Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 17 septembre 2021

 Haiti Prime Minister Invited to Testify at Assassination Hearing

Caribbean National weekly.com

Haiti’s chief public prosecutor invited Prime Minister Ariel Henry to meet with him in the coming days as part of an ongoing investigation into the slaying of President Jovenel Moïse.

The chief prosecutor Bedford Claude, noted that Henry spoke with one of the main suspects in the case just hours after the killing.

The invitation noted that Henry had multiple phone calls with fugitive Joseph Felix Badio, who once worked for Haiti’s Ministry of Justice and authorities say had a key role leading up to the July 7 killing of the president at his private home.

TPS Extended for Haitians Until December 2022

 CARIBBEAN NATIONAL WEEKLY.COM

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a notice extending Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries from Haiti and some other countries until December 31, 2022.

In a recent notice the DHS said that the other countries are El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan.

The automatic extension is intended to ensure continued compliance with preliminary injunction orders that have been entered in the various cases challenging the Trump Administration’s attempted termination of TPS for these countries.

Beneficiaries from the list of countries in question also are entitled to an automatic extension of their other TPS-related documentation, including  – I-94 Arrival/Departure Records and I-797 Notices of Action if they applied to re-register during one of the previous DHS-announced registration periods. The DHS says that should litigation be concluded prior to December 31, 2022, with the determination that TPS should be terminated prior to that date, there will be at least a 120-day notice or winddown period.

Based on a separate agreement, TPS beneficiaries from El Salvador will be entitled to a 365-day winddown period.

The department says that although those from Haiti are entitled to this new automatic extension, they also are eligible to apply for TPS under the new 18-month TPS designation for Haiti effective August 3, 2021, through February 3, 2023.

Eligible Haitians have been encouraged to apply for the new designation as soon as possible to ensure they do not have any gaps in authorization.

MAESTRO ISNARD DOUBY 1949-2021

AyitiBiyografi

New York will celebrate the life of the legendary musician Isnard Douby on Wednesday September 15th from 6PM to 11PM at Bentley’s in Brooklyn 

 Get your mask ready because you are going to need it! October 22nd @champ_production_ presents @djstakz @t_ansyto @djmanny_mix and @roodyroodboyhaiti for the hottest Halloween party in West Palm Beach! SAVE THE DATE!

CARPHA Urges Caribbean Countries to get Population to Quit Smoking

The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has said that tobacco use remains a public-health crisis in the region and urged regional countries to make every effort to strengthen multi-sectoral policies and community-based initiatives to discourage the drug’s use.

Dr. Joy St. John, executive director of the Trinidad-based agency, said, “It is a preventable cause of illness and death, yet it contributes to the development of non-communicable diseases including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, respiratory diseases and cancer. These diseases are the greatest contributors to illness and deaths in the CARICOM region.”

CARPHA said that the prevalence of current tobacco smoking ranges from 13.3 percent in Barbados to 23 percent in Guyana for adult males, and from 7.7 percent in Barbados to 12.6 percent in Guyana for adult women. In Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, adolescents use more e-cigarettes than conventional cigarettes.

It was also said that the non-Latin Caribbean has the second-highest prevalence of tobacco use among 13-15-year-olds.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the benefits of quitting tobacco are almost immediate, including a drop-in heart rate and blood pressure within 20 minutes of quitting as well as the carbon monoxide level in the blood dropping to normal.

CARPHA said that quitting smoking is one of the most important steps a person can take to improve his or her health, and that people who quit smoking after having a heart attack can reduce their chances of having another heart attack by 50 per cent.

Mu Variant of COVID-19 Detected in Jamaica

Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton, says the Mu strain of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) will be manageable once the established public health protocols are followed.

Tufton urged members of the public not to panic, as new strains of the virus will enter Jamaica due to people traveling to the island from other parts of the globe.

“This new strain is not going to lead to more people dying or getting ill. We are still studying it, and while we have an obligation to announce, we are not announcing for you to panic…it is for you to be aware; it is not a failure of the system or the process,” he told reporters.

He said what is required is continuous vaccination, social distancing, and regular hand washing and sanitization as the observance of the health protocols will help to “build our capacity to resist the virus as we restore some form semblance of normality”.

Death toll from massive Haiti earthquake soars

WASHINGTON POST - Haiti’s public works ministry dispatched 55 rescue teams, composed of military and civil protection personnel, for search-and-rescue efforts, but it was not enough. In some communities, residents reported a lack of relief workers and took it upon themselves to act.

