A Day of Presidents, Prizewinners and Promise

On May 9th the HELP center was abuzz as HELP’s 168 students and 30 staff gathered for the third and final General Assembly of the year. The theme of the day was “HELP’s Mission: Contributing to a more just society in Haiti” and we had two illustrious guests to help.Nobel Peace Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus opened the assembly by describing how he returned to famine-stricken Bangladesh in the 1970’s after completing a PhD in economics at Vanderbilt University on a Fulbright scholarship. He became friendly with some destitute residents of his neighborhood and they told him how their dependence on the local usurers led to increasing debt and desperation. Prof. Yunus told us that he didn’t do any market studies, create any spreadsheets or run any numbers. He simply took money from his pocket and told the people it was a loan, at an interest rate far below the usurers’ rate. Those are the origins of Grameen Bank, which today, Prof. Yunus said, has $1.5b in deposits and owns Bangladesh’s largest cell phone carrier, with 40 million subscribers.Prof. Yunus told HELP students that, like him, they were lucky to live in a place with many problems because life without problems to solve was boring. He encouraged the students to start small initiatives to address problems in their hometowns, telling them that many would grow big and beautiful.HELP students took then took the stage to present the work they are already doing in their communities. Ed Philippe Jean (Statistics ‘16) told a remarkable story of how he got approval from local religious, political and business leaders to start a civic organization in his remote hometown by showing up for his town’s patron feast when he knew he would find all three there and in good spirits. Anne Martine Augustin (Electrical engineering ’15) and Ronel Lefranc (Agriculture ’14) talked about how they had worked on the idea of a pan-university, student civic organization for a year before trying to launch it, and how they convinced only six people, all of them friends, to attend the first meeting. Three years later, with over 200 members, ACTIVEH had to close registration due to the tremendous demand. Ronel talked about providing water for residents in his rural hometown and Anne Martine said that she had dreamed for years of getting her first paycheck but that when it finally came, she realized that her volunteer work with ACTIVEH was more fulfilling than a high salary. Elice Oreste (Industrial Engineering ’14) told the story of a musical group he started in high school that has grown into an organization which hosts annual academic competitions and musical events, distributes food to the hungry, and is building a community library.The keynote speaker of the afternoon was two-time Haitian President, René Préval. Préval holds the distinction of being the first president of Haiti ever to complete his term as scheduled, and without being deposed. And he accomplished this twice before any other president managed it once. Préval spoke about political stability and national production as the necessary foundations of Haiti’s economic growth. Having made his groundbreaking contribution to political stability, he told us how he is now turning his attention to economic growth, building fruit and juice factories in his hometown of Marmelade to build homegrown industries from Haiti’s rich fruit production. Préval invited HELP students, Haiti’s next generation of producers, to visit his factories and join his team of agronomists, engineers, and managers.Thanks to board member Bernard Fils-Aimé and our friend Philippe Armand for bringing such accomplished speakers to encourage our students. And thanks to our students for presenting the very best of HELP on the same stage as world leaders.