WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Rive has meaning in both Creole and English, though they are not similar.

In Creole, rive is in the same orientation of “reaching” for a better life. ‘Rive’ is a common word in Creole that people use to indicate that someone has reached a goal or a major milestone in life. People will say "moun sa yo rive" meaning "you have ‘arrived,’"as if they have reached their goal like graduating college or securing a career. This is applied to social mobility as expressed through education and work. In Haiti being rich is less important than showing that you’ve taken the time to be educated and that you have a job. Culturally it means you have made it (you have a good life, education, job, marriage, respect in society, social mobility, etc) as opposed to being a social pariah or a “wretch of the earth”, as Frantz Fanon would say.

In English, rive means “to wrench open, tear apart to pieces.” Our organization is dedicated to wretch open and tear apart misery in its multiple forms. Our primary focus is education including at the primary and secondary levels, teacher training, adult literacy and vocational training in areas such as sustainable agriculture and other income generating trades.

The ending ‘one’ in our url ‘rive.one’

In Creole, "onè" means honor, thus our .one domain ending embraces "honor." Our tag name Fondasyon Onè pou Ayiti signals values that Haitians ascribe to honor. As a Nation that emerges as a result of a revolution and that has come into existence against all odds, Haitians tend to value honor over material goods and to some extent even their life.

The foundational revolutionary Creole song Grenadye alaso sa ki mouri zafè yo (fighters, let’s move forward, those who die, may they bury their dead) is a call for the culture of honor regardless of the situation. Besides the historical aspect of the concept of honor, Haitians also ascribes values to an honorable life condition that is afforded through education, work, self-discipline, moral judgement, and socially responsive character. For Haitians, an honorable person who has made it in life is one who has indeed done so with honor.

The accumulation of wealth at all cost is a most disgraceful ethical condition for Haitians. In light of this, the real achievement is one that is reached with honor, thus the url rive.one, that can be written as the short Creole sentence rive ak onè, meaning making it in life with honor. Our organization tries to capture this culturally loaded notion to help creating conditions for young Haitians to find the right pathways to be successful in life and to call on national and international funders to help make resources available to support young Haitians’ desire to achieve a career with honor and dignity, i.e. rive ak onè or rive.one.