“It’s the people from the neighborhood using their own hands who have been digging and rescuing anyone they can save,” said Jean-David Cassis, a 31-year-old farmer in the city of Torbeck on the southwestern coast.

He and a group of neighbors aided a 21-year-old woman whose foot they could see protruding from a collapsed house. They were able to get her out alive. But they were unable to save a 47-year-old mother who was found dead, holding her small son.

“Houses collapsed everywhere,” Cassis said. “It's a very grave situation. . . . People are still lying where they died.”

As Haitians used tools to dig through collapsed homes and buildings, USAID prepared to deploy a 65-member search-and-rescue team on Sunday from Fairfax County, Va. The team carried four dogs and 26 tons of specialized tools and equipment, including hydraulic concrete-breaking equipment, saws, torches, drills and advanced medical equipment. Five additional members of the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department will provide technical support to the U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team to help with emergency management and coordination efforts, USAID said in a statement. The U.S. Coast Guard was also transporting seriously injured victims from hard-hit areas in the south and west to Port-au-Prince.

Bocchit Edmond, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, said he had also requested a search-and-rescue team from Miami-Dade County in Florida.

“We want [U.S. first responders] to help,” he said. “We have news that in some parts of the country, there are probably people under rubble, and we want to give them a chance.”

In a brief interview with The Washington Post, Prime Minister Ariel Henry defended the response, saying the government had indeed requested foreign assistance for search-and-rescue operations. But he said fuller assessments needed to be done before the government asked for broader international aid, and he “discouraged” charity groups from coming to Haiti and distributing supplies themselves.

“We do not say ‘help’ without knowing what we want,” he said. “We don’t just go and ask for help.”

After touring the hardest-hit areas, he told reporters he had witnessed “enormous devastation” and had been “profoundly moved” by the efforts of locals to rescue people on their own.

The earthquake that struck Haiti at 8:29 a.m. Saturday was stronger than the one that killed more than 220,000 people in 2010, but it was centered farther from the capital. Officials and witnesses said the southern and western areas of the country sustained devastating damage.

Haiti's civil protection office on Sunday evening reported at least 1,297 deaths. More than 5,700 people have been injured and more than 27,000 homes damaged or destroyed. Schools, churches and at least one hospital have also been damaged or destroyed, the U.N. office said. The death toll is expected to rise.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Haiti warned that relief operations were confronting “restrictions” due to the presence of violent gangs that have been “hindering the capacity of humanitarian actors to operate normally and reach affected populations.” An official said the agency hoped a freshly struck deal for a one-week cease-fire with the gangs would open a humanitarian corridor.

7.2-magnitude earthquake devastates Haiti

In a country already suffering a food crisis, the earthquake hit Haiti’s breadbasket as well as the very region that was devastated by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Paul Domerçant, a 38-year-old ambulance driver for the Immaculate Conception Hospital in downtown Les Cayes, described a scene similar to that of Port-au-Prince's Hopital de l'Universite d’Etat d’Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

“Injured victims flooded the emergency room,” Domerçant said. “We have no space, no beds. We put patients outside, in the parking lot, under trees, and it hasn't stopped.”

Domerçant said he witnessed residents pulling bodies out of the debris of collapsed structures.

“There was a burial at a church when the earthquake hit,” he said. “The whole building came down. Some were rescued and brought to the hospital, but there are many more trapped inside.

“Hospitals are at full capacity, both state and private in Les Cayes. It was, and continues to be, a triage nightmare. We were not well-equipped even before the earthquake.”

Haiti’s long, terrible history of earthquakes and disaster

Claude Harry Milord, the mayor of Jeremie, a coastal town of 31,000, said 400 families whose homes were destroyed were sleeping on the streets. He said Jeremie and communities on its outskirts were running out of water and medicine. He said search-and-rescue teams from the Haitian police and the Haitian health department were being joined by volunteers. But there still had been no contact with more remote communities. “People there are on their own,” Milord said.

He said the Hospital of Saint Antoine de Jeremie was in urgent need of oxygen equipment, syringes and masks. The spread of the coronavirus and its delta variant in a disaster situation was a serious concern.

Even before the quake, Haiti was struggling with rising gang violence, political instability — its president was assassinated last month — and a brutal economic crisis that has sent refugees fleeing parts of the capital and needing regular distribution of U.N. food aid. Distribution to the southern parts of the country had been hampered in recent months by the violent gangs that control the Martissant neighborhood of the capital; any relief effort by land to quake-devastated areas now will need to traverse that same dangerous route.

