Yvelyne Germain-McCarthy, UNO professor of curriculum and instruction, spent 10 days in her native Haiti in early August conducting a summer camp for local children. 45 children, ages 6-12, attended the art camp held in the mountains of Riviere Froide in Port-au-Prince.
Germain-McCarthy’s UNO students donated art supplies and students from the LSU Health Sciences Center donated shoes that Germain-McCarthy handed out to Haitian children. Germain-McCarthy is the president of the Haitian Association of Human Development, which was founded in 1986 to promote the health and education of Haitians both in New Orleans and Haiti. She has made several trips to Haiti since the nation was ravaged by an earthquake in January 2010.
According to Germain-McCarthy, Port-au-Prince looked much cleaner since her last trip to Haiti in December, but she did not see an appreciable difference in the number of people living in tents. She conducted videotaped interviews with a number of Haitians to gauge their opinions on how the nation is rebuilding, and she hopes to use those interviews in a future documentary.