Local residents Bill Nies (on the left) and Joan Haviland (third from the right) with some of the people they have met through Friends of Borgne. Photo courtesy of Friends of Borgne
BY DEB AND TIM SMITH
The Youth Group from the First Presbyterian Church in Honeoye Falls is going to have a Pickleball Tournament to benefit Friends of Borgne, Inc. (hereafter referred to as FOB) which was formed in 2010 to help with the education of children in Borgne, Haiti. The Pickleball Tourney will occur on May 17. It’s so inspiring to see that today’s teenagers are continuing this tradition of helping others that began in Honeoye Falls back in 2011 when Honeoye Falls and Borgne, Haiti, became Sister Cities. It shows how small towns can help make big differences to one another. It also shows a side of Haiti that most people don’t know about. It’s truly a point of light.
The Sister Cities International Connection was formalized on June 19, 2011. Dick Haviland, who was a founding member of Friends of Borgne, Inc, suggested that they become Sister Cities. He and others approached the Village Board and they agreed as did the people in Borgne, Haiti. On one beautiful day in June, during intermission of a Honeoye Falls Community Band concert, it became official. Estimable Francius Dauphin, the Assistant Mayor of Borgne, who goes by the name of Johnny, came to Honeoye Falls from Borgne. He and Mayor Rick Milne signed the papers to make it official. Sister Cities and Friends of Borgne have been interconnected ever since.
Over these past years, there have been many connections. One year there was a flood in Borgne and farmers lost their tools. Sister Cities stepped in and donated so that they could replace the tools upon which their livelihood depended.
Over the years literally hundreds of children in Borgne have been able to go to school because of FOB. This effort has been coordinated in Borgne by Johnny, their Assistant Mayor mentioned above, who has devoted his life to the children there. Joan Haviland met him when she first went to Haiti over 25 years ago when he was a teacher and also a Boy Scout leader. He has been able to travel back and forth and has been to Honeoye Falls several times.
Back in Borgne, Johnny is the one who helps the different sections in Borgne select the students who will receive full scholarships which include tuition, uniforms, shoes, backpacks, books, and a meal each day so that they have the strength to go to school. He has meetings with the parents and gives them funds to buy fabric and have uniforms made. He enrolls the students in various schools and coordinates the entire process. All of this has been aided in happening because of the funds that have been raised in the Honeoye Falls-Mendon area.
FOB is also able to pay the cooks who make the meals for the children each school day. They are like second mothers to these children. First of all, by some miracle, the children are usually perfectly groomed and their uniforms don’t have a wrinkle. The students leave their huts in crisp pristine condition. They show up at the Fondasyon Dauphin, where local activities happen supported by FOB funds, and have a meal before school starts. The cooks have been up before sunrise to start the fires and make the rice.
There are many stories about trips to Borgne taken by people from our community. On the first trip, the Borgne Boy Scouts asked for help forming a band. Dick Haviland championed this initiative which took a long time to come together. FOB had a drive to collect instruments from people whose children no longer played them. Many donations came from Honeoye Falls and the Greater Rochester area.
Dick, who had a band in college that helped to pay his tuition, had a bass fiddle which he sold. He used the proceeds to refurbish the instruments and buy reeds, etc. Sarah Brownell, who was also a founding member of FOB, was then teaching at RIT. She and her students personally transported the instruments to Borgne.
After they arrived, the instruments were displayed on long tables in front of the church in Borgne. The people of the village gathered around and the priest blessed the instruments. Speeches were given and there was a true sense of exhilaration that Borgne would finally have a band.
Donations here helped to hire music teachers. Within only five months the students not only knew how to play the instruments, but they could play together. Their repertoire included the Haitian National Anthem and more. This musical program is still flourishing using the “each one, teach one” method.
People in Borgne celebrate everything and the band makes each celebration more special! They are even able to make money, some of which goes to maintaining their precious instruments. When Dick Haviland died in March, 2024, the band gathered and played a beautiful song in his honor, which they were able to send via phone. The Borgne band just participated in a major event in the town of Cap Haitian and drew quite a crowd.
Another program made possible by this alliance between FOB and Sister Cities was the creation of the Traveling Librarian Program. The librarian rides a donkey with saddle bags from school to school with beautifully illustrated books in Haitian Kreyol. He stays overnight so the children can take the books home. Pastor Kirk Baker of the First Presbyterian Church in Honeoye Falls and others wrote and received a grant last year to buy new books for the traveling library.