In one positive sign, the gangs controlling Martissant have offered a pledge for a one-week cease-fire to allow convoys to pass through safely, according to Christian Cricboom, Haiti director for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Cricboom said emergency teams and medical supplies were already being flown into the hardest-hit areas by helicopter. He said a “test convoy” over land with assessment personnel would be departing on Sunday, in the hopes that the gangs would honor their pledge.

Exactly what aid would be sent in the coming days remained to be determined. U.N. and foreign governments were waiting for specific requests from the Haitian government. Cricboom said foreign ambassadors would be holding a crisis planning meeting on Monday to coordinate efforts.

Cricboom said he had flown over the devastated south on Sunday. He called the scene “quite intense . . . some buildings are damaged and others destroyed.” But he said that many structures were still standing and that the level of destruction did not appear to be as catastrophic as in the 2010 quake — in part because that one struck closer to densely populated Port-au-Prince, and the southern regions hit now are more rural. “The death toll will increase, but we are not talking about hundreds of thousands of lives,” he said.

As foreign charities, nongovernmental organizations and volunteer groups dispatched people, supplies and equipment to Haiti, authorities reiterated their insistence that all aid be channeled and cleared through them. Officials said the government wants to avoid a repeat of massive amounts spent — and misspent — in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

“All aid must be coordinated through the Civil Protection to prevent the errors of 2010,” Henry, the prime minister, told reporters in Port-au-Prince.

Widlore Merancourt contributed to this report from Port-au-Prince. Faiola reported from Miami.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 7 septembre 2021

 DRUG AND HAITI
Just imagine the quality of learning if kids did not consume drugs and alcohol!
If it's a problem in Jacmel, it's a problem in many more places... Very sad... In my experience, the worst influence comes from the deportees from the US. Just sayin'. I can usually spot them a mile away. Strut, cloths, sneakers, and language English and/or Kreyole. Sell drugs, manipulate, use and abuse anyone and everyone. Haiti can't turn in this direction and succeed. It will turn everything into rum, kleren, and dominos...

Multi-Award-Winning 'THE SWEETEST GIRL'
THE SWEETEST GIRL Short Film that has been getting Oscar buzz, was screened last Sunday at the Urban Film Festival Lyric Theatre in Miami on Sunday September 5th."
The short film, which won Best Picture at the ‘The South Florida International Film Festival is a compelling crime thriller by Samuel Ladouceur (“A Great Day in Harlem,” “Power,” “Boardwalk Empire”). It has been awarded Best Picture at The South Florida International Film Festival in the Black & African category. The Sweetest Girl’. inspired by true events, is a compelling and provocative love story, set in Haiti, haunted by human trafficking and gun violence.
Short Film -- https://www.yanatha.com/sweetestgirlshortfilm

Leaked Audio Confession Blows Lid Off Mystery of Haiti’s Murdered President
Thu, September 2, 2021, 4:44 AM

Joseph Odelyn/AP
Let’s say that you’re a foreign mercenary. And that you and some of your best buds, who are also foreign mercenaries, have just shot to death the leader of an island nation, the inhabitants of which are now likely to be more than a little vexed with you. And let’s further say that there’s an escape plan already set up that would see you out of the dead president’s home and safely on your way.
What do you think you would do next?
Well, if you were one of the Colombian mercenaries who killed Haitian President Jovenel Moïse back in July, you’d apparently choose to push back on the get-away plans so as to stick around and ransack the home looking for loot.
U.S. Admits Training Colombians Accused of Killing Haiti President as Part of Billion Dollar War on Drugs
That was just one of many jaw-dropping details revealed during some 15 hours of audio-taped confessions reportedly given by the Colombian mercs to Haitian officials which were, in turn, leaked to Colombian media giant Caracol in late August. In fact, the testimony given by the former soldiers, many of whom had been trained by the U.S., may have solved the riddle of who funded and masterminded the plot against Moïse.
In a follow-up piece by La Semana, another major print and web presence in Colombia, the confessions were confirmed as having been recorded “before the authorities in Haiti.” Subsequently, dozens of media hubs in Latin America ran stories about the Colombians’ tragic misadventures.
“Before the operation [the Colombian mercenaries] had been informed that Moïse had between 18 and 45 million dollars in his house,” Caracol reported. “There were three tasks: the first was to [kill] the president, the second was to take the entire camera system, and the third was to find the suitcases of money,” said retired Colombian army captain Germán Rivera, who is referred to as “Mike” during the audio sessions.
After the assassination, and about a half-hour of searching, Mike and his crew of 26 Colombians and two Haitian American commandos had dismantled the cameras and found “two suitcases and three boxes apparently loaded with bills,” according to Caracol.

