Preface

This booklet is a basic introduction to the people, history, and culture of Haiti. It is designed primarily for service providers and others assisting refugees in their new communities in the United States.

The principal writer is Michele Burtoff Civan, a linguist and teacher trainer with many years of experience in the field of refugee education. In 1985, she conducted a study on the relationship between Haitian Creole literacy and ESL proficiency among adult Haitians. Two Haitian-Americans, Gepsie Morisset-Métellus and Féquière Vilsaint, also contributed to this fact sheet. Ms. Métellus is an Education Specialist in the Office of Multicultural Programs/Alternative Education, Dade County (Florida) Public Schools. Mr. Vilsaint develops Haitian Creole educational materials and is the Director of EducaVision, a Haitian Creole resource center in Temple Terrace, Florida.

Many people read and commented on drafts of the manuscript. In particular, we would like to thank: Edwidge Crevecoeur-Bryant of the Multicultural Resource Center at Florida Atlantic University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Dr. Georges Fouron, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the State University of New York, Stonybrook; Dora Johnson, Program Associate at the Center for Applied Linguistics; Dr. Terry Karl, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University; and Brunson McKinley, Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration. We would also like to thank Sarah Neal of the Center for Applied Linguistics for her valuable copyediting and proofreading assistance.

Finally, we would like to thank the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the U.S. Department of State, whose support made this fact sheet possible.

Donald A. Ranard, Editor

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