Double event supports educational reform efforts in Haiti
By Wes Wade (wes.r.wade@gmail.com)
After returning earlier this year from a volunteer-based trip to Jacmel in Haiti, Sara Malley and Kymberle Kaser were so moved by the need for public secondary education in the country that they established the Haitian Pedagogy Institute (HPI). With its mission of one day providing free secondary education to the many rural areas of Haiti, the HPI is holding its first fundraiser this Saturday at The Birdhouse near downtown Knoxville.
The event, dubbed “Lyrics for Learning,” will be a seven band benefit and silent auction.
“I had done two benefits when I was at Middle Tennessee State,” Malley said. “So I threw that idea out and Kym has experience with silent auctions so we put those two experiences together and thought we’d do a joint event.”
The silent auction will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Items up for bid include Ice Bears tickets, photo shoots, salon gift packages and antiques. The music begins at 6:30 and will run until 2 a.m., with entertainment from area groups including Archaic Smile, The Great Great Pines, Johnson Swingtet, Clockwork Wizards, Knox County Jug Stompers, Stigmastrain and Ben Maney.
“The musical response was amazing,” Malley said. “We have a lineup of seven bands, all of which are volunteering their time.”
And there’s something for a bit of the music lover in everyone " from experimental folk to Americana to 1920s-influenced swing numbers replete with blues steeped harmonicas, frolicking guitar licks and a jazzy violin to boot.
A cash bar will be available throughout the evening offering wine and beer and donations for HPI will be taken at the door.
All donations will go toward the purchase of land in Jacmel, the first step in HPI’s mission to build schools offering free secondary education to rural areas.
“One of the things that really struck us while we were there is the privatization of education,” Malley said. “Most of the secondary schools " our high schools in the U.S. " are privately owned and there’s basically no free education for (the) secondary. Most children are stopping after elementary school because they can’t afford education.”
Malley and Kaser are currently working with the University of Tennessee Law Clinic in order to establish the HPI as a 501 C2 non-profit. Since their first project in Jacmel could cost anywhere from $5,000 to $30,000, securing funding from as many outside sources as possible is a top priority.
“It’s going to be baby steps for the first few years, and our first school will take the longest because it’s a learning process.” Malley said. “I hope by this year we’ll have the land nailed down.”
The two have planned a return trip in May to scout out land and secure a more precise estimate on the total cost of the project. And future self sustainability is of utmost importance.
“We don’t want to essentially build a school and be like ‘OK, here it is. Good luck.’,” Malley said. “We also want the school to be making its own economic revenue. We want to implement a lot of sustainable buildings in the sense that ... it’s provided free for the students but in terms of revenue for paying teachers, etc., they’ll be generating their own revenue.”
And while the plan is to eventually branch out to other rural areas of Haiti, the HPI co-executive producers are indeed taking it one step at a time. For Kymberle Kaser, it’s quite simple.
“If one school can be built, if one student can learn, if one dream can be turned into a reality, then maybe that student will turn around and do that for someone else,” she explained. “Love and the love for life is contagious.”
Wes Wade is the arts and entertainment columnist for Weekend. Contact him at (wes.r.wade@gmail.com)