Kidnappers release U.S. veteran and security expert, whose snatching hit “close to home”
BY ONZ CHÉRY SEP. 03, 2021
The Haitian Times
Brahms Alexis, 44, an entrepreneur based in Port-au-Prince, felt immune to the kidnapping crisis in Haiti — until it hit close to home. Alexis’s friend for over 30 years, Olivier Kernizan, was kidnapped. Kernizan was kidnapped in front of his Croix-des-Bouquets home on Aug. 27.
“When they kidnapped someone you know it’s different,” Alexis said, speaking from Port-au-Prince. “It leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I was biting my nails the whole time, wondering what was going to happen, hoping they wouldn't mess things up,”
For five days, Alexis wondered if Kernizan was being fed, if the kidnappers were beating him, if his high blood pressure grew worse and more. When he received a text that the kidnappers released his friend, Alexis’ mind finally went at ease.

Haiti is reeling from a devastating earthquake, COVID-19 pandemic and political instability. Here's how to help.
A 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Haiti took nearly 2,200 lives, decimated homes, schools, offices and churches across the country and left hospitals overwhelmed with thousands of people injured.
Meanwhile, Grace lashed Haiti as a tropical depression on Monday, dumping up to 10 inches of rain before regaining tropical storm status early Tuesday. The heavy rains pelted people huddling in fields and searching for survivors.
To make matters worse, Haiti is struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, recovery from other disasters, and the assassination last month of President Jovenel Moïse.
Political leaders, volunteers and residents from across the globe have raised support and offered help. Even more have asked how they can help. But nonprofit groups and experts say such factors will make raising money for the nation even tougher.
And aid to Haiti has been under scrutiny for years, which was compounded in 2015 when an investigation from ProPublica and NPR questioned where $500 million raised by the American Red Cross was spent. Their investigation found that the Red Cross had grossly overstated how many houses the organization built in the years after the 2010 Haitian earthquake and had used portions of the money to cover overhead and management.
Haiti's death toll from earthquake soars to 1,400 as Tropical Depression Grace dumps 'torrential rains'
'Losses will be high':How Haiti's earthquake compares with its 2010 quake in size, devastation
The American Red Cross said in an emailed statement to The Associated Press that it is not seeking donations for Haiti relief at this time, but will work with its partners – including the Haitian Red Cross and the Red Crescent – to respond to the earthquake. It also disputed the ProPublica-NPR findings.
How to help Haiti: List of organizations
People who want to help the people of Haiti can check out these organizations:
Partners in Health employs more than 6,300 staff, including 2,500 community health workers, to provide primary care, maternal and child health care, HIV and tuberculosis services, and more advanced secondary and tertiary care. The organization is working to provide hospital beds and outreach teams. Donate here.
SOIL has been working in some of the poorest areas in Haiti to facilitate the community-identified priority of ecological sanitation since before the 2010 earthquake. The organization has worked to "take emergency supplies to the areas affected and assess the need," it wrote on its donation page. Donate here.
Locally Haiti has been working to secure requested items for medical workers, for families and for the school tit founded in 1989. Donate here.
World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés said on Twitter that the organization that supplies meals to countries in need is ready to help. The organization later tweeted that "we have activated our culinary school kitchen in Port-au-Prince & also have a team in Jeremie working to get food in & distributed before the storm hits." Donate here.
Hope for Haiti is working on the ground in Haiti. The Florida-based organization is gearing up to distribute $60 million in first aid supplies and medical equipment. Donate here and tag your donation.
UNICEF is prioritizing “the resumption of essential services” south of the island, distributing medical, education and recreational supplies in areas where “health centers, schools, bridges and other essential facilities and infrastructure on which children and families depend on” have been impacted. Donate here.
Humanity & Inclusion has worked in the country since before the 2010 earthquake. A Haitian team is on the ground distributing hygiene kits, medical supplies and critical aid. Donate here.
Project HOPE is partnering with local organizations for emergency response and offering Personal Protective Equipment and other medical supplies. Donate here.
Midwives for Haiti has been training Haitian midwives to increase access and to empower local communities. They’re currently assembling a disaster response, but have said that “getting goods and medications into Haiti is going to become even more difficult than it is now.” Donate here.
Doctors Without Borders is working with hospitals to assist injured patients in both Port-au-Prince and local areas. They’re helping to respond to the latest natural disasters.. Donate here.
If you're looking at another organization where you can send help, check to see whether it is legitimate. An easy way to check is by going to charitynavigator.org. It's better to donate to local organizations, experts say, or organizations with Haitians on their staff and on the ground.
Contributing: Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

