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Apr 23, 2007

"I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow." --Abraham Lincoln

The Good Pied Piper of Haiti

10 years ago, when American Douglas Perlitz visited Cap-Hantien –- Haiti's second-largest city -– he soon found a trail of street children following him. One child, Wilnaud Pierre, only 8 years old, especially touched his heart. "He pulled me aside and said 'Would you send me to school? I want to learn to read and write.'" Five months later, Perlitz talked to some local priests who offered him space in an old building behind their church to start a school. He told Wilnaud to tell his friends to come on Nov. 3, 1997, and he would teach them. Some 30 children were waiting for him when he arrived. Within a year, the school grew into Project Pierre Toussaint, which today helps about 120 kids a day at a drop-in center, where they can get three hot meals and schooling.