What happens when two people from different worlds meet—and decide to reimagine what learning can mean for a nation? It’s the spring of 1995 at a crowded bus station near Site Solèy. The air hums with vendors’ voices and diesel smoke. 

What if the answers we seek are already here—rooted in the wisdom, experience, and courage of the people themselves? At the Matènwa Community Learning Center (MCLC), we believe that the people of Lagonav know their own communities best.

Friends of Matènwa and its board of directors walk beside MCLC, helping to connect resources and build local capacity—not to direct the work, but to ensure the people leading it have what they need to succeed.

MCLC was co-founded in 1996 by Haitian edu