Students from the "Berufskolleg Kempen" vocational school in Germany made a second visit to Haiti in their continuing support to build a new teacher training center in the small town of Liancourt to replace the one that was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake. So far two groups of young men who said "We do not have money but we can build" have given-up their school vacation to work on the construction. The first group succeeded in building the foundations for 9 buildings of the campus during the 2011 Easter vacation. The second group worked from 13th to 31st October 2011. They worked on the sanitary installations and added the walls to 8 of the foundations, especially to the dormitories.
We are working to raise enough money to complete the roof during the Easter holidays 2012 when a third group of students will go to Haiti to continue building the training halls and the water supply-connections. Rotary has promised to drill the needed well. We still need financing for basic furnishings of the buildings and for the needed solar power to finally start the formation of new teachers in the fall of 2012.
Peter Hesse, Early in November 2011
The Montessori teacher training and the resulting project schools initiated by the Peter-Hesse-Foundation were recently used as an example for social change by the "Association Montessori Internationale (AMI)" at their third general assembly of the "Éducateurs sans Frontières (EsF)" (Teachers without Borders) in Dallas, Texas. Carol Guy-James Barratt and Peter Hesse (Photo) had been invited by AMI to take part in this EsF-conference.
Under the title "Montessori Education for Social Change. – Empowering Communities, Enabling Children", over 50 educators from around the word presented their encouraging experience and discussed Maria Montessori's philosophy of education as a means of creating a better world. The Peter-Hesse-Foundation projects in Haiti, as well as other outstanding examples of education for social change such as AMI's Montessori initiative in a refugee-camp in Kenya and projects from Australia and Tanzania, as well as projects for homeless and disadvantaged children in the USA, were also presented.
In Haiti, work to build the Montessori teacher training center continues.
The sanitary units are being prepared and the drilling of a water well is now firmly planned. The German volunteers, who had already prepared the ground for the houses of the training center in Liancourt in April, are in full preparation for their second building trip to Haiti. The group from the Kempen "Berufskolleg" (comprehensive college) will work again together with local Haitians in the second part of October 2011 to continue building as much as possible in the framework of their donated holiday time and of our limited financial resources
Peter Hesse, 23. August 2011
22 students began training to be teachers in Liancourt in July. The course is using one of the preschool buildings while the children are on summer break. Training will continue in the afternoons when the preschool reconvenes in September. We are continuing to build the new teacher training center bit by bit as funds become available. We are looking forward to the return of the volunteers from Kempen to Haiti in October. They will continue construction on the new teacher training center that they started in April 2011.
Since the earthquake in January 2010, millions of dollars in emergency aid have helped rebuild brick and mortar structures around Haiti, including some school buildings. But little support has been given to improving teacher skills as a critical element in the success of a school. We believe the efforts of rebuilding schools should include sustainable approaches to improving the quality of education.
Carol reporting from Haiti – 27 April 2011
Students from the vocational school in Kempen, after seeing the devastation caused by the earthquake in Haiti, knew they had to do something to help. "We do not have money but we can build" they said. They put their words into action and gave up their Easter vacation to construct the foundations for buildings that would become a center for training teachers when it is completed. Seven students accompanied by four teachers stayed at a school in Liancourt, a short walk away from the building site. They slept on the floor and braved the lack of water and electricity for three weeks. Dispite the short timeframe they were able to complete their goal by working long hours, sometimes working by flashlight and the headlights from a car.
In spite of the financial, administrative and political hurdles, we are going to begin the rebuilding of our teacher training center that was destroyed in the earthquake. We do not yet have all the funds to complete the building, but we will begin with what we have. It has been over a year since the earthquake and it is time for the Haitian people to move forward. To wait, until all necessary means are available and all political as well as administrative hurdles will be overcome, is not acceptable in view of the suffering people of Haiti – specially their children.
The groundwork for the center will begin in April 2011 by volunteers from the “Berufskolleg Kempen”, a vocational school in Germany. In February 2011 a team from the German volunteer initiative, Pastor Roland Kuehne, architect Benno Friebe and construction-engineer Thomas Brux visited Haiti to make an evaluation of the ground and to calculate the materials and equipment needed for the initial phase. This is a start!
We still need 1.200.000, - US $ to be able to complete the building. We will continue to build in phases as funds become available. Here again the account of the Peter-Hesse-Foundation with the Commerzbank Duesseldorf, Germany, for international donations:
IBAN: DE14 3004 0000 0315 6080 00 – BIC: COBADEFFXXX
Peter-Hesse-Foundation, Haiti – 18 March, 2011
Architect Benno Friebe and Pastor Roland Kuehne (r.) with local Haitians on our building ground in Liancourt, Haiti
The Foundation's immediate goal after the devastating earthquake in Haiti which killed more than 230,000 and left over a million homeless was to help our teachers and children overcome this unexpected and frightening experience and continue their life with some kind of normality. Our next goal was to restart Montessori teacher training.
