Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 13 octobre 2016

How to help Haiti after Hurricane Matthew

OCTOBER 5, 2016 4:38 PM

After Hurricane Matthew made landfall in Haiti Tuesday, organizations are collecting supplies and financial donations.

Agencies collecting donations and supplies include:

▪ Catholic Relief Services is collecting blankets, kitchen, hygiene kits, other supplies and financial donations on its website.

▪ Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities established a relief fund for people in the Caribbean affected by the hurricane. Financial donations will be designated to provide transportation, gas, food and rebuilding or repairs. Those contributions can be made at the Catholic Charities website. On the donate tab, select the box “Disaster Relief — Hurricane Matthew.”

▪ United Way and Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald have already activated Operation Helping Hands to raise money for people affected by the storm and are building a disaster volunteer database. All of the money raised through Operation Helping Hands will go directly to help people affected by Hurricane Matthew.

▪ Food Aid International is sending meals to Haiti. Donations can be made at its website.

▪ Guidelines for giving can be found at the Center for International Disaster Informationwebsite.

President Barack Obama met with FEMA Wednesday about Hurricane Matthew and encouraged people to help those in Haiti “who didn’t have a lot to begin with and are now getting hammered by this storm.”

The Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, or CARE, director in Haiti, Jean-Michel Vigreux, said the southern part of Haiti was hit hard and is cut off from the rest of the country.

 “The impacts of Matthew there are hard to evaluate as communication is very difficult, but we know of floods, landslides and continuous heavy rains in some areas of the south,” he said. “We also heard of destroyed houses, streets and bridges, dead livestock, destroyed livelihoods.”

The government estimates damages at about $1 billion.

Trees were uprooted and electric lines were cut off due to strong winds in the capital of Port-au-Prince. CARE distributed blankets and buckets at 11 a.m. before the storm hit Tuesday, the director said.

View image on Twitter

Haiti is still recovering from long-term effects of the earthquake in 2008, the cholera outbreak two years later, two cyclones, a tropical storm and two droughts, Vigreux said.

“The population is very strained,” he said. “Strengthening people’s resilience and boosting the reconstruction are key.”

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Matthew worse than Azel

Oct.2016

It is far worse than Hazel (1954) although there was a major effort to alert people and the death toll was not, as far as we know, in the thousands. The Civil defense force played a role and the govt stepped up to the plate as did radios.. But it is not enough. We are not really prepared like other island for such gigantic disasters. And the disaster has not ended, it has just begun. The aftershock is coming. Impressive was our friend Francois Anick Joseph, former priest and now Interior Minister who told tv and radio how it was or is. The town of poets, Jeremie  is a complete wreck and even the solid old St Louis Roi de France church on Dumas place lost its roof. There is so much wreckage it is hard to visualize anyone has an undamaged home. Pilot Jeff Barnes flew into the airport in Jeremie the day after and could not enter the city because of fallen trees that blocked the road. It is the same for Cayes and town and villages on the peninsula. Mattthew rooted up the once beautiful Port Salut and more places.

Theo Wiener, who has worked with little farmers above Dame Marie went with Bernard Chauvet in his boat to see what has to be done. The uprooting of coffee and cacao trees is a disaster.  Theo has invested his young life in helping the farmers and recently investing in making chocolate there. At Beaumond , coffee from the time of the French (Jesuits) suffered casualties, even trees that remain may take years to return to bear fruit. The peanut crop and small gardens may no longer help families to survive. The foreign reports don’t tell the origin of cholera that was brought to Haiti by Nepalese UN troops

Lauidear, driver and housekeeper went to Cayes to help fix his house that lost its roof. His mother’s house was totaled All we could do is give him some financial help which so many millions need now. Unable to help physically as in 1954  makes one feel so inadequate!

To witness thousands of family members returning to their wrecked original homes, especially in the south, will mean they and thousands of others will return with them and seek haven in Port-au-Prince.

One Haitian TV showed ex-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his candidate for president using the crisis yesterday for a campaign tour of the South in Aquin. He was born in the Port Salut area.

Election, that were set for Sunday have been postponed, yet again. Whoever becomes President will face an enormous rebuilding task.

Bernard

The international community announces humanitarian aid to Haiti

We are still in a provisional state. It is still too early to give firm figures.

In the morning of Wednesday, October 5th, 2016, the Interior Minister of Venezuela, Nestor Luis Reverol, announced the shipping of a cargo of 20 tons of humanitarian aid bound for Haiti.

This cargo contains non-perishable foodstuffs, water, blankets, sheets and medicine to help the population of Haiti, in particular local residents of Les Cayes, he said.

For his part, the Ambassador of Cuba said that a Cuban plane landed at the Toussaint Louverture Airport of Port-au-Prince last Saturday. On board were 300 doctors, nurses and other members of the Cuban medical staff. Their mission: to go and lend a hand to the members of the Cuban medical staff already on site for years assisting victims of Hurricane Matthew.

The USAID said that a million US dollars will be given in humanitarian aid as support to departments affected by Hurricane Matthew. This amount will be used to distribute vouchers and daily food rations, transfer funds, and meals in the evacuation shelters.

The USAID also supplied five hundred thousand dollars to international partners in Haiti to bring in logistic support and distribute supplies, including drinking water, cases of hygiene products, equipment for emergency shelters, blankets and household appliances.