The Sewing Program in Borgne is another program that helps people acquire a skill and earn money. Thanks to a grant, FOB was able to buy treadle sewing machines and many people learned to sew. It had been several years and they needed new sewing machines which have been purchased and will be set up soon so that the program can continue. During the Covid epidemic, they made over 1500 masks which they distributed to educators, cemetery workers, market vendors and the elderly. They also made beautiful white uniforms with gold braid for the band.
At this point we’re going to turn things over to Joan Haviland for her personal account of an interesting story from Haiti…The teachers are so dedicated; in addition to full scholarships for about 40 children each year, FOB has been able to pay teachers at three schools which help many children go to school at a very low cost.
One time FOB arrived and they hadn’t received the information that we would be there. We had brought lots of materials because they requested that we help them learn new ways of teaching. The teachers didn’t want to close school for the day, as they would have if they had known in time, so they said that they would return at night.
That afternoon we set up all the supplies we had brought. Then it started to rain hard and it was very dark. We assumed that no one would be able to come. Then we saw points of light coming toward us. The teachers were walking back from their homes with flashlights and umbrellas. They all arrived and we were able to share the material we had brought.
We did a demonstration writing class and had been told that they would be hesitant to write; they weren’t. We did a little writing class where they would write a poem with every line starting with “I remember…”. They wrote like mad. When we finished, I asked them to share with one or two others and the place was a hum of talking and sharing.
There was laughter. There were tears. I was able to do the same with a class of older children and they jumped out of their seats when asked if they wanted to share. We did a sample lesson about the planets. They wanted us to come and see when they did the same lesson with their students. They were so eager to learn and to share what they had learned with their students.
Another memorable trip occurred in 2012. Teachers had requested funds from FOB to build a school in Petite Riviera, a small nearby town. The teachers said they would work free if FOB could help build a school on their side of the river. Often children would have to miss school if they were unable to cross the river and it was very dangerous, with one student actually drowning. Just before the school opened, Board Members Joan Haviland, Florence Lissade, and Bill Nies went to visit.
The Haitians had a grand celebration with education officials coming from Cap Haitian, Haiti’s second largest city. The students performed an original play about a child who couldn’t go to school with a happy ending of getting a scholarship.
There was much dancing and singing and a parade with marching Boy Scouts, displays and refreshments. At one point the emcee of the event looked at the board members and thanked them for helping to make this new school a reality. Then he said, “The teachers have been working for no money. They have families, too. Is there any way you could pay their salaries?”
Again, we will defer to Joan at this point as we particularly like the way she worded this part. Joan said… Our response was going to be, “WE will talk with our group when we get back home and we will do our best.” The only word we got out was WE which they interpreted as OUI (yes, in Kreyol) and the place erupted with applause. We just looked at each other and said, “I guess we will find a way”… and we did.
There have been so many contributions and connections made with this project and we’d like to take the time to mention them…
* HF-L High School students have helped decorate and serve at many of our fundraisers at the Mendon Community Center in Honeoye Falls. Their connection led to the formation of the Honeoye Falls Sister Cities Youth Group that flourished for 4 years.
* Canandaigua National Bank has invited us to have a display at the bank where we sold various things over the years like hand-painted ornaments, beautiful handmade scarves, and more.
* Dipper Dan’s, owned by the Moffitt family, has a fundraiser each summer with a band, dancing, and lots of ice cream!! They donate half of their profits to help the children in Borgne.
* Salvatore’s donated large trays of cookies for a fundraiser.
* The Village of Honeoye Falls pays the Sister Cities dues each year and supports these efforts.
* The Town of Mendon allows us to use the Community Center rent free so that all profits from our fundraisers there go to the programs in Borgne.
* All of the churches publish information about the fundraisers in their bulletins. Some have invited us to speak to groups there. The First Presbyterian Church of Honeoye Falls Women’s group makes a generous annual donation.
* Many businesses which will be listed are helping with the Pickleball Tournament coming up on May 17th at HF-L high school.
* Many community members have donated by making soup for the Soup’s On fundraisers and by buying the soups, coming to the fundraiser dinners, and more.
* One wonderful woman, who has passed, made dozens of beautiful dresses in many sizes for the children, which we would take when we were able to go,
* The Sentinel has published numerous articles supporting our fundraising activities.
It has done the community good to reach out to people in the poorest country in our hemisphere and do something to help. Joan summarized things by saying, “We have received so much from the people in Borgne, too.
Everyone who goes there is truly changed for life. It is so inspiring to see people living in such poverty celebrating life.”
