Reading sessions help Haiti children through quake trauma

PORT-AU-PRINCE — When the first story began only a handful of kids sat on the wet ground, watching and listening intently as a woman read aloud to them in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Tabarre.

Soon a crowd of 60 formed as curious children carrying baby siblings were joined by adults, eager for diversion from the tedium that, along with the rains, has settled into Haiti's sprawling camps since the January earthquake.

The scene repeats itself daily in the 15 tent cities where a program called Li Li Li! (Creole for Read Read Read!) works to promote literacy and help kids overcome the inevitable trauma from a catastrophe that left up to 300,000 dead.

The reader, Natacha Micourt, was an artist until the January 12 quake destroyed her studio and left her trapped under the rubble for two days. Now the 32-year-old painter earns 250 dollars a month as a Li Li Li! reader.

Micourt acts out stories of magic hats and Clifford, the big red dog, to the delight of the children, allowing them a brief escape from the grim reality of their post-quake existence.

"The kids just love it," she told AFP.

But Li Li Li! is not only about stress release, it is also an attempt to entrench a love for reading in a country where, before the earthquake, 44 percent of the population could not read or write, according to UN estimates.

"Illiteracy will go up even more after the earthquake because so many schools were destroyed," Li Li Li! coordinator Germinal Jocelyn told AFP.

Jocelyn's job is to scout out "unofficial" camps overlooked by Haitian authorities and relief organizations so the reading club can direct its efforts where they are most needed.

"NGOs don't come here, they don't even know these camps exist," she told AFP of the camp in Tabarre.

Li Li Li! is the brainchild of Michelle Karshan, an American and former spokeswoman for the government of ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Karshan launched the initiative with two of her daughters, who also grew up in Haiti, to help them overcome their own shock after the earthquake.

"They felt powerless, but this made them feel like they were doing something," she said.

In the weeks after the quake, Karshan studied the benefits of telling stories to traumatized children, calling on friends to donate colorful books, which were vetted for appropriateness and translated into Creole.