By Debbie Harvey | Founder and Executive Director
The school year is coming to an end for our Kay Anj kids. They have worked hard, studied, spent hours in tutoring sessions and yet we have many children who will not pass this year. We believe we know why and we are changing things for our Haitian family.
Until today, quality education in Haiti has been available only to very few. This is due to brutal socio-economic impediments, most importantly a language barrier: French, the primary language of instruction, is spoken by a tiny élite (approx. 5% of Haitians) whereas Haitian Creole, “Kreyòl” is the language spoken by the rest of the Haitian people.
We know that access to quality education and literacy depend on the use of the language that is fluently spoken by students, parents and peers, spoken on a daily basis in the students’ homes, on the streets, church and in their communities.
When students are able to use their mother tongue (native language) to build foundational knowledge in reading, writing, science and math, they are, in a better position to master second languages and, then, to use these second languages to build additional knowledge. Conversely, students who are forced to learn the basics of these subjects, in a second language that they can hardly speak are usually bound to a lifetime of academic mediocrity.
We believe that this language barrier is one of the reasons for Haiti’s underdevelopment.
Now for the exciting news...our new Kay Anj Village School will open in October! Our current 40 children along with 40 new students from the Limonade community will begin learning in their native tongue, Kreyol!
Our vision is not only for Haiti’s children to become functionally literate, but also for them to be authors of their own lives, their own histories, their own creativity.
Please see the link below for our new project!
Links:
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