MARIE-JO POUX, former Pediatric Nurse in Brooklyn and Cincinnatti and founder of the Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants (F.E.P.E.) orphanage in the Lower Delmas district of Port-au-Prince, November of 2029, tells us about her “teacher” in the early 1960s, MARIE MARTHE BALIN FRANCK PAUL, and that teacher’s ‘Lèkol Toupatou’ (School Everywhere in Haitian Kréyol) program for tuition-free literacy through Video Lessons across Haiti.
Six years ago, June 2018, MARIE-JO and MARIE-MARTHE stand with Mme. FRANCK PAUL’s colleague MIREILLE CHERY ANTOINE outside the Hall hosting Graduation ceremonies for Age-Groups of Students at Ecole Foyer Espoir in the Delmas district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Marie-Jo was then age 70 and her “teacher” in the early 1960s was 82.
0:20—”She was very determined for you to learn.”
0:34—”When I began to do the work that I’m now doing, I felt her fingerprints […] Teachers contribute a great, great deal to your outcome in life.”
1:08—”One of the programs that she created is what they call Lèkol Toupatou.”
1:52—”Lékol Toupatou will be part of the future of Haiti […] I hope that other people will take it up and bring it to all the corners of Haiti.”
2:15 (D.P.)—”Her desire forvever, since she was age 17 and began to teach in the Haitian countryside, was to somehow let all Haitians learn to read and write.”
3:05 (MARIE-JO) “I will my best to assist, as long as I live.”
Below, two photos by JEAN BAPTISTE OLIVIER, now 21, who was a young student among the FEPE orphans when SUFC met him in 2014.
Above, the nine students who make up the Kindergarten and younger set of students living in the F.E.P.E. orphanage and attending the E.F.E. school.
Student at homework with JAMBAR—another photo by Jean Baptise Olivier, 2024.
Please see—Lèkol Toupatou on the Sticking Up For Children website.
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