The European Union (EU), through its head office for humanitarian aid and disaster and emergency services (Echo), immediately assigned two hundred fifty-five thousand euro to assist the victims most seriously affected, indicated a press release.

For his part, U.S. President Barack Obama launched a call for solidarity for Haiti, during a meeting with the press at the White House, according to the newspaper “The Short Story Writer”.

In response to this emergency situation, the General Secretary of Francophony, Madam Michaëlle Jean, encouraged states and member governments of the Francophony to mobilize, in solidarity, for the affected Haitian populations, in cities and in the countryside.

Several social organizations expressed their concerns in the face of these promised international humanitarian aid pledges, following the devastation of Hurricane Matthew.

“These financial pledges are going to create wealth for some in Haiti, as well in the international community, to the detriment of the hurricane victims,” warned Guy Numa, who heads the Popular Democratic Movement (Modep).

"The humanitarian aid must come within the strategic framework controlled and defined by Haitians," and must have a long-term outlook, recommended Camille Chalmers, who heads the Platform for an Alternate Development (PAPDA).

A response plan is being developed by the government, which will coordinate the international assistance, explained Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles during a press conference.

The international response to the request for help by the Haitian Government

The following is an ON THE GROUND HAITI UPDATE, which is an initiative by Michael Capponi

October 7, 2016 aid delivery and surveys of Haitian villages within a 40 km vicinity of Jérémie, including downtown Jeremie

1 . Today we were able to get approximately 30 to 40 km outside Jeremie. We were fortunate to have a God-sent Caterpillar to help us get through.

2 . We wanted to go from Jeremie to Les Anglais, where there is even more catastrophic destruction, but that was absolutely impossible. The next attempt was getting to Dame-Marie. That is also absolutely impossible. The roads are knee to waist high deep muddy swamps at every corner.

There are large fallen trees every 20 ft. With the help of a large Caterpillar and a crew of 6, they cleared approximately a few miles of road all day. At that rate, we anticipate it may take weeks before the roads are minimally operational again.

3. There is not 1 out of 3 homes destroyed but 3 out of 3 homes destroyed.

4. Our biggest fear is how long could injured starving children survive without aid in remote areas. It has now been 5 days and we are still days away from even getting to these areas.

5. Jeremi‘s cell phone towers have collapsed so there was no ability to communicate. But at 9 pm DIGICEL manage to do the repair. Thank you@maartenboute.

6. The biggest hope for these areas is the UN, US Navy helicopters and other countries’ peace keepers. We were very happy to see a series of military helicopters fly around Jeremie that have supplies, food and water. We brought a plane full from PAP but we also bought more in Jeremie.

7. Monetary donations to the proper trusted and proven Haiti expert specific NG0’s is going to be the quickest way of supporting immediately. (Be sure to see their financials to verify that no money is wasted on overhead and unnecessary expenses. People got burned once, never again)

8 . I can honestly say it looks just as bad as the 2010 earthquake in some areas. What’s much much worse, is the entire landscape, trees and agriculture fields are completely desolated. All the newly planted trees are mostly gone in the south west coast.

DEATH TOLL TO DATE IS CLOSE TO 900.

This is a statement by the Departmental Representative: Anse d’Hainault 12 dead, D’Espagne 15 dead, Abricots 5 dead, Baumont 82 dead, Mouline 58 missing, Moron 85 dead. Jérémie 31 dead…

Chambellan, Dame Marie, Beaumont, Pestel, Roseau are impossible areas to reach so far. Grand’Anse is an emergency zone.

This is a humanitarian disaster, an apocalyptic situation, all streets, from the large cities are affected. Jeremie is in huge trouble, all the trees are uprooted and torn down, all roofs have been torn.

Grand Anse had to face more than 12 hours of Hurricane Matthews at a level of 4-5.

This is a call for international solidarity. All the debris would have to be cleared- impossible to pass! There is an urgent need for food, water, medication

To see pictures of the catastrophe, click: www.globalempowermentmision.org

An initiative of the Perez Museum in Miami

Artist are encouraging visitors to write inspirational messages on postcards to be included in care packages which will be sent to Haiti.

The elections have been postponed to a later date which will be communicated before October 12^th

Temporary electoral council (CEP) president, Léopold Berlanger Junior, announced the official postponement of the elections that were planned for this Sunday, October 9^th, 2016.

The electoral council should be able to announce, on Wednesday, October 12th, the new date for the elections.

The president of the CEP indicated that meanwhile, the process of evaluation of the post-hurricane situation will continue this week and the CEP will keep in touch with the government and its national and foreign partners, he said.

As for the electoral campaign, the end of which was planned for this Friday, October 7th, this date is maintained until further notice, said Léopold Berlanger.

Toll Rises by Hour in Haiti Amid Ruin Left by Hurricane Matthew

LES CAYES, Haiti — A hospital now a shambles, its floors swamped with garbage and water, absent electricity. People living in the streets, camped in front of their broken homes. Buildings smashed into splinters. Farm fields flattened, portending a hard year ahead.

“For me, Roche-à-Bateau is not a place to live anymore,” said Warens Jeanty, 26, a tourism operator surveying the beach towns and picturesque port hamlets that dot Haiti’s coast. “People have nowhere to stay.”

