Revisioning neighborhoods

I meet R, an independent North American journalist, through my former house mate here in Port-au-Prince. R writes about Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) politics and US-LAC relations for a number of well-known newspapers, and other policy-oriented media. He also produces stories for Telesur, a pan-Latin American television network launched in 2005 that offers a progressive, uniquely Latin American perspective on regional and global affairs. A quick google search reveals a bit about R's own interesting path from Idaho to Port-au-Prince, but it's what has kept him in Haiti that was the focus of our conversation when we first met back in April.

In 2005 a group of young people in Jakè, a neighborhood outside Port-au-Prince (where R has been living) came together to improve their community. (see history link here) While they started by organizing a youth basketball tournament and street cleaning campaign, they quickly moved to addressing the inequalities in access to education affecting kids in their neighborhood. In Haiti, education is seen as the top priority for every family - the key stepping stone in moving beyond absolute poverty. However, only a small percentage actually complete formal education. More than 85% of schools are private - most are run as a for-profit businesses. Government schools require people to pay registration, uniform and textbook fees. Families living on less than $1 day have to make the choice of which, if any, of their children they will be able to send and for how long. It is estimated that half of school-age children in Haiti are not in school.

By rallying adult and older youth as volunteer teachers, the "Jakè Neighborhood Association" (AVJ) started a free community school that meets 5 days a week and offers more than 120 kids a chance at an education and a daily hot meal. They are taking a progressive, participatory approach to education - teaching in Kreyol and focusing on critical thinking and life skills (in contrast to rote French approach adopted by most Haitian schools).

The AVJ youths' vision isn't only for their own neighborhood. They began to reach out and organize youth in other communities to replicate what was happening in Jakè. Today there are neighborhood associations forming community schools in 6 different communities - 4 in Port-au-Prince and 2 in rural Haiti. In 2006 these movements organized into a network called SODA - Sosyete Djòl Ansanm pou Demokrasi Patisipativ which translates as "like-minded people working together for participatory democracy". SODA sponsors teacher training and uses its status as a national NGO (as well as the status of its partner NGO in the USA Friends of SODA) to access donor funds that support school feeding, outreach to other communities, and other projects - like the chicken farming project they started in Jakè to generate income for the association and food for the community school kids.

When Reed heard that I am a nutritionist he asked whether I could review the menus for their school lunch program. They are committed to supporting local agricultural production and have started networking with Haitian farmers to source all local food for the community schools. Last Thursday, I finally got the chance to visit Jakè to see some of what is going on.

We spent most of our visit at the AVJ's poultry project. (Photos here)The association purchased 300 chickens back in April and is working towards increasing production enough to supply neighborhood street markets and Port-au-Prince super markets with local eggs. (Most eggs in supermarkets come from Miami or, until recently before imports were stopped due to a bird flu threat, from the Dominican Republic). Poultry projects to generate income are nothing new in community development circles. What is impressive about this one is that the day-to-day work on the project is being done by a core group of school-age kids who come to work before or after school. The Haitian agronomist training and supervising them is an adult volunteer who lives in the neighborhood. No missionary groups came down to build the chicken coop, no international NGO is providing training and supervision - it's a group of neighbors buying into a true community-centered vision and making it happen.

After seeing the chicken project we passed by Reed's house which was full of neighborhood kids. We met J and L- the two early 20-something Haitian guys who started AVJ several years ago. In near-perfect English they each articulated their vision for Jakè, for SODA and for Haiti. J is organizing the feeding program - he manages the grant money, coordinates local farmers, and organizes volunteers to prepare the food. He told us about a school for street kids they just started that meets in a nearby public park every afternoon.

If you google the term "hope for Haiti" you come up with a long list of US church campaigns, mission groups and international NGO projects. What you should find is a photo of J, L and the agronomist from Jake. Haitian-led social, political, and structural change fostered by individuals and movements like SODA is the true "hope for Haiti."