Nesmy Manigat, the Minister of National Education launched this week at the Jean Marie Vincent high school in Carradeux (Tabarre), a summer camp for 1,400 young people (students from 7th year fundamental to secondary 4) from Petite-Place de Cazeau, Pernier, Torcelle, Cazeau and several neighborhoods of the municipality of Tabarre.

"Jwe pou lavi" is the theme of this camp which will last one month. An activity that the Ministry carries out in partnership with Comédie Sans Frontière d'Haiti (COSAFH), thanks to the support of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the National Education Fund (FNE) and the National Program for School canteens (PNCS).

"Lekòl pa ka kanpe! Lekòl pa ka tann!", launched the Minister Manigat front of an audience made up practically of young people already mobilized to start this activity, stressing that this camp is "[...] a space for recreation, artistic, literary, cultural creation but also a space for compensation for learning."

The camp is structured around 3 series of activities :

• The first includes so-called training activities: artistic creation workshop (theatre, dance, crafts, etc.), literary creation workshop (book club, writing club, etc...)

• The second series includes entertainment activities: brain games (chess, monopoly, checkers, etc...), traditional games (ossicles/pinches, musical chairs, solidarity, hangman, etc...) and racing games (sack race , tug of war, hopscotch, crime lagot, etc...)

• The third series of activities will be fueled, at the end of each week, by mini-shows and mini-exhibitions; moments during which young people can highlight what they have already learned.

In addition to these activities, the Ministry and COSAPH plan to organize debate clubs, karate, football and basketball tournaments and a "Miss of Knowledge" competition, not to mention Book Day, the Haitian Gastronomy Day, Citizen Day and workshops on entrepreneurship among others.

Manigat has announced that other summer camps will be hosted at the national high school of La Saline and on the site shared by the National School of Application of Martissant and the National School Republic of Peru (Martissant).

The Minister encourages the other departmental directorates of education to develop partnerships with local cultural operators, which could facilitate the holding of such activities in their respective jurisdictions.

In his speech Bruno Maes, Resident Representative of UNICEF in Haiti declared "[...] UNICEF is honored to support the Ministry, in collaboration with other partners in this initiative which aims to provide children, adolescents and young people [...] the organization of these socio-educational spaces responds to a real need, offering children the opportunity to continue to socialize, play and learn to live together, while developing their cognitive abilities in a context non-formal but playful."

The launching ceremony of the "Jwe pou lavi" summer camp was also marked by the interventions of Mickerlange Charles, director of the Jean Marie Vincent high school; Georges Béck, Director of COSAFH and its Communications Manager and Jean Ronald Joseph, Director General of the FNE.

HL/ HaitiLibre