Woohoo! After months of meeting with Elon University officials, talking with our partner Restavek Freedom Foundation, drafting, editing, and re-editing – we have finally submitted a proposal to travel to Haiti in January 2015! The university requires these waivers to travel to countries that a travel warning from the U.S. Department of State. We’re hoping to visit Port Salud, where RFF has one of it’s transitional homes for former restavek girls, as part of our capstone Winter Term course. It’s now in the hands of Elon – and we’re hoping to solidify our plans soon! 

Upcoming event: This thursday, February 2/27!!

Write red X’s on your hands to support the End It Movement, and join our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1471860706375135/?notif_t=plan_user_invited

 

We had another lucrative class today. The biggest update is that Elon Academy decline our request to endow a student from Restavek Freedom Foundation to attend the summer program. So, now we’re focusing on creating an endowment for RFF directly so that they can support a student’s education at their school of choice. This option gives them much more flexibility! We’re also investigating creating an Endowed Fellowship to fund an Elon student to intern at RFF, but the ideas are very tentative so far.

Set backs are unavoidable in programs such as Periclean Scholars, but we’re as excited as ever about our collaborative projects with Restavek Freedom Foundation!

The highlight today was a conference call with Christine Buchholz, the VP of the Board of Restavek Freedom Foundation! We developed our sustainable project ideas and got updates on the nonprofit.

We are continuing to explore the possibility of creating an endowed scholarship for Elon Academy. Elon University has been ruled out as a beneficial option for the kids of RFF. They are very open to the idea of our class visiting their transitional home and community learning center in Port Salud. We will most likely contribute to their English learning program by creating a week long camp that teaches the students some particular skill – camps in the past have included harmonica instructions and putting on a play. They’re open to us using whatever our particular skill sets allow us to do best! Our class is also looking into hosting Christine and/or other RFF representatives on campus this or next semester as well as a walk-through demonstration that gives you a glimpse into what it’s like to be a restavek.

The organization has had many improvements since our last discussion. The Songs for Freedom organization is in full swing with the Port au Prince finals coming up in the next few weeks! In this program, singer/songwriters compete by perform songs about restavek. It has gained a lot of attentions (with audiences between 5-8,000) and the contestants go on to be guests on radio shows – doubling as advocates for restavek awareness. Their radio program that aims to shift social attitudes towards the restavek issue by building relationships between the characters and listeners is also in full swing. RFF has partnered with a cell service provider that has offered free text messaging so that listeners may respond to the program. The show has been estimated to reach about a million listeners, and RFF hopes to gain more funding to extend the show beyond its original 87 episodes. They have also recently partnered with Kathy Crutcher and her nonprofit Shout Mouth Press. The organization works with disadvantaged youth who are falling behind in writing skills to write and publish their own children’s books. Kathy will be traveling to Port Salud to try to write books with RFF children! The books will also be translated into Creole, illustrated by local artists, and sold on Amazon. As RFF has continued their extensive research process regarding their participants, they have found that 72% of those who have been a participant have pass grade level exams! A HUGE accomplishment for children who would have otherwise had no access to education whatsoever.

As a class we also discussed goals for each committee, and Colby Halligan led a discussion regarding the disbursement of Haitian aid.

 

 

Did you know? Merchandise purchased from nonprofit organization is now susceptible to NC sales tax due to a bill passed by our governor Pat McCrory.

Welcome back from the winter hiatus! The ’15 Periclean Scholars had their second class of the Spring semester today. For many, it was a welcome back from a semester or winter term studying abroad. Over the next several weeks, we will thoroughly enjoy hearing about their experiences abroad through small slideshows.

Our main goal today was to form new committees and define each committee’s role for the semester. We created  committees: Haitian Partner, Local Partner, PR/Campus Education and Awareness, Travel, Social, and Steering Committee. Each committee will be working on independent and yet interrelated projects outside of class time, and report the progress during class.

We additionally set the schedule for leading class discussions regarding a current or relevant article or short reading for the upcoming four classes. These discussions will be an excellent opportunity to stay up to date on happenings in Haiti and happenings in human trafficking.

Projects with Alamance for Freedom and Alamance Freedom Foundation continue to develop!

As we continue to explore and build our relationships with Alamance for Freedom and the Restavek Freedom Foundation, we would like to make some announcements of upcoming events:

TOMORROW November 20th: A human trafficking panel will be in Lakeside from 4:00-6:00PM

THIS FRIDAY November 22nd: Join us for a modern slavery walk in the Iconic Plaza (the new outdoor addition to Moseley by the Speakers’ Corner) from 4:30-6:00. The walk will feature photographs that provide insight to victims’ lives, a reflection, and a discussion panel (including a representative from Alamance for Freedom). Our class will also be taking orders for bracelets made by girls of the Restavek Freedom Foundation as well as selling baked goods.

 

We hope to see you at these events!

We had one of our best classes yet today!

Chris Esters from the Office of Advancement came to talk to us about the the possibility of creating a sustainable scholarship for students from Restavek Freedom Foundation. We would raise enough funds to create an endowment so that it would be sustainable – theoretically – forever. To fund a full-ride for one student every four years (When one graduates, another is chosen), we would need raise about a million dollars. However we need to make other considerations that aren’t included in Elon’s projected $40,000 tuition + room/board, such as the usual social activities associated with Elon’s lifestyle. This idea provides an opportunity for a close relationship with the Office of Advancement, and we will continue to work with the Restavek Freedom Foundation to develop the idea as well as explore the idea of scholarships for Elon Academy.

Our second speaker of the day was Christine Lee Buccholz, Vice President of the Board for Restavek Freedom Foundation! She talked with us for quite a bit about her background, Restavek Freedom Foundation’s background, and the organization’s current projects. They’re doing a ton!