Press release
Haiti earthquake: over half a million children at risk of waterborne diseases - UNICEF
02 September 2021

UNICEF/UN0504692/RouzierOn 18 August 2021, in Marceline, near Camp Perrin district, children and their families have access to clean and safe water at one of the four water stations supported by UNICEF in Les Cayes, Haiti.
PORT-AU-PRINCE / PANAMA CITY, 2 September 2021.- About 540,000 children in the southwest of earthquake-stricken Haiti are now facing the possible re-emergence of waterborne diseases, UNICEF warned today.
Severe conditions in southwestern Haiti - where over half a million children lack access to shelter, drinking water and hygiene facilities - are rapidly increasing the threat of acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, cholera and malaria.
“The lives of thousands of earthquake-affected children and families are now at risk, just because they don’t have access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene,” said Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti. “Cholera has not been reported in Haiti since February 2019, yet without urgent and firmer action the re-emergence of cholera and other waterborne diseases is a real threat that is increasing by the day.”
Prior to the earthquake, only over half of the healthcare facilities in the three departments most affected by the earthquake had basic access to water services. In the aftermath of the earthquake, nearly 60 per cent of people in the three most affected departments do not have access to safe water. Thousands of people whose houses have collapsed lack access to sanitation due in part to the damage wrought by the earthquake.
With the National Directorate for Water and Sanitation (DINEPA) and civil society partners, UNICEF is to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene for affected families:
• About 73,600 people receive access to safe water through water trucking systems, six water treatment plants and twenty-two bladders
• Over 35,200 people benefitted from the distribution of about 7,000 hygiene kits, including household water treatments products, soap, water storage, handwashing devices and hygiene pads.
A week after the earthquake devastated Haiti, UNICEF shipped more than 65,000 water purification tablets, 41 bladders, three water treatment units and family hygiene kits. UNICEF has already ordered 31,200 additional hygiene kits. UNICEF, the only UN agency to deliver safe drinking water to the affected population, aims to reach 500,000 people with WASH support.
“Our efforts to deliver more safe drinking water don’t match the dire needs in all the affected areas,” said Maes. “Impatience and sometimes frustration are mounting in some Haitian communities, and this is understandable. But obstructing relief operations won’t help. In the past few days, several distributions of essential hygiene items had to be temporarily put on hold as tensions arose on the ground. Together with financial constraints, insecurity is currently slowing down our lifesaving activities on the ground.”
UNICEF is calling on local authorities to ensure safe conditions for humanitarian organizations to operate and scale up relief assistance to earthquake-affected communities. The 14 August earthquake which struck Haiti has further exacerbated an already challenging humanitarian situation shaped by persistent political instability, socioeconomic crisis and rising food insecurity and malnutrition, gang-related violence and internal displacement, the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the Haitian-Dominican migration influx.
In addition to the US$48.8 million appeal made for 2021, UNICEF is now requesting a humanitarian appeal for children (HAC), of US$73.3 million to scale up its interventions in response to the earthquake and internally displaced persons. So far, less than 1 per cent of this required funding has been received.
UNICEF is calling on the international community to urgently provide additional funding for the humanitarian response and prevent the emergence of waterborne diseases in Haiti after the earthquake.

Earthquake Response Brings Hope in Haiti

Recovery efforts are underway following Haiti’s recent earthquake, but officials have warned that many rural areas remain completely cut off without assistance of any kind. One exception is the hard hit farming community of Laborde, where the initial response is nothing short of remarkable… even though much more remains to be done.

It is a testament to the power of local leadership that farmers in this rural area, working with our regional field agronomist, came up with their own recovery plan within days of the earthquake. Not only is the support they are now receiving exactly what they requested, but the community is also fully in charge of distribution and organization. This level of local coordination has helped to avoid the chaos that often follows a disaster of this kind, and also means that residents are able to begin focusing on long-term rebuilding without delay.

