Marc Sary Andre and Ricardo Etienne each grew up in separate regions of Haiti and soon became friends after meeting through Kirkwood’s exchange program partnership with the Center for Intercultural Education (CIED) program coordinated by Georgetown University. There is a one-year application process for CIED and out of an average of 3,000 applicants annually, only 25 per year are selected to be in the program.
Primary and secondary education in Haiti does not come automatically or easily. Oftentimes parents have limited or no education themselves, and sadly this pattern is passed along to their children. A high value is placed upon education in Haiti, but many families cannot afford the annual cost to send their child(ren) to school. Even though neither Marc’s nor Ricardo’s parents had much formal education, both young men were inspired by their mothers. Ricardo’s father left his family when Ricardo was 13 years old. This life event actually motivated him to pursue his education to be the best person he could be. Marc’s mother encouraged him to “take what he had, and find out what he could do with what he knew,” he said.
“If you try and fail, at least you tried,” said Andre. “But, if you never try, you are the one who has lost everything.”
Each studied hard throughout their high school years and became leaders within their respective communities. Ricardo was president of his high school class and volunteered at natural disasters including helping with shelter and rescue assistance during the 7.0 Mw magnitude earthquake of 2010. Marc carries the scars on his face from that earthquake after being buried in rubble along with his family. Marc became a chief in his scout troop at age 11, taught swim classes, was a blood donor through the Red Cross for mother’s who gave birth, and became a city department leader in his town at age 19.
During their time at Kirkwood, Marc and Ricardo became friends and they realized many of their goals were the same. So, they teamed together and formed the non-profit organization Volition and Action for Haiti (VAH), now in its second year. The goals of VAH are to help support less fortunate children and guide young adults to learn technical skills. Through monetary donations received, Marc and Ricardo are able to help pay tuition and purchase school supplies, shoes and school uniforms for the 25 children in their program. To stay in contact with the students they serve, they meet together as a group every Sunday, offering a hot meal and sometimes taking an occasional field trip, and to be there as mentors to the youth.
Marc and Ricardo are accepting contributions toward their goal of doubling the number of students they serve for the next school year to 50. Cost is $200 per child per school year. Read more about the VAH program by visiting their Facebook page. A website is currently in development.