Our Little School in Cite Soleil (Sun City) by Clare Harwood

City of the Sun

Cite Soleil, or Sun City, is the poorest neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and is teaming with people who want to learn English. Please read about my free English program and consider donating to WE ADVANCE at the link below, specifying on Paypal that the donation should go to the "Education Program."  Thank you so much for your support!

 Alison Thompson: Meet Clare she is a We Advance volunteer who teaches our educational programs at the Nap Vanse clinic please support her. I just read her blog and cried my head off. Its really great to get an education these students here are dying for one while so many in the USA take it for granted...read on.

Amanda Marie Goddard: My fellow humanitarian Clare Harwood is developing an English program for Weadvance.org in Cite Soleil, Haiti. This area is regarded as one of the most dangerous and impoverished neighborhoods in the Western Hemisphere. Follow her blog. She will have some great stories to tell.

Please specify that your donation should go to the "Educational Program."  http://weadvance.org/ 

Our Little School in Cite Soleil (Sun City)

I am teaching free English classes to women and men in Cite Soleil, the poorest slum in Port-au-Prince and an area in which gender-based violence is disproportionately high.  I love teaching these classes because my students are so eager to learn - I feel as if I'm teaching an AP high school English class to a bunch of kids who are desperate to get into Harvard! The one room building in which I teach is tiny and has space for only 13 chairs.  The students push the chairs together so that we can fit 20 people in a class (with 2 people sitting on cinder blocks).  I have 4 sections of classes: 2 for men and two for women.

My plan was to teach classes 5 days a week, but the heat made it too hard so I cut back to 4.  The school has a tin roof, no electricity (which means not even a fan) and no windows that will open.  It can be pretty unbearable.  Also, I have no textbooks to give the students, not enough notebooks and pens, no index cards, and very little money to spend on photocopies.  I need all those materials as a bare minimum to provide my students with a good education.  But still, these women and men are incredibly excited to learn.

The organization for which I am working is a NGO called WE ADVANCE.  It focuses on health and health education for women and children as well as on gender-based violence.  It has a free medical clinic, provides health education classes, and serves as a safe haven for abused women.  Despite a lack of funds, WE ADVANCE is dedicated to doing everything they can to support my English program. 

But obviously I need help.  Please consider donating to my English classes so that I am able to buy important materials for my students.  If you decide to donate, please pay through Paypal on the WE ADVANCE website below.  *** Before you click "donate" please write "FOR EDUCATION PROGRAM" under Paypal's "Add special instructions to the seller." ***   http://weadvance.org/

Thank you so much for your support and generosity! Continue to follow this blog to read about the students and where your donations are going.

All the best,

Clare Harwood