Haitian Artists

At a loss for how to respond to the devastation and sadness resulting from the earthquake in Haiti, after making a donation to organizations I know will do good work there (see below), I find myself wanting to revisit the incredible artwork created by Haitian artists. We hear a lot of sad news about Haiti. With reason. Four years ago parts of the island were flattened by hurricanes, now an earthquake. It is one of the poorest countries in the world. Most people live on two dollars a day. If they are lucky.

The above scarves were made by women of the matenwa woman's art collective on the island of La Gonave in Haiti. Take a look at this web site to see the ingenuity and talent of Haitian artists. It is useful for me to be reminded of the joy and hope they have had in light of the challenges they are all surely facing now.

For years now, I have had a connection with a school and community center on La Gonave, the island off of Port-au- Prince. I know the founders of the school there, and also the founder of the woman's art collective. The philosophy of the school is based on a progressive model, encouraging children to take risks, speak up, have opinions and listen to each other. Up until recently, children were taught in a strict catholic school model involving only memorization and physical punishment. Classes are taught in Creole, the language of the people, rather than in French, the language of the government. Matenwa has partner schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts where students and teachers from here have raised money and traveled to visit the school. The Matenwa Community Learning Center has been a small and growing light in Haiti. Being on a island it has been sheltered from many of the problems on the mainland.

But the survival of the people is closely tied to Port-au-Prince. Not able to grow enough food themselves, the market ladies go to the city weekly, to buy food to sell at the market on La Gonave. Food will be hard to get now. People on the island will surely suffer. I am thinking about this little community today as well as everyone in Haiti.

If you would like to donate to a small organization that will benefit greatly from the smallest gift, you may give to Matenwa (whose fiscal agent is "Beyond Borders" ) or to the Cambridge, Massachusetts based health organization, Partners in Health. Thank you.