[Olpc-open] Waveplace at the epicenter in Haiti

[Timothy Falconer]

(from a recent Waveplace blog post by Beth Santos ... Joseph is one of our Haitian mentors)

Yesterday I sat down with Joseph's brother, Abela, who works with Haiti Partners. We were sitting under his little tin roof lean-to, looking at the remains of his home- a beautiful two-story building that is now a couple of tiles and lots of space. He praised the [Waveplace] program and seemed so pleased that it was going well here in Leogane. I told him that there are a number of people in the USA that believe that laptops are not the answer right now, especially in areas like Leogane that are most affected by the earthquake. He and Joseph looked at me like I was crazy. “Are you kidding??” he asked. “Food, water, sure, we need that. But EDUCATION- that's what we really need right now! Without it, how will we be able to build our own?” Joseph added the fact that the kids in Leogane need something to focus on, more than anything. So many children have PTSD and they just need to look forward. They feel helpless and they need to make use of themselves, and take their minds off of what happened to them and their families.

Abela sat for a moment. We told him how grateful we were for his hospitality and he fell silent. When he spoke, he told us about how, after the earthquake, everyone went to stay in camps but he couldn't do it. He would come home everyday, early in the morning, and sit outside his house and just be quiet. He says his post-traumatic stress is terrible.

We think of the children who are still staying in tents, and we think about how our education program is helping their minds to not only escape, but to grow. These children finally feel that they are worth something. And in Leogane, the program is more valuable than anything.


(for more, read here:  http://waveplace.org/news/blog ... photos and more video coming soon)

--
Timothy Falconer
Waveplace Foundation
http://waveplace.org
+ 1 610 624 3760


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