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Mom, I want to go to school!
- Published in: Artikel pater Jan Hoet
- Date: Woensdag 19 september 2007
September is the month in which a lot of Haitian children go to school again, after the summer vacation, as it is in a lot of other countries. Unfortunately there are a lot of children in Haiti, which does not get the chance to do so, because their parents cannot pay the tuition fees to get their kids in school.
From my arrival in 1967, in this by poverty discolored pearl of the Antilles, I noticed that I would deal with a population composed by majority of children and youth. A youth without future, abandoned to it self, victim of an alienating education system, deceived and swept away by their political leaders, neglected in a relentless fight for a better place on the social ladder. A youth with only one ideal: leave the Haitian purgatory and travel to the paradise somewhere in the United States or Europe.
A youth, which is threatened from all angles by two large pleas: AIDS and drug use. But as everywhere in the world, a youth that dreams of beautiful things, likes to dance and sing and laugh, asks for attention, appreciation and friendship. A youth asking for friendship but also offering it free. A youth claiming for the commitment of others, being able to squeeze it as a ripe lemon, but devoting themselves without reserve when they get the attention they need. A youth that realizes, however, that the only way to live in a better world goes trough school education.
For this reason it remains for me an eternal frustration that so many young children in Haiti cannot enter into school, because their parents do not have the resources to pay the requested tuition fees. Every day I meet children asking me some support so that they can go to school. Official schools are for free, but there is a big lack of schools, so that the few official schools that exist are over-crowded and cannot offer good education. The department of education, talking in a hypocritical way about free education, has to permit and even encourage the existence of private schools. Since the need for schools is so high, the direction of most private schools are asking terribly high amounts for tuition fees as well as for monthly contributions, so that the access to good education is denied for children of families with low or no income. What is bothering me more is the fact that religious communities, sisters or brothers, often manage the elite schools, and that their schools generally only are accessible for children from rich families.
In a good secondary school a child needs easily an amount of 200 up to 400 US dollars to get into. In this amount school-uniform and books are not included. Then a contribution of 20 up to 40 US dollars must still be paid every month.
Beside the elite schools, there is a lot of what they call the “Borlette schools”, referring to a very popular lottery in Haiti. These schools are less expensive, but they often disserve a worthless education. Poor families nevertheless have to choose such a school for their children. For those who cannot afford this money for access into a “Borlette-school”, and cannot get their kids in an official school, the only alternative left is to keep their children home, or rather let them grow up in the street with the bad consequences this may have.
Since 1990 I came in contact with a Belgian NGO called CUNINA. CUNINA borrows its name from the Latin mythology and was the name given to the Goddess of the cradle. Where your cradle stands, determines too often the chances which you get in your live. If you are born in the rich west, generally you get more chances on a good education. If you are born in a poor little house in South Africa or in Haiti, then the possibilities on building a lucky future are as much as non-existent.
CUNINA is working now in Haiti, The Philippines, Nepal, Congo, South Africa and Brazil. CUNINA wants to create the possibility for poor children to go to school, by offering them a financial adoption. It tries to find sponsors in Belgium, which commit them to pay 30 euro (US 40) monthly and send this money, by means of the organization, to their child they will support in Haiti. I am the representative of Cunina in Haiti and thanks to this support a lot of children, can go to school. CUNINA wants to offer a chance to many children in its partner countries so that they can at least follow primary education. By means of the individual sponsorship, the monthly amount given by an individual person or family, the benefactor becomes responsible for a large part for the payment of the education costs of the child he or she supports. This function makes Cunina as organization unique in its type. Between the benefactor, called Godfather and his godchild one strong personal friendship may grow.
After 17 years of cooperation with this NGO, hundreds of children already went trough school. Many went to primary school and high school and some made it trough college. There are Cunina-children in Haiti who became in the meantime doctor in medicine, nurse, veterinarian, engineer, teacher, etc. At this moment there are 110 children having a sponsor trough Cunina. And this number is constantly growing.
I have the responsibility to select the children and to accompany them once they get support. This means that I take care that they receive their monthly contribution and that it is spent for their education. Furthermore a assure a regular contact between the children and their benefactors, writing each other and I pay attention so that their school results are communicated with their benefactors.
Thanks to Cunina the hope on a better future returns in the heart of a lot of Haitian children.
Jan Hoet C.I.C.M.
September 10TH, 2007
