Haitian Coalition of Somerville staff and supporters traveled to Haiti this summer to maintain the organization’s commitment to the country’s reconstruction by participating in three special projects:  They plucked unknown artists from obscurity in a singing contest, brought a group of Boston volunteer educators to the Haitian countryside to train current Haitian teachers and advanced a collaborative initiative that will result in a new environmentally sustainable community-health center and maternal ward in Balan, Haiti.    

In a project that highlighted the talents of Haitian artists, the Coalition and Peace Tones, an initiative of InternetBar.org that assists artists in developing countries, co-sponsored the Haiti Sings contest.  Through the competition, 20 Haitian artists were taped singing songs about their personal stories and lives. On October 1, the video clips will be uploaded to peacetones.org for voting by viewers.  Once selected, finalists will record a compilation album while the contest’s winner will open for legendary Haitian band Tabou Combo in New York City.  Ninety percent of the proceeds from album sales will benefit the artists and their local communities. 

In another project, the Coalition collaborated with Ray of Hope Children’s Services, in bringing Boston Teachers’ Union educators to the rural communities of Haiti where schools operated after the January 12 earthquake with few resources.  Traveling with donations of clothes, toiletries, medical supplies and non-perishable foods, the Coalition’s staff worked alongside current Massachusetts educators as they trained Haitian teachers.  Coalition staff served as translators to facilitate the interactions between the multicultural group of Massachusetts-based teachers and their Haitian counterparts in trainings on the best practices in education.   

The Haitian Coalition is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the social, educational, and economic development of Haitian youth and families living in Somerville, the Greater Boston area and post-earthquake Haiti.