Project HOPE Art launched our Art + Literacy program in Cité Soleil in January of 2011 at Centre d’Education et de Formattion des Jeunes. We will continue to visit the school reading books in Kreyol, French and English, leaving in our wake five foot posters intended for community storytelling.
Donations of books in French for our art & literacy program are always being accepted, please visit our wish list page for details.
About Cité Soleil: (Kreyol: Site Solèy, English: Sun City) is generally regarded as the poorest and most dangerous areas of the Western Hemisphere and it is one of the biggest slums in the Northern Hemisphere. The area has virtually no sewers, stores, electricity, health care facilities or schools. Half of the houses of Cité Soleil are made of cement with a metal roof, half are made completely of scavenged material. An estimated 60 to 70% of houses have no access to a latrine. Armed gangs roam the streets and terrorize the neighborhood. Every few blocks was controlled by one of more than 30 armed factions. Though the gangs no longer “rule”, murder, rape, kidnapping, looting, and shootings are still common. The area has been called a “microcosm of all the ills in Haitian society: endemic unemployment, illiteracy, non-existent public services, unsanitary conditions, rampant crime and armed violence”
“By January of 2011 I had wanted to visit this area of PaP for 10 months. No one would ever go with me, it has the worst reputation. But I always feel that the people who are the hardest to reach are the ones who need us the most.” – Photographer, Melissa Schilling