Immediately after the earthquake we were faced with the situation of children who were on the streets and teachers who had lost their homes and their jobs. The Foundation's immediate response was to make arrangements to house 20 teachers and their extended families in one of our partner schools outside the earthquake zone and to give funds to cover a five month period. In addition staple food such as rice, beans, oil, canned fish etc. as well as detergents, soap and blankets were provided by our German partner, Agro Action Allemande (Welthungerhilfe).
Tents and shelters made from plastic sheeting and plywood were constructed in the affected areas as a temporary replacement for the preschools that were lost. In the meantime more permanent structures have been put in place for 3 of the 4 preschools which were destroyed. Most of the didactical materials were replaced, and these schools are now able to function normally. Preventing the Cholera to affect our preschool children and their teachers became an additional challenge, as reported before.
Unfortunately, we still do not have a teacher training center to replace the destroyed center in Port-au-Prince. The student-teachers who were unable to finish the course were given "Attestations" stating that they did attend the teacher training course, but could not finish. Because of the shortage of teachers, many of them were able to find jobs with the "Attestations". In Jacmel 20 teachers were, however, able to complete their training in a tent. In January 2011, a new "mobile" teacher training course will begin in Les Cayes for teachers from that area.
The Foundation continues to work on an improved permanent solution to restart Montessori teacher training. A training center with dormitories to house 40 student teachers from different parts of Haiti will be constructed in Liancourt. Successful students with limited economic resources will be financially supported by the Peter-Hesse-Foundation to open their own schools. This will benefit children in different parts of the country when the trained teachers open schools in their villages and towns. We have identified land in Liancourt where the new center will be built. Progress is slow due to financial constraints, as well as bureaucratic and construction constraints in Haiti. Building this envisaged new center (see drawing below) was and remains, however, the Foundations main goal.
Peter Hesse, 15 November 2010
The revised architectural concept fort the new teacher-training center in Liancourt, Haiti.
65 per cent of all language materials and for other cultural subjects are made by the teachers themselves out of simple materials. On October 23, 27 and 29, Carol Barratt held a special workshop for teachers to re-create some of these teaching materials that were lost in the earthquake while preparations for the rebuilding of the destroyed teacher training center are in full progress in Haiti.
Carol reports from Haiti - 30 September 2010:
Our teachers in the Artibonite area held special sessions to teach the children and their parents how to protect themselves and prevent the spread of Cholera in their community. This included simple measures such as the proper way to wash hands and disinfect water with chlorine bleach. The Government initially did not recognize what was causing the outbreak of illness in the area, but later identified it as cholera. As a precaution we closed schools for a few days to keep children from potentially spreading the disease among themselves. We then disinfected the schools, reopened and started prevention education to children and their families. We are contuning to educate parents and children at schools in other parts of the country on the ways that they can help to prevent the spread of Cholera.
Carol reports from Haiti:
In preparation for the start of the new school year the Peter Hesse Foundation replaced most of the Montessori materials and furniture for the preschools that were damaged in the earthquake. Some of the schools are now partially rebuilt allowing the children to attend school. We hope to help the teachers to complete their buildings as funds become available.
Carol giving Montessori materials to Tammar for her school in Leogane.
Despite the nerve-wracking 4.4 tremor that shook Jacmel last week, the 20 student-teachers who followed the Montessori course there, graduated in a touching ceremony with singing and prayers and thanking God for sparing their lives. (For me this was a personal lesson in optimism and resilience). Because of the destruction of the teacher training center in Port au Prince, teacher training still remains a challenge. We are currently trying to find a solution for continuing to train teachers so that they can in turn provide quality education to Haiti's future generation. 30. September 2010
16 of 20 graduates and the teacher-trainer Hélìana Charles at graduation ceremony in Jacmel on 26 September 2010
In makeshift classrooms made from plywood and plastic sheeting our teachers were able to finish the school year at the end of July 2010 in all project preschools destroyed by the January earthquake - here photos from Jacmel and Léogane, taken by Carol Guy-James Barratt during her recent trip to Haiti:
We continue working on an improved permanent solution to restart Montessori teacher training. We have identified land in Liancourt (below), where the new center will be built. Progress is slow due to bureaucratic and construction constraints in Haiti.
The center will house 40 student teachers from different parts of Haiti and will help to solve the problem of decentralization that will in turn benefit children in different parts of the country when the trained teachers return to their villages and towns. The training center will also enroll students from the surrounding areas who will not live in the center's dormitories. After their studies, successful students with limited economic resources will be financially supported by the Peter-Hesse-Foundation to open their own schools.
In Jacmel our "mobile" teacher training continues - in a tent, to allow student teachers there to catch up with the course work that they missed after the earthquake.
