Request for Help on Behalf of Linguists in Haiti
- Ort: Haiti
- Disziplinen: Sprachwissenschaft
- Sprachen: Französisch, Sprachenübergreifend
Dear Colleagues,
As you already know, Haiti has been struck by an extraordinarily devastating earthquake which took away more than 200,000 lives, seriouslywounded more than 300,000 and created more than 1.5 million displaced- out of a population of some 10 million. Most of the country's infrastructure has been destroyed, including academic institutions, with some 1,300 educational institutions now unusable.
What is perhaps less known is that Haiti's Faculté de Linguistique Appliquée (FLA) is the institution that has been hit the hardest among the academic units of Haiti's State University. The linguistics building totally pancaked in the earthquake, killing some 300 affiliates, includingthe dean of the linguistics faculty (Pierre Vernet), the vice-dean (Wesner Merant), alongside professors, students and staff. May their souls rest in peace.
Also lost in the rubble is most of the FLA's library, archives, computersand so on.
Our linguistics colleagues in Haiti are still grieving, but they are already on their courageous way toward building a better linguistics program on new grounds (literally and figuratively). Yet their current 'building' is only a tent on the site where the rubble of the former building has now been removed.
Of course our Haitian colleagues -my compatriots- would welcome any help they can get for any aspect of their rebuilding efforts.
The reconstruction of the FLA will include curriculum reform and new academic facilities. So the FLA linguists would particularly welcome the following:
- Linguistics books and journals, especially recent publications and issues- the FLA offers language and linguistics courses on Haitian, French, English and Spanish, so books in and on these languages will be welcome.New copies of latest editions are particularly welcome in light of the FLA's current objectives to rebuild on new 'grounds.'
- Updated descriptions of curricula for linguistics programs leading to
bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. As they work on improving their
curriculum, our FLA colleagues would like to study curricula for programs with a variety of foci, both applied and theoretical.
- Any help of any sort that can be provided- computers, information technology, partnerships, scholarships, etc.
As of yet, the FLA has no reliable physical location to house donations in
kind. For now, donated books, journals, computers, etc., will need to be temporarily housed in the homes of faculty and staff- those who've survived
and whose homes still stand safely. As for the Post Office in Port-au-Prince, it's all in rubble.
With this in mind I've offered to help channel in-kind donations to make
sure that they eventually reach their future new locale.
Please contact me off-list if you're inclined to help.
Heartfelt thanks in advance,
Michel DeGraff (MIT Linguistics, degraff@mit.edu)
(aus: LINGUIST List: Vol-21-1740)
Publiziert von: jd