2008-09 UVM Travel Study Courses to the DR

The University of Vermont (UVM) will lead three travel-study courses to the Dominican Republic to work with the communities of Batey Libertad and Saman during the 2008-09 academic year. These international service-learning courses have been run in partnership with these communities and local NGOs working in the DR since 2005.

The first group of UVM students will be led by Drs. Pat and Jon Erickson during the Thanksgiving week. The focus will be community health, with projects including a Futbol para la Vida HIV/AIDS course at two local schools in Esperanza, a community health clinic, bed donations, and numerous projects involving upkeep and expansion of the services of the community center and clinic. Students are organizing a number of fundraisers in Burlington, Vermont, including a benefit dinner, candle and bake sale, a dribble-a-thon with UVM soccer teams, a run-a-thon with UVM running teams, and a 3rd annual Lose the Shoes soccer tournament. The class will also be supporting the annual Batey Libertad Coalition soccer tournament at Batey Libertad on Saturday, November 29th, and returning to Burlington, VT to host a World AIDS Day event on December 1st.

Over the January winter break, John Hayden of UVM's Plant and Soil Science Department and Seeds of Self Reliance will lead a class to continue the community gardening project with the Batey Libertad community. The class will also be helping to start a new community garden in Saman, a barrio of the city of Montellano in the province of Puerto Plata. More info. on last year's class is available at: http://dominicancommunitygardens.org.

To round out the academic year, Mckew Devitt of UVM's Romance Language Department will return for his 4th trip to Batey Libertad to continue work on language literacy and service-learning. The March '08 class built a home for a family at Batey Libertad.

UVM Alum's Video on Grassroot Soccer Featured on YouTube

Lusaka Sunrise, a video about the Grassroot Soccer HIV/AIDS prevention education program in Africa, was a "Featured Video" on YouTube this week. The short was filmed and produced by Silas Hagerty, founder of Smooth Feather Productions and former student of a University of Vermont travel-study course to Batey Libertad.

The Fútbol para la Vida program at Batey Libertad, Saman, and other partner communities in the Dominican Republic is part of the international Grassroot Soccer network. The first GRS-inspired film produced by Silas and 'lil Jon Erickson entitled Freedom for a Day highlighted the university's pilot project of the GRS curriculum with the community of Batey Libertad.

Below please enjoy both Lusaka Sunrise and Freedom for a Day below. Congratulations Silas!

Lusaka Sunrise


Freedom for a Day

FPV Ambassador Emmanuel Sanon

Futbol para la Vida ambassador Emmanuel "Manno" Sanon passed away today in Orlando after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Manno was born on June 25th, 1951 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, son of Darius Sanon, from Jacmel, and Cherisna Fortune Sanon, from Kenscoff. A schoolboy football sensation at Don Bosco, he made his debut for the Haitian national team at 18 years old in the 1970 World Cup qualifying, and his goal scoring exploits over the next decade left him as Haiti's career top goal scorer. He had a successful international career in Europe and the USA where he played against the top football stars of the day.

Manno's goals in the 1973 CONCACAF tournament helped Haiti become the first Caribbean nation to qualify for a FIFA World Cup. At the 1974 World Cup in West Germany Manno scored goals against Italy and Argentina, with the first goal voted as the goal of the tournament. His goal against Italy was well remembered and replayed frequently during the festivities at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and France Football named him as one of the Top 100 World Cup players. His autobiography "Toup Pou Yo" recorded the 1974 World Cup from a personal angle, and he was named the Haitian Athlete of the Century in 1999.

After retirement in 1983, Manno coached youth teams in San Diego, Texas, and Orlando, as well as the senior Haitian national team. He started the Foundation Emmanuel Sanon FONDESA, dedicated to empowering young people to reach their potential by supporting community-based programs promoting health, education, and welfare. He also worked with other international humanitarian organizations, most recently visiting Haitian bateyes in the Dominican Republic in late 2007 with Futbol para la Vida, an HIV/AIDS prevention education program of the international Grassroot Soccer network.

Emmanuel Sanon is survived by his wife and four children. In lieu of flowers, donations should be sent to FONDESA at mannosanon@aol.com.

Obituaries can be found at:

Sports Illustrated
USA Today
Miami Herald
Charleston Daily Mail
Fox Sports

Student reflections on service-learning at Batey Libertad

At the conclusion of University of Vermont service-learning classes to the Dominican Republic and Batey Libertad, we often ask the students on the Vermont end of the exchange to reflect on their experience as well as present the results of their community collaborations with the university and broader Vermont community. Below is a reflection from one of the students from a November 2005 trip that really captures the impact that Batey Libertad makes on its visitors. Thanks Nikki!