• They have about 700 children involved in their organization. They keep a detailed database of every single child and his or her progress, which is very unique.
• RFF has a scholarship program where students are funded to receive vocational training at an institution in the United States and then bring those skills back to Haiti (not unlike the scholarship programs we are exploring for Elon!)
• Twelve girls from abusive situations are in a transitional home in Port au Prince, and another home is being built in Port Salud. These homes offer education, counseling, even personal enterprise opportunities where the girls sell bracelets and use the profits for further education, usually in vocational fields.
• A community development center is also under construction in Port Salud that will be an educational facility for all ages. It will be a source of vocational training, it’ll have a computer lab and space for classes, etc.
• A series of conferences titled Courage and Compassion have been connecting community leaders (mostly pastors), including women, around the restavek discussion.
• They also organize “Songs for Freedom,” a singing competition for youth with a catch – their songs have to be about restavek. This is also very unique because there’s not very many places to perform in Haiti, so the competitors get doubly excited when they get to perform as well as sing about something greater than themselves! Through publication they have become inadvertent ambassadors for restavek
• Finally, the just began airing a radio serial drama. Using the Sabito Methodology for Entertainment, they hope to further alter the social outlook on restavek by having a character who is a restavek child. The listeners will become attached to the character and gradually shift their attitude towards this form of child slavery.

Wow! We had no idea that they were doing so much! It opens a lot of venues for partnership that we will be exploring. An immediate project is to sell the bracelets (if you would like to preorder one, let us know!). She also talked with us about traveling to Haiti, and it sounds like the RFF is going to be more accommodating than we could have ever imagined. They will provide ground transportation, local guides, translators, assist us in securing housing, etc. She made it sound like the application for a travel waiver will be extremely feasible! It was a great discussion that answered many of our questions and we’re so excited to continue the discussions and develop our sustainable projects.

Other announcements:

On the Friday, November 22nd from 4:30 to 6:30, an Awareness Walk will be outside of Moseley in the new outdoor pavilion. Be sure to stop by to take a walk through moving photographs that will give you a glimpse into what it would be like to be a victim of human trafficking. A panel will be at the end of the walk to facilitate discussion about the current human trafficking issues. You will also be able to pre-order bracelets made by the girls of Restavek Freedom Foundation!

We are excited to announce our formal human trafficking and restavek partners! Over the next year and a half and beyond, we will be working with the Restavek Freedom Foundation and the Alamance County for Freedom, a new human trafficking coalition.

Last week we brainstormed ways we could get involved with these organizations, and today we challenged ourselves to make bigger and more sustainable goals. We have a lot of networking to do over the next couple week and many special speakers coming to our class to help us refine our ideas as well as shed light on other areas of opportunity. Special speakers include Dr. Carmen Monico, who is currently researching human trafficking in NC, and Chris Esters from the Development Office.

We’re also working on building an application for a travel waiver.

 

Some announcements:

Gray Havens Project, a non-profit that addresses human trafficking in VA, is coming to the lecture hall in McMichal next Thursday at 7:30.

The author of The Big Truck that Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster is coming to Duke University on November 6th at 5:00 in the Franklin Humanities Institute Garage.

 

Did you know that the Dominican Republic just passed a law that denies citizenship to Dominican-born Haitians?

The Periclean Scholars Class of 2015 had a busy day today!

Lauren Conrad, an ex Peace Corps member and ex Haiti resident, came to talk to us at the beginning of class. Her talk revolved mostly around how Haiti is different from other countries she has worked in, including Niger and India. Her impression was that the infrastructure and service organization of the country was backwards, as she saw women walk ten miles down a mountain to sell meager vegetables every day. A very interesting observation. Mrs. Conrad has had immeasurable experience with large humanitarian organization such as CARE International and may serve as an invaluable resource for our class in the future. We thank her very much for visiting today and for Woody Pelton for bringing us together!

Courtney Dunkerton of Alamance County for Freedom also came to speak for us. The organization is a new coalition that just began this summer. They aim to bring human trafficking organizations together as well as law enforcement and other governmental agencies – basically to fill the gaps in services regarding human trafficking in Alamance County. Species emphases are placed on community education/outreach; networking; research; Compassion in Action; and volunteer opportunities. Ms. Dunkerton has made it clear that the organization would welcome a partnership with us and already offered venues of partnership such as offering response training for the community, bringing in speakers, screening human trafficking documentaries, etc. We also thank her very much for speaking with us – especially at such an early stage of the organization’s development – and Stephanie Carroll for soliciting the visit.

 

Our other focus for the day was on partner organizations. Our Haitian partner organization is drawing to a close, and after just a bit more communication with our organization of interest, we will be able to reveal our partnership! Local partnerships have been a bit more challenging as the organizations with which we were in communication last semester have seemed to become less responsive. More research and networking efforts will be performed in the immediate future – and Alamance County for Freedom provides and exciting option for the class.

Today we filmed for our elevator speech, which we will be releasing at Celebrate next Thursday! (October 10th at 5:30 in Oaks 212)

While we won’t be able to organize a winter term course for 2014, we are hoping to have the travel waiver submitted and accepted by mid-spring to begin organizing trips before a Haiti WT course in 2015.

Next week our Haitian and local partner committees will be presenting potential partners and we will be choosing our partner organizations!

Also next week we will hear from Lauren Conrad, a Haitian woman who Woody Pelton met during a Peace Corps meeting, and a representative from a new human trafficking coalition that is being formed in Alamance County.

Look out for a profit share at LoYo on the evening of October 17th – the same night that the Resurrection Dance Theatre of Haiti is coming to Elon!

 

Big progress is underway and we’re excited about the coming weeks!