Language.  It is a gigantic piece of who you are.  If that seems a bit dramatic, stop and think about it.  Imagine yourself in a room full of people speaking a language that you don't understand.  Do you feel like you belong, or like you are an outsider?  Pragmatically, you are at a disadvantage.  Hopefully you can make yourself understood when you need to ask for the bathroom.  

But seriously, language development happens very early.  It means, it's been with you most of your life.  It helps you describe to others what you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel externally, but most especially what you experience as a person internally, your emotional state, thoughts, beliefs, and dreams.

Your first language - the language you learned from infancy, is even an anchor into who you are.  It helps to form your core identity.  Language influences and informs your perspective because it is a unique set of tools by which to communicate.  

Our students home language is Creole.  But the formal language of Haiti (in which legal documents are written) is French.  We are committed to strengthening student identity, and we are committed to developing our students into citizens who can express their beliefs and ideas, and communicate and meet their own needs.  In Haiti, Creole alone is not the tool for the job in every situation.  We are committed to equipping our students with at least two sets of language tools because bilingualism can never be a disadvantage.  It can only serve for the good, and certainly, we are committed to that.