As Haiti picks through the detritus left by Hurricane Matthew, more bodies are turning up every hour. Some estimates said that more than 800 people had died in the storm, more than double what the government has reported, though it acknowledged that the toll was unknown. In one part of the country’s southern peninsula, nearly 30,000 homes were destroyed and 150 lives lost, officials said.

And a full accounting of damage has not even started.

 “I had never seen anything like this,” said Marie Yolene Gateau, a retired New York City guidance counselor who lives in Leogane, Haiti, a town that was largely flattened in the 2010 earthquake. Now the storm has wiped out most of the region’s sugar crop, bananas and mangoes, she said. “The hurricane was attacking the trees. I watched thinking, ‘When is it going to stop?’ ”

Passage to many areas remained blocked, thwarting efforts to assess the destruction and to help survivors. A single remote village reported 82 dead on Friday, while others said they were waiting to account for dozens of missing people. The government, which requires visual proof to count a death in its toll, could hardly keep up with the accounts of loss stitched together from hospitals.

“We’re still far from having a full picture of the extent of the damage,” said Marc Vincent, a Unicef representative in Haiti. “We are hoping for the best, but bracing for the worst.”

Photo

It is a state that Haiti has grown accustomed to.

The country was getting ready for elections this Sunday, the product of nearly a year of wrangling and recriminations. But after a long period of political uncertainty and delay, even nature would not let Haiti hold the vote.

Now the hurricane has presented yet another hurdle to a nation still grappling with the devastation of the 2010 earthquake and a cholera epidemic inadvertently introduced to the country by United Nations peacekeepers.

Etienne Navuson, 27, waited out the hurricane this week in his concrete home as the wind lashed his village on the southwestern peninsula. When he awoke, almost everything had vanished: cattle, crops, fields and homes.

“Had the rain fallen more than it did — had it gone for just one more hour — we would have lost even more,” Mr. Navuson said.

At least 90 percent of the village was destroyed, he said. Residents are searching for food and water buried in the rubble.

“Those who find something are fortunate,” he said. Seven more family members have taken refuge in Mr. Navuson’s home after losing their own to the storm. The tiny home is now packed with people sleeping on plastic sheets for bedding.

“There will be food shortages in the days to come,” Mr. Navuson said.

Msgr. Pierre-André Pierre, the head of the Catholic University of Notre Dame of Haiti, encountered chaos when he reached the coastal town of Jérémie. Trees were gone, leaving an empty field. Someone had discarded a body in front of a Catholic bishop’s house, not knowing where else to dispose of it.

 “They were in a state of shock on what had happened in that place,” Monsignor Pierre said. “People were running in the streets.”

The monsignor said he then took a flight to the southern part of the peninsula where he passed over the town of Roche-à-Bateau, where little was left.

“That town did not exist,” he said.

Jeff Barnes, a Haitian-American pilot, was making relief flights on Friday. Many of the towns around Jérémie remained cut off from the rest of Haiti. In some neighborhoods, 80 to 90 percent of homes had been severely damaged or destroyed.

Swaths of trees had been reduced to stumps, he said. Large teams of young people had taken to the streets with machetes and chain saws, trying to clear roads blocked by fallen trees, some several feet in diameter.

“Almost everyone is living under the sky now, sleeping under the stars,” he said. “Doors are gone, people don’t have a place to live.”

Observers said that the hurricane and the lack of a coordinated response recalled the troubles the country faced during the 2010 earthquake.

“It is during natural disasters such as this the frailty and near-absence of Haiti’s state becomes most visible,” said Michael Deibert, the author of two books on Haiti. “As the country slides downhill, the political elites squabble in the capital and the international community fails to come up with an effective way of engaging with Haiti’s most vulnerable.”

Others agreed.

“Haiti has been in the path of the storm just way too often,” said Robert E. Maguire, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University. “It isn’t because of anything the Haitian people are doing. It’s natural disasters exacerbated because of the way people have managed the country.”

Policies that ordered or permitted the stripping of trees have left barren and scorched landscapes susceptible to mudslides. Poor development has left the country defenseless to hurricanes, without sea walls or other hard defenses to soften the blow.

The nation’s politics, meanwhile, often brew their own type of disaster, leaving the country bereft of clearly elected leaders.

The interim government is still assessing the damage. Haiti’s Civil Protection Force maintained on Friday that fewer than 300 people had died, but Reuters had tallied that nearly 900 lives were lost.

In many areas, schools, police stations and other buildings that would typically serve as voting stations are in tatters. The hope of most is that the government will reschedule the elections for this year.

“We will have another disaster here if these elections aren’t held this year,” said Pierre Esperance, the executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network. “The interim government doesn’t really have the power or legitimacy to control the country.”

For many, looking for food or still searching for loved ones, the elections were the last thing on their minds. On Friday, the Charmant Hotel in Jérémie had left a message on its website, saying its owners had not been in touch since the storm.

“We do know that Bette and Edwin were taking precautions for their guests, staff and family prior to the hurricane,” said the message, left by staff members.

Valery Numa, a well-known radio host in Port-au-Prince, ran three businesses — a hotel, a radio station and a Haitian Creole restaurant — in the town of Camp Perrin. All three were destroyed in the hurricane. But Mr. Numba has put an ambitious date, Nov. 1, for opening his three operations again.

