Last month, Enabling Minds’ students with disabilities and their big brothers/big sisters joined together one morning to enjoy the Haitian holiday of Carnaval! To begin the day, the children and their big siblings watched the inspirational French film “All Our Strength.” This movie, based on a true story, tells the story of a child named Julian who uses a wheelchair for ambulation. Julian challenges his father to compete with him in the grueling Ironman Triathlon in Nice, France. In the film, the entire family rallies around the father and son so that they can achieve this incredibly challenging feat.
The students and their big siblings enjoyed “All Our Strength.” We showed this film to teach the students and their big brothers and sisters the unlimited possibilities of persons with disabilities, and that great potential can result when they work together. This movie was primer for this weekend, the first weekend of March 2016, when the children and their big siblings will join hand in hand to complete in a race in the community!
After the film, clad in fancy masks and white dress, the students with disabilities and their big brothers/sisters participated in Carnaval! The school-wide Carnaval celebration consisted of dances, songs and music by the students in the schoolyard, and was presented for their families, who looked on with pride.
By the smiles on the children’s faces, it was clear that the students were delighted to share the day with their big brothers/big sisters and their families. It was beautiful to see moments of collaboration and unity after the Carnaval program that day, and to see the growing between Enabling Minds’ students and their big brothers and sisters!
How You Can Help. . .
Enabling Minds’ students at St. Charles Borromeo School are completely funded through donations. A donation of $25 will sponsor a student’s education for one month, and $300 will sponsor the education of a student for the entire year. We still have 16 students who need to be funded so they can complete the school year! All donations are 100% tax deductible and any amount is greatly appreciated. Help us give the gift of an education to a student in need!
From the beginning, Enabling Minds’ students with intellectual and other developmental disabilities have been accepted by their peers at school. Our students have also helped to change perceptions of persons with disabilities, and are a source of pride for their school and amongst their fellow students. Now many of our 45 students have the support of “big brothers” and “big sisters!”
Our Big Brother, Big Sister Program. . .
In the fall of 2015, an effort to maximize the growth of and opportunities for our students with developmental disabilities led to the launch of our Big Brother, Big Sister program. This program matches up local high school students and our students with disabilities. These high school students first attend sensitivity training so they can learn about students with disabilities. Then, they are then paired with their little brother or little sister.
Once matched, the big brother/big sister spends approximately two hours a week with their partner to do an activity or to play a game. Each high school student will also organize a game for their younger “sibling,” taking into account their physical and intellectual limitations. These may include reading activities, puzzles, music, sports, painting, or other creative activities. The big brother/ big sisters are also invited to one or more field trips with their little brother/sister so they can bond and help build a genuine relationship together.
Our big sisters/brothers placed their hand painting print next to their little sisters/brothers to symbolically mark their collaboration together this year.
At the conclusion of the school year, high school students in this program will complete an assignment in both written and spoken French about their experiences. They will articulate what this program has meant to them and their little brother/sister and how this program has changed their perceptions of people with disabilities.
Christelle and Herold (pictured right) in class
Objectives of the Big Brother, Big Sister Program:
• Establish thoughts, dialogues, debates, and discussion around the theme of ability/disability
• Establish role models for the younger students as they attempt to build their autonomy and practice good behavior
• To sensitize the older students to disability awareness and learn how to relate to student peers and other persons with disabilities
• To create lasting bonds between each big brother/sister and little brother/sister sibling
Enabling Minds’ students at St. Charles Borromeo School are completely funded through donations. A donation of $25 will sponsor a student’s education for one month, and $300 will sponsor the education of a student for the entire year. All donations are 100% tax deductible and any amount is greatly appreciated. Help us give the gift of an education to a student in need!
