Lionel Vital

board member, Li!Li!Li!

Lionel Vital was born and grew up in Haiti. He now lives in Boston. At age 13, he started working for a Haitian children's radio station in Port-au-prince called ‘Radyo Timoun’ which literally means children's radio in English. He represented Haiti in April 1997 as a 15 year old, in an international conference on children's rights held at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Amid political turmoil in 2004, he left his beloved Haiti and moved to the U.S. He attended Bunker Hill community college where he received an associate degree in Education. Lionel currently serves on the board of Li!Li!Li! A literacy project in Haiti. He is dedicated to social justice and increasing human understanding across borders, and recently completed a semester in France studying international politics. He is a senior student at University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he is completing a double major in French and Political Science. Lionel has plans to travel back to Europe in September next year to pursue a master’s degree in international relations with a focus on conflict resolution, development and good governance policy making in the third world countries. Lionel is the original TiFre, on whom the character of the same name is based in Youme Landowne's book *Selavi* (That is Life) A Haitian Story of Hope. Youme met Lionel when he was fifteen and she was researching the story in Port-au-prince, they have remained friends and together seek opportunities to encourage children and families everywhere.