What Next for Haiti?
With: Rea Dol & Euvonie Georges Auguste

Saturday, November 21st
4-6PM

La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA

$7-25 no one turned away for lack of funds

For more information, (510) 483-7481 or www.haitisolidarity.net
Contact: action.haiti@gmail.com

Join Haiti Action Committee for a rare opportunity to hear from two courageous women who are at the center of the struggle for democracy in Haiti. Rea Dol and Euvonie Auguste are Haitian women educators who have devoted their lives to empowering the poorest communities in Haiti, fighting for a society where discrimination and injustice will be banished forever. They are leaders in the movement for literacy among women.

They will speak about their work, and about the current situation in Haiti, the impact of the US/UN occupation, and the popular demands and ongoing resistance of the grassroots movement.

SPEAKER BIOS:

EUVONIE GEORGES AUGUSTE

Euvonie Georges Auguste is a leading fighter for human rights, the rights of women, and literacy in Haiti.  She has also been in the forefront of the battle for recognition and respect for Vodou, the indigenous religion of the Haitian people.

Euvonie is a member of Fanmi Lavalas, the largest  grassroots movement in Haiti. Throughout her life as a militant, Euvonie Georges Auguste has always fought on the side of the dispossessed, for a just society where discrimination and injustice will be banished forever. From 2001 to 2004, she took an active part in the literacy campaign launched by the Aristide government on September 7, 2001.

After the U.S.-orchestrated coup against the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Euvonie continued to organize for democracy and women’s rights.  She spoke at the World Social Forum in Venezuela in 2006, focusing on the movement for popular education in Haiti and its connection with similar efforts in Venezuela.

When Euvonie talks about her experiences in promoting literacy among the poor in Haiti, she speaks not only as a theoretician but as a practitioner, someone who has never stopped believing in the power of education, even in the midst of terrible repression. 

REA DOL

Rea is the founder and director of SOPUDEP school. Located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, SOPUDEP is a comprehensive public school serving the poorest residents of the city. Founded in 2002, the school has grown to over 480 students, many of whom receive their only regular meal through the school's hot lunch program.

Not only is Rea the founder and director of SOPUDEP; she also is a community organizer and a grassroots leader. She has headed up an adult literacy program, a women's economic empowerment organization, HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention program, and many more. She coordinates a federation of grassroots women's organizations fighting for survival in Haiti's harsh economy.

Rea is determined to improve the lives of the poorest people in her community through education. Most of all she wants her people to have a sense of pride and hope.