Mission accomplished!! We have fully funded classes for the rest of the 2014-2015 year for our students in Haiti! Because of your gracious support, we have funded the education of 32 students with developmental disabilities this year, most of whom are going to school for the first time in their lives!! We have also raised 15% of what is needed for next year’s classes! Your kindness and generosity is greatly appreciated. If you would like to help us continue to fund our 2015-2016 class, please visit www.enablingminds.com/donate
2014 was a great year for Enabling Minds. We finished our first school year in June with 22 children with developmental disabilities going to school (most of whom were going for the first time in their lives!). In September our students resumed classes, and we also inspired Sister Gloria, superintendent of St. Charles Borromeo School in Croix-des-Boquets to begin a new class for children with developmental disabilities at another school that she oversees in Corail, Haiti! This year Enabling Minds also became a tax-exempt non-profit!
I also wanted to take a moment to let you know how your past support has helped our friend Stevenson. . .
When I met Stevenson on his first day of school at St. Charles Borromeo School in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti in October 2013, he was tentative, quiet, and shy. Even though it was Stevenson’s first time in school setting, it was clear to the volunteers and staff that Stevenson was a special child. He had an easy smile, and seemed to be perpetually upbeat. Although malnutrition is extremely common in Haiti, twice during that week Stevenson offered another volunteer and I his entire pack of crackers and bottle of fresh water that was sent over to school for him from his orphanage.
When I returned to the school in January 2014, Stevenson seemed to be a different person. The apprehension around the other students without disabilities was gone. He had made so much progress that he was integrated into a general education classroom. In pictures, he no longer hid his hands, which were affected by a congenital condition that left him without fingers or toes. Stevenson was confidently writing words on the chalkboard in front of the whole his classroom, and was enthusiastically thrusting himself into his Special Olympics games.
This fall, Sister Gloria wrote to me to say that Stevenson was continuing to thrive in his new classroom. She also noted that through our partnership with Special Olympics, Haiti, Stevenson was invited to compete in the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los Angeles, CA next July!!
The educational success of Stevenson and other students with developmental disabilities is made possible because of the support of donors like you. Enabling Minds is entirely supported by financial gifts by donors, and the money we raise goes to our entirely to our project in Haiti. We take no salaries, and our visits to the school in Haiti are self-financed.
In the past month we have raised $4,000 and are we are now only $5,500 away from fully funding this year’s project in Haiti for children with developmental disabilities! Click here to make a donation to our classroom: www.enablingminds.org/donate
All gifts to Enabling Minds are graciously appreciated, and 100% tax-deductible. $25 a month will sponsor the tuition of a student like Stevenson for the year, and $50 will sponsor a student’s tuition AND school breakfast and lunch for the entire year.
Thank you for being a part of this!
With gratitude,
Tarik S. Khan, RN, CRNP
Founding Member and Chairperson
Enabling Minds
On January 24th , 2014 the students in our program at the St. Charles Borromeo school in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti took a class trip to the Kalico Beach Club in Arcade, Haiti. Robert Amir Berry made a phone call and arranged to have our children visit the pool at the beach club free of charge and after some planning from Sister Gloria and funding from Enabling Minds, we chartered a bus and went!
At 7:30AM we loaded up the bulky white bus with food, drinks and snacks, and 21 animated students, many of whom brought along a parent as a chaperone. Amanda, Amir and Tarik from Enabling Minds joined the students, most of whom had never to a pool or had gone swimming before.
During the bus ride to the resort we sang some of the songs the students learned in their class, ate snacks, and enjoyed the sights of the countryside and the warm fresh air that gently drifted in through the open windows. When we arrived at the beach club, our students curiously descended down the long driveway that lead to the retreat. The bright blue pool that awaited us was framed with comfortable lounge chairs, and was partially shaded by tall palm trees. In the background, cheerful contemporary Haitian music played.
The students enjoyed their day off by wading in the pool, playing in the water, catching horseback rides on the shoulders of the volunteers and staff, and lounging in the shade. In the afternoon our group enjoyed a picnic lunch which including rice, stewed chicken, and orange Tang. As the day came to a close, we headed back to Croix-des-Bouquets. Patrick, the music/dance teacher, played his drum
and lead us in song, while Gerline displayed her musical prowess on the whistle. It was a
great day filled with smiles, laughter, and happiness!
