After Haiti

It was an intense experience. As far as my research went, it didn't go according to plan- the hurricane and the cholera outbreak, meant that I did not get to do as many interviews as I had hoped. But I had a very positive response from so many people from the education cluster in Haiti, who were very generous with their time and ideas, and some of whom I managed to interview from back in Ireland.
But I was busy. I made some visits as a representative of the Andrew Grene Foundation, and saw a potential site for a school. And I got to visit a number of schools, and talk to some education professionals there.

I found volunteering with EDV to be an amazingly positive experience. I thought their projects were thoughtful, community-based and sustainable- I have rarely been so impressed by a volunteer organisation, which can tend towards good intentions that are badly informed. I got to teach a little bit, and to write up a bit of a guide which volunteers can use in future for tips on teaching. I had the privilege of working with some really amazing people.
I had many of my assumptions turned on their heads- as assumptions should be. I wish very much that I could have stayed longer, but I am very certain that I will be back at some point. The graciousness, generosity, courage and strength of Haitian people that I encountered was phenomenal. It was so much beyond what I expected to find, and I was so humbled by it.

In Haiti

The last week has been intense. Community health training on cholera prevention, visiting an orphanage, schools, teaching, evacuating for the hurricane, and unevacuating again. These beautiful children were at a small orphanage which the NGO here works with.

I'm very glad I came here. So far I have achieved very little of what I came here to do, but I still feel it was important to have come.

Moving on

My time at Help the Kids will come to an end this week. I will be leaving for a two-week trip to Haiti, where I will be doing some research for my thesis, volunteering for a grassroots organisation, and representing the Andrew Grene Foundation. I hope to have some pictures and some account of the trip to post while I am there.

At the end of my trip, I will be going back to Ireland, and locking myself in a room for two weeks of frantic thesis finishing. After which I will be heading off to Cambodia to begin a new adventure with UNHCR in Phnom Penh, working on refugee education.

As seems to happen so often, the frantic preparations for the next chapter supercede the ending of the one I'm currently in. My feelings about my trip to Haiti and the excitement/anxiety/confusion that I feel have left me very little time to evaluate my time with Help the Kids. I do feel that it has been an amazing opportunity, and that I have learned a lot. It is an amazing organisation, and I one I would dearly love to work for, though not in the capacity that I'm now in. I have learned a lot about communications, and how this kind of organisation works from its central office, and it has made me more than ever convinced that I want to be in the field, working directly with programmes.

Andrew Grene

Andrew Grene was a political officer with the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. He died on January 12th 2010, in the earthquake when the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed. Andrew had some influence on the decisions I made to do what it is I try to do. He was a genuinely good person, and I have not yet learned  how to accept that he is gone.

Andrew's twin brother Gregory set up the Andrew Grene Foundation  in his memory, together with their friend Tim Perutz; a secular charity providing educational assistance to the people of Haiti. Andrew loved Haiti and believed in the country.