Ekole Panou students singing together in August 2003

Lekole Pa Nou (Creole for Our School) was founded in January 2000 as a means to break the cycle of poverty. It began as a partnership among local villagers, a non-profit organization in Port-au-Prince and friends from Lansing, Michigan. It started with pre-school and kindergarten classes, adding one additional grade each year. We are now up to third grade and will continue to expand until we reach sixth grade. Photos of this initiative can be viewed at http://homepage.mac.com/dlsmith19/PhotoAlbum1.html, including the first consultation between visitors from Michigan and the villagers in Pichon, in August 1999. The visitors, Pierre Balthazar (who is originally from that part of Haiti) and David Smith, asked the villagers what they wanted to do in Pichon that we could help them with. The consensus was that they wished to have a school for the children. 

That began twin processes of development, in our view. One part was the gradual raising of awareness of the needs and potential of Pichon among a growing circle of Americans and Canadians. This was accompanied by the gradual raising of funds to cover program and capital expenses. The other part was the gradual building of capacity of Pichon to develop and administer its school. Local people were recruited and trained as teachers. A governing board and a parent association were formed to administer and support operations. 

Connecting these two processes were Liné and Nadia Balthazar, Pierre's brother and sister-in-law, who live in Port-au-Prince. They formed a non-profit organization (FREM) in Haiti, whose purpose in rural development. Funds received in Michigan are wired to the Haitian non-profit, which pays the staff in Pichon. FREM provides an indispensable link that receives and disburses funds (Pichon has a cash, subsistence economy). Liné and Nadia, without compensation, also supervise the development of the initiative with a combination of development principles learned from Mottahedeh Development Services training, indigenous understanding of the local culture, and a pre-existing family reputation in the community. Liné has attended the development conference in Orlando for the past three years.

Ekole Panou serves 165 children, pre-school to 2nd grade

Parents are an active part of school operations

Antoine Rafael, Ekole Panou principal

• Number of students: 165 (pre-school through third grade)
• Number of staff: 8 (at $100 each per month)
• Annual operating budget: $16,500 (staff, Port-au-Prince office, educational supplies)
• Fiscal agent: Peace Education Center, East Lansing, Michigan
• continue training for the teachers (who were recruited locally),
• provide up to four teachers of English for secondary students in Belle-Anse in June. (This is the neighboring town where Pichon students will some day attend secondary school.)
• make our annual "Michigan delegation" visit to Pichon in August,
• add fourth grade to the Pichon school in the fall,
• initiate a micro-credit program for Lekole Pa Nou mothers,
• install a corn grinder in Pichon,
• attend the Orlando international development conference in December,
• form our own Michigan non-profit organization to sustain and expand this work.
• Spending Plan (Sept 2003-Aug 2004): 

Budgeted operating expenses:

Budgeted revenues:

Capital and other expenses:

The design calls for the women's micro-credit program to be administered by FREM, which would lend money to Pichon women to buy local products and take them to Port-au-Prince to sell. They would use money from sales to buy rice and sugar in P-au-P which would be brought back to Pichon to sell locally. There are a couple women who engage in this kind of commerce, so a model is already established. FREM loans would be repaid, then re-loaned to the women in order to fuel the local economy. As capacity is built, we hope this will lead to a community bank operation that is locally administered. 
 

August 2004 Update

We have recently acquired a news update from Pichon. The villages surrounding Pichon were devastated by a flash flood, which collapsed most of a mountainside. According to international standards, the flash flooding occurred on May 23rd, in Mapou and Pichon, and is a said to be a "major disaster", which led to losses of human life (more than 1000), a massive exodus, and an irreversible environment modification (a lake has been formed in Mapou, on about 47 million square feet of agricultural land).

FREM, along with private and public organizations are undertaking emergency actions such as:
a) Provisional shelters for 60 families (about 300 men, women and children);
b) Food and humanitarian assistance;
c) Psychological assistance for children (summer camp for 500 children);

Some Middle term actions are:
a) Permanent shelters for the families who fell victim to the disaster;
b) Back to School planning;
c) Income generated activities, Setting up of small fruits transformation units.

Nadia Balthazar and Lou Lou Balthazar, two of the organizers of Lekole Pa Nou, will be coming to Canada shortly, near the end of September. We will post additional information as we acquire it.