Haiti's Winter Olympics Uniform Broke the Internet

Plus Bad Bunny, Gangs, Child Safety and Trauma Informed Care

It has nothing to do with educating children but everything to do with beauty. The Haitian Olympic uniforms are a treat for the eyes. They make me so happy just looking at them. A Haitian-Italian designed them and grounded them so well in Haitian history while still keeping it ultra elegant. She depicted a famous painting with Toussaint Louverture on a red horse on the skitt, but the IOC nixed it due to its political connotations. Would they have made the same call if Washington had been on the U.S. uniforms? One wonders.

The headwrap is gorgeous, but it was the pockets that really touched me. These were added to honor all the market women. When was the last time you saw Madam Saras getting that kind of respect?

While we’re on the subject of sports, Bad Bunny’s halftime show was beyond awesome. And of course got me thinking of one made for Haiti. What would be in it? I don’t know enough about Haitian music, but I know there is an enormous field of musicians to choose from. Here are some things I would feature: the sugar cane fields for sure, folks enjoying Barbancourt and mangos - maybe not together:). A proud Toussaint from the famous painting was also put on the Olympic uniform. Motifs from the million proverbs, Madam Saras, Rara Bands, groups of adorable students so proud in their school uniforms, drumming, tap taps, a group dressed in white - let me know in the comments what you would include.

The rate of children being pressed into gangs has tripled, according to UNICEF, “Gang violence forced more than 1,600 schools to close last year, with armed men occupying more than two dozen of them, affecting more than 243,000 students. In total, nearly half a million children have seen their education disrupted as violence persists. Children as young as 9 are being pressed into service.

UNICEF currently helps such children by putting them in a safe place where they receive medical care for any possible wounds or drug addiction, and then meet with counselors and social workers who try to contact their family.

Some of the toughest cases are older teenagers, Narayan said.

“If you have an 18-year-old who has been in armed groups for five years, that young man is not going to go back into school,” she said, adding that Haiti needs options for apprenticeships or vocational training, and that UNICEF needs up to $30 million to reach every child.”

This is to remind you about being diligent about your child safeguarding policy. If you don’t have one, stop reading and get working on that. Having one for any organization that works with children is best practice today - including religious organizations - especially religous ones. These are the ones most likely to assume goodness in all people at face value and to ignore those signs that something could be amiss. Having a policy in place leads to less abuse and quick professional response and resolution if abuse is suspected. Here is an overarching one from Lumos- a foundation that promotes family support instead of orphansages. Lumos also does consulting and will come in to manage situations where abuse has occurred. And don’t think it only happens at small, understaffed organizations - it happens in all size orgs - secular and religious. Lumos has an excellent reputation - I think of them as the Marines for children.

This came to mind this month when I read that a notorious founder of a Haitian orphanage had been taken back into prison for getting access to pornographic images. He had been in prison for 15 years. I mention this because of his re-offending. Christian organizations place a high value on repentance and second chances. But this is absolutely not appropriate for people who have abused children. There may be repentance, but there is no known healing of this part of one’s personality. I don’t believe it should require a life sentence or deprivation after release, but there is no responsible way to give them access to children again ever.

Something I haven’t seen in the TSP conversation is the hit the Haitian economy will take when remittances are no longer being sent home. About 20% of the Haitian GDP is remittances. A goodly number of this pays for tuition - the impact on education will be a great stressor.

The director of Espere Community Counseling Center will be giving an online workshop on trauma-informed care in the Haitian environment. It’s on Wed March 11 at 1PM EST. Register here.

Here is a bit of fun to finish out.

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