I LEARNED THAT … happiness has nothing to do with how many things you have been given but by how much love you are able to give. I learned the most on this trip from the young children who, supposedly, have the least life experience. I learned that the bonds we share as people with beating hearts and helping hands are far stronger than the bonds created by lifestyle, money, education and geography. I learned the value of community enrichment and dependency and how incredible it feels to be supported by so many fellow people. I learned that I can go to a pharmacy and buy glucose pills for a diabetic woman and follow up with her every day to make sure she’s taking her meds and be more fulfilled by this 10 minute interaction than a lifetime of working solely for grades or money.

I LEARNED THIS BY … sitting down and truly listening. I listened to the conversations the kids had with each other. I listened to Papito direct the young adults to retain their proper roles on the Batey. I listened to sick women describe the pain of their ill children and husbands. I listened to grandmothers scolding their grandchildren, aunts and uncles rounding up their nieces and adolescent boys telling younger kids the importance of safe sex and HIV awareness. Like a sponge I absorbed these words and songs and replayed their impact in my head. It’s so simple – you learn about who people are by listening to what they have to tell you. It took this batey to make something so simple become so clear.

THIS LEARNING MATTERS BECAUSE … what I’ve learned on this trip cannot be taught in a classroom or from a podium or through a textbook. This learning matters because it is the type of learning that changes you. This experience has changed my mind, changed my heart and has absolutely changed my life. The greatest process of life is self-evolution. Finding that I have the capacity to love someone I barely know and want to be around a community I’ve been with for a few days is something that shakes me. Knowing that I have the means and opportunity to fulfill these capacities is the beginning of an involvement that will continue to flourish. This learning matters because it has made me think and wonder and analyze and struggle with more issues than any other class.

IN LIGHT OF THIS LEARNING I WILL …never be the same. I will return – a lot. I will start to factor this community into my mental deliberations. “What else can I do? How else can I help? Where else can I take what you have given me?” I will recall the moments I spent listening to put my own life into perspective. I will ask more questions. I will take more risks. I will make an effort to remind myself of the way it felt to be on the Batey -the hospitality, the warmth, the concerns, the truths, the embrace and the calm. I will certainly encourage others to be involved in this type of learning or at least consider the idea of going abroad and learning about the world we all live in. I just will, without hesitation. Have I ever said that? Maybe. Have I ever meant it as much as I do this moment? Never.

UVM Students Jumpstart Community Farm

An eager and energetic group of UVM students from January's 'PSS 196 Community Gardening in the DR' class rolled up their sleeves (and pantlegs due to rains) and pitched in as partners with 'Seeds of Self Reliance' and local community members to launch the new gardens at Batey Libertad. Undaunted by the rain and wet heavy clay soils, students spent 3 days and 3 nights learning about life in the Batey and helping to set up the gardens. In that short time, much was accomplished including, organizing a community meeting to exchange ideas on how the farm should be structured, removing and recycling debris from a burnt house, testing soils for pH and nutrients, fixing fence, picking up trash, collecting organic matter from the adjacent countryside to make a compost pile (wheel barrows of pig and cow manure, over 50 sacks of rice hulls, old banana stems, etc.), building a compost and seedling shed, hand digging 200 feet of drainage ditch, creating a double dug vegetable bed, laying out an herb spiral and planting over 150 fruit, forage and hardwood trees. WOW!

This amazing group of students also managed to expand their horizons, change their world views, make new friends, move two tons of children from place to place, and engage in cultural exchange through music, song and dance. I was thrilled and proud to be the class instructor, it was a fantastic experience for me also!

Two of our students, David and Forest have volunteered to stay on in the community until mid March to keep the momentum going. They will be living right above the garden in the apartment attached to 'the locale'.



Stay tuned for updates.

Batey Libertad community center and health clinic

"El Local" is the community center and health clinic of the Batey Libertad community. Construction was completed in March of 2006 through the hard work and fundraising of Batey Libertad and two University of Vermont service-learning classes in 2005. In March of 2007, the community celebrated the building's one-year anniversary with a fiesta and thank you to UVM and the Lintilhac Foundation, a Vermont-based organization that has supported Batey Libertad projects over the last three years through donations, hosting fund-raisers, and supporting UVM's annual Libertad speaker at the Burlington, Vermont campus (Photo: Phil Lintilhac accepting a thank you plaque from Papito, Tony, and Maritza).

During a November 2007 UVM trip, students and community members rolled up their sleeves and built benches and tables, installed a solar photovoltaic lighting system, finished a volunteer apartment above the health clinic, and prepared newly acquired land behind El Local for a community farm. With consistent lighting in the evening, the community is hoping to establish a place for homework, tutoring, and adult literacy classes. The volunteer apartment is already being put to good use, with two UVM students staying on after a January class to help establish the community farm. March 2008 will bring the second anniversary of El Local and a UVM class to help formalize the Batey Libertad literacy program and finish the computer learning center.