Li, Li, Li! Reading Out Loud to Haiti's Displaced Children

Michelle Karshan: I have been living and working in Haiti for most of the last 15 years. Two of my daughters lived there as well. In response to the January 12, 2010 earthquake, my daughters, Riva and Caitlin, and I developed a reading out loud program in Creole for Haiti's displaced children called Li, Li, Li! which means Read, Read, Read! We like it because it has a musical sound such as La la la! and is fun and easy to remember.

About Li, Li, Li!

Psychosocial, Promotion of Literacy, Job Creation

Li, Li, Li! is a storybook reading out loud program in Creole for Haiti's children who became homeless or displaced because of the catastrophic January 12, 2010 earthquake. Founded in February 2010, Li, Li, Li! is based in Haiti and has been reading in the makeshift tent and tarp camps since April 2010.

Li, Li, Li! provides an engaging, interactive, and fun hour-long activity for children displaced by the earthquake that addresses the trauma and anxiety children are suffering, encourages literacy, creates a model for parents to read to their children, reinforces Creole, and contributes to job creation.

Our trained readers are dispatched in teams of two for storytelling hour at various tent/tarp camps and other transitional settings -- both in rural and urban areas. Li, Li, Li! reads in approximately 25 tent settlement camps per week and reach more than 3,000 children per month throughout Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Carrefour, Tabarre, Cite Soleil, St. Mary mountain in CanapeVert, Delmas, Pernier, Santo, Fontamara, Croix-des-Bouquets, etc.

In response to the growing Cholera epidemic in Haiti, at each reading session Li, Li, Li! briefs the children and their families on prevention, identification and accessing treatment.

Li, Li, Li! also teaches staff at centers and orphanges how to read out loud providing training, books and guidance.

Read more about out program, see photos and press coverage at: http://www.LiLiLiRead.org

Please support our program to make a difference for the children still living in tent settlements.

Background: Melinda Miles: Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY is proud to present Li, li, li! It has been ten months since the deadly earthquake that changed lives forever in Haiti. Many children lost their homes, members of their family, and their basic security when this incomprehensible tragedy struck. Children are grieving for the loss in their own way, and many are so traumatized that they are unable to sleep at night. When my close friend Michelle Karshan told me about this project, she talked about the importance of engaging children's imaginations, of bringing them into the stories and showing them the way that reading can transport one's mind, spirit and heart, and bring some peace, even in the midst of a tent city in Port-au-Prince.

Please make a donation to bring storytelling and an escape to a happier place into the tent cities of post-earthquake Haiti. KONPAY will pass all donations made through this page directly to the program, which is fiscally-sponsored by KONPAY, making your entire donation tax-deductible.

Board and Founders :

Michelle Karshan

Caitlin Karshan

Riva Precil

Advisory Board :

Rene Aubry

Alain Joseph Charles

Jennifer Cheek Pantaléon

Edwidge Danticat

Youme Landowne

Teresa Leroy

Amelia Burgess Milbank

Melinda Miles

Chari Rabinowitz-Goldberg

Lionel Vital