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!

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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!

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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?

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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.

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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!

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Today the lovely Dr. and Dr. Warner (Bud’s wife, Beth, is also a professor at Elon) hosted our class at their home for dinner. They made lovely lasagnas (one for meat eaters and one for veggie eaters – how accommodating), salad, garlic bread, and an angel food, chocolate and raspberry dessert. It was a really relaxing break from the normal hustle and bustle of our normal Elon weeks. We got to chat and get to know each other better – as well as meet the Warners’ bear of a dog, Archie!

We’re still busy organizing Celebrate, getting really close to deciding on an official Haitian partner organization, and forming our elevator speech.

Thank you for the wonderful and generous hospitality, Dr. Warner and the other Dr. Warner!

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The ’14s grilled cheese and cookie event was a success! They ran out of cookies in just an hour into the event and have made the event a monthly happening.

–Remember, Periclean, that whenever you do a fundraising event, grab a poster from the Periclean Corner and spread some info about how class and its mission!

For the ’15s and ’16s: Every class should have two elevator speeches. One for what it means to be a Periclean scholar in general, and another about your particular class’s mission. Mia Watkins is a resource for you. Her job is to do media stuff  for Periclean. She can video tape and put the presentation together for you – she’s a communications student and is proficient in Final Cut, Photoshop, etc. Past videos are on the Pericles website.

Letter competition: Elon is #1 in the southeast. One thing we weren’t ranked as #1 though is writing. We can do better. The quality enhancement program for Elon over the next few years is to focus on writing. The letter competition is part of this focus. It is part of our responsibility to write to officials who have an effect on your focus country. Who is your ambassador? What do they need to know? Every semester, each class should have amazing letters written and sent to officials. The goal is to have meaningful communication with political leaders. We have an archive of letters that have been sent out by Pericleans and the responses that they generated. It doesn’t have to focus on national officials – they could be in the UN, and the state level, etc. Dr. Arcaro can send four letters to nationals – this may turn into an internal competition. Go back to your classes and charge them with this!

Celebrate Periclean Scholars is an event for not only current Pericleans, but also for the current freshmen who may be interested in joining. Each class needs a representative  to speak and give an update about their class. It would also be great to have an elevator speech! If you have an

An alumnus with Periclean significance will be receiving the Young Alumni Service Award at Homecoming! We’re going to make the night into an event! Mark your calendars! Homecoming is on Saturday, November 9th, and we’re going to have a dinner together on the 8th.

Charge to classes: Write 100 words by next Wednesday summarizing what your class is doing. This summary is going to be included in the upcoming newsletter.

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Dr. Arcaro visited our class today! The first minutes of class were devoted to getting each other caught up on the status of the Summit of Transformative Education, our budget, and creating our elevator speech. Then we delved into the goals and updates of each committee:

PR Goals

inform other students about what the Periclean program is

raise awareness about human trafficking

Tie the events back to NC and in state human trafficking

continue and expand with social media

put together the elevator speech

Haiti Partnership

identify a Haitian partner organization

figure out what we could do with said partner

start building a relationship with the organization

perhaps talk people who have benefited from the organization
US Partners

establish a local partnership with an organization with principles that align with ours

evaluate their organization using RISE

Fundraising

establish our current budget and learn how we can gain easy access to that budget

plan and run approx 3-6 fundraisers, perhaps profit shares and 5k’s

apply for grants once we know what direction our partnership is going

work with other committees to make the fundraisers more successful

Education and Awareness

plan and sponsor several events about our class and Restevek

create presentation for classes that are interested in learning about Restevek in Haiti

work with other class committees

partner with other campus organizations

create a calendar

Team Building

Ideas: Service on the weekends, make abroad packages and send to abroad Pericleans, potluck dinner, brunch, go to cultural events together, movie nights, visit Mt Olive, mentor/mentee dinner, tshirts, survival bingo

Travel Committee

figure out where we can go in Haiti

figure out what it would cost to get there

figure out how we would pay for it

get permission to go and figure out what stipulations are included in that permission

Next week, we’re bringing in individual contracts that will be used to track our progress throughout the semester. These contracts will help us remain focus and attain our goals. It feels like it’s going to be a great semester and we’re excited to see what we can accomplish!

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Today in class, we made great organization progress. Class members broke up into small committees to tackle individualized goals such as seeking a Haitian partner organization, fundraising, and public relations. Each committee set committee for next week.

We also shared updates regarding upcoming events this fall, including a visit by the Resurrection Dance Theatre of Haiti on Oct 17th, and Celebrating Periclean. Conor Grennan, the author of the class’ common reading for the summer, Little Princes, is also visiting Elon on September 17th. The book spoke about a man’s journey starting an NGO in Nepal after his experience with the country’s child trafficking. Get your tickets!

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