“Any businessman who loses everything is going to be in distress,” he said, adding that he found himself lucky that none of his family members had died.

The aftermath of the storm also brought scenes of hope as survivors appeared. As the hurricane subsided, a team from St.-Boniface Hospital in southwestern Haiti went out to clear a route through debris. Looking up through the lessening rain, one of the workers saw the figure of a pregnant woman.

Her name was Julienne Cadet. She had been walking for at least half a mile. She was bleeding, in active labor.

The team quickly gathered around Ms. Cadet, helped her across a raging stream and drove her to the hospital. After an emergency cesarean section, she delivered two healthy boys: Jonas and Jean-atan

Father Sansaricq to President Obama

October 4^th, 2016

Mr. Barack Obama

President of the United States of America

The White House

Washington DC

Mr. President:

The recent Deportation Policy adopted by the Justice Department with regard to undocumented Haitian entrants resonates as a statement of utter contempt to a population in distress.

 In your various statements throughout your tenure you have always made it clear that people in distress are not to be treated as cattle or merchandise. With all due respect, forgive me to lament that the new policy contradicts your stated principles.

Indeed, Haitian Politicians are far from being blameless but we must also admit that misguided

Interference of the US Governments over the past fifty years have significantly worsened the political

and social conditions of that country. The US management of relief funds after the 2010 earthquake, the imposition of Mr. Martelly as President five years ago and the entire cholera file can be pointed out as some of the many examples of contributing factors to the current crisis.

 Let us honestly acknowledge it, Haitians who are running away by throve from their homeland are escaping dire conditions. I understand that it creates a political problem to the US. But we are dealing with human beings and human lives.

President Boyer of Haiti in 1826 invited any of the US born African slaves who were being forced back to Africa to take up residence in Haiti. Quite a few accepted the offer. Haitian soldiers fought in Savannah Georgia for the independence of the US.   Haiti in spite of its present condition of poverty stands as a symbol of something great and hence deserves special regards from its more prosperous neighbor.

I plead that the stated deportation policy recently adopted be revoked for humanitarian reasons.   

It is my hope that your legacy with regards to human rights will not be soiled by a last minute policy

that is likely to generate grave injustices, tremendous human sufferings, family separation and even

unknown numbers of avoidable tragedies. 

 Respectfully yours.

 +Guy Sansaricq

 Auxiliary-Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn NY

Director of the National Center of the Haitian Apostolate.    

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 19 octobre 2016

 The USA temporarily suspends the deportation of Haitians

Last week, following the devastating passage of hurricane Matthew, the U.S. government announced that it would temporarily suspend its decision to deport illegal Haitian migrants living in the U.S.  http://www.haitilibre.com/article-18700-haiti-flash-usa-reprise-des-deportations-regu lieres-vers-haiti.html

Jeh Johnson, the American Secretary of Internal Security, declared while in Mexico, following a meeting with Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, the Secretary of the Interior of Mexico, "We shall face this situation, address it, and be compassionate to the distress of the Haitian people following the hurricane." He emphasized that after this crisis, the American Government intended to return to its decision to resume deportations.

For his part, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong declared that the Haitian migrants had been a topic of discussions with Johnson. He added that  it was Mexico’s responsibility to try to improve their living conditions, while they stayed there, hoping that the United States proceeds with processing about 75 Haitian migrants a day at the border post of San Ysidro, in San Diego, to speed things up.

Matthew: a delegation of the Diaspora in Haiti

A delegation of Haïtian-American officials, made up of North Miami Mayor Dr. Smith Joseph; North Miami Councilman Alix Désulmé; State Representative Al Jacquet; North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugène, and Marc E. Jeudy, Coordinator of the delegation, traveled to Haiti to investigate and inquire about the needs of the victims of Hurricane Matthew.

A starved population attacks trucks with humanitarian aid

Anger is rising among the desperate victims of Hurricane Matthew who lost everything. In search of food in the rumble, they are pleading that they are hungry and that the humanitarian aid is taking too long to arrive. Furious, they criticize the government for its lack of coordination in distributing food and water to the population. In several municipalities last week, it was reported that residents had blocked streets to force trucks carrying relief supplies to stop and help them.

Others did not hesitate to throw stones and bottles at trucks carrying humanitarian aid. Last week, in Jeremie, residents set up a barricade of tree trunks, near a United Nations base. This forced a humanitarian convoy of 3 trucks to stop, blue berets had to leave their vehicle to protect themselves from the fury of the population. Scenes of violence and plunder are likely to repeat themselves considering the large number of people in need of urgent humanitarian aid.

According to the Administration of Disaster and Emergency Services, those in need number 1,410,774.

Among these people, more 120,000 families have had their homes destroyed or damaged. The number of people staying temporarily in shelters continues to increase in the two departments that were most affected, and exceeds 160,000.

"Hurricane Matthew hit us really hard, but we are going to get back up ", declared François Anick Joseph, Secretary of the Interior. He advised that the priority of the Government and its national and international partners, including the Haitian Civil society, is to respond to the urgent need for water, food and medicine for the populations of the affected areas, which must be quickly cleaned up, in order to transition to the rehabilitation phase.

