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Haiti-Ecology: A network to encourage the commitment of school children
April 2000

By: Fritznel Octave, Correspondent Inter Press Service and Radio Vwa Fawès, Port-de-Paix

This "Island Beat" article was produced with the financial support of Plan Haiti, within the scope of the project "Child Rights and Participatory Media in Civil Society."

PLAN's vision is of a world in which all children realise their full potential in societies which respect people's rights and dignities. PLAN seeks to ensure that children live in secure, safe and healthy habitats. Across its programme interventions, PLAN will promote equitable and sustainable access to and use of natural resources by the people with whom it works, based on an understanding of their relationship with the environment.

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In 1997, with the support of the non-governmental organization "Network of Professional Teaching and Ecological Intervention" (REPIE), several schools in the Haitian capital decided to form a network, aimed at sensitizing the young school children of the country about environmental problems and to encourage them to take action.

It took only a short time before a good number of primary and secondary schools in the capital as well as in the provinces became enthusiastic about this initiative. Six (6) schools started the network under the name of "Green Schools Network" (REV).

REV's membership currently counts 22 schools of which 16 are based in the provinces. It will reach a number of 35 schools during the year 1999-2000, Jean-Robert Julien said, one of the persons responsible for the coordination of the network.

According to Jean Robert Julien, the interest in joining remains very high, in Port-au-Prince as well as in the most remote communities of the country.

However, he underlined that the network, whose activities are largely financed by the Haitian-Quebecan organization "Society for the Reforestation of Haiti (SRH)," does not have the means to welcome all interested schools.

Jean-Robert Julien, who is also the Executive Secretary of REPIE, said that it is not enough to simply accept new members in this environmental network. One must provide them with the necessary skills and means so that they can really function, he explained.

REV is already present in the departments of the West, the South, the Southeast, the Artibonite and the North. Requests for membership from the Northeast and the Centre are being considered.

Member schools are represented in the network through committees, composed of teachers, parents, students and non-academic school staff.

The specific role of these committees is to prepare and implement annual activity programmes which include the environmental training of its members, of the students, and possibly of the teachers. The committees have up to three delegates in the central structure of the network.

Committees also carry out activities related to the improvement and the protection of the environment, such as mountain reforestation and the cleaning of cities.

The central office of the Green Schools Network is in charge of the technical training of local units, in addition to the coordination of activities and fundraising, .

The network's motto is articulated as "Haiti can become green again." Over a period of two years, a lot of progress has been made in defining its objectives, according to Georges Dady, coordinator of the environmental group at the College "Les Normaliens Réunis" in Port-au-Prince.

"In the development of new behaviour favouring environmental protection, member schools of the network have achieved more than one could have hoped for," Jean-Robert Julien rejoiced.

The local committee of the College "Les Normaliens Réunis" is one of the most active ones in the Green School Network. This committee, helped by the board of the College, functions under the name of "Committee for Action and Dialogue on Environmental Education (CACE)."

CACE works together with about twenty schools in Léogâne, located 35 km south of Port-au-Prince, and in La Gonâve, an island of 684 km2 located 75 km west Port-au-Prince. As such, CACE plays the role of a mini network.

This mini network also carries out joint projects with local associations, such as the Association for the Ecological Development of Bellevue (Léogâne) and the Fishermen Association of l'Anse-à-Gâlet (La Gonâve).

Some schools and community groups in Cavaillon-Pliché, a community in the department of the South, which participate in the REV environmental movement, also collaborate with CACE.

According to Georges Dady, Coordinator of CACE, the most important activities which are already implemented by members of the network include the planning of an ecological site at Bellevue-Léogâne, the protection of coastlines through reforestation, the cleaning of cities, and environmental education of youth and adults.

Dady, who also is a chemistry and biology teacher, said that the Green Schools Network, through the programmes of CACE, involves students as well as farmers in environmental research activities. This makes them aware of and more responsible towards the ecological problems of the country.

The environmental network has already worked on several research topics such as wastes and pollution, health and environment, impacts of the absence of mangroves and other protection on the coastal zones of the metropolitan region.

Dady said that CACE's activities also include the recycling of wastes for making compost and detergents.

He specified that these activities fit within a programme which not only aims at gaining the commitment of schoolchildren for the improvement and the protection of the environment and natural species, but also tries to awaken an entrepreneurial attitude in them.

On 3 June 1999, the local REV group at the College "Les Normaliens Réunis" organized a "Green Day." This gave hundreds of people the opportunity to discover the progress of the environmental protection organization.

Guests could note the level of environmental knowledge acquired by students and farmers regarding the various areas of intervention of the network.

Samples of compost and detergents were exhibited, produced by the schoolchildren with organic, metallic, and plastic garbage.

The green day of the College "Les Normaliens Réunis" was sponsored by the Network of Professional Teaching and Ecological Intervention (REPIE), the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), the Green Schools Network of BreatLand (REVB), Canada, and the Haitiano-Dominican Cultural Association (ASCOHADO) based in the Dominican Republic.

The leaders of the network are not the only ones raising a satisfactory picture of its training and research activities .

Oriol Lapointe, a final year student at the College "Les Normaliens Réunis," expressed his satisfaction to have participated in the research activities of the network.

"Thanks to the training and research programme of REV, I can understand the functioning of the environment and the utilities and the interdependence of species in a given ecological system. I also know how to share my knowledge with others," he stated.

Motivated to work for the improvement and protection of the environment, the youth Lapointe, with several of his friends, formed an environmental group in his residential community.

Through this ecological group, he hopes to encourage his neighbours to involve themselves in activities for a clean and livable environment.

The group, led by Oriol Lapointe, holds regular meetings to discuss efforts for the reforestation of mountains, town planning and protection of natural species.

Regularly, the group stages an "ecological theatre" in its district in order to sensitize people on the need to protect the community's environment.

Another viewpoint was expressed by Fritzner Sainrizier, who thinks that the network has helped to orient himself towards his studies in medicine.

The student Sainrizier said that the experience he gained in expressing himself in public is one of best benefits he got out of his participation in the network's activities.

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