The Caribbean nation of Haiti has been plagued by
political violence for most of its history and remains one
of the poorest countries in the world. Yet, last May the
country's 8.3 million inhabitants saw a glimpse of hope
with the inauguration of a democratically elected
president, who promised to bring a measure of peace and
stability to the region. That effort has begun.
It was at this pivotal juncture in Haiti's history
that 16 students from Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced
International Studies undertook a field trip of the
highest order — an up-close and transparent look
inside the newly formed government. This month, the SAIS
students conducted five days' worth of interviews with
government officials and civil society representatives at
all levels, ranging from an audience with President Rene
Preval himself to meetings with neighborhood leaders in a
newly securitized slum.
The Haiti trip, a for-credit experience sponsored by
the school's Conflict Management program, was just one of
several "academic vacations" taken this winter break by
SAIS students, who also headed off to Guatemala, Mexico,
China and Saudi Arabia.
I. William Zartman, director of the Conflict
Management program and the Jacob Blaustein Professor of
International Organizations and Conflict Resolution, said
that he's organized winter-break trips for years and that
recently several other SAIS departments and programs have
followed his lead.
Zartman said a trip like the one to Haiti allows
students to develop a better understanding of the
principles, concepts and specifics they learn in the
classroom.
"It just makes a world of difference to hear things on
the spot from people who are directly involved with the
situation," Zartman said. "There are many sides of the
story, and with this one-week experience, [the students]
were able to see the conflict in three dimensions and hear
many different points of view."
The Conflict Management program also sponsored a trip
to Haiti last year, when students studied the platforms of
the various presidential candidates. The students' mission
each time is to study the underlying causes of the endemic
conflict. Currently, the small nation is rife with gang
violence, poverty and corruption, Zartman says, and suffers
from an overall lack of structure.
SAIS students pose for a snapshot
with youth participating in Jovenes Constructores, a
community-rebuilding program in Tapachula,
Mexico.
Photo by Courtesy of Trine Lunde
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"Nothing works in Haiti, and yet everything works
there," Zartman said. "Everyone just makes do and tries to
find his or her way around a very dysfunctional
situation."
Specifically, the SAIS student group toured the
overcrowded capital, Port-au-Prince, including its slums at
Bel Air; and a provincial town, Jacmel. In addition to the
president and prime minister, the students spoke with
various other ministers, security and development
officials, the special representative of the secretary
general of the United Nations, the World Bank
representative, UNICEF workers, human rights and
disarmament group leaders, anti-corruption figures, a
mayor, the U.S. embassy, reporters and health officials.
They also spoke with the leaders of the country's two
official religions, the archbishop of the Roman Catholic
Church in Haiti and the Hougun, the chief priest of
voodoo.
In November and December, before leaving, the students
attended talks in Washington by experts on Haiti, including
the country's ambassador, and did research in preparation
for the trip.
Each student focused on a particular angle or issue,
such as education, economy and the environment. Upon their
return, the students were asked to write a 10-page report
that described the problem and proposed solutions. Once all
the reports are completed, Zartman will write an
introduction, bind them in one volume and send copies to
officials in Haiti and circulate the document in academic
circles.
Ruben Harutunian, student coordinator for the Haiti
trip, said that it was an unforgettable experience.
"This was such an incredible opportunity. We got to
see what life is like there, to witness some of the misery
and poverty firsthand and then also talk with people who
are actively trying to make things better," Harutunian
said.
The school's grant-sponsored Guatemala trip was
organized by the International Development Program and
involved 10 students who went to the Central American
country for a two-week stay to expand their knowledge of
its current economic and social development. During the
trip, the students conducted a series of meetings with
organizations and individuals working in Guatemala,
including USAID, the U.S. ambassador to Guatemala and the
Inter-American Development Bank.
In addition, five of the students worked with
Friendship Bridge, a U.S.-based nongovernmental
organization, to complete a market study on microfinance in
the department of El Quiche, and the other five conducted a
survey on education in rural Chisec.
Farther north, seven SAIS students from the Western
Hemisphere program spent two weeks in Mexico thanks to a
grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. The students
connected with representatives of various NGOs based in the
southern state of Chiapas, who took the group to various
areas to better understand issues related to poverty and
development, such as indigenous rights, migration, health
and education.
Among their activities, students visited bilingual
schools, indigenous communities, youth groups, human rights
activists, migrant shelters, and a group called Jovenes
Constructore, a program in Tapachula through which
unemployed youth are brought together to rebuild their
communities after Hurricane Stan.
Trine Lunde, a doctoral candidate in Latin American
Studies and student coordinator for the Mexico trip, said
that the students saw and did much. She considered it "a
very successful test run."
"This was our first trip there, and we tried to lay
some groundwork for future trips," Lunde said. "But
overall, it was very interesting and rewarding, definitely
for me."
Zartman said that experiential field trips have become
part of the academic fabric at SAIS, and he is happy to
have played a role.
"The
Strategic Studies program takes a trip
every year to a battlefield, which is fine. But I thought,
Why just go to dead battlefields when you can see live
conflicts?" Zartman said. "Our people here at SAIS go on to
take some pretty hair-raising jobs, so it's important to
show them what it's like mucking around in the Third World
and how to behave in the middle of a conflict and avoid
getting carried away. If [all these trips] become part of
the culture here, so much for the better, as [they're] an
essential part of the wonderful training that we give."
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