From January 19-25th 2014 Enabling Minds visited our students with developmental disabilities at the St. Charles Borromeo school in Croix-des-Bouquets. Tarik, Amanda, and Amir saw first-hand how well the children in our program were doing, most of whom were going to school for the very first time in their lives. Our team spoke with parents, administration and staff, and even the one of the local directors from the Food from the Poor orphanage where four of the students in our program live. From the stories we heard, the children’s lives have been transformed for the better: many have had a decrease in problematic behaviors and anxiety at home, and they are becoming more independent and self-confident in their personal lives. To our team the children seemed happy, relaxed, and to be very much enjoying the experience of going to school. Another significant finding was that the children accept and are being accepted by their schoolmates. Sister Gloria reports that they are excited to have this project and that these children have been a blessing to the St. Charles Borromeo School.
Port-au-Prince – The greater capital’s sprawl is a concrete jungle. Everything is made from cement and cinderblock, stretching out as a labyrinth in all directions. The smells of petrol and pollution are overpowering; dust covers everything and is kicked up by cars navigating the rocky streets.
But among the concrete, pollution and dust, the entire area is teeming with life – locals bustle to and fro against a backdrop of tropical overgrowth lining the streets and peeking out from walled compounds.
This is Haiti.
“It’s not a third world country; it’s a fourth world country,” people say. In international-development-speak it’s “the field.” Tourists just don’t come to this Caribbean country yet.
Haiti was my new frontier, and in one week it shattered the glass ceiling of my comfort zone. Equipped with virtually no French or Creole, I decided to jump off the cliff, and get on a plane from Miami bound for Toussant Int’l Airport. The flight is only an hour and a half, but Haiti is a world away.
I went to Haiti to consult for an organization called Enabling Minds, which tries to improve the lives of children with intellectual disabilities in Haiti by integrating them into schools, while promoting tolerance and understanding among society. They are one group of many who have answered the call to assist Haiti, and I was honored when I was invited to work with them as a strategic consultant.
Stepping off the plane, visitors to Port-au-Prince are immediately welcomed by calypso musicians and a newly renovated airport. In Haiti, one is almost always greeted with a smile and lively spirits. After clearing the airport’s thoroughfare, we were met outside with a “Heeeey man!” from our driver, who possessed a joie de vivre found all over the island. With that, we were on our way to our compound in Croix-des-Bouquets, a suburb 20 minutes from the capital’s airport and somewhere in the concrete jungle.
My adventure revolved around the school and clinic on a compound called San Carlos Borromeo, where Enabling Minds is implementing their flagship project that integrates students with intellectual disabilities into the school. The school and clinic also bring in volunteer doctors, dentists, physical therapists, psychologists, teachers and aides from around the world through partnerships with organizations like Fundación América Solidaria. The compound is run by a firecracker of a Colombian nun named Sister Gloria. Stout, vivacious, hardy and incredibly organized, Sister Gloria captains this great humanitarian ship in Croix-des-Bouquets with grace.
There is a culture among people who respond to humanitarian emergencies: you adapt and help where you are most needed, regardless of what the original plan had been. Being bilingual in a community where half spoke Spanish and half spoke English, I was designated translator in addition to my role with Enabling Minds. At one point I was even providing translation services for a Cuban doctor – the first Cuban (aside from Cuban-Americans) I had ever had the pleasure of meeting.
The environment also gets you to perform tasks you never thought you’d do. I’ve never been that great with kids, but on my first full day I found myself serving as caretaker of a 5-year-old with spina bifida. He needed to go to the clinic to be fitted for a wheelchair, and I accompanied him other volunteers to the clinic to do some translation. When he was finished, none of the other volunteers were anywhere to be found, likely dealing with a crisis somewhere. The child needed to get back to school, and so it was up to me. “Ecole?” I said, in all the French I could muster. He nodded and stretched his arms around me as I picked him up. So there I was, carrying a 5-year-old Haitian child with spina bifida through the dusty streets back to the school. The sun hurt his eyes, so I put sunglasses on him and we pressed on toward his kindergarten class.
