By Megan Rounseville

Pan American Development Foundation volunteer

From the Our Border website

I first met Charlys when he came to the Small Business Start-Up Skills Class I taught during my time as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican border town of Pedernales. Although a Dominican national, he felt strongly his Haitian roots.

 

Three times a week, he would leave the Dominican community of Pedernales, where he lived in a cement house with running water and electricity, and cross the border into the Haitian town of Anse-a-Pitre, where nearly everyone lived in basic houses with no utilities and few opportunities for employment.

 

The border divided the two realities that defined who Charlys was—both Haitian and Dominican blood flowed in his veins.

 

He would cross the border carrying a single guitar and sheets of music, to give back to a community that he believed could “be more.” Charlys was a music teacher. He taught in a community center and mostly did it voluntarily, his students paying only when they could.

 

At the end of the three-month class, my students were assigned to write a business plan. The students would submit their business plans to a national competition and have the opportunity to win funding to begin their businesses. One day, Charlys came to me in distress. He was working on his business plan focused on starting a homemade candy/sweets shop and he was having some difficulty developing his idea.

 

As I sat and talked to him I asked: “What made you want to open a candy store?” Charlys didn’t really have an answer, he didn’t know how to make the sweets he hoped to sell, and he wasn’t too sure people would buy them. Nonetheless, he was determined to give it his all. He viewed this as one of few opportunities he might have to find employment.

 

As we chatted, Charlys spoke of music with vigor and love. When I asked him why he loved music he told the story of how he learned to play and why it meant so much to him.

 

“I started taking classes when I lived in Enriquillo,” he said. “I would take the bus for almost two hours from Enriquillo to Barahona, every weekend. From the day I began, I just loved it. My mom saw how much it meant to me and Mami made sure she found the money to pay for the bus.”

 

“When I began my peers didn’t think much of it. They didn’t really believe me when I told them I was learning to play. But I kept practicing,” Charlys said. “Wow, my first concert that was the best moment of my life. Everyone in the class was dressed so nice and there was an audience waiting to hear us play. When it was my turn, I played and played. When I opened my eyes, everyone was clapping.”

 

“It was the first time that people saw me for something more than my black skin. It was the first time that people saw me as more than Haitian. After the concert the kids in the class picked me up and were cheering ‘Charlys, Charlys!’ Wow! It really changed how I felt about myself. And that’s what I want to bring to Anse-a-Pitre, that is what I want to teach the Haitian youth.”

In September of 2008, Charlys presented his business plan that focused on starting a private music school. He won funding to buy instruments, stands and sheet music. A year since he won the competition and started the school, it is still going strong.

 

His students have a hard time making the payments, but Charlys is seeking creative ways to promote the class and seek international donors to sponsor children at the school.

 

Charlys’ story is remarkable. It shows how people rise to the occasion when faced with challenge and oppression and how they grow and build an unbreakable strength of community and character. Charlys described the way he felt in a society that does not accept him because of the color of his skin and his ethnicity and found an inspiring, peaceful, caring means of overcoming it and has helped others to follow his lead.

 

In October 2009, six of his students attended the national business plan competition and played in front of a large audience. For some of his students, it was the first time they had come to the Dominican Republic. For six students, it may have been the first time people saw them not as Haitians, but as musicians.

PADF's Goodwill Ambassador for Haiti's Children Jimmy Jean-Louis presents the 2009 Heroes of the Hemisphere award to Nicole Muller Cesar , an educator and social worker who started a school for Haiti's abused children. Muller Cesar, along with four other individuals, were honored in Miami on October 24. Read all about it at: www.HeroesoftheHemisphere.org Changing the Lives of Abused Children Nicole Muller César wanted to alleviate the suffering of these children. After a successful, 30-year career in Boston, Nicole returned to her native Haiti 10 years ago to help child victims of violence, exploitation, sexual abuse and abandonment. The U.S. trained psychologist and social worker brought to Haiti a holistic approach and started the Institute for Human and Community Development. The youngsters are taught social skills, enjoy a hot meal (for most, their only meal of the day) and receive medical and dental care. To overcome the traumas of violence ...continue reading

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The U.S. House of Representatives set aside $38.3 million to fight against trafficking around the world during the next fiscal year, which is twice as much as the federal government is currently spending.   This figure is a dramatic increase from the current $17 million that the U.S. State Department has for its Trafficking in Persons program.   The $38.3 million, which is part of the Congressional budget process, must be approved by the entire House of Representatives. The Senate will also have to approve this funding. The U.S. federal budget takes effect on October 1, 2009. ...continue reading

7,850 People Urge Immediate Help for Haiti's Children   Nearly 8,000 people signed a petition to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton thanking her for supporting Haiti – while urging her to dedicate more resources to that country’s exploited and trafficked children.   The petition reminds Secretary Clinton that the State Department reports that as many as 200,000 children are the victims of trafficking.   Organized by the Pan American Development Foundation and distributed through Care2, the petition provided space for people to write comments to the Secretary Clinton.   A person in Michigan wrote: “No denial of the basic necessities of life is more abhorrent than withholding them from a child. No crime perpetrated against a human being is more vile than one inflicted on a child.”   The online petition also gathered signatures from other countries. A woman in Australia ...continue reading

PADF's Goodwill Ambassador for Haiti's Children told key Members of Congress that they and their constituents can change the lives of thousands of exploited and trafficked children. Jimmy Jean-Louis told high-ranking elected officials -- including Rep. Barbara Lee of California, Rep. Elliot Engel of New York and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida -- that the deterioriating economic situation has pushed up the number of exploited children. Kids as young a five years old are now the victims of forced labor, trafficking, prostitution and other terrible things.