bit differently in Haiti. There is less rubble and more active construction in every part of Port-au-Prince. The rebuilding activity is slow, brick by brick, all by hand; however, the good news is that well over a year after the earthquake, the Haitians do not seem to have lost their most beautiful qualities - hope and love. We left filled with quite a bit of both as well.
Written by Cara Milling
Our group was small - our family of four, a high school history teacher, his student and her mother (all from Florida), a young woman from Canada and Rebecca’s niece, Laura. We all had different but related reasons for being down there - to start something, to do something, to be part of something bigger than ourselves. In the mornings, we tutored the boys and continued the work of the group before us, preparing the donated computers, organizing the library, making library cards for the kids and brainstorming ways to implement a mobile tutoring center.
During the week, we rented a school bus - bigger than a tap-tap. Three times we filled it with kids from different orphanages and homes and got them out of their day-to-day environment. We took two groups to a sugarcane museum near Aristides’ house. Another day, Rebecca found an empty soccer field in one of the nicer neighborhoods not far from the mission house and convinced the owners to share it with us. Taking two busloads of kids from Jimmy Bonhomme’s to participate in their first Field Day was a thrill. Remember that feeling you had as a kid when you got to miss school for Spring Field Day, running around with your friends, summer approaching, and no worries at all? Now multiply the enthusiasm exponentially and you can imagine how happy these kids were. They were out of their minds with glee. We set up an obstacle course, relay races, water balloon fights, balloon stomps and capped it off with a full game of soccer. Apparently, Jimmy Bonhomme makes it a priority to teach the boys soccer - and it shows (the guys from the US did not fair so well).
There is no doubt that you measure success a bit differently in Haiti. There is less rubble and more active construction in every part of Port-au-Prince. The rebuilding activity is slow, brick by brick, all by hand; however, the good news is that well over a year after the earthquake, the Haitians do not seem to have lost their most beautiful qualities - hope and love. We left filled with quite a bit of both as well.
Written by Cara Milling
Visit Haiti "RAW" on You Tube to watch our new series of volunteer "confessionals". Taped in the ffcin bathrooms, volunteers discuss feelings, thoughts & advise.
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IN THIS ISSUE
The Mobile Learning Center
Alies's Memory
Volunteer Stories
Haiti "RAW"
The Haiti Humanitarian
The Mobile Learning Center
Alies's Memory
Volunteer Stories
Haiti "RAW"
The Haiti Humanitarian
Summer Newsletter 2011
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