View of the group, with trainers Philippe Colomb and Marc Jean-Baptiste

In May 2009, the FOKAL / Open Society Institute Haïti organised a seven days training session in Port-au-Prince with FAIFE's support. During this session, 30 librarians from across Haïti had the opportunity to improve their skills in Internet use and to exchange knowledge about their professional practices concerning free access to information and freedom of expression.

While FOKAL staff took charge of the Internet uses workshops, Philippe Colomb, from FAIFE, chaired a two day workshop on the IFLA Internet Manifesto: a presentation of the Manifesto, discussions on issues, good practices, political, economic and technical barriers. During the all session, the trainees were asked to be very active and to give substantive written examples.

At the end of the week, small group projects were presented. Every project was focusing on a controversial issue and was challenging the capacities of the group to determine the role of the information professional in providing accurate, balanced and unbiased information. Every group demonstrated a critical approach and a good capacity of evaluating informational contains found on the Internet.

During his stay in Haïti, Philippe Colomb had the chance to participated a show on a community radio and to present FAIFE and its Internet Manifesto.

Elizabeth Pierre-Louis from FOKAL has prepared a report on the workshop, with photographs, which can be found here: Free access to information in Haïti: how can libraries help?