While this recovery plan was developed by the local branch of the Smallholder Farmers Alliance (SFA) in Laborde, it is the response to our initial appeal for funding and support that has made it a reality. So we say thanks to all those from around the world who have made donations, and to the Raising Haiti Foundation and the Julian Grace Foundation for providing emergency grants. And rather than listing the many NGOs that responded to the SFA's request for on-site assistance, we have highlighted their contributions in the following progress report.

And for those who have not yet contributed… the opportunity is one click away:

The farmers in Laborde asked for four kinds of support in their emergency response plan: food, medical care, tents (we had to substitute tarps for tents) and water. Here is what has been provided as of today:
Challenge: Stored farm produce was lost, basic farming operations were disrupted, and access was made difficult for products like rice that come from outside the immediate area.

Response: The SFA approached World Central Kitchen (WCK) for help with food for Laborde. The roots of the organization go back to the earthquake in 2010. Chef José Andres saw the devastation at that time firsthand and subsequently established WCK with the belief that food can be a positive agent of change for communities in need. Now the organization is back in Haiti and from their field operation serving the residents of the Les Cayes area, they are also providing 720 hot meals each day for the SFA farmers and others in Laborde.

We have also purchased and distributed 2,500 lbs of rice. But this is a drop in the bucket compared to what we are going to need in the coming months. Our three-step strategy is to start with hot meals, transition to bulk dry food distribution, and then get back to normal self-reliance as soon as possible.
Challenge: There is almost no regular medical service in the immediate area.

Response: At the invitation of the SFA, Project Medishare has just wrapped up a week-long medical marathon in which they conducted daily clinics open to all the residents of Laborde. Farmers were so grateful to see the Medishare doctors and nurses that several brought gifts of avocados and coconuts, a particularly meaningful gesture given the food shortage in the area. In addition to some minor injuries suffered during the earthquake, the medical team has been dealing with every imaginable ailment and symptom, which is not surprising given the almost total lack of medical service available in Laborde.

Medishare’s 9-member team, along with medical supplies, arrived in nearby Les Cayes on Monday morning via two helicopters and a small plane – all operated at no charge by World Hope International.
Challenge: Up to 60% of homes homes were destroyed or damaged and many families are sleeping in the open in the midst of heavy rain.

Response: While the original request from Laborde was for tents, the SFA has substituted tarps. And all but a handful of the 225 distributed so far began life as sails on boats and yachts. The Sails for Sustenance organization and the New Orleans Yacht Club normally provide used sails as part of their service to Haiti’s subsistence fishermen, but in response to a request from the SFA they diverted a supply of these sails – some of which were so large it took eight people just to unload them from the truck and then lay them out in a field. The same team then spent days cutting the sails into tarps that have been very well received by families in Laborde.

With our sail-to-tarp operation finely tuned, we are waiting on a second and much larger supply of sails and other much needed materials from Sails for Sustenance, the New Orleans Yacht Club and the TSR (Twin Sisters Reunited) Association in coming weeks.
Challenge: Water in local wells and other natural sources was contaminated as a result of the earthquake.

Response: For the first few days we provided some bottled water, but this has now been replaced by water purification tablets. We purchased enough of these tablets to treat 320,000 gallons of water, and demonstrations are done with each distribution to ensure proper use of the product. Based on positive feedback from farmers, we have just made a second purchase of the same quantity of tablets.

While emergency response has been the first priority, the SFA has begun working on both home and farm building repairs as well as the longer-term agricultural recovery phase. The latter is focused on increasing the local seed bank capacity, supplying pumps to improve irrigation, introducing a livestock program, and expanding the tree existing planting operation with a focus on fruit trees.

In other news, the Haiti Response Coalition, in partnership with a group of diaspora and Haiti-based organizations, created a campaign calling on all those who operate in Haiti to pledge to a set of standards for a Haitian solution and a rights-based response to the earthquake. The SFA has signed the pledge and urges others to read it and do the same.

Regards,

ps: shout out to Digicel for donating minutes for the SFA earthquake response team in both Laborde and Les Cayes!

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 30 août 2021

 'Haiti needs time to breathe' after 1st devastating earthquake since 2010 disaster

 Yahoo/News

Nearly two weeks after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastated the Caribbean country of Haiti, killing more than 2,200 people, its surviving citizens and aid workers continue the treacherous work of rebuilding the region.

More than 7,000 homes were destroyed and about 30,000 families were left homeless in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, according to official estimates.