Unfortunately the 41 student teachers enrolled at the main center that was destroyed in Port-au-Prince do not have that opportunity at this time. Preparations for the permanent solution in Liancourt are under way since our team-visit in February 2010.
The Peter-Hesse-Foundation values teacher training as an important component that will determine the success of Haiti's future generation. Considering that 57 % of teachers in Haiti have less than high-school-level education, and only 0.9% have any kind of teaching diploma, shows the gravity of the situation.
Peter Hesse, 10 August 2010
Problems in Haiti did not interfere with finalizing the first Montessori teacher-training in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa in June 2010. The graduation ceremony took place on the 25th of June 2010 with great fanfare.
These teachers are the first to graduate from the “Centre Montessori d’Abengourou” in an initiative started by the Peter-Hesse-Foundation in 2008. The “Centre Montessori d’Abengourou” operates a model preschool where student-teachers can gain practical experience with children.
This preschool is also the first Montessori preschool in Ivory Coast. Next year the Foundation will open two preschools and will continue to open more schools as other teachers graduate the program - funds permitting.
6 month after
the first devastating earthquake in Haiti we continue working on an improved permanent solution to restart Montessori teacher training.
Green building for a new teacher training center in Haiti.
The earthquake in January 2010 destroyed four of our Montessori schools and our Montessori teacher training center. Since then, our children have been attending school in tents and shelters made from plastic sheeting and scrap materials. Unfortunately, our teachers could not continue their training since we do not have a suitable place for them to do so.
We are now working to relaunch the Foundation’s teacher training program, but we need help to do so. We want to build earthquake resistant and energy-saving buildings which are ecologically friendly. We will use simple methods to conserve water and minimize the center’s ecological footprint in the community. We hope to begin the water and sewage component for the new teacher training center by the end of July 2010.
The new center will train teachers to provide a safe environment where children can recover from their psychological trauma and help them develop skills for lifelong learning. This center will also expose teachers to practical environmentally friendly changes that they can pass on to their communities and to the next generation.
Our vision is to build permanent structures for the preschools that were destroyed and to extend the Montessori pre-school service to parts of Haiti where over a million refugees from Port-au-Prince have found improvised shelters and where children most urgently need help - and an environment to heal and learn.
Carol Guy-James Barratt – early in July 2010
6 weeks after the earthquake
a Peter-Hesse-Foundation team and a TV-film crew travelled to Haiti to document what was destroyed, to support our local partners, 20 Montessori teachers, who were directly affected by the earthquake and to plan the reconstruction of the 4 project preschools as well as the new beginning of the teacher training in a safer place. This trip and the resulting documentary were fully donated by the family of our board-member Dr. med. Sabine Uhlen. The 37-minute German TV-document can be viewed here: – or at: http://vimeo.com/12889725 - or (“hier: Langfassung Hauptfim” and some interviews) at: www.solidarityhaiti.de.vu
A short 9.5 minute YouTube version in English can be seen right here below: -
(English YouTube film)
These are the first drawings of our envisaged new Montessori teacher training center in Liancourt, near St. Marc, Haiti - near our two existing Liancourt project schools, to assure the most important practical training possibilities. The simple, but efficient boarding-school will need a cement surface space of about 20 x 16 meter. Toilets and washrooms will be separate from this building. Not all planned detailes are visible in these drawings. Since prices will have to be negociated with the suitable building company, based in the Dominican Republic, we do not yet know, whether we will be able to fully finannce this most important structure for the 40 student teachers and to what extend we can go ahead to materialize the next priorities: new or repaired houses for the the 4 destroyed project schools, 2 each in Port-au Prince and in Leogane. We will keep you informed.
Peter Hesse - 18. April 2010
Montessori in Haiti and Côte d'Ivoire - 9 March 2010
Carol Guy-James Barratt, the Foundation's Montessori project-coordinator, will be in our Montessori teacher training center in Côte d'Ivoire from 20.3.10 to the end of March. She will be accompanied by Willande Dorlus-Antoine, one of our Haitian teachers. Willande will spend the next three months in the Ivory Coast, training the African students who are working towards their Montessori diplomas.
Before the earthquake Willande worked in the Montessori school in Kenskoff. She also assisted in the teacher training center in Rue Clermont, and attended Quisqueya University, pursuing a bachelor-degree in education - a study paid for by the Foundation. She has one year in which to complete her degree, after which time she would teach Montessori education courses at the University. These courses will be offered as a major in the education degree program at the University thus fulfilling the Foundation's long-term strategy to reinforce Montessori teaching in Haiti.
In Haiti children and students still hesitate to attend schools and universities - even in undestroyed houses - due to frequent tremors. To continue training Montessori preschool teachers in Haiti as soon as possible, we are working on the urgent need to provide a home for Montessori teacher students in Liancourt in the countryside and to replace damaged project preschools and teachers' homes in the earthquake-area.
