Today we were very lucky to have the chance to interview, Georges Metellus, Executive Director of the Art Creation Foundation for Children.

He told us about the history for the ACFFC, the activities of the Foundation – and its hopes for the future.

Today, there are 73 children and youth involved in the ACFFC. The children range in age from 3 months to 20 years. (Since the earthquake, the ACFFC has grown by 13 children including a new baby, Marie!)

In addition to art training and practice in papier maché, voodoo flag making (flags which show images of voodoo spirits) and painting, the ACFFC sends each school-aged participant to school, provides for hospital and medical care, and three meals a day. The ACFFC also provides support to the families of the children and youth.

To support the children there is a wonderful kitchen staff, program assistants and guest artists and teachers.

When ACFFC started, the founders would actively visit the families of children in need in Jacmel and recruit them for the program. Now children bring other children – and George will visit their parents to make sure their parents can’t afford school, meals and medical care.

In the immediate days after the earthquake, the ACFFC was been able to keep their doors open – and provide some normalcy to the children. Many of them were suffering with turbulent minds with their houses or schools destroyed.

Georges described the importance of the children being able to do work that expresses what they feel inside. We have seen examples of these works in our projects.

Jacmel is well-known as the cultural and tourist capital of Haiti, with people drawn to its natural beauty and talented artisan community. Georges talked to us about how rebuilding that community is so important to the rebuilding of Jacmel – and that the talent of the young artists of the ACFFC will be the generation that rebuilds Jacmel.

p.s. We have very much admired Georges ability to act as a father figure to all 73 children while managing the needs of the ACFFC!

We thought you would be interested in some shots of the Art Creation Foundation for Children studio. With over 70 children and youth involved in the ACFFC, there is lots of activity: from braiding hair, to doing homework – to making art!

We had a bit more to learn about making a papier mache mold. One of the teachers, Gerard Dumé, helped repair our beautiful sun mold that cracked over the weekend. We look forward to seeing the kids make and paint some suns soon.

Tomorrow (Sunday) will be a day off so, for our last project today, we prepared molds to make papier maché birds and suns on Monday. Tara tried to make a mold of a bird — but it just wasn’t up to standards … We also included a photo of a bird getting its colours, and a nest of completed birds. What do you think that bird is trying to say?

We had a wonderful day at the Art Creation Foundation for Children. We met all the kids—all 73 of them! Our activities included prepping the canvas, practicing our rapping skills (using the roller as a mic), having a fashion show (the kids found the clothes we brought), and starting to make Haitian flags. As you will see by some of the photos, making a Haitian flag takes tremendous skill and concentration. We look forward to tomorrow. A bientôt!