Coffee Hour: Haitians Rebuilding Haiti; local connections 10/2
Saturday, October 2/2010
10:00am-11:45am
At the Resource Center of the Americas
Presented in English
Description:
During her visit to Minnesota Ms Dol, will share her experiences as a Haitian grass roots activist and as a survivor of the earthquake. She will share her vision about what needs to happen in Haiti to improve life for the millions of Haitians living in poverty before the earthquake and now living in tents that provide them little comfort and great risk from events beyond their control. Ms Dol will talk about her work providing education and financial support to poor Haitians. She will also share how her network of supporters has helped sustain the programs that are so critical to her neighborhood in Haiti.
Speaker:
Rea Dol & Paul Miller.
Rea Dol is the Director and co-founder of SOPUDEP, a grassroots organization in Haiti that offers education for children and adults and recently expanded to include micro lending programs for women. Her efforts after the January 12th earthquake in Haiti were featured in a New York Times documentary:
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/03/06/world/americas/1247467192053/the-mother-figure-of-morne-lazarre.html
The school that Ms Dol co-founded in 2000 has grown to include 664 students. The school started as part of an adult literacy campaign set up to accommodate 30-60 adults. Because of the huge need for education more adults came. Along with the adults came the neighborhood children who also wanted to learn. Seeing that children could not learn in the same manner as adults, Rea’s vision of a school for the neighborhood children was born. After realizing she had survived the earthquake Rea almost immediately responded to offer her support to victims. She went throughout her neighborhood cleaning wounds and arranging for transportation for people hanging onto life. Rea’s actions since the immediate trauma continue to provide hope to the people in Haiti that have suffered so deeply. Her days are long and exhausting as she works with woman’s groups to establish micro loans, works daily at the school, makes plans for a new school on land that SOPUDEP will own and hosts victims of the earthquake at her own home. Rea does not place limits on what can be accomplished in Haiti. She sees the glaring needs around her and works tirelessly to provide solutions.
Paul Miller, from Northfield, MN, from the group Haiti Justice Alliance of Northfield.
Contact Information:
Rebecca Cramer
rebacramer@gmail.com