I can now gladly call potential supporters in Europe in the USA by phone, if I receive your numbers.
Peter Hesse
First Photos from our Haiti visit - 20 to 27 February 2010
Back from Haiti - 1 March 2010:
It is incredible to imagine that in a few minutes you can become jobless and homeless. That you can loose friends and family members, that your life as you know it can change completely. In a few minutes all can be taken away. On Tuesday 12th January at 16:53 local time this was the fate of over one million people in Haiti.
Many of our Haitian teachers are in this position. They had to walk away from their destroyed houses with only the clothes that they were wearing. The fate is the same for many children attending our schools as well as their parents. They along with thousands of people are still sleeping in the streets, on pavements, in their cars, or in makeshift tent-shanties because their houses have been destroyed.
Besides the enormous stress of trying to survive in makeshift conditions with no water and sanitation, people also have to deal with the aftershocks and the fear they bring with them. Since the big earthquake 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater have been recorded, and many smaller quakes are still occurring.
Our Peter-Hesse-Foundation team of 5 people visited Haiti from 20 to 27 February. We experienced 4 aftershocks while we were there and cannot imagine how people are living through this!
We saw for ourselves the magnitude of the disaster. Rubble everywhere where houses used to stand. We lost four schools and our teaching training center to the earthquake. 75 percent of schools in the capital are now destroyed, hundreds of teachers still remain unaccounted for, and thousands of children are on the streets.
People who have relatives or friends outside of the destroyed areas are now depending on them for accommodation. 19 of our teachers and their families who lost their homes are now staying at our school in Liancourt in the countryside outside of Port-au-Prince. The Peter-Hesse-Foundation team spent two days there talking with them to decide what is the best way to help them get their lives back.
The immediate need for food is solved through a donation of the German NGO "Welthungerhilfe" (Agro Action Allemande), who cooperates with us in solidarity by giving staple foodstuff such as rice, beans, oil, canned fish etc. Temporary shelter was provided by us through a big tent from Germany and by our local Haitian partners. We brought cash that will cover a five month period. The next step is to solve the problem of joblessness and homelessness.
Our plan is to reopen schools, relaunch the teacher training program and find permanent housing for the teachers who have lost their homes. This will be done gradually. The first step will be the construction of a teacher training center with attached dormitories which will house 40 persons in the Liancourt countryside. The next step will be to construct schools with attached living quarters for teachers who are affected by the earthquake. This will give teachers back their homes and their jobs and give children a nurturing place where they can begin to deal with the trauma they have suffered.
Our vision is to extend the Montessori pre-school service to hot spots in parts of Haiti where over a million refugees from Port-au-Prince have found improvised shelters and where children most urgently need help - and an environment to heal and learn.
Before leaving for Haiti - 16.2.2010
First photo - below - from former Montessori teacher training centre in Port-au-Prince, destroyed in the earthquake and photo of trainers and teachers in front of the centre in 2004.
In the afternoon of 12 January, the centre was closed because Naomi, our head-trainer went to the burial of the first child from her own Montessori pre-school. Otherwise, many students of the afternoon training course would most likely have died in the sudden earthquake.
If we can get to Haiti as planned on Saturday, 20 February, we will have to first reorganize the teacher-training in the countryside away from Port-au-Prince to soon be able again to offer Montessori pre-schools to the traumatized and deprived children.
- Peter Hesse - 16.2.2010
Schools considered high priority in Haiti. - 2 February, 2010
In Haiti's struggle to return to some normality and to heal the wounds caused by the earthquake, school is now considered a high priority. Children living in the streets and in provisional tent-settlements are traumatized and lost in this unprotected environment. Schools could give them at least some feeling of being cared for - say Haitian education officials.
Early care and education, as provided for deprived children through Montessori pre-schools, initiated by Haitian civil society groups with the support of the Peter-Hesse-Foundation had created islands of hope in Haiti.
In the areas affected by the earthquake, schools are destroyed. Surviving teachers from destroyed schools are now staying with the foundation's Montessori teacher-trainers in Liancourt near St. Marc, outside of Port-au-Prince, in one larger Montessori country pre-school.
For new Montessori pre-schools, especially for earthquake victims among Haiti's children, more teachers are needed. Therefore former Montessori teacher-students with only an "assistant"-diploma will be called to join the Liancourt provisional centre to be trained in a concentrated course, led by the foundation's Montessori directress Carol Guy-James Barratt from Trinidad.
The next step will be to fund new beginnings. In view of the huge needs in this unfortunate country, funding will create new challenges. Montessorians and other friends in the world are most welcome to be part of this challenge.
Peter Hesse
Peter-Hesse-Foundation SOLIDARITY IN PARTNERSHIP for ONE world in diversity.