And while an all-hands-on-deck approach has consumed the western part of the island of Hispaniola, many Haitian citizens are wary of foreign intervention that could leave them in a worse position than they’re currently in.

“Haiti needs time to breathe,” Haitian American activist Marleine Bastien told Yahoo News. Bastien was born in the small village of Pont-Benoit in the late 1960s and went to high school there, before seeking political asylum in the U.S. in 1981.

“No country can thrive under constant meddling and interference from foreign nations,” she said. “Haiti wants nations who want to collaborate with them and other nations to support them in times of need. Haiti doesn't need any nation to come and dictate to the Haitian people.”

The country is currently at a historical crossroads. In early July, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated at his home in a Port-au-Prince suburb by a group of 28 foreign mercenaries. Political chaos ensued as two men claimed leadership of the country. Two weeks after Moïse’s killing, Ariel Henry, a prominent neurosurgeon backed by the U.S., became Haiti’s new leader.

But since then, not much has changed. Rampant gang violence, inadequate police leadership and long-standing mistrust of the government have characterized the former French-ruled republic for decades. Adding insult to injury, just 0.24 percent of the country’s population has received one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Oxford University’s Our World in Data.

Now, with the latest earthquake, the first since the country’s cataclysmic magnitude 7.0 quake in 2010, which left more than 100,000 dead and several hundred thousand displaced, many Haitians simply want relief and stability. But they also want these things on their own terms.

PRESS RELEASE

USAID Provides $32 Million

to Respond to Haiti Earthquake

On August 26, Administrator Samantha Power traveled to Haiti, where USAID is leading the United States government response to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck on August 14. While in Haiti, Administrator Power met with Haitians impacted by the disaster as well as Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and other Haitian government officials. She also met with those contributing to the U.S. response on the ground, including the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), members of the US military, and USAID staff based in Haiti. During her visit Administrator Power emphasized the United States’ commitment to supporting the people of Haiti during their time of need and announced $32 million in new humanitarian assistance from USAID to support earthquake response efforts.

Administrator Power, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti Michele S. Sison, USAID Mission Director Christopher Cushing, U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) U.S. Navy Admiral Craig S. Faller, USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance Assistant to the Administrator Sarah Charles, and USAID DART Leader Tim Callaghan conducted an aerial tour of affected areas in southwestern Haiti. The group then visited the commune of Maniche, in Les Cayes Department, where they surveyed damage and discussed priority needs with community members and local first responders.

Maniche was among particularly hard-hit towns in the region. Administrator Power met with families whose homes were destroyed by the earthquake and visited their homes with them to see the damage. She had numerous conversations with impacted community members, as well as with Maniche’s mayor, police chief, local firefighters and Civil Protection officials. The group visited the town’s school, which was destroyed, and discussed the challenges facing children who wouldn’t be able to start the school year as planned. The Administrator also met with USAID Haitian surge staff who joined with the Haitian officials as part of the immediate response to the earthquake. The group also met with local Haitian partners of the UN World Food Program, which recently distributed USAID food assistance to more than 5,000 people in the town. Last week, WFP began transporting from Port-Au-Prince 830 metric tons of USAID food supplies—enough to feed more than 62,000 people for one month—and is distributing it in affected areas. 

In Port-au-Prince, Administrator Power, Ambassador Sison, Admiral Faller and Rear Admiral Keith Davids, commander of Joint Task Force (JTF)-Haiti, met with Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Jerry Chandler, Director General of Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, to discuss the continued scaling up of U.S. assistance effort and continued collaboration with the Government of Haiti on the earthquake response and recovery. Administrator Power emphasized the importance of improved security in addressing the medium and long-term needs of the Haitian people. The Administrator and Prime Minister agreed that continuing to partner to build capacity within the Government of Haiti is a priority going forward.

Administrator Power held a press conference in Port-au-Prince where she began by expressing her profound condolences to the families of the US service members and Afghans who were killed in Kabul today. She then described how USAID’s $32 million in just-announced humanitarian assistance would support earthquake response efforts, including by supporting humanitarian partners delivering urgently needed health care services, emergency shelter and food, safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation assistance, gender-based violence prevention and response, child protection, and psychosocial support services.

