Lidè Haiti

The LIDÈ Haiti Foundation is an educational initiative in rural Haiti that uses the arts and literacy to empower at-risk adolescent girls and help them transition into school or vocational training. Established by Actor Rainn Wilson, Author Holiday Reinhorn, and Executive Director Dr. Kathryn Adams in response to the devastating earthquake of 2010, LIDÈ programs now seek to uplift girls and young women who have been denied equal access to education. LIDÈ programs provide participants with life and leadership skills to help foster the community support they need to begin their educational journey. The LIDÈ Foundation believes that arts in education inspire personal empowerment, build resilience, and promote self-efficacy. LIDÈ means both “Leader” and “Idea” in Haitian Creole.

LIDÈ currently serves almost five hundred at-risk girls in rural Haiti with a Haitian National staff of 26 teachers and apprentices, plus additional coordinating, managing, and support staff. LIDÈ partners with local grassroots organizations and communities so that each program is sensitive to the needs and connected to the strengths of the community that comes to “own” that program.

Visiting Master Artists

LIDÈ has hosted many talented writers, actors, filmmaker, and photographers who come to share their skills with teachers, apprentices and students in Master Classes. Some of these artists have included: David Choe, Saelee Oh, Emily Baldoni, Stan Cahill, Philip Pardee, Christopher Heltai, Jason Jaworski, Hannah Sparkman, Erin Shachory, Olivia Melodia, Kayla Stokes, Maya Wong, and Kezia Jean. LIDÈ also hosts interns from Haitian Universities who are part of the HELP scholarship program, and Master Teachers from among Ciné Insititute’s graduates.

Programs

LIDÈ programs serve out-of-school and “at-risk” adolescent girls. Girls in LIDÈ discover their unique voice through artistic programs which include creative writing, theater, photography and film. These disciplines become a gateway to an academic education as well as a means for improving literacy, leadership and critical thinking. LIDÈ activities revolve around values-based themes that help adolescent girls explore the life questions that all youth face on a local and global scale. Our program work begins with understanding the needs of a community and then training teachers to provide arts programs to adolescent girls. We then mentor these programs toward sustainability. As programs continue, they provide a safe space where LIDÈ participants find their human dignity and inner strength, gain learning and life skills, and walk a path toward resiliency, self-determination, efficacy, and leadership through service.

Teacher Empowerment & Student Learning

LIDÈ empowers teachers with tools for developing their own creative ideas into effective curriculum. This tool helps them develop values-driven activities that achieve skill-based outcomes, and cognitive and psycho-social goals.

Partnerships

Girls are not just learners, they are whole human beings, and the life they live outside the LIDÈ program affects who they are within the program. For this reason, LIDÈ embraces partnerships with organizations and local resources in order to build a support network for its participants.

Impact

Numerous studies show that one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty is through the education of women and girls. It’s one of the best returns on investment in the developing world, yet 66 million girls worldwide are not enrolled in school. Educated women spread what they’ve learned to their families and villages and children. Educated girls get pregnant later, have less children and have a far lower infant mortality rate. Educated women and girls have greater power to determine their own fate, earn more, live a rich, fulfilled life and give back to their communities at a greater level.

Volunteer

LIDÈ welcomes highly skilled Master Artists interested in volunteering to teach Master Classes for the on-ground team of teachers and apprentices, as well as the program participants. The core arts of the programs and so the fields most useful include photography, drama, creative writing, music, and visual arts. Additional, we sometimes need professionals from medical and/or public health sectors for medical check-ups, health education, and disabilities assessment. As dictated by needs, Lidè will sometimes open up internships for those who have completed their undergraduate education or graduate students in a field that fits an opening.