Are the Montessori-projects of the Peter-Hesse-Foundation for deprived
kids in Haiti worth supporting?
AMI-president André Roberfroid wrote in the preface of Peter Hesse's
book "VISION WORKS. From vision to reality. From Haiti to ONE world in
diversity." (ISBN 978-3-9811650-2-9):
"In the slums of Haiti, at the end of the 20th century, Peter Hesse came
to a conclusion exactly similar to that of Maria Montessori in the poor
suburbs of Rome at the beginning of the century. As the President of the
Association Montessori Internationale, I can only express my immense
gratitude to Peter Hesse and to all his friends in Haiti, for giving us
this marvelous example. As Maria Montessori said many times, 'the child
is the agent of change'. This book is a testimony to her vision."
A new beginning for Haiti - by Peter Hesse - 27 January, 2010
from the Peter-Hesse-Foundation, working for deprived children in Haiti since 1983.
During the first 2 weeks after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, saving lives and emergency help had absolute priority. Now funds for rescue and basic needs like water, food, shelter and medical care have been collected and help is - hopefully - starting to reach the deprived people. Starting from scratch to rebuild Haiti is now the concern not only of Haitians, but also of the woken-up global community.
This provides hope for the country and especially for its children.
For a sustainable development in Haiti, giving children a chance to learn through good quality early care and education is also a basic need, a basic human right. We are engaged in early childhood development in Haiti since the creation of our Peter-Hesse-Foundation in 1983 through the training of over 800 Montessori pre-school teachers and helping to open over 50 Montessori pre-schools for deprived children - together with local initiatives - all over Haiti.
The earthquake has completely destroyed our teacher-training center in Port-au-Prince and most of our project pre-schools in the capital area as well as in Leogane. Our trainers and many of the teachers have, however, survived. We thank God for this miracle! There is still no information on the teachers and children in some of our projects in other affected areas.
We have, however, already started to assemble those teachers and our trainers in one of our larger country schools (in Liancourt) to start preparing the teachers who have lost their schools for a new beginning where it will be most urgently needed - like in some of the tent-cities around Port-au-Prince. New school-projects will start as soon as we get a clear picture on the situation.
Our Montessori directress Carol Guy-James Barratt from Trinidad is waiting to get permission to fly from Trinidad to Haiti. Up to now, rescue workers as well as medical- and security-personnel and media have priority.
A TV-team around one of our foundation's board members and I already have tickets to fly to Haiti from Germany on 20 February 2010. The trip and a TV-film on the possibilities of a new beginning is fully sponsored by the team itself.
We have a clear vision of the future of our Haiti-work for deprived children:
1. To expand our Montessori pre-school network in Haiti according to parents' demands.
2. To start training Montessori primary teachers and expand into the primary sector, since there is already a great parental demand for this extension. We simply need more money to move from this vision to action.
Preferably this extension should be in harmony with a new child-centered educational concept of Haiti's future government. Montessori should influence the national educational system. This would be a model for the whole developing world. The entire formal system having collapsed with the earthquake, there is a unique chance now to leap ahead in educational quality for the good of Haiti's children and the sustainable development of Haiti.
We can only pursue this wider vision with more financial help. Our foundation is simply too small to handle this task alone. We are now looking for a solution to collect funds from outside Germany for this new beginning in Haiti which allows tax-deductible donations.
I am deeply grateful for the moral support of our Haiti-work from the USA and Great Britain.
Peter Hesse - www.solidarity.org - 27 January, 2010
22 January - First good news from Haiti
Finally some good news! The student teachers and staff of the training center were saved.
We were very worried about the students at the training center in Bois Vernat because the
earthquake coincided with the time that they would have been attending classes there.
A few days before the earthquake, a little girl, who was the first child to register to
attend the Montessori school in Liancourt ten years ago, died.
Naomie, the directrice of the training center cancelled classes on the 12th so that she
could attend the funeral. Because classes were cancelled, no one was in the building when
it collapsed. Although we morn the death of our first little pupil, we are glad that the
lives of all our student teachers and staff of the training center were saved.
News is still coming in slowly, so far we have have heard from the teachers of 5 schools in different areas. The schools in Carrefour, and Jacmel are damaged but are still standing. Mais Gate is partly collapsed. The houses of 4 teachers completely collapsed and they are now temporarily residing at the school in Liancourt, as opposed to staying in the open streets or parks, that have now become tent cities.
We are still anxiously awaiting news about the other schools, especially the ones in the badly affected areas. Hoping that by some miracle that there are no fatalities. Hope is our comfort at the moment. We hope that people would not forget Haiti after the initial relief efforts. In a population where 60 percent of children do not go to school we hope that we have help and support to rebuild schools and provide a quality of education that will allow the next generation to sustain itself.
Haiti needs our solidarity - now more than ever.
