{"id":17512,"date":"2016-01-18T23:07:27","date_gmt":"2016-01-18T23:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ec2-54-86-215-170.compute-1.amazonaws.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/18\/fokal\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T13:02:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T13:02:24","slug":"fokal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/betatest.fokal.org\/index.php\/en\/2016\/01\/18\/fokal\/","title":{"rendered":"FOKAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Created in 1995, <\/span>the Fondation Connaissance et Libert\u00e9 \/ Fondasyon Konesans Ak Lib\u00e8te (Foundation for Knowledge and Liberty)<\/em>, is a well recognized national foundation supported mainly by <\/span>Open Society Foundations<\/a>, OSF, a worldwide network of foundations and initiatives created by philanthropist <\/span>George Soros<\/a> for the promotion of democratic values. FOKAL also receives support from the European Union and the French cooperation. The Foundation offers to local communities throughout the country and to organizations of civil society a large spectrum of activities in the fields of education, arts and culture and development.<\/span><\/p>\n

FOKAL\u2019s creation<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Foundation was created in April 1995 after Mich\u00e8le Duvivier Pierre-Louis received the mandate by Karen J. Greenberg, vice-president of programs of the Open Society Institute founded in the 1980s by philanthropist Georges Soros. This network of foundations, projects and partner institutions present over 100 countries is known today as the Open Society Foundations (OSF). Aryeh Neier, then president of the Open Society Institute (OSI), was the first to contact Mich\u00e8le D. Pierre-Louis in January 1995 in Port-au-Prince. Mich\u00e8le D. Pierre-Louis was then invited to meet Georges Soros, founder and chairman of OSI, in New York in February 1995 and from that meeting came the decision to entrust her with the creation of a foundation in Haiti. A notarized official mandate was then be communicated to Mich\u00e8le Duvivier Pierre-Louis “for the purpose of signing the constitutive act, the statutes and all acts necessary for the constitution of the Foundation knowledge and freedom; To constitute all the values or all the sums necessary for the assignment of this foundation. “<\/p>\n

In July 1995, the founder of FOKAL, Mich\u00e8le D. Pierre-Louis, invited seven volunteers to form the first board of directors; as recommended by the article 4 of FOKAL\u2019s statutes which confers to the founder the power to appoint the members of the first board of directors. Members of the board have the status of volunteers and do not receive any salary.\u00a0On 14 June 1996, notary Garry Brisson Cassagnol officially transmitted the Statutes of the Fondation Connaissance et Libert\u00e9 to the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, after their notarial registration according to a mandate granted to Mich\u00e8le Duvivier Pierre-Louis. The Statutes were to be transmitted via the Mayor\u2019s office to the Ministery of Interior for final approval and publication in the Official Journal : Le Moniteur. The articles were filed in the presence of the following witnesses: Lorraine C. Mangon\u00e8s and Evens Toussaint, respectively Deputy Director and Financial Director.On 21 April 1997, the Mayor of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Emmanuel Charlemagne, transmitted to the Minister of the Interior, Jean Joseph Moli\u00e8re, the certificate of registration of the Foundation in the special city ledger of Port- au-Prince. The publication will be made in the January 28,1999 issue, number 8 of the 154th year of the Official Journal Le Moniteur. The following year, FOKAL will receive from the Government of the Republic the declaration of public utility giving it legal personality that will appear in the Moniteur of May 4, 2000, number 35, 155th year.The Article 3 of the Foundation statutes defines the vision of the institution: to promote the necessary structures for the establishment of a just and solidary democratic society concerned with the development of education and the communication of science and culture.<\/p>\n

FOKAL\u2019s board of directors\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

FOKAL\u2019s board of directors gives the broad guidelines of the foundation and meets at least four times a year to monitor the implementation of the actions that have been approved. In January 2015, the lawyer and economist Maxime D. Charles became the president of the current board of directors, succeeding Dani\u00e8le Magloire, sociologist and human rights activist.The President of the board shall convene the Board for a meeting or any modification of the by-laws, co-sign with the Director the official statements and represent the Board of the Foundation at the annual meetings of the Open Society Foundations network. He \/ she shall be entitled to sign on the Foundation’s accounts in the same way as the Executive Director, the Financial Director and \/ or the Assistant Director. The Vice-President shall replace the President in the event of his \/ her absence. The secretary approves and signs the minutes of the boards of directors. The other members of the board or advisers agree as well on the broad guidelines presented by the Executive Director. They do not have the right to sign the accounts or official declarations unless exceptionally mandated by a majority of the Board members and the Executive Director.<\/p>\n

Members of FOKAL\u2019s first board of directors in 1995\u00a0:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

President: Brother Franklin Armand, Founder of two indigenous religious orders in the Central Plateau: the Little Brothers of the Incarnation (1976) and the Little Sisters of the Incarnation (1985).Vice-president: Inette Durandis, Agronomist, has been leading the development projects of the Methodist Church of Haiti since 1992,<\/p>\n

Secretary: Mich\u00e8le Montas, Journalist, director of the newsroom of Radio Haiti InterAdvisor\u00a0: Daniel Henrys, Medical doctor specialist in community health and public health, founding member of the SOE (Ecumenical Service of Help).Advisor\u00a0: Mo\u00efse Jean-Charles, Coordinator of Mouvman Peyizan Milot, newly elected mayor of Milot<\/p>\n

Advisor: Luc Pierre, Professor at the Ecole Normale Superieure and the Faculty of Applied Linguistics. Author of the Book: \u201cEducation and socio economic challenges\u201d<\/p>\n

Advisor\u00a0: Father Hugo Trieste, of The Scheutt Congregation, a member of the Justice & Peace Commission since 1989 and the Platform of Haitian human rights organizations since 1991.<\/p>\n

FOKAL Board Presidents from 1995 to today :<\/strong><\/p>\n