Rebuild L'Ecole du Village, Haiti

On October 4, 2016, hurricane Matthew slowly passed over Torbeck, a small town outside of Les Cayes in southwest of Haiti leaving a wide swath of destruction in it’s wake. Tiny Waldorf school L'ecole du Village (The Village School) was directly in Matthew’s path and as you can imagine, suffered very serious damage.

Fortunately, the students and faculty escaped with their lives but the entire school roof is gone and the content of the building washed away. Their beautiful bio-dynamic garden, called affectionately the “Garden of Eden” is gone and with it practically the only source of food for both the students and the faculty. Drinking water is scarce. Despite the situation being so dire, the founder of the school and the driving force behind Waldorf Education in Haiti, Myriam Labbe Silien, is not discouraged and is ready to rebuild, resume classes and feed the children.

Myriam, born and raised in France, grew up on a biodynamic farm and went to a Waldorf school from kindergarten through high school. Some years ago, she came to Haiti to volunteer in an orphanage, fell in love with the country and it’s people, married a Haitian man and started her family. She homeschooled her children using Waldorf curriculum and decided to train also other mothers and interested people in Waldorf pedagogy. Few years later, L'ecole du Village was born.
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ABOUT US AND OUR CAMPAIGN:

My name is Genevieve Dagobert. I was born and raised in Haiti. I am currently a third grade teacher at the Housatonic Valley Waldorf School in Newtown CT. I met Myriam Silien, the founder of L'Ecole du Village when I visited Haiti in 2011. I have been in contact with her since then, sending small donations to the school from time to time. Milan Daler (in Temple, New Hampshire) is my partner. He became interested in the plight of the Haitian people through me. He has helped me to write articles and set up the account. Gina Baker is a native of Haiti. She now lives in Costa Rica with her husband and her two daughters who attended a Waldorf school in Costa Rica a few years. Gina met Myriam when she visited the country a two years ago. Myriam put the two of us in contact. In a nutshell, this is how the four of us are connected. 
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In the short video clip you will see the school in better, pre-Matthew times. It shows the area, the amazing work Myriam is doing with the children, the town, the vegetable garden, the movement during main lesson, etc.

The children attending L'ecole du Village are very poor and some do not have regular access to food at home. Myriam, the school faculty and the children planted as much corn, beans, bananas etc.as they could, in order to provide at least two meals a day for the children. 

But now all the food has disappeared overnight and the roof is gone causing the remaining structure to suffer a lot of damage. The paper, the crayons, the chalk, without which we can’t imagine any Waldorf school to be, all gone! To support itself, the school receives some donations from Myriam’s family and friends, who organize small concerts and craft sales in their small town in southern France.  Many sponsor a child and send an amount every month.

Myriam not only teaches the children but also trains new teachers , gardens, cleans the school and writes reports. Her latest project is to build sanitation facilities that will not harm the environment.

Not even contracting malaria twice has discouraged her and when she was finally reached by a friend on the phone she said without any complaint, in her calm voice: “We just have to rebuild”.   Her will-power is only equaled by her enormous compassion and respect for all children, teachers, staff and parents.

As this is a newly established relief effort initiative your donations are not yet tax-deductible…

Our Guaranty:
 
All funds  raised will be wired directly to Myriam Silien's L'Ecole du Village, a Waldorf school in Torbeck, Haiti.

Many thanks,

Genevieve Dagobert, Gina Baker and Milan Daler