School Supplies for Haitian Children

During our preliminary planning for the CSA-2016 Conference, one of the current Program Chairs, Angelique Nixon, and I were confronted with a question from a government minister in Tobago about what CSA brings to these communities or if we simply meet in these locations. Deciding on Haiti, we resolved that we would not simply meet in Haiti but would also conduct projects that would have some impact on local communities. One of these will focus on Education and so we have added an additional day to the conference completely focused on Education for Economic Sustainability. The opening plenary for this day will be chaired by Past CSA President Pedro Noguera, an internationally-recognized expert on Education and a distinguished panelists on this question as it pertains to Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean. A variety of related discussions on Education (workshops and plenaries) will take place throughout the day.

In this spirit, Cornell undergraduates, from Ujamaa Residence Hall under the leadership of Marcus Scales, Residence Hall Director, in collaboration with students of Ohio University under the guidance of Winsome Chunnu-Brayda, Office of Multicultural Programs, who will supply cinch packs, are creating a “School Supplies for Haitian Children” project and invite members to bring with them school supplies to be distributed to Haitian school children. One school that we will engage so far is L’Ecole Mixte de Déléard. Jonas Petit, who is the founder of this school in his village, will arrange a site visit to this school during the conference for Cornell students. L’Ecole Mixte de Déléard is accessible in a one hour drive because it is in the mountains of Petionville. A nice article describing what the school is attempting to do follows this and includes a list of possible supplies that those interested can select from and contribute.

We are asking each member to bring some basic school supplies that will go into those bags for the children of Déléard. Please contact me at president@caribbeanstudiesassociation.org or my Conference Graduate Assistant, Marsha Jean-Charles mbj42@cornell.edu if you have any questions and want to or plan to bring supplies. Please contact Marcus Scales at ms3288@cornell.edu if you would like additional information about this project.

» CLICK HERE to view the project presentation

Carole Boyce Davies
President