UN Chief in Haiti Gets Glimpse of Matthew's Destruction

                                    By DAVID MCFADDEN AND BEN FINLEY, ASSOCIATED PRESSPORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Oct 15, 2016

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited victims of devastating Hurricane Matthew on Saturday, saying the destruction wrought by the storm was "heartbreaking," and he renewed a pledge to help the nation cope with a deadly scourge of cholera that was introduced by U.N. peacekeepers.

Ban's brief visit came as victims of the storm continued to express frustration — sometimes violently — at delays in aid about a week-and-a-half since Matthew hit southwest Haiti with 145 mph (235 kph) winds, killing at least 546 people and demolishing or damaging tens of thousands of homes.

"I met so many displaced persons, young people, women who were pregnant and sick people. It was heartbreaking," he said, describing his tour of an emergency shelter in the town of Les Cayes packed with families whose homes were destroyed.

Shortly before Ban's helicopter was due to land in Les Cayes, a clash broke out between rock-throwing residents and peacekeepers at a U.N. base there. Roughly 100 frustrated residents began hurling rocks when trucks ferrying food aid arrived. Haitian police officers and U.N. peacekeepers scattered the group with tear gas. Calm was restored as Ban's helicopter approached.

In recent days, Associated Press reporters have observed a number of skirmishes between Haitians in hard-hit areas seeking emergency aid distributed by international and local organizations.

At the close of his roughly 4 ? hour stop in Haiti, Ban told reporters at Port-au-Prince's airport that a cholera-focused trust fund announced in recent weeks was part of the U.N.'s "new approach" to helping Haitian families who lost loved ones since the waterborne disease was introduced here in October 2010 — an outbreak that has been aggravated by the hurricane.

The U.N. said the fund is designed to help Haiti overcome cholera and build stronger water, sanitation and health systems.

There's long been ample evidence that cholera was introduced to the nation's biggest river by inadequately treated sewage from a U.N. peacekeeping base about 10 months after Haiti's devastating earthquake.

But the U.N. only acknowledged in August, following a leaked internal report, that it played a role in introducing cholera to Haiti and vowed to aid victims in the impoverished Caribbean nation, which has experienced the worst outbreak of the disease in recent history. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said that that "the United Nations has a moral responsibility to the victims."

U.N. officials at one point said they were seeking about $181 million for the special fund, but Ban mentioned no figures Saturday as he vowed to help the families of victims and "most of all prevent and stop this cholera epidemic" by mobilizing more U.N. resources. He expressed disappointment, however, that international funding to fight cholera in Haiti and rebuild after Matthew is so far falling far short.

"I know that the world economic situation is not favorable, and I know that there is some donor fatigue by certain countries," he told reporters at the close of his brief visit.

Insurance: the CCRIF will pay more than 20 million in compensations to Haiti

The CCRIF SPC (formerly Disaster Caribbean Risk Insurance Facility) is getting ready to make a payment to the Haitian Government following the passage of Hurricane Matthew, which activated the tropical hurricane insurance in Haiti. On the basis of preliminary calculations, Haiti will receive a little more than 20 million US dollars, the biggest payment ever made by the CCRIF. It was confirmed by Milo Pearson, the President of the CCRIF, during the annual meeting IMF/GROUP of the World Bank.

It should be noted that during the last four years, the insurance premiums of Haiti were paid generously by the Caribbean Development Bank. Haiti had been paid by the CDB and the Government of Canada and Canadian government.

This payment will be the second payment to Haiti by the CCRIF. In 2010, following the devastating earthquake, the CCRIF made a payment to the Government of Haiti of 7.7 millions, based on the terms of its earthquake insurance. This payment represented the first direct financial support Haiti received at that time. The Haitian government used the funds from the CCRIF to cover the salary of key emergency staff, and to keep the government operating.

Matthew-Cholera: one million vaccines will soon arrive in Haiti

The representative of the Pan-American and world organizations of the health (OPS / WHO) confirmed the arrival of a million vaccines against cholera in the next few days.

According to Dr. Jean Luc Poncelet, these vaccines will be distributed according to a plan developed by the Ministry of Health, which has taken key zones into account.

However the representative of the OPS / WHO explained that the vaccines will only be effective if the population agrees to protect itself by using purified water and by respecting hygiene standards.

The representative also explained that a multinational team was deployed in 3 departments, including the South and Grande Anse, to support the humanitarian operations to restore the capacity of health systems and services.

Meanwhile, 2,000 kits containing hydration solutions, among other things, were distributed, along with special beds.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 2 novembre 2016

 Prison Outbreak In Arcahaie

According to inspector Garry Desrosiers, Yvener Carélus, the prisoner who caused the escape is a specialist. According to the inspector, this individual, who was arrested for his implication in cases of kidnapping, was already involved in other prisoner escapes in the country. He is also the presumed murderer of the policeman Fritz Gérald, 52 years old, said the communications manager of the PNH.

Out of the 266 prisoners who were incarcerated in Arcahaie, only 93 remain. A total of 173 others have fled, whose more than hundred have been recaptured. The police spokesman gave a clear warning to anyone who would try to help these fugitives.

A policeman assigned to the civil prison of Arcahaie is currently in isolation and suspected of being implicated in the escape, said Inspector Gary Desrosiers. He reassured the population that there was only a rifle taken by the escapees, contrary to what circulated in the press.

