SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. (AP) - As Paul and Elizabeth Wicks prepared for their latest journey to Haiti, their excitement was palpable.
Founders of a nonprofit called The Reading Room Inc., the South Windsor couple has been working to promote literacy in the impoverished Caribbean nation since the 1990s.
The Wicks were first exposed to the Haitian education system - or, in many cases, lack thereof - over 25 years ago when members of a local church they attended traveled to the country to partner with and aid a Haitian church.
But they quickly realized the country’s widespread educational deficiencies warranted a broader focus.
“It became pretty apparent that maybe our focus shouldn’t be directly helping that specific church in Haiti, but the local school, which is where really almost all the kids from that church went,” Paul Wicks said.
The school, he said, was doing a good job educating children with very few resources, as well as “probably giving them their only decent meal of the day and basic access to medical (treatment).”
So he and his wife set up a sponsorship program to aid the school.
Haiti’s public school system isn’t nearly large enough to accommodate all Haitian children, and government funding is both meager and inconsistent. Sometimes, the Wicks said, teachers go unpaid and classroom lights are shut off. Other schools run by non-governmental organizations pick up the slack where they can, but the prioritization of building more classrooms to accommodate more children means funding procured by the schools is rarely able to be used on additional supplies, including books.
“It’s basically a very large volume of kids getting a very rote, basic education,” Paul Wicks said.
In fact, many schools do not have books at all, and ones that do have a small collection that often is kept in a locked cabinet to prevent theft.
Elizabeth Wicks, a certified literary expert who works in Connecticut with students in Grades 3 to 5, said many of the teachers in these schools are well-meaning, but lack the education and skills to effectively teach the materials they are lucky enough to have.
“You can go to Haiti, not be certified as a teacher at all, and open up a school,” she said. “Lots of times, it’s people who came up through the school system; the teachers may have an eighth-grade-level education.”
The Wicks, however, have nothing but admiration for both the teachers and students in Haiti, whom they described as eager and ready to learn when given the right tools
That’s why, rather than simply helping to fund Haitian schools, the couple has developed a two-pronged approach to promote and facilitate literacy in the country.
That approach involves the couple’s original concept of “flash libraries,” which are essentially sets of books and other supplies designed to turn a large classroom or cafeteria into a temporary reading center. Each flash library has rolling bookshelves, stackable chairs, floor mats, beanbag seats, and 700 to 1,000 books. This allows students and teachers to quickly assemble and disassemble the library when needed, and supplies students with a wealth of literature that would otherwise be unavailable.
The cost, the Wicks said, is about one third or less than to construct a traditional library in a school, and that cost is fully assumed by The Reading Room.
The couple this month will take their concept to the country for the second time, about four years after the inaugural flash library was introduced in 2013 to Le Foyer school in Croix-des-Bouquets to a fervent response. Chantal Coutard, a teacher at the school, has been a close friend to the couple and a key player in their initiative.
“We got down there and we started unpacking the boxes - they went nuts,” Paul Wicks said, noting that the couple was initially nervous that their carefully designed model would not be well received. “The kids, the teachers, the administrators - it was like the greatest thing they’d ever seen.”
The books mainly feature characters with which the students can identity, the couple said, which means that many of the characters are impoverished and living in worlds and cultures that resemble Haiti’s.
Elizabeth Wicks said one of her favorite moments after unpacking the first flash library was when one student read a passage about a character who likes to play soccer.
Elizabeth Wicks recalled the child exclaiming, “I like to play soccer.” While recounting the story, she displayed a photo of that same child beaming as he read. Her face, bright with an earnest smile, resembled the boy’s in the photo as she spoke.
Soccer is a very popular sport in Haiti, and the couple even has an ice cream maker designed to look like a soccer ball that they bring on their trips. This, too, promotes literacy, as students must read instructions before adding ingredients and rolling the device around to make the ice cream.
The Wicks’ dual approach, however, also involves teaching the teachers. To this end, Elizabeth Wicks gives seminars to help Haitian teachers - who are often greatly disadvantaged in their field because of their own relative lack of education - use key techniques and strategies to teach students.
“It’s like giving a car without gas,” Elizabeth Wicks said on supplying books without ensuring that the students are able to receive a proper literary education.
Teachers who attend the seminars also receive aid kits, which this time will include a number of items, including a solar light - for when electricity is cut off in schools - and a $20 stipend, which in Haiti is a significant amount of money.
Paul Wicks has carefully documented the couple’s model, and they hope to share it with other groups or even be absorbed by a larger nonprofit organization.
The Wicks believe their initiative will empower Haitians to have more control over their futures while improving their society.
“Literacy is power and privilege, and it’s not accessible to all people,” Elizabeth Wicks said. “We feel that if you teach people how to think and you give them access to books, that they’re going to figure out how to change their society and their world. And that’s what they want.”
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Information from: Journal Inquirer, https://www.journalinquirer.com
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