A dream actualized through the leadership of the Haitian artists

The Diaspora Haiti team had changed the location of its art camp as of late last week. The new site became St. Vincent's School for the Handicapped. Founded in 1954 by Sister Joan of the Episcopal Order of St. Margaret's, the school provides education to 450 physically challenged children. Approximately half of these young people reside at St.Vincent. The other children are day students. Many of the boarding students, abandoned by their parents, were left at St. Vincent's as newborns. These children had certainly experienced disappointment and hardship in their lives. It seemed as though the Diaspora Haiti art program might be the perfect vehicle throuh which to deepen the hope first offered by the Sisters of St. Margaret.

Given the change of location and the limited experience of the Diaspora Haiti team in working with children with physical challenges, a modified schedule and enrollment was determined. The team agreed to run the art camp for two hours and limit the number of participants to 50. Though it was difficult to reduce the number of children served, it seemed the best way to assure quality of program and intimacy of relationship with the children.

The team was first greeted by Jo, the official ambassador of St. Vincent's. Though I muddled my way through a couple of French sentences describing who we were, it soon became clear that Jo spoke English. He was extremely helpful and we moved on to our assigned spaces. Soon Jean Robert arrived, another key member of the St. Vincent staff, who quickly grasped the mission and vision of the program, and began to select and deliver children to the central room. In no time at all, we had 73 children with a range of physical challenges- blind, deaf, mute, partial or absent limbs or some ambulatory restrictions.

In the midst of assembling children, the Haitian artists immediately went to work. They began familiarizing the children with the motto, rules and song, customizing their approach to the unique challenges of each group of students. In time, children were divided into specialized art groups- drama, music, dance and visual art. The core time passed quickly and, before we knew it, the first morning session had ended.

Following dismissal, the team gathered for lunch and reflected on the experience. The Haitian artists expressed such excitement over the BuildaBridge classroom and Diaspora of Hope models, that the group was temporarily distracted with dreams of the next projects, possible locations and funding sources. The Haitian artists, and even Jean Robert, had already taken ownership of the BuildaBridge mission- to bring hope and healing through the arts to challenged communities around the world.