"The weapons of the prison are still there," he said.  He also stated that the 93 prisoners staying in the prison of Arcahaie were transferred to another detention center, while a complete search of the Arcahaie prison was underway.

It is official: China is ready to bring electricity to Haiti with solar and wind energy

A 1.2 billion dollar contract was signed with China to bring electricity to all of the Republic of Haiti using wind and solar energy.

The Haitian delegation, led by Planning minister Aviol Fleurant, initialed this agreement with the Chinese, whose Bank of China will forward 85 % of the total cost of the project, while the Haitian government will contribute 15%.

According to the Minister of Planning and External Cooperation, the wind and solar systems, once installed, will supply all the country with electrical energy.

Taking advantage of the sun’s rays, which sweep the territory permanently, and the wind, which blows in strategic places, will allow Haiti to become autonomous when it comes to electrical energy. This will enable the country to resort much less to oil for all its needs. Such a project will establish the first stage of progress towards a complete quality of life improvement and social well-being for all Haitian citizens.

U.N. Plans to Pay 400 millions US to Victims of Cholera Outbreak It Caused in Haiti

24 Oct. 2016

"About $200 million of the package is meant for what United Nations officials call “material assistance” to families and communities that were most affected. (The other $200 million would help pay for cholera eradication and improved sanitation.) The officials avoid the term “compensation” partly over fear among donors that it could set a precedent. 

But the United Nations does not have the money it needs for the proposed package,

Dr. Nabarro said the $200 million for payouts could be money for families of the dead — it would amount to roughly $21,000 for each of the estimated victims. Or it could be spent on helping the hardest-hit communities, with benefits such as scholarships or health insurance.

In the end, said Dr. Nabarro, who is one of six candidates vying to be the next head of the World Health Organization, it will depend on what donor nations are willing to pay for.

The official rollout of the package, expected in the coming weeks, is designed in part to repair the damage that cholera has done to the reputation of the United Nations, which regularly presses governments around the world to pursue accountability, and to help Mr. Ban’s legacy in particular."

CHOLERA IN HAITI

UN human rights expert: “UN lawyers undermine a just solution for the victims of cholera in Haiti”

Posted on the Internet by United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner

Republished by AlterPresse

United Nations human rights expert Philip Alston claimed today that flawed and unfounded legal advice provided by the UN lawyers is preventing the Organization from accepting responsibility for the cholera outbreak that UN peacekeepers caused in Haiti in 2010.

“The UN’s explicit and unqualified denial of anything other than a moral responsibility is a disgrace,” Alston said today. “If the United Nations bluntly refuses to hold itself accountable for human rights violations, it makes a mockery of its efforts to hold Governments and others to account,” he noted.

Cholera was brought to Haiti for the first time in the country’s history by UN peacekeepers exactly six years ago. Almost 10,000 people have died as a result and around 800,000 have been infected, affecting close to ten per cent of the population.

In a report to the UN General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights criticized the UN’s Office of Legal Affairs (OLA) for coming up with a “patently artificial and wholly unfounded legal pretense for insisting that the Organization must not take legal responsibility for what it has done.”

Alston also noted that OLA’s approach “has been cloaked in secrecy: there has been no satisfactory official explanation of the policy, no public attempt to justify it, and no known assessment of its consequences for future cases. This goes directly against the principles of accountability, transparency and the rule of law that the UN itself promotes globally.”

The Special Rapporteur noted that the Organization’s legal position appears to be largely explained by the approach of the United States of America, Haiti’s close neighbor and the main contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping budget.

“There are many reasons to believe that the reluctance by OLA to accept legal responsibility is consistent with views strongly pressed by the United States. Despite numerous requests to do so, the United States itself has never publicly stated its legal position on the responsibility of the UN for causing cholera in Haiti,” the expert said.

“Instead, it seems to have pressed the UN to adopt the position frequently taken by lawyers in the US that responsibility should never be accepted voluntarily, since it could complicate future litigation. But this rationale is completely inapplicable to the UN which enjoys absolute immunity from suit in national courts, and whose reputation depends almost entirely on being seen to act with integrity,” he noted.

Alston explained that, for six years, the UN ignored claims by victims for a remedy, focusing exclusively on measures to contain the outbreak, and only after his draft report leaked to the New York Times in August did the UN announce a ‘new approach’.

“The good news is that, under the courageous leadership of the UN Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General, the UN has recently set up the Haiti Cholera Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) with the goal of raising at least $400 million to greatly enhance its cholera eradication efforts and to assist victims of the disease. The bad news is that the UN has still not admitted factual or legal responsibility, and has not offered a legal settlement as required by international law,” said the independent human rights expert.

Alston said that even sympathetic and well-informed observers had asked him why it was so important that the UN admits legal responsibility. “Far from being a legal technicality, the OLA position has deep and lasting consequences, for Haiti and all future cases,” he noted.

“The current stance of its lawyers ensures that the UN will never admit its responsibility for introducing cholera,” Alston said. “And avoiding legal responsibility hinders the UN from learning lessons and making sure that the fatal mistakes made in Haiti are not repeated elsewhere.”

“If the UN wants to salvage its reputation and credibility, which have been severely damaged by the cholera crisis, and ensure that this case will not haunt it forever, it needs to do the right thing and admit legal responsibility. There is no justification, legal or otherwise, for any other course of action,” the Special Rapporteur concluded.

