May 2015 Update

May 15th, 2015

by Kathleen Walker.

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May 2015

Dear friends of Matènwa,

We hope that you are enjoying springtime and even doing some gardening yourselves, just as MCLC has been doing all year-round. The rains have finally begun after over 4 long months of drought. If you garden or know someone who does, the students would like to share this great homemade organic pesticide recipe with you to help protect your plants. We have found it to be very effective to fight pests such as caterpillars and Mealybugs. People can still safely consume the vegetables from the garden later on. To make this pesticide, you will need a few neem and cedar leaves, a mortar and pestle, an organic soap bar, water, a recipient to mix the ingredients, and a strainer.

To start, the students use a mortar and two pestles to grind the leaves. Next, they dilute the soap in water, add the grinded leaves, and then pour the solution through a strainer into a spray container. Once students spray the plants with this solution, the insects stayed away from the garden.

Passing it Forward Some of the secondary students who took weaving classes last year are now teaching their peers how to make woven chairs and baskets. The student leaders have delved into the work with great excitement. This is evident in how motivated they are to prepare the materials needed for their classes (See photo). MCLC students are learning and passing it forward!

Training and Visit Update

Community Coalition for Haiti sent a third group of teachers from Jacmel schools for a week-long training at MCLC. The five teachers did classroom observations and learned about our different teaching methods and principles. After the training, they felt that they had acquired enough techniques to start gardening with their students and managing their classrooms without verbal or physical punishment.

MCLC also received two special visits last month. FOM’s board president, Barbara Sampson, led a group of supporters to see and experience Matènwa first hand. Five people came from GreaterGood, including its CEO, Tim Kunin, who was visiting Matènwa for the second time.

They were very impressed by how well spoken our 9th graders were and reiterated their commitment to help fund and promote Matènwa’s Secondary School program.