All The Children Are Children

A School in Coco Beach, Haiti

When Anne Jordan-Reynolds backpacked her way across Haiti with her husband, daughter, and a Haitian friend, a few years ago, she had no idea that she would soon establish a school in a remote and isolated village in Northern Haiti. In fact, Anne was fulfilling the dying wish of her oldest brother, Al, who asked her to please visit the country and culture that he had found the most fascinating in his world travels as a music agent.

Anne, who is a college professor with a focus on human sexuality and HIV/AIDS, says, “Haiti is seldom thought of this way, as there are many negative stereotypes and myths associated with what is now the world's poorest place on earth. Little did I know that once I discovered Haiti, I would never leave. We were amazed at and touched by the resilience of the Haitian people. The love and joy expressed by the Haitians, who live in devastating poverty and surrounded constantly by death, touched us deeply. It made us realize how incredibly complacent we, living in the United States, have become about the rest of the world. Now I understand that my brother had bigger plans in store for me, and I am forever grateful to him!”

While in Haiti, Anne and her family met Philocleous Desire, a school bus driver, who lives in Atlanta Georgia with his wife and children, and who travels each year to his home in Haiti. "Phil," who came from Coco Beach, had dreamed for years of starting a school in his village. With so much passion and love for his people, Phil wanted desperately to make a difference, but he needed help. For days the family discussed the possibility of a school with Phil, eventually, working out a plan to launch the project.

Anne says, “The people of Haiti have been forgotten and alone for too long. Too many times they’ve been promised help, yet received nothing. I knew we had to make a lifetime commitment if we were to do this. So, with my college students and friends, we gathered school supplies, clothes, medical supplies, soaps and toiletries. We collected pens and paper and recycled tools. A friend who is a Catholic priest donated a thousand dollars, and family and friends gave us cash donations as well. We started the project in 2000 and opened our school at Coco Beach in a small building with a tin roof and thatched walls in 2001. We now have three hundred children in the school, six teachers and a principal. There are hundreds of additional children waiting for the chance to go to our school.

“We have no running water, no electricity, and no transportation to the rest of Haiti. As there is no medical clinic in the region, we added an office/medical center to serve basic medical needs and emergencies. Most of our children come from throughout the surrounding area, but because this area is so isolated, there are no schools. This is the first time most of the children have ever attended school. Their families have not had the opportunity for an education either, so our dream is to teach the parents and children to read together!”

The families and children work as a community to sustain the school. Their collective dream is to one day have concrete buildings and running water, and village projects so they can become more self-sufficient. As Anne did research for sustainable crops that could help to support the families and school, she discovered vanilla once grew in Haiti. With no available information on growing vanilla, and desperately needing help, Anne wrote to me after finding The Vanilla.COMpany on the Internet. I introduced her via e-mail to David Gardella, a biologist in Costa Rica who grows vanilla and is the director of a USAID project to assist farmers grow vanilla in Colombia.

Anne says, “The village is very excited about our potential new project as it gives us hope for a way to support the region. We will work hard, and we will persevere. For the first time our lonely isolated village has hope to offer something that will one day be of value to others. Until then we will remember when we as a community had very little, lived on hope and survived with extreme poverty and now, civil war. Our community will not be stopped, but we need help. These precious and innocent children who live next door to the United States, are still unknown to most people around the world. They have suffered more than we can comprehend….”

Very recently the school received a 501(c) 3 nonprofit status, listed as “All the Children are Children.” Translated from the French, this means that all the children of the world are equal to one another and all children deserve the same opportunities. However, now that the civil war has escalated, Coco Beach is cut off from rice, water, fuel, and other essentials, and the families are starving. Anne had a container of food and medical supplies readied to send to Haiti when the civil war broke out and the ports were burned. Now she and the rest of her extended family in the United States and Haiti can only hope that the war will end soon and that help can get to the Haitians of Coco Beach before it is too late.

For more information about All The Children Are Children, or to make a donation to the school and vanilla project, please contact Anne Jordan-Reynolds at 8207 Marsh Pointe Court Montgomery, Alabama 36117: jordannie@aol.com.