A challenging new year

A new year has started, and for our project this freshly started year immediately came up with some big challenges. 
Both of them are related to the fact that since some years Haitians are being warmly welcomed in Chili as (cheap) workers. This means for many of them a chance to escape the poverty form their homeland, to earn money to sustain their families at home and/or to save money to build up something at home. As we in Western Europe all know this is not an easy way to fight yourself out of poverty - you will be doing the work the people of the country themselves do not want to do any more, your salary will be the minimum, your living conditions will be the poorest. Still many Africans, Asians, Eastern Europeans choose this way to escape the many problems they encounter back home when they try to build up a solid future over there.
This is exactly what many Haitians right now are trying to do in Chili. This country has created easy entry conditions for them to find a legal existence and many people already made the move to Chili. Because rumours hold that the good entry conditions might soon change with the new Chilean government many Haitians feel the urge to profit while it is still possible.
So this is what happened with one of our students: he decided to move to Chili. We are very disappointed that someone in whom we invested already a lot of money decides to leave us, without any notice or deliberation. Regretfully we were not able to let him repay this investment. But thanks to very adequate and creative acting by our local collaborator Nickenson we were allowed to replace this guy at the same school by a new student. He can take over the instruments and the bike we already bought for his predecessor and he can start his education right now. Regretfully the whole situation has cost us extra money, and we could only try to engage in damage control in which we succeeded only partly.


A second challenge came up when our trusted and very skilful collaborator in Haiti, Nickenson St firmin announced that he also intended to go to Chili. He is 32 of age and needs to think about his own future. And though this is really very sad for our project we cannot deny him the chance he wants to take to build himself a future in Chili. And more important, he himself came up with a very prudent solution for our project: his mother will replace him as our collaborator on location. And if there is one category of persons that are loyal, trustworthy and adequate in the Caribbean cultures it is the mothers. In this very case we are dealing with a lady that succeeded by working very hard to help all her 7 children to an education. If someone knows the local educational system and how to deal with it, it would be her. On the other hand she is a much respected member of her community, so she will be able to handle upcoming issues with prudence and authority. We met her several times and we were impressed by her quiet though determined appearance. So we are very glad and proud to introduce to you our new collaborator in Ile a Vache:

the lady in the middle of the front row (surrounded by her 7 children)

right: Nickenson, 2nd left his mother

She will be assisted by her children to fulfil all requirements that will be necessary in our project.

In the month to come we will keep you posted about the new situation. And we will come up with our new policy plan 2018.