2,000 Bilingual Creole-French Books for Haiti
By Safina Center Senior Fellow Kike Calvo
I often ask myself, “How can we make an impact beyond the production of our books?”
The answer has come in the form of partnerships with organizations working in the field, especially in places otherwise off-limits to us. This is the case for our upcoming campaign in Haiti.
We started with a simple question: How can we print and donate a minimum of 2,000 copies of bilingual books in Haiti?
Children in Haiti ©Lead By Example.
We chose this project because Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas and the third poorest country in the world. With a population of 12 million, many live on less than $3 a day. Haiti’s literacy rate is 52.9%. Only 57% of the children enrolled in primary school, and only 30% of those reach 6th grade. According to UNICEF, 24% of men and 17% of women have never been to school.
The team concluded that the books being created should go beyond the English and French editions, and hence the creation of bilingual versions in Creole and French of our books Birds of Hispaniola and Species of Haiti, will help teachers connect with the children in rural schools in Haiti.
To overcome the complex challenges found in Haiti, we have partnered with Haiti National Trust and Audubon Haiti. We will be adding other non-profit organizations as we move forward.
Kike Calvo’s coloring book, Birds of Hispaniola.
The Adventures of Pili works to increase awareness of global environmental challenges, but also to promote multilingual literacy in remote communities that play an active role in the conservation of their ecosystems. For this reason, most of our book donations are complemented with one-day environmental workshops, and in some locations including Haiti, tree-planting activities.
View ways you can make an impact in Haiti and elsewhere by visiting our new website, and please share this page with your family and friends.
Your involvement is critical to our success in multiplying our impact, and we invite you to participate.