1934–1935: (The Sylvain Sisters as Model — the Busied Pace of the LFAS’s First Years Having One Purpose: Education, Sylvain Explaining “We Haitian Feminists …

1934–1935: (The Sylvain Sisters as Model — the Busied Pace of the LFAS’s First Years Having One Purpose: Education, Sylvain Explaining “We Haitian Feminists Ask Above All for the Ability to Educate Ourselves Through the Creation of High Schools for Young Girls,” LFAS Routinely Applauding Leaders for Academic Achievements, Madeleine Founding Pupilles des Saint-Antoine at Twenty-Two Earning Her Law Degree in 1933, Yvonne the First Woman Admitted and Graduated from the Haitian School of Medicine in 1940 Specializing in Venereal Disease and Negotiating the Yaws Epidemic, Jeanne Writing of Her Exhaustion Given the Overwhelming Number of Social Work Clients, Suzanne Studying at the Sorbonne and London University Becoming Noted for Comparative Work on West African Coastal Languages and Haitian Kreyòl — the Sisters Representing Multilayered Professional Expertise with Cross-Class Relevance): The busied pace of the LFAS’s first several years ultimately had one purpose. As Sylvain explained, Haitian feminists asked above all for the ability to educate themselves through the creation of high schools for young girls, the increase in primary schools, and the revision of women’s education programs to make them more applicable to their needs. As trained professionals, the LFAS leaders modeled the benefits of scholastic education, routinely applauding their leaders for academic achievements. Madeleine Sylvain began her work with women and children at twenty-two when she founded the social support agency Pupilles des Saint-Antoine, providing basic needs for women and their children. She enrolled in law school in 1930 and earned her degree in 1933. Her sister Yvonne became an obstetrician-gynecologist, the first woman admitted and graduated from the Haitian School of Medicine in 1940. As a specialist in venereal disease, she negotiated the devastating effects of the nationwide yaws epidemic in the 1920s and ’30s, and working at the epicenter of women’s urban healthcare became concerned about women’s living conditions as a public health crisis. Jeanne’s experiences as a social worker gave her exposure to women’s domestic conditions across social classes — in letters to her sisters, she frequently wrote of her exhaustion given the overwhelming number of clients. Suzanne studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and worked as a research assistant at London University, becoming noted for her comparative work on West African coastal languages and Haitian Kreyòl. Together, the sisters represented multilayered professional expertise that had cross-class relevance for their feminist agenda — law, medicine, social work, and anthropology woven into a single family’s commitment to the nation’s women.