Author to share book journaling the stories of Haiti’s poor
Published: Oct 26 2018
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Author Steven Werlin will be at Bismarck State College on Thursday, Nov. 8, at 1:30 p.m., to present on his education work in Haiti and discuss his book “To Fool the Rain: Haiti’s Poor and their Pathway to a Better Life.” His presentation will be held in the Basin Electric Auditorium inside the National Energy Center of Excellence and is free and open to the public.
In 1996, while a faculty member at Shimer College in Chicago, Ill., Werlin began traveling to Haiti where he was invited to observe literacy classes and talk with the people organizing them about ways to involve students in classroom discussions. While there he began working with Fonkoze, an organization created to bring financial inclusion and development services to Haiti's poor.
Werlin's book thoughtfully chronicles his journey with Fonkoze and presents in vivid detail the stories of a group of Haitian women – individual beginnings, challenges and successes bound together by the themes that pattern life in rural Haiti.
Werlin has been living in Haiti part-time since 2005. He is currently the Fonkoze communications and learning officer and teaches classes for high school students, literacy center participants, primary school teachers and primary school teachers and groups as different as teenage boys from Port au Prince’s largest slum and women from a network of rape victims.
Werlin’s presentation is a BSC Embracing Diversity Committee sponsored event.