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03/14/2017 04:45 PMAn concert on Tuesday, April 4 by Ethan Bortnick, the 16-year-old music phenomenon who undertook his first world tour at the age of 8, will benefit Sister Cities Essex Haiti (SCEH). The Connecticut-based organization has built a library in the rural Haitian town of Deschapelles and supports a variety of other activities in the community, including Hôpital Albert Schweitzer. Bortnick will perform at Valley Regional High School.
A year after the completion of the library in Deschapelles, all 3,000 volumes have been entered into a database and now residents can not only read material at the library, they can also take books out.
To help residents of Deschapelles remember to return their library books on time, a task that bedevils library patrons throughout the world, Essex resident Jenifer Grant, one of the founders of SCEH, plans to recruit friends to sew book bags to carry material to and from the library.
The library, Grant noted, is particularly important because there is no public education in Haiti, which the World Bank describes as the poorest country in the Americas and one of the poorest in the world. World Bank figures put the average yearly per capita income at $864. The library, according to Grant, provides the path to literacy for many young Deschapelles residents.
“No matter how poor Haitian people are, education is very important to them,” she said.
SCEH board member Brenda Floyd has made a short film of about Deschapelles that will run in a continuous loop in the lobby at the Bortnick concert.
Mary-Beth Harrigan, chair of the development committee for SCEH, said seeing pictures of the library is a surprise for many people.
“They are amazed,” she said. “Remember, [Deschapelles} is a place without running water and electricity.”
The library has its own generator and Grant said, and is hoping to install solar panels for electric power. A Canadian organization donated funds for the digging of a well on the grounds.
The library recently was the site of a program by hydrologist Peter Wampler to instruct local teachers on how to purify water so they in turn could teach both their students and the community at large. Without treatment, much of the water in Haiti’s rural areas is not potable. Treatment has taken on particularly urgency since the cholera epidemic that followed Haiti’s 2010 earthquake.
Cholera, spread by contaminated water, has, according to official estimated killed some 10,000 residents of Haiti, though a study by Doctors Without Borders suggests the figures could actually be as much as 10 times higher.
Summer activities at Deschapelles library also included a six-week summer camp for children with each week devoted to a different subject like health and study of the French language. Most rural Haitians speak Kreyol (also spelled Creole) rather than standard French. Kreyol combines French with Portuguese, Spanish, and West African languages.
According to Grant, there is already some limited Internet access at the library, and SCEH wants to be able to fund the purchase of tablets to help students with learning programs.
Among the other projects that SCEH supports is ongoing funding for Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, founded more than 50 years ago by Grant’s stepfather and mother in Deschapelles. The hospital, the only full service medical facility in the Artibonite Valley, provides medical services for some 350,000 residents of the area.
“More and more people are coming to the hospital for medical care because they know it is the place they can get it and the ability of people to pay for the care is quite minimal,” Grant said.
There have also been projects in early learning, music, and in tennis in Deschapelles, all sponsored by SCEH. The tennis project has led to one youngster from the town becoming a member of Haiti’s Junior David Cup team.
Harrigan and Grant are hoping the Bortnick concert helps to build recognition of the work SCEH has undertaken in Deschapelles.
“There are a lot of people who don’t know what we do,” Harrigan said. “We like to build awareness of our programs.”
Ethan Bortnick Live in Concert
Pianist and vocalist Ethan Bortnick performs Thursday, April 6 to benefit Sister Cities Essex Haiti. The performance starts at 7 p.m. at Valley Regional High School, 256 Kelsey Hill Road, Deep River. For information and tickets, visit sistercitiesessexhaiti.org, email info@sistercitiesessexhaiti.org or call 860-227-0848.