Sun Valley's Link to Haiti

Believe it or not,there is a connection between Sun Valley and the country of Haiti. Thanks to Ketchum native and Haiti resident Reed Lindsay, the Wood River Valley has a chance to be involved in communities that are in serious need in Haiti.

It all began with the formation of a neighborhood organization in Haiti where Reed was living and working as a journalist. According to Reed, 90% of Haiti is slums so he decided if he was going to be recording the people there, he should also live with them in order to know more about it. He ended up making friends with a Haitian named Lolo who wanted to do something about the neighborhood. What resulted was a horizontally organized group of individuals. The hope was that in making things equal and transparent, people would not only be more trusting but also more involved. The first thing that happened was a basketball tournament with food and a DJ and a fully packed street party.

It was such a success, the group put its sights on something larger: a school. The biggest problem in Haiti happens to be a lack of education. In fact, only one in fifty kids actually graduate from high school. Since 90% of the schools are private, very few Haitians can afford to attend. The goal of the new school was to do more than just teach math and reading and writing for free, but also to create consciousness within the kids and to teach them about the country and the community, and to instill a sense of pride as well as civic duty.

Reed admits that the neighborhood organization’s plan seemed a bit farfetched. “I thought they were crazy. It was hard to organize the basketball tournament…Very few of these people have graduated from high school, none from university. They don’t have the best writing, organization skills. Their level of education is very low so the idea of doing a school especially when none of them were teachers was pretty ambitious, but they just went ahead and did it.”

At the time of its formation, Reed also wasn’t helping much as there were elections to cover. But sure enough, the people got it off the ground, starting with a dozen kids, teaching in the basement of a building, and giving them the basics. Yet they did this with no books, no pencils, no trained teachers, and absolutely no money.

Despite the obvious limitations, within five months the school had 120 kids, twelve volunteer teachers and had yet to receive a single penny from any individual or organization. While Reed had stayed out of most of the development realizing that “they’re the ones who had to decide what they wanted to do and to take action. It does no good for me to come in because then tomorrow I leave and what do they have?” Instead, Reed helps with ideasandopens his house toallow them to use his computer for internet and printing materials. But he also does more.As a foreigner he has the ability to work with NGOs and governments and private individuals in order to raise money.

Sure enough, Reed has been slowly raising money. First he wrote a grant application that gave $7,000 from the Washington Global Fund for Children and then he started a nonprofit in Idaho called Friends of SODA. SODA stands for Sosyete Djòl Ansanm pou Demokrasi Patisipativ, a colloquial term in Haitian Creole that roughly translates as Like-Minded People Working Toward Participatory Democracy. It works as an umbrella organization for all neighborhood groups in Haiti allowing them to have the autonomy to determine what is best for their particular neighborhood while also facilitating fundraising and the exchange of ideas.

Now within a little over a year, there are five schools as well as an orphanage serving more than 400 Haitian kids. In addition to schools, there are lunch programs, street cleaning initiatives, and teacher training sessions. To continue this endeavor, the people of Sun Valley have been stepping in not just monetarily but also through teacher education. Last summer, with help from the Community School, two teachers, Joel Vilinsky and Nancy Parsons, traveled to Haiti to conduct teacher training courses. While they expected to teach about fifteen people, seventy individuals showed up wanting to learn.

As the programs continue to grow so does the need for money to buy books and pencils and food, as well as to pay teachers. To get involved, send a check to Friends of Soda, PO BOX 1674, Hailey, ID 8333 or visit Friends of SODA or Reed Lindsay.