The school year for the kids at the Joan Rose Foundation has officially ended and summer has begun. Our children’s performance at school was better than ever this year. Our young children perform better than our older children. This is due to their starting at the foundation and being taught at Khaymer, in French, since Kindergarten. Schools are far harsher with Grades in Haiti than they are in the US. I am not sure if they use an actual bell curve but the actual average does seem to be a 6 or 7 out of 10. Our brightest and most successful high schoolers get 7’s and 8’s(C’s and B’s), our brightest and most successful elementary school members get 9’s(A’s).
Two prime examples of children who have been in the foundation from an early age are Xena and Naomi, the youngest daughters of our cook Tania. Xena was born 1 month before our move in June 2015 and has been coming to the foundation with Tania since before she could walk. Naomi was born about a year ago and has been hanging out at the foundation since shortly after her birth. I wrote about Xena briefly a few updates ago, she is tough as they come, spunky, playful and generally smiling and happy. Her little sister Naomi has been walking since about 7 months and at 1 year already runs around, playing with the other children and doing her thing. She loves giving high fives and is somewhat doted on by some of the older foundation girls, especially Didona who is one of our other cook’s daughters. Tania is an incredibly hard working woman. She has been the cook at the JRF since 2013 or 2014, has 7 children and her nickname in the DR was “Loca” or crazy, as she fought a lot and is a hot head, people have shortened that to “Loc” which is Loca, creolized, and while not actually a word in Creole has stuck as her nickname. Tania never attended any level of school and is from a rough and tumble part of northern Haiti. I feel that I rarely see Tania relaxing, she is either working at the Foundation, stitching for Good Threads, cooking, cleaning or taking care of her children. She is the most successful of her 9 siblings and sends money to northern Haiti to help her sister take care of her elderly father. She is married to a man named “Bwa”, who works at my house attaching pieces of stitching to leather for Good Threads and also does belts. Naomi and Xena are her only children from Bwa.
With the arrival of summer we switch our operating hours from afternoons to mornings and also enroll new students into the foundation. The enrollment process is first come first serve. Enrollment is open whenever the foundation is open and the lone requirement is that the parent bring their children and briefly speak with our Director. Everyone who enrolled in 2017 has had their children accepted and we were able to accept about half of the children who came to enroll in 2018. We do not accept children over the age of 10 as we are not able to influence those children in the same way we can influence a 3-9 year old. This year we accepted about 25 children. About half under the age of 5 and the rest between 6-9. Many are the children of individuals that work for Good Threads. When Good Threads was started one of the primary goals was to employ all of the Joan Rose Foundation parents. Good Threads accomplished that goal in 2015 and expanded hiring to our neighbors. The Joan Rose Foundation does not give preference to Good Threads employees but they do mostly enter their children onto the waiting list and many have managed to get their children enrolled at the JRF.
As always none of this would be possible without the support of our donors and we are truly grateful for your trust and support.