Each day in Haiti began with my personal ritual of taking my morning coffee up to the roof of the compound, watching the sunrise set the mountains aglow, and listening to my “Haiti mix” on Spotify. @MindyKaling, every morning I thought of you and of that scene from The Mindy Project. The difference being I was alone and nobody proposed to me. #sigh #imgoingtodiealone #allmyfriendsareinarelationshiporengagedormarried.
From sunrise to sunset, the days were filled with magic. Aside from leading seminars, providing coaching, and vision mapping for Enabling Minds, I spent my days in beautiful ways I’ll never forget. I came away having grown as a person and realizing that these moments are what life is about. For example, I helped lead a lively dance class for children with intellectual disabilities. In the past I had not always been comfortable around people with intellectually disabilities – an ugly but honest statement. I suppose that I have never been a natural caregiver. This irrational fear was entirely overcome. The jovial dance, the children’s smiles, and their excitement were all catalysts. Dance breaks down barriers to common humanity.
When one of the Enabling Minds students spilled his lunch all over himself on a class picnic, and the other aides were putting out fires elsewhere, he looked to me. He could not get the spoon from his bowl to his mouth. There was no one else to help; it was up to me. I got him a second serving, sat down with him under a tree, and helped him eat. I made sure he could swallow his food and didn’t choke; I wiped his clothes and his mouth.
There were some moments of overpowering sadness – touring an orphanage for the intellectually and developmentally disabled in Croix-des-Bouquets was one of the most difficult and heartbreaking experiences I’ve ever had. There were dozens of children in a communal area strapped into cribs or wheelchairs, unable to speak, unable to eat. Their caretakers could do little more than feed, shelter and keep them clean given the orphanage’s meager resources. The emotive response was so strong that I had to remove myself and sit alone.
There were also moments of great joy – at one point, I found myself sitting in the back of a pickup truck, speeding down National Route 3 toward Port-au-Prince, blasting M83’s Midnight City, and watching the cacophony of people, marketplaces, tap-taps and concrete buildings pass by. I was sun-kissed, with a glowing smile on my face. I jetted by in the pickup as passersby – some of the world’s friendliest – waved to me or looked inquisitively at my presence. The feeling of happiness welled up inside me, and I recognized that it is at simple moments likes these when I am happiest.
One day, all the American volunteers and the Cuban doctor piled into a car to go on an excursion together. We talked, got to know one another, discovered we all had much in common and that the old, tired animosities between our countries simply don’t matter anymore. This was international relations at its best, just regular people being people.
Within the concrete jungle of the greater capital area are some treasures that should not be missed by those who come here. In the downtown area of Port-au-Prince, the National Museum of Haiti is highly recommended. The energetic guided tours in English, French, Creole or Spanish showcase Haitian heroes and Haitian history – well worth the admission cost.
In Croix-des-Bouquets you will encounter the finest metal art the greater capital area has to offer when you pay a visit to the metal drum artisans. The sound of hammers on steel beckons, as do the throngs of stores that specialize in this uniquely Haitian craft. You could hire a car to take you to their workshops, but I personally recommend hiring a moto (a dirt bike) to take you. There isn’t much like zipping through the backstreets of Haiti on the back of a moto with the wind in your hair; it feels like freedom.
Metal art pieces range from scenes of Haitian life to animals, dance, music, Catholicism, and vodou. I found pieces that depicted sea spirits, and one of the vévé (religious symbol used in Haitian vodou) invoking Baron Samedi for myself. Everything I knew by that point about Haitian vodou stemmed from an excellent book called Haitian Vodou: An Introduction to Haiti’s Indigenous Spiritual Tradition by Mambo Chita Tann. It equipped me with enough elements to discuss the artist’s work. He was glad that I knew something about the spiritual path and could recognize some of the lwa (vodou spirits). The metal artist finished the conversation with, “I have to see you again. But for now, I will send my spirit with you.” With a firm handshake and sincerity written on his face, I knew he was serious. He then gifted me a piece with the vévé of the lwa Erzulie and sent me on my way.