We at the Peter Hesse Foundation are holding our breath as we wait for news of teachers and children from all of the schools that we have helped to set-up in Haiti. We are mostly concerned about the schools in Port-au-Prince and Leogane since most of this area is completely devastated. Telephone and e-mail communication is extremely limited as there is no electricity. We are relying on bits of information from the few people we could reach by telephone, Skype and e-mail who are mostly outside the capital.
So far we have been told that the teacher training center in Rue Clermont, Port-au-Prince, has crumbled. The directrice of the school, Naomi Joseph is reported to be alive. We are thankful for this. Buildings can be rebuilt...
The trainer Heliana in Jacmel is also ok, although her house is destroyed. We wait for more information hoping for the lives of our teachers and children in Port-au-Prince and in the other badly affected areas in Haiti. All we are sure of right now is that we cannot let Haiti down. We will continue to help children who need us now more than ever. We will work to rebuild and staff schools and to help families get their lives back together. We are determined to continue with even more dedication to help giving deprived children a starting chance in life.
Right now the first priority is to save lives of the survivors and to provide the basic needs: water, food, basic medical care and shelter. Building up what is destroyed and saving the Montessori system for deprived children in Haiti is already in the planning phase, which will be further developed as soon as we have more information on what happened to our Haitian teachers and trainers.
Before the earthquake, Carol and I had planned to travel to Haiti at the end of February. We were to be accompanied by our foundation's board-member, Dr. Sabine Uhlen, and a film-team. The purpose was to make a film-document on our successful Montessori work. This documentary and the whole trip were to be sponsored by the team itself. Tickets have been bought. We and the team are now even more committed and are hoping to go to Haiti as planned. Our first priority will now be to give immediate assistance to children and teachers in our schools. We are, however, still intending to also make a documentary which will be a constructive document of hope for the future of children and their educational development in Haiti.
Peter Hesse - www.solidarity.org - 17, chemin Henry Matisse, F-74600 Seynod, France
Peter-Hesse-Foundation SOLIDARITY IN PARTNERSHIP for ONE world in diversity
18 January, 2010
Basic information on our work in Haiti:
The Peter-Hesse-Foundation, created in 1983, mainly trains Haitians to become Montessori pre-school teachers to help local partners to open pre-schools (age 3-6) for deprived children since 1986. Over 800 teachers have been trained; over 50 schools have been initiated, of which two thirds had been maintained alive and working through the already problematic periods in former years. Many of these projects have been growing steadily. Some of the pre-schools are located in Port-au-Prince as well as in the also affected towns Leogane and Jacmel.
Back from a six-week-tour through the United States of America from October to December 2009, here is a short summery of its purpose and results.
The original purpose was to encourage Americans to read the new book - my first book in English - "VISION WORKS. From vision to action. From Haiti to ONE world in diversity. Wake-up calls for change". A more important purpose quickly developed, however, after my arrival in New York: To encourage socially active Americans to expand their work for a more balanced world beyond their own country, the USA, to ONE world in diversity. This suited one underlying reason for writing VISION WORKS and for talking about its messages in the USA: To build bridges from active civil society groups in the USA to like-minded people and institutions in my own European framework of action as well as bridges between rival Montessori organisations in my plea for more and better Early Childhood Development in the world.
One vision in my book concerns the possibility of child-centred quality Early Childhood Care and Education in situations of poverty and need - the successful Montessori preschool-work of the Peter-Hesse-Foundation in Haiti providing proof of such possibility. Other visions in the book deal with initiatives to contribute to the healing of global problems in ONE world, a world which is socially, ecologically and economically out of balance.
The tour began on 26 October in New York, continued via Boston to Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota to Washington, DC and from there back through New York to the West Coast, to San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. There I discovered that the last week of November was dominated by the American Thanksgiving day on Thursday, 26 of October. Therefore my wife, Isa, joined me from Germany in the beginning of this Thanksgiving week and we spent the rest of this week as tourists before culminating it - from Friday, 27 November to Sunday, 6 December in the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. There we fed our minds, bodies and souls with exquisite healthy food as well as with deep and loving workshops.Back in Germany late on 8 December, a stressful few days followed before the writing of this report became possible.
Originally agreed support by a PR-agent had to be discontinued shortly before the trip. A new agent was found only shortly before arriving in New York. This proved to be too late. Therefore, most activities had to be planned by myself - and with the help of my American "guardian angel", Reverend Susan Baller-Shepard, who had already contributed to the content of VISION WORKS in 2008.
