Fondation Connaissance et Liberte

The Fondation Connaissance et Liberté (FOKAL) faced significant challenges in promoting open society in Haiti, as public safety and the economy continued to deteriorate despite elections and a change of government in 2006. The foundation responded to these difficult circumstances by focusing on activities to sustain support and funding for the foundation’s resource center; expand initiatives to provide clean water and improve public health; and support institutions promoting women’s rights and civil society. Throughout the year, the foundation built international alliances and partnerships to support its efforts to improve education and the lives of young people, foster democratic debate, and promote economic development in Haiti.

The following briefs describe some of the foundation’s activities and achievements in 2006.

New Water System Improves Life in Rural Village

Several times a day in Diny, a rural village in Haiti, small girls used towalk two kilometers up the hill to carry back buckets of polluted water that often caused infant diarrhea and skin problems. FOKAL, the Soros foundation in Haiti, funded the building of a water filtering and distribution system. Villagers now buy water from nearby metered fountains for drinking, washing, feeding their animals, and growing produce. The fountains have improved villagers’ health and led them to make inclusive, democratic decisions about water distribution. FOKAL is seeking funds to expand the water project to other villages.

Canadian Grant Focuses on Gender Inequality in Schools

In Haiti, the schoolbooks show boys doing math, playing sports, and dressing up as doctors and lawyers. The girls are in the kitchen playing with dolls and taking care of younger children. FOKAL’s Step by Step program, TiPa TiPa, taught teachers how to recognize and address gender problems in education with a grant of CA$450,000 from the Canadian International Development Agency. In 2006, TiPa TiPa also received grants from a Swedish foundation, Star of Hope, UNICEF, and the European Union.

FOKAL Library Program Celebrates Tenth Anniversary

FOKAL and its network of over 40 community libraries joined in the ten-year celebration of its oldest member, Bibliothèque Monique Calixte. The library, which is housed in the foundation’s resource center in Port-au-Prince, serves some 6,000 young readers from the city’s impoverished neighborhoods. Writers, musicians, and painters contributed to the celebration’s workshops, conferences, concerts, exhibits, and films. Other resource center events included a celebration of French and Creole culture, the fourth Crossroads Theater festival for Port-au-Prince’s young theater groups, and an international conference on democracy and development in the age of globalization.