Haiti was very good to me. Besides the artisan, other Haitians I had the pleasure of meeting were all incredibly dear, genuine people. I’ll not forget the woman who made empanadas for us in her restaurant/hut by the school almost daily, or the loving staff who are there for children who would otherwise be neglected. Most importantly, the country allowed me to break out of my comfort zone and grow as a human being. I am excited to return, but in the meantime I carry the memories, lessons and spirits from the island wherever I go.
A song by Jets to Brazil called Chinatown says, “Believe everything and you’ll be right half the time.” The day before we left, I implored the lwa of the island to help a dear friend of mine back in the U.S. whose heritage stems from this island. He wants to get into a graduate program. He has his own personal hash tag for me: #healtheworld. I’m no practitioner of Haitian vodou, but I did what felt to be natural. I made the lwa an offering of seashells and coral, which now rests in the sea. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being a believer.
Enabling Minds would like to express a heartfelt thank you to Jeff and Barbara Black from Black Restaurant Group for their generous donation to Enabling Minds’ project in Haiti for children with developmental disabilities! Jeff and his wife Barbara came out to Enabling Minds’ fundraiser at the Camden Roosevelt in December 2013. Since we still had a lot of items remaining on our holiday wish list, Jeff and Barbara bought every single item that we needed off of our list, including scores of children’s books in French and Creole, toys for children with autism, children’s diapers, and over 70 lbs. of protein-rich powdered milk!
Jeff and his Barbara also do a lot of work to assist children who are disadvantaged. To learn more about Jeff and Barbara’s projects, please click here.
“Enabling Minds and the leadership at The St. Charles Borromeo School in Croix-des-Bouquets share a similar vision with the Special Olympics: by helping to include people with intellectual disabilities into the community, the entire country and world will benefit. In September 2013 the School in the Santo 19 section of Croix-des-Bouquets will begin a pilot class of 10 children with developmental disabilities, virtually all intellectual disabilities. Enabling Minds, a United States group that strives to assist individuals with intellectual disabilities in underserved regions, is working to assist the St. Charles Borromeo School in serving these children by providing financial and educational support. This project will allow children with disabilities in this community to attend school and be included with children without disabilities. Special Olympics Haiti will open a practice program in order to integrate these children to the world of sport, partnership, friendship, love and socialization.”
by Georges Bony, National Sport Director for Special Olympics Haiti. Originally published by Special Olympics International May 28, 2013.
“Special Olympics Haiti is really thankful to Tarik Khan, a nurse practitioner who used to coach Special Olympics athletes in The U.S.A. . With the desire to help the many children that live with intellectual disabilities, he will start a class for teaching them. Special Olympics Haiti retains this from Tarik: “My passion for people with intellectual disabilities began in high school with the Special Olympics Spring Games in Philadelphia. I worked with the athletes who were involved in the motor activity training program (MATP). When I was in nursing school, I continued with Special Olympics Philadelphia, and I became an assistant swimming coach for several years in Montgomery County, PA. In graduate school at La Salle University, I focused my studies on the health care needs of populations with intellectual disabilities. When I was handed my degree on the day I graduated La Salle University, I told Dr. Tim Shriver, Chairman and CEO of Special Olympics that I was a coach, and how much I appreciated all of his work with the intellectually disabled community around the world.”
by Georges Bony, National Sport Director for Special Olympics Haiti. Originally published by Special Olympics International, May 28, 2013.
Last month, Enabling Minds’ students with disabilities and their big brothers/big sisters joined together one morning to enjoy the Haitian holiday of Carnaval! To begin the day, the children and their big siblings watched the inspirational French film “All Our Strength.” This movie, based on a true story, tells the story of a child named Julian who uses a wheelchair for ambulation. Julian challenges his father to compete with him in the grueling Ironman Triathlon in Nice, France. In the film, the entire family rallies around the father and son so that they can achieve this incredibly challenging feat.
