Article by Drew Knapp
“A goat with many owners never gets fed.” So says Father Joseph Philippe, a Haitian priest who visited Blacksburg this week to sign a memorandum of understanding with Virginia Tech, taking advantage of the occasion to speak with students about service learning opportunities in Haiti.
Father Joseph has dedicated his life to helping the poor of Haiti help themselves. He is the founder of the University of Fondwa (UNIF) in Fondwa, Haiti (which offers degree programs in vet science, agriculture, and business); the Association of Peasants of Fondwa (APF); and co-founder of FONKOZE-HAITI, an organization self-labeled the “alternative bank for the organized poor.” A Haitian priest, Father Joseph studied at the Chicago Theological Union and the Centre Lebret in Paris.
Members of InnovATE met with Father Joseph during his visit here to discuss prospects for collaboration in Haiti. InnovATE is a USAID-funded program, established in October, 2012 to strengthen training and education systems to improve the performance of the agricultural sector in developing countries.
The InnovATE program works at all levels of education—primary and secondary, vocational and technical schools, and university programs—to advance curriculum development, faculty capacity, pedagogy, gender balance and equity, administration and management, outreach, infrastructure, student services, and educational policy. Hence our meetings were designed to organize programs in collaboration with Fandwa.
Virginia Tech leads the program, coordinating efforts by Pennsylvania State University, Tuskegee University, and the University of Florida.
Father Joseph explained that Haiti needs help rebuilding itself, rather than simply filling in noticeable gaps when issues arise. He was skeptical of responding to specific problems without forming a good foundation of work. “We need to keep resources in the local communities,” he said. “And the main resource of our communities is the high school graduate.”
Father Joseph Philippe visits Blacksburg to sign a memorandum of understanding with Virginia Tech.
Haiti seems primed for collaboration with a project like InnovATE. Nearly 66% of all Haitians work in the agricultural sector, which consists mostly of small-scale subsistence farming. Yet this activity only accounts for 30% of the nation’s GDP and does not manage existing problems with supplying enough food throughout the country. The country has experienced little formal job creation over the past decade, losing 80% of its college graduates to emigration.
InnovATE is excited about the possibility of working with Father Joseph in gathering resources for the University of Fondwa so that Haiti’s most valuable resource—the high school graduate—can develop into a workforce that returns home to support the local communities of the country.
Father Joseph closed the meeting on a positive note: “As a Haitian, I may be hungry today, but I do not want to be tomorrow. I think this partnership with Virginia Tech is a step in the right direction.”
Members of InnovATE are scheduled to travel to Armenia this month to conduct a pre-scoping study of the country’s agricultural training and education systems.
For more information on the program, please see our supplementary documents and follow us on twitter @Innov_ATE