Vaccination against cholera will begin this week

More than 800,000 people will be vaccinated.

Two lots of vaccines, each with 500,000 units, arrived in Port-au-Prince. The Ministry of Health and the Population (MSPP) does not intend to lower its guard regarding cholera. It announced the launch of a vaccination campaign on November 8^th with the anticipation of eliminating the epidemic by 2030.

A total of 800,000 people who are at least a year old will be affected. They will receive their dose free of charge. According to the ministry, nine municipalities of Grand’Anse, about seven municipalities in the South and other districts in the department of Nippes will be targeted due the fact that they were badly affected by Hurricane Matthew.

The vaccine is viewed as an additional intervention to save lives. However, it does not replace the government’s efforts to create a framework urging the population to respect hygiene procedures. This is in addition to ensuring the consumption of clean drinking water.

The vaccine will be administered to the population and will last up to four years. It is part of the entire effort to eradicate cholera in Haiti by 2020.

1,000 Housing Units in 100 Days: Food For The Poor Accelerates Rebuilding in Haiti After Hurricane Matthew

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. As the threat of disease spreads and desperate families cling to hope with no place to call home, Food For The Poor is launching a campaign with the support of donors to build 1,000 new housing units in 100 days in Haiti as the country recovers from Hurricane Matthew.

The new homes are in addition to repairing 450 homes that sustained damage in Haiti's southern peninsula.

"It is important that we move quickly so that people can get their lives back fast and start again. Through our donors here, the people of Haiti will know that they are not forgotten and that there is hope for the future," said Robin Mahfood, President/CEO of Food For The Poor. "It's going to be magnificent, believe me."

Acknowledging it is an aggressive goal, the charity's leader points to the need to give people hope and move them quickly into sturdy, safe shelter.

The charity sent funds recently for reconstruction to begin on the roofs of fishing villages and the 450 homes that need repair. Two months' worth of building supplies are in Haiti now and more are being shipped.

According to the latest assessments from teams on the ground, 13 of 29 fishing villages built by Food For The Poor in southwest Haiti were destroyed and must be rebuilt. Another 16 suffered significant damage such as loss of roofs, freezers and equipment and must be repaired. Funded and built through donations, the fishing villages provide deep-sea fishing opportunities for food and needed income to communities that previously struggled to get either one from the sea.

The goal is to have all the new housing units, repairs and fishing villages finished in 100 days.

Will Haiti Be Able to Recover From Hurricane Matthew?

Hurricane Matthew, the most powerful Caribbean hurricane in nearly a decade, ripped through Haiti early this month. The storm is believed to have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced thousands more. In light of the storm and its anticipated aftermath, authorities postponed until November presidential elections that had been scheduled for scheduled for Oct. 9, following repeated delays after a presidential election last year had been declared null. What parts of the country and sectors of Haiti’s economy are most in need of aid following the hurricane? How and from where will assistance to Haiti materialize? What does the further postponement of Haiti’s presidential elections mean for the country’s political stability, and when is it likely that a vote will finally be held?

According to Kenneth Merten, Haiti special coordinator and deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs: “There are currently 1.4 million Haitians in need of humanitarian assistance following Hurricane Matthew. The top priority is to provide food, safe drinking water and other relief commodities to communities cut off by the hurricane. Other priorities include mitigating the spread of cholera, developing a comprehensive shelter strategy and determining additional humanitarian needs. USAID is providing nearly $14 million for initial relief assistance in the Caribbean and is working with partners and the government of Haiti to provide critical food assistance and relief supplies to hard-hit areas in Haiti’s southwestern peninsula. Together, USAID and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are ramping up cholera response activities to help prevent the spread of the disease in the aftermath of the storm. With the government of Haiti, the two U.S. government agencies are also working to re-establish cholera surveillance and reporting systems in affected areas in order to facilitate strategic and coordinated responses to potential cholera outbreaks.

The United States reiterates its belief that democratic elections are the only path for Haiti to return to constitutional rule in order to address the many urgent issues facing the country. Haiti is recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew. We call on all actors to remain peaceful and to refrain from any action that hinders either disaster recovery activities or the organization of credible and timely elections. The United States supports the efforts of the government of Haiti to pursue these objectives. We support the CEP’s decision by the Provisional Electoral Council to assess Hurricane Matthew’s impact on Haiti’s ability to conduct credible elections. The United States looks forward to transparent, credible, and fair elections in Haiti on Nov. 20.”

Raymond Joseph, former ambassador of Haiti to the United States: “By far, Haiti’s Greater South region suffered the bulk of the damage. Parts of the Western department, which includes Port-au-Prince, as well as the Artibonite and the Northwest were also affected. About 80 percent of the houses in cities on the southwestern peninsula are roofless. The countryside of one of the most verdant parts of Haiti now looks bare. The people must brace for famine resulting from uprooted gardens and the loss of cattle. Also, a spike of cholera will complicate matters. Roads and bridges must be rebuilt. Electricity and clean water must be provided. With help from the United States, Latin America, Canada, the European Union and fewer NGOs than after the 2010 earthquake, some areas in the interior have been reached by helicopters making drops of provisions and water. But the situation turned ugly when gangs attacked truckloads of supplies.

