YASMINE DEROCH

Yasmine Déroche is a teacher and educational supervisor at Nouvelle Académie d'Excellence, an academy that welcomes all children, including those with disabilities, social issues, and learning impairments. Yasmine supervises the teachers' educational and pedagogical work while also directly working with kids who have trouble learning and adapting.

Yasmine became an educator because she loves the sciences that connect people — especially education. But also, her love for helping and nurture kids to be their best by creating environments where they can be creative is what drives her. 

Being a Gèrye Jwa Playmaker changed Yasmine's life. She says, "I used to be a rigid and impatient teacher. And since joining Gèrye Jwa in 2011, I learned to see kids differently, and I rediscovered the child within myself."

What Yasmine loves most about being a Playmaker is helping children while also helping childcare providers like herself focus on their care and wellbeing. Right now, the current social and political climate in Haiti is not good. Kids are more distracted and violent with discouraging academic setbacks. And through it all, Yasmine remains positive and optimistic because Playmakers are here to help.

EDNER BOURCICOT

“[Being a] Gèrye Jwa Playmaker has transformed my life,” says Edner Bourcicot, a Playmaker, teacher, and community leader in Carrefour, Haiti.

For 23 years, Edner has played an essential role in his community. In 1998, he began his career helping kids in order to pay for his college tuition, where he would formally train to be a teacher at Ecole Normal, a local university in Haiti. Now married with five children, Edner founded a school center where he and his fellow teachers have helped thousands of children through the years. But it hasn’t been easy. “The social conditions and political violence are stressful for everyone in Haiti. But I always stay strong when facing challenges to help my family, friends, and children who look up to me and rely on me.”

It was in 2015, when a meeting with Gèrye Jwa Playmakers inspired Edner’s outlook to become more joyful, engaging, and socially connected to his students. “The knowledge and tools I acquired through training with Gèrye Jwa made teaching easier. [As a result], my kids worked better and became more connected and joyful in class.” In addition, he explains, “Gèrye Jwa activities help calm and relax the children. And lately, we’ve been participating in an activity called Retire Doulè (“taking out our pain”) to help the children get rid of fear, resentment, doubt, insecurity or any other negative feelings or emotions before we start the school day.”

This joy and optimism-fueled approach to the Playmaker Program shines a light on more emotional understanding to children — but also helps professional caregivers like Edner take care of themselves in hopes of avoiding the all-too-familiar “caregiver burnout.” Edner says, “I can relate and share [the kids’] joys and sorrows and comfort them in grief, but being a Gèrye Jwa Playmaker also taught me about the importance of taking care of myself.”

Currently, Edner is working toward his Master’s degree in Education. He says, “Thanks to my work with Gèrye Jwa, I have more self-esteem, and I’m more optimistic about my ability to serve my community and achieve my personal goals.”

MYSTER WAY

Myster Way Jean Baptiste is a Gèrye Jwa Playmaker and program leader at Be Like Brit Orphanage & School in Grand Goave, Haiti. With a background in psychology inspired by his ease to bond and make emotional connections with kids, Baptiste focused his knowledge, motivation, and energy on helping kids facing adversities after an internship at a center for autistic children. 

"The Playmaker program has taught me some of the most important and unique lessons I have ever learned. The program emphasizes the importance of joy and play for both adults and children to help nurture safe and loving relationships," says Baptiste. "This knowledge has made a big difference in assisting adults in discovering their inner child to become more understanding and patient with kids. But also learning how to "goodify" our environments, relationships, and interactions to help reduce toxic stress and the effects of overwhelming on the normal development of children."

More than ever, childcare professionals in Haiti need to be empowered. The climate of political instability and widespread violence in our major cities and the global pandemic crisis affect everyone, especially children. "During the pandemic, I've been more anxious and less grounded, and the kids I serve at the orphanage are also deeply affected. They have lost contact with the outside world. And the older children are worried about their future and the safety of their close and or extended family members." he says.

The connection and support from Gèrye Jwa help dedicated Playmakers like Baptiste work with children to stay positive and optimistic through the challenging and complex situations he and countless others are facing in Haiti. Through this adversity, Baptiste remains optimistic, "The Playmaker program has helped me develop a global understanding of approaching kids in such a difficult period and provided my staff and me with the appropriate tools to make a difference in our vulnerable kids' lives."