RESPE: Balan profiles

RESPE: Balan

 Verne Joseph

Verne Joseph is a founding member of RESPE: Balan and currently serves as Vice President. He joined RESPE because he enjoys working on behalf of the community with RESPE as a path of development. A farmer, Verne was born in Balan and currently lives in the neighborhood of Langlaise with his wife and seven children. He would like to see RESPE continue its work an agent of development in Balan so that everyone in the community can enjoy a better standard of living. Verne holds many positions in Balan: He is a professional agricultural monitor, a member of Gwoupman Planteurs Moustique, the President of Gwoupman Planteurs Langlaise, and the Vice President of Eglise Evangelique Baptiste d’Haiti de Larry. In the future he is enthusiastic to see RESPE’s maternal health ward completed. He also hopes to see RESPE implement agriculture trainings for local planters, both young and old. Along with that, he would like to help youth of Balan learn professional skills. In his free time, Verne likes to learn more skills, help inform the community, and learn about how the community lives.

Margarette Florival

Margarette is a pharmacist in the dispensary at the Catholic Church Notre Dame de la Victoire. A delegate in RESPE: Balan, she entered the group because she is from Balan, has respect for everyone from Balan, and wants everyone to work together for what is best for the community as a whole. In addition to her duties as a pharmacist, she is a coordinator for a group that records violations of justice for the Office of Justice and Peace in Cap Haitien. In her free time she works as a member of the liturgical committee at the parish, and she would like to start learning English. Margarette was born in Balan and her entire family continues to live there. Margarette wants to see RESPE: Haiti help everyone in the community, to collaborate with other organizations, and to one day have its own office. Currently there are no health agents in Balan trained in first response, and she would like to train between 2-5 health agents per neighborhood in Balan, and she would like to see RESPE bring more professional trainings to Balan. She has faith that RESPE will thrive if the organization continues to work together as one.

Pascal Robert

Pascal is an artist and high school student at Philippe Guerriere, the first high school in Cap Haitien. After high school he would like to study to be a laboratory technician. He lives with his mother, father, five sisters, and four brothers. Born in Limonade, he moved to Balan when he was eight years old. One of the newest members of RESPE, Pascal joined in April 2010 both because he wanted to bring the voice of the youth to RESPE and because he is a respected member of the community: He is now serving as second counselor. He hopes to see RESPE: Balan continue to grow and to work for the whole community – from the rich to the poor – by bringing projects like a professional school to Balan to train youth, and continuing its work on health. In his spare time, he likes to draw, sketch, study and sing. An active member of the community, Pascal is also the President of the Associacion des Jeunes de Balan pour le Developmant de la Communite (AJBDC), the youth choral director at the Notre Dame de Victoire Parrish, and has been a composer and participant for the “Fraternite – Choeur d’Hommes – The Friends of Jesus” for two years.

Guilaine Breus

Guilaine is a tireless trailblazer for the development of the community. Guilaine is a delegate and founding member of RESPE. She joined RESPE because she is interested in development, wants to help her community change, and is a strong believer in the idea that while one person cannot make change on their own, many people together can. She wants to see improvement of the roads in Balan and universal access to education, as well as a more developed and beautiful Balan overall. After the construction of the clinic is finished, she would like to work to bring a professional school to Balan. She is the assistant director for the Jerusalem College of Morne Rouge. In addition to her job as a cook, she also works part time for the international agency World Vision, where her current project is identification of children living in Balan who were separated from their parents after the earthquake in Port au Prince and put on Tap Taps (small busses) to the north of Haiti. She is also a member of Gwoupman Plantar Langlaise, the founder of Base Normal (a local community group), and the sole founder of the Association de Minis de Langlaise which helps children without sufficient means for food, clothes and school. Guilaine’s other roles in the community are as a Sunday school professor, director of her church chorus, and treasurer of FAGCOB, an association of gwoupman. In addition, she loves to dance and founded a children’s club for youth to learn and enjoy dancing in Cap Haitien. Born in Cap Haitien, she now lives with her four children and husband in the Langlaise neighborhood of Balan. This November she is running for a position as a representative to the KAZEK of Balan, a local level of government so she will be able to do more for Balan. Ideas she has for Balan include canalization of the roads to improve drainage and trash collection, and bringing electricity to the town so that people can learn later into the night. For Guilaine’s next project, she would also like to expand the Association de Minis de Langlaise to build an orphanage.

Calixte Erns Philome (Locale)

A founding member of RESPE, Locale is a car mechanic by trade, and has a veterinary degree as well as a diploma in audiovisual communication. He is also a student in development sciences at the Polywalat University of Haiti. Born and raised in Balan, Locale lives with his wife and five children. Locale joined RESPE when the founding Tufts students first came to Balan because he enjoyed engaging with people who liked learning about the area’s development: he is currently a counselor in RESPE. He would like to see REPSE transform the community and begin a large and strong organization for community change. Some project ideas he has for RESPE include reforestation, bringing irrigation systems for farmers, a professional school, working to raise the level of education, and bringing electricity and improved roads to Balan. Locale also currently serves as the Vice President of the FAGCOB consortium of gwoupman in Balan, through which he works with farmers and raisers of livestock, for whom he is also a veterinarian. In his free time he likes to play boule, bezi, futbol, read, and research on health and new veterinary technique.

Cherubin Nickson

Nickson is a founding member and the current president of RESPE: Balan. With diplomas in both education and electricity, he is the principal of L’Ecole de Notre Dame de la Victoire Primaire, and an iron worker and electrician. Born in Plaine du Nord, he now lives with his mother, brother, and two sisters in Balan. Nickson is passionate about development and enjoys working with other dedicated Balan residents to develop their community. He would like RESPE: Balan to grow as an organization in order to have the capacity to work in all domains, including education, health, infrastructure (roads, electricity, etc). He hopes that RESPE will ameliorate the conditions in which people live. One idea is to offer a professional education for high school graduates. In addition to his responsibilities in RESPE, Nickson is a member of a development organization called Genies del Association de Jeunes de Balan (GAJB), as well as the Literacy Circle, and the Academie de Jeunes de Balan (AJB). In his free time, he is a representative of a football committee that organizes matches for the local league. Nickson enjoys reading, studying French and English, and singing in his church choir.

Andieula Paul

A founding member of RESPE, Andieula is a nursing student with one more year at Ecole Inférmiere de Notre Dame de la Sagesse. She got involved in RESPE because she wanted to collaborate with visitors to work on development initiatives the community. A counselor in RESPE, Andieula would like to see all young people in Balan have more opportunities and possibly a center for training to equip young people with income-earning skills. It is also her hope that Balan will have more electricity at night. In addition to her studies, Andieula also has a tailoring business in Balan. Andieula lives with her mother, four brothers, and three sisters in Balan. In her free time, she listens to music, reads about medicine, reads the bible, and sings in the Chorale in the Catholic Church Norte Dame de la Victoire. Andieula hopes that RESPE will continue to maintain close communication and collaborate on more development initiatives, in order to see our objectives and dreams realized.