Students at the Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants (FEPE) and Ecole Foyer Espoir (EFE) school have delivered their second batch of Freedom Sandals. Almost all of the sandals have sold within less than one week in New Orleans!
Below, Monica Landry wears a Black and Silver pair.
Cole Williams wears a pair of Turquoise, Yellow, and Coral Pink.
Carmen Conner-Post wears a pair of Coral Pink.
Students are SUFC's reason for being--photos from 2014-2018.
Who We Are
Students at Ecole Foyer Espoir in Haiti celebrate a generator from SUFC.
We've also been able to help with bringing a school-bus, 3D-printers,
24/7 Internet service, and more.
Dr. John signs Drumsticks-as-Art.
He was a first-year supporter of SUFC. See one of his signed sticks on our Gifts page. He plays "When The Saints ..." with brilliant soul for Happy Traum's Homespun Tapes here.
Sticking Up For Children began in February 2013 with an idea given to Maryse Déjean and Don Paul by Cyril and Gaynille Neville. The idea was that drumsticks could be turned into art and sold to benefit an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants (FEPE). Maryse and the Nevilles had aided FEPE after Haiti's 2010 earthquake.
In 2014 SUFC provided its first cash grants, goods and services to youth-education partners in Haiti and New Orleans. We've since served nine youth-education partners and sponsored 15 Music & Arts Days. We've helped to fund buses, classes, generators, theaters, and 3D-printers in Haiti and New Ofrleans. We've provided more than $200,000 of cash, goods and services.
SUFC's youth-education Partners for 2019 are the FEPE orphanage and its companion school, Ecole Foyer Espoir (EFE), and a second school, College Canapé-Vert in Port-au-Prince . We're also working with Ecole Youpi Youpi in the town of Cayes Jacmel along Haiti's southern coast.
These four Partners have progressed since January 2010 despite difficulties that are almost unimaginable. Their staffs and students overcome elemental challenges on a daily basis. Electricity, food, gasoline, and even water are all regular shortages in Haiti. Nevertheless, the students and their teachers and caretakers push forward. The Freedom Sandals of 2018 and 2019 from FEPE and EFE are one instance of Haitians' amazing perseverance and creativity.
The earthquake of January 12, 2010 killed many more than 100,000 people in Port-au-Prince.
College Canapé-Vert
The resurrected College Canapé-Vert. Five years after the 2010 earthquake CCV's new building of three tall stories was completed in 2015. The College has been led by Madame Marie-Marthe Balin Franck Paul since 1974. Madame Paul is a former Mayor of Port-au-Prince (1986-1989) and Secretary of Education for Haiti. Her textbook in four langauges, Mon Livre Unique, is distributed across the nation each year. SUFC helped to fund the opening of Fondation Miche Balin Déjean for training in Music and Law at the College, October 2018. Madame Paul is pictured here with her co-worker in Editions Canapé-Vert, Mme. Mireille Chéry Antoine , and Mme. Marie-Jose Poux (in glasses), the indefatigable founder of FEPE and a former student of Mme. Paul's.
Graduates at College Canapé-Vert sing the College's anthem on June 17, 2018.
Ecole Foyer Espoir and Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants
Youngest graduates at École Foyer Espoir (EFE) advance to their next level, June 16, 2018. The school that's companion to the Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants (FEPE) orphanage in Port-au-Prince grew from 140 to 258 students between 2014 and 2018. Staff and students persevered despite lacking electricity for months on end. SUFC helped to provided bus-transportation and generators for the school. In April 2019 orphan students at EFE, guided by Principal Jonathand Saintiné and master artisan Elysée Francois, began their production of the Freedom Sandals that have since won praise and many sales.
Students of EFE and FEPE at an early stage of their making Freedom Sandals, May of 2018.
The great Madame Marie-Jose ("Marie-Jo") Poux, a Haitian-born Hospice Nurse who spent much of her career in Cincinnatti, Ohio, returned to Haiti and opened the Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants orphanage in November 2009. Two months later FEPE accepted 19 more orphans due to the January 12, 2010 earthquake. It now houses and feeds 35 students and all attend the EFE school.
Some of Our Supporters
Some of our Supporters.
Row one: Cyril and Gaynielle Neville; Jennifer Maxwell; Kavanaugh Farr; Judge Calvin Johnson; Katrina Frey; Lisa Moresco and Gerry Agosta; Pretty Lights; Collins and Sheila and Jabari and Joyia Phillips.
Row two: Bonnie Raitt; Dr. John; Matt Gonzalez; Eric Ferrouillet; Sean Johnson; Dr. Nicolas Bazan with painting by Isabelle Jacopin; Angela King.
Hundreds of supporters have enabled Sticking Up For Children.
SUFC would not have begun without Cyril and Gaynielle Neville and could not have gone forward with grants and programs without Jennifer Maxwell. We especially thank, too, our Board members Leslie Bertucci, Kavanaugh Farr, and Paul Siegel.
Musicians of New Orleans contibuted early: Stanton Moore, Alfred "Uganda" Roberts, Evan Christopher, Donald Harrison Jr., Johnny Vidacovich, Idris Muhammad, James Singleton, David Torkanowsky.
We had immediate support across the U.S.: Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Pedrito Martinez, Steve Smith, and in Europe Sandra Nkaké and Jojo Mayer.
The D'Addario Foundation and Vic Firth drumsticks and Whole Foods Market gave to us.
David Amram, William Parker, Eric Drooker and BMike (Brandan Odums) donated art.
We've had recurring help from Ken and Melba Ferdinand, Bonnie Raitt, Cherice Harrsion Nelson, Rick Wilkof and Clare Walmsley, Lolis Eric Elie, Jim Van Dine, Karen Buck and Michael Harris, David Meggyesy, Louis and Lisa Keyes and Second Vine Wine, Karlos and Stephanie Knott and Bayou Teche Brewing, Paul Massa, Brock Hinzman and Eileen McGinnis, Anders Osborne and John Bukaty, Jonathan Richman, Don Paul's GALLOP bandmates Alex de Grassi and Hamid Drake and Kidd Jordan, and stellar volunteers Gaynell Dumas, Tasha Volovsek, and Arline Hines, along with educators Dr. Mary Allaire, Carol Bebelle, Leslie Cooper, Elizabath Fletcher, Eve Pell, Matthew Shilling. Yes, thanks to all these, and to many more.
With Sandals and sculptors, solar power and cisterns made of recycled plastic, we look forward to much in the near future with our great, pioneering partners and supporters. The Freedom Sandals'
models for Fall 2019 are just one instance, as we noted, of the progress being made.
Maryse Déjean and Don Paul
for Sticking Up For Children