My New York visit coincided with a meeting of the newly formed WATUN group, an umbrella of various civil society institutions arguing for a world parliament to enable more democracy in the United Nations. As this fits my vision of a renewed UNO in VISION WORKS, I gladly accepted the invitation of WATUN's chairman, Rob Wheeler and attended a meeting of this group. Other New York meetings were arranged with the help of Susans friend Jacques Delli Paoli. We met with Millennium Promise, with the Hunger Project and with active Americans, interested in my books micro-grant concept, a successful political vision in Germany's development politics. More meetings followed with the new Chief of the United Nations "Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination (DESA)", Mr. Andrei Abramov and with Diane Williams, a leading person in the Spiritual Caucus of the United Nations. A meeting with Richard Ungerer, Executive Director and Marcy Krever, Director of Communication of the American Montessori Society (AMS) resulted in a few most valuable contacts with leading AMS-members in the USA. I found very open minded attitudes for a needed Montessori outreach to needy children in our world and for cooperation with the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), which I had recently joined as a life-long member. The last day in New York culminated in two one-hour interviews: One live radio interview by telephone across the USA on "Full Power Living" and a taped TV-"Conversation with Channer" (where I had already been interviewed several years before).
Flying onward to Boston in the evening of 29 October almost resulted in the need to cancel the whole USA-trip:
Reaching Boston airport, I could hardly get out of my airplane seat due to sudden strong pain in my right hip. A painful night without sleep followed. Luckily, my planned contacts in Boston concerned Dr. Paul Farmer's "Partners In Health", with whom we had started to cooperate in Haiti. Paul Farmers Haiti Program Coordinator, Alison Lutz, proved to be a true guardian angel. She brought me to Boston's "Brigham and Women's Hospital" to be treated by Paul Farmer's friend, Dr. Brick, an orthopaedic surgeon and his medical staff. This took the whole day under the patient surveillance of Alison Lutz and resulted in my leaving the Hospital on crutches late in the night - having missed all of the meetings of that day - but with almost no more pain. The continuation of the US-tour was to be on crutches, but it became possible. Only my planned visit to Phillips Academy, Andover, where I had been a guest-student in 1954, had to be cancelled. In Haiti this Boston day will result in an even more intense and motivated cooperation with Partners In Health. The crutches made it all the way back to Germany, where they are allowed to rest unused for now.
In Chicago during the following days the crutches slowed down my activities but still enabled meetings with leading partners of the American Montessori Society (AMS), Tony and Carolyn Kambich and extensive exchange with Susan Baller-Shepard. She invited me to her house in Bloomington, where I stayed a few days and was very gently received by her whole family. Susan had also arranged a presentation for students and staff of the Illinois Wesleyan University in the framework of Dr. Rebeccas Gearhart's Africa-week in the University. She also arranged a radio-interview in the University's public radio system on 3 November. The "free" days back in Chicago helped me to continue to plan the rest of the US-trip in more detail - and to listen to political debates on US-television. This reinforced my motivation to concentrate on global needs in our world in further discussions during the trip.
After an eight-hour train ride from Chicago to Minneapolis on Sunday, 8 November, Monday's speech in the "Montessori Training Center of Minnesota" in St. Paul was not only very well prepared by the staff of Molly O'Shaughnessy, the center's director, but also showed me that Montessori in the USA does not only concentrate on children from wealthy parents. Here - like in the next Montessori-institution, which invited me to speak - I saw an emphasis on the multi-racial US-population also from less wealthy families. This provides hope for outreach-activities also to needy children in the world outside the USA.
Flying through Philadelphia, the next visit to be Washington, DC, where I tried to make contact with President Obama's leader of the Department of Education, Arne Duncan and his top lady for Early Childhood Education, Jacqueline Jones. Both were absent in Washington, DC - but after following a lead provided by Dr. Mary Young (Worldbank) - I managed to contact the "right hand" of Mrs Jones, Mr. Steven Hicks. He was helpful in accepting to pass on specially designated copies of VISION WORKS to Mr. Duncan and Mrs Jones. An additional copy of the book, dedicated to the first lady of the USA, Michèle Obama, did not reach her. Mr Hicks informed me that his department had to follow the rule of not accepting documents from the outside for the presidential family. This special copy now stays with Steven Hicks, which is good.
After finding out that a early morning live TV-interview with WBFF FOX TV in Baltimore turned out to be one of the "paper tigers" provided by my first agent, I cancelled a side-trip to Baltimore and was able to transfer a planned speech at a "Rockville Metro Montessori School" to a Washington, DC branch of this Montessori institution. The friendly owners of this large Montessori school took good care of their German visitor on crutches on 12 November.
Flying onward on 13 November as planed - back to New York to participate in a larger "Zafarrancho" of the international "Brotherhood of the Coast" to celebrate the 50 years of the US-American brotherhood. As a German "brother" of this blue-water sailor's association, I had started a "table" in the brotherhood's historical birthplace in the seventeenth century on the Haitian island La Tortue. This small, but successful side-project of the Peter-Hesse-Foundation for the poor local fishermen on today's island La Tortue is fully documented in VISION WORKS. The book, therefore, was a perfect gift for the organizers of the "Zafarrancho" - and at the same time an occasion to spread the more globally relevant messages of the book. Two extra days in New York were well used for further contacts on the basis of the initial few days of the trip.
