Helping Haiti
gabrielle apollon is a woman on a (charity) mission
Gabrielle Apollon, CC ’09, is multitasking. She is sending out e-mails while speaking with me on a Monday evening. Her mother is here from Montreal and sits at the edge of the bed. Gabrielle is sprawled out as she types. Not coincidentally, these facts all relate to the same topic—the Global Life Focus Network—and despite her other obligations for the evening, Gabrielle is eager to speak about the project.
“I’m sorry to be on my computer while you’re here,” Gabrielle says. “But, I just had to get these written out.”
The work she is doing this evening is on behalf of the charity organization she and her mother started in 2002, the Global Life Focus Network. Organized and run by about 25 family members and friends of the Apollons, the network is a non-profit organization with the main goal of providing education for impoverished Haitian children. Gabrielle and her mother, Mary Apollon—a Haitian immigrant to Canada—feel it is their mission as the network’s leaders to help their country.
“Originally I wanted to do some work in Africa, but God kept telling me ‘Haiti, Haiti,’” Mary says.
They sponsor the education of 35 Haitian children year-round, but the highlight of the organization is a summer program it runs in small Haitian towns. Accommodating more than 300 students per summer session, the program offers courses such as English, art, Creole, health and young adult development, and Bible study.
“The majority of them have no school, have never been to school before,” Mary says. She emphasizes the health education in particular because it teaches the children concepts “we take for granted, like the importance of brushing your teeth. They come from families where the kids have to share underwear because they are so poor.”
“We want to restore the lives of these children—physically, mentally, spiritually,” Gabrielle says.
Last year was the Summer Education Program’s inaugural year, and the expenses were met in large part through a $10,000 grant from 100 Projects for Peace, a philanthropic initiative that provides money to selected college undergraduates for summer grassroots projects. To fund this summer’s project, Gabrielle and her mother have been applying for grants (the task the two were working on the night of my interview) as well as other fundraising.
Just this past Saturday, a fundraising event for the organization, called Voices for Haiti, was held on campus.
“A lot of people came out, and I’m really happy it turned out the way it did,” Gabrielle says.
Voices for Haiti, which took place in Wien Hall, featured performances by Uptown Vocal and Onyx. Haitian food was included in the $3 entrance fee.
“All in all we raised about $500, which was such a blessing,” Gabrielle says. She attributes the success of the program to the efforts of Columbia student groups and the support they have shown for the Global Life Focus Network: “Everyone was so collaborative.” The InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Blue Key Society, and Columbia College Student Council cosponsored the event.
Columbia has aided the Global Life Focus Network in another way as well. Nickisha Berlus, CC ’08, is one Columbia student actually making the trip to Haiti this summer to help teach.
“This year there are no mcats,” Berlus says, referring to her freed-up summer schedule. She will be attending medical school in the fall, but of this summer she says: “It is my last opportunity to do this. The experience would be outside of this world for these kids. I just want to take them out of the environment as they know it, just for a little while.”
Berlus is an immigrant from Haiti, making the experience even more close to home for her. It is an important summer for her because she wishes to return to the country.
“My dream is to someday practice medicine in Haiti. This experience will be the best exposure to what I’m going to have there and what I’m not going to have.”
The work the Apollons are doing in terms of education for some Haitian children is not the entire mission of the network, however. They hope to expand their work in Haiti by including more programs to strengthen the economic standings of the poor communities that they target. This includes reaching out more to adults.
“We would like to establish an economic base for these communities in Haiti, to have a place, a clinic for children, and also a trade school for adults,” Mary says.
“Not just a place ran by us, but a place for them to be able to do it. We want them to be able to be self-sufficient, so it can continue generations,” Gabrielle adds. \\\