The Dominican military had to return home with its fleet of vehicles reportedly loaded with $12 million worth of produce and equipment. Nationalists blamed President Privert for the Dominican military on Haitian soil. Postponing the elections was logical and accepted by all. But there’s trouble with the recent announcement of the vote to be held Nov. 20, with a second round scheduled Jan. 29. Final results for the presidential vote won’t be known until Feb. 20. Nothing is said about the date for swearing in the new president. It was generally expected that the Feb. 7 constitutional date for power transfer would be kept. Accusing President Privert of hoarding power, six justices of Haiti’s Supreme Court published a letter calling for delaying the elections and for a judge of the court to assume the presidency in accordance with the 1987 Constitution. Amended in 2011, that charter no longer provides for such a solution. Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Peter Mulrean says his government backs the November elections to allow for a democratically elected president and a new legislature to deal with pressing problems after the passage of Matthew.”

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 8 novembre 2016

 Dozens of clandestine Haitians were discovered in St. Martin

Members of the Police for French Borders (PAF), which suspected migrants trafficking in the bay of Marigot (the French side on the Island of St. Martin), discovered 52 illegal migrants, most of whom were Haitian (28 men, 17 women and 7 children) during a control operation. The migrants were piled up aboard a catamaran whose capacity was 12 people, and was anchored in the Bay.

The three crew members, two Dutch, a man and a woman as well as a man from St. Lucia, all three of whom lived on the island, were arrested and admitted to have participated in human trafficking for money.

According to the migrants’ testimonies, the crew was to lead them to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and some were supposed to stay in St. Martin. The price of the trip varied between 1,000 and 7,000 US dollars a person. The illegal migrants were ordered to leave the French territory, but no deportation procedure have been undertaken according to the assistant prosecutor.

Kuwait will finance a hospital in Haiti

Last week, the Fund for Economic and Social Assistance (FAES), received a delegation from Kuwait (Mohammad Alhadidi and Mohammad I.A Alomani) to evaluate the constructions financed by the Kuwaiti Government for an Urgent Care Center in the West, a high school in Petit-Trou-de-Nippes and two national schools, for a total amount of 9 million dollars.

Last Wednesday, Lucien Francoeur, the Managing director of the FAES, Daphnée B. Delsoin, Minister for Health and representatives of the Kuwaiti Development Fund, Mohammad Alhadidi and Mohammad Alumni signed an agreement for the construction of a new hospital in the metropolitan zone.

The Kuwaiti delegation left Haiti last Thursday after having completed their evaluations, following the passage of the hurricane Matthew.

More than a dozen people were injured following the collapse of an old soda plant building at the Rue du Magasin de l’Etat in downtown Port-au-Prince

Last Wednesday, in the center of Port-au-Prince, a former soda production plant that was strongly damaged by the 2010 earthquake partially collapsed causing 8 victims and panic among local residents.

"Four bodies were removed from some rubble and we transported four other people who were seriously hurt to the general hospital of Port-au-Prince," confirmed the coordinator of the civil protection.

The Mayor of Port-au-Prince, Youri Chevry, reached the scene of the accident, where rescue teams searched in the rubble for possible survivors. He indicated that all the victims were inside the building at the time of the accident, in search of materials, especially steel bars that they could resell.

Mayor Chevry expressed sadness in the face of this incident. In order to avoid a repeat of such a tragedy, he announced that a demolition campaign will be underway in the capital to bring down all of the buildings that were severely damaged by the 2010 earthquake.

According to Guillaume Albert Moléon, the Interior Ministry spokesman, no one knows exactly how many people could have been in the building at the time of the accident. This former soda factory was one of the buildings in the capital on the list for demolition.

Haitians kill a Dominican military officer

Last Friday in Los Rieles of Copey, a municipality of Manzanillo (Province of Monte Cristi), a group of Haitians entered the Dominican territory illegally through the border, and refused to obey a Dominican military patrol officer. Instead, they attacked Captain Manuel Belliard Felipe, age 49, stabbing him several times and killing him. They also hurt his colleague Quartermaster Sergeant, Jeremías Mateo Espinal, 34, and stole a rifle and other goods. Captain Felipe was transported to a private hospital in Monte Cristi, but did not survive his wounds.

The Dominican Ministry of Defense indicated that authorities had arrested three of the five illegal Haitians, identified as being responsible for Captain Felipe’s murder. They were handed over to the Monte Crisiti prosecutor for legal proceedings.

Haiti - Port-Salut: rehabilitation of the main water supply system

Thanks to financing from the Government of Norway and with the technical support of the UN Environment (ONUE), some local organization have proceeded toward the rehabilitation of a portion of the water supply system feeding the central part of Port-Salut, more specifically the network fed by the Grand Kay and Manzè Anne (Trouillac) water sources. This system which serves 10,000 people, had been severely damaged, following the Matthew's passage in Southern Haiti.

"Our work consisted of the removing tree trunks, which fell on the line of adduction on a distance of about three kilometers, and to replace certain pipes and joins", explained Joël Samedy, the engineer of PADI, a local fisherman’s organizations, in charge of the work. "After an evaluation of the damages, we proceeded with cleaning out of the harnessing and the galvanized steel conducts, as well as the reservoirs".