The 9 hour flight from New York to San Diego in California on 18 November took the whole day and meant three more hours of time difference. Arriving in San Diego, I was extremely well received at the airport and invited to a wonderful dinner with the whole extended Indian family of the "Kinderhouse"-owner, Mrs. Yogi Patel and her administrative staff. The next morning provided the only chance during this US-trip to see a large Montessori pre-school in full action with all the children. I was deeply impressed. Children from a multitude of nationalities and from very mixed backgrounds were being most gently accompanied in their individual learning - concentrated and obviously joyful learning - a truly convincing Montessori experience. Everybody who is responsible for providing good early childhood education - including the natural acquisition of a second language - should visit such a well run Montessori school. It is simply convincing. Equally convincing were the interest and commitment of the full teaching staff and of a number of invited parents in the afternoon meeting.
Continuing to Los Angeles that same evening by rental car after my speech and the extended discussion was less inspiring: masses of slow moving cars on about 8 or10 parallel lanes. My stay there as a guest in the cosy home of Bruria Finkel, a socially active peace-promoting artist and the exchanges with her and her husband, David Finkel, were uplifting for my mind and soul.
A daytime-meeting on Friday, 20 November with the actor and executive producer of "KidsTalk Productions", Ninon de Vere De Rosa in her beautiful Beverly Hills home illustrated a totally different approach for providing children a chance in life. Her productions challenge children to express themselves. We discussed a possible cooperation in one of her projects in Africa to include Montessori pre-school in her work. My visit in Los Angeles ended with the evening flight to San Francisco.
On Saturday, 21 November, I was invited by Rabi Michael Lerner, the editor of "Tikkun" and initiator of a "Network of Spiritual Progressives" to attend his morning Shabbat-ceremony and ritual lunch in his home in Berkeley and to exchange views on the Global Marshall Plan initiative later in the afternoon. As the only non-Jew in his private synagogue, it was for me the first direct encounter with the Shabbat rituals. In our later exchange, Rabi Lerner carefully watched not to glide into a working session since this would not be permissible on a Shabbat. It was however most useful to communicate and to exchange on the variations of our approaches to the mutually desired concept behind the Global Marshall Plan idea. The next two days were providing opportunities to further learn about the situation of the initiative in the USA.
First, however, the Saturday evening ended with an invitation to a good Italian restaurant by two charming ladies, who had been contacted by AMS executive director Richard Ungerer, Judi Bauerlein, former AMS Board President and Alyssa Moore, AMS treasurer and successful business woman. The fruitful exchange on global educational needs and Montessori's healing possibilities brought me back to my basic subject: to give children a starting chance in life. Concerning a more powerful and globally successful Montessori outreach into One world in diversity, my Montessori-meetings in the USA were inspiring to create a larger vision for action.
A meeting of parts of the European Global Marshall Plan initiative in Salzburg in the end of September 2009 had produced a contact with Dr. Michael Glandon, initiator of the "Trans-Disciplinary Laboratory for the Global Marshal Plan" in the USA. We had agreed to meet on Sunday, 22 November. Michael Glandon also suggested a meeting with the representatives of three fractions of the Global Marshall Plan initiative in the USA, Rabi Lerner's group, an "Interfaith Millennium Development Goals Coalition" and a group around James Quilligan who was closely connected to the German initiators of the initiative. Sunday was used to exchange on the various directions, which the initiative had taken. On Monday, 23 November a meeting with the Interfaith group followed in the Catholic Diocese in San Francisco and on Tuesday morning the meeting with representative of all three fractions took place in a private home in Berkeley. Building bridges between these groups in the USA and ours in Europe was the purpose of this meeting - which shall be continued.
In the meantime, my wife Isa had arrived from Germany to spend the 2 last weeks in the USA together with me. Isa and I concluded this larger first part of my US-trip with a Tuesday meeting with Christian de Quincey to discuss some philosophical questions resulting from reading his books.
Peter Hesse, 13 December 2009
The future of the Peter-Hesse-Foundation.
by Peter Hesse - summer 2009
After 25 years of the foundation and 72 years of my life I feel that I must thank all those friends who have in some way supported us. I also feel a need to structure the future of our small foundation. Part of this structuring is a more timely use of the net - this here being the first news-report to be put on our English homepage.
The Haiti-engagement, which started after an inner "wake-up call" in Haiti in 1981 was carried forward since the creation of the Peter-Hesse-Foundation in 1983 by Carol Guy-James Barratt. Some volunteers have also contributed valuable work mainly in Haiti. I had to care for the material means, acquired some supporting donations and made use of what was learned in Haiti in development politics. After a never-ending learning process, this became a success story.