Later in the day, Administrator Power visited SOUTHCOM’s JTF-Haiti Operations Center in Port-au-Prince, where she thanked Admiral Faller and members of JTF-Haiti for their work providing air transport for relief personnel and supplies in support of USAID’s earthquake response, and for medevacing critically injured Haitians to receive medical treatment. As of August 26, JTF-Haiti--including the U.S. Coast Guard--has conducted 413 missions, assisted or rescued 458 people, and delivered more than 205,700 pounds of vital aid, including food, water, medical supplies, and equipment.

Afterwards, Administrator Power met with USAID Haitian staff who were impacted by the earthquake. She also sat down with members of the USAID DART team to thank them for their work leading U.S. government response efforts on the ground. She then joined them in a memorial that honored the life of DART member and revered USAID colleague Tresja Denysenko. Denysenko passed away unexpectedly on August 19 in Haiti while serving on the DART.

For the latest updates on USAID’s humanitarian assistance in Haiti:August 14 2021 Haiti Earthquake

UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Office of Press Relations

For Immediate Release

August 26, 2021

The United Nations Volunteers Programme opens a call for Haitians to become UN Volunteers and support the UN Humanitarian Response in the aftermath of the earthquake.

We would much appreciate your support in sharing widely and, if possible, through your channels, the attached press release. Indeed, find here some images if needed.

For media inquiries, please contact:

In Panama – UNV Regional Office:
Carmen Ramirez, Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser.,  cel +507 6997 1704

In Haiti:
Farlone Timo, Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser., cel +50944006002

Bests,

Farlone TIMO 

UNV Program Assistant 

UNDP / HAITI Office 

14, Rue Reinbold, Bourdon 

Port-au-Prince, Haïti (W.I) 

The Miami Herald

Although the results of the tests taken last spring weren’t used to determine if children progressed to the next grade, they showed challenging times lie ahead in getting children — many of whom have not been in a classroom in over a year — caught up academically.

Of particular concern were high school algebra results. Only 23% of Broward County high school students achieved a satisfactory score of 3 or higher. That’s down 19 points from the 42 percent levels of 2019. “I can’t even come up with the right adjective to describe them,” said Board Vice Chair Laurie Rich Levinson. “This was a 19% drop from the last time students were tested during the 2019 school year.”

Broward middle school students taking algebra 1 also had a big drop in their test scores, with only 70 percent scoring a three or higher in the standardized tests, down 21 points from the 91 percent metric in 2019.  Miami-Dade high schoolers fared only slightly better in algebra 1, with 32% achieving a satisfactory or better score, down 8 points from 40 percent in 2019, according to the results released at the Broward meeting Tuesday.

Miami-Dade middle school students also had a significant drop in algebra 1, with 71 percent scoring 3 or higher, down 17 points from the 88 percent in 2019. The results of the Florida Standards Assessment and the End of Course exams were released by the district in late July, but the School Board only publicly discussed them Tuesday.

Officials said the poor performance was not unexpected, particularly in math because so few students — less than half — returned to in-person learning last school year. Educational experts say math is taught best with face-to-face visual instruction.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 26 août 2021

 Earthquake in Haiti

by Amy Wilentz | Aug 14, 2021 

Oh, mesi, Bon Dye, one can imagine Ariel Henry, the interim Prime Minister of Haiti, saying this morning. Thank you, Lord… not because Henry likes earthquakes or doesn’t care about the people of his country but because a 7.2 earthquake just off shore—with hundreds of buildings down, and more than 700 counted dead so far and doubtless several thousand more to come, and roads impassable, and a possible tsunami rising, and a tropical storm on the way to create mudslides and more destruction and death—is easier to deal with than the investigation of the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moise. The quake also struck on an important day for Haitians: today, August 14, which is the day when a legendary Vaudou ceremony was held at Bois Cayman in 1791, inaugurating Haiti’s world-changing revolution against France. Demonstrations against Henry’s government were planned for today. Cancelled. More for Henry to be thankful for.

Dealing with the limited Haitian judicial system in a highly politicized assassination is difficult and dangerous, and the assassination investigation already shows signs of a probe that will be interminable and probably fruitless.

On the other hand, Haitian governments know how to deal with earthquakes: They invite the international community in.

Not much more that they can do: you can see it all online today. They can pick up rubble with their bare hands, and they are doing that and rescuing people. They can bring the injured to local clinics that haven’t fallen down, and they are doing that. They can give them first aid themselves, and they’re doing that, using the water in their personal water bottles to wash wounds, among other acts of generosity and personal kindness. They can run from the possible tsunami toward the hills, and they’re doing that.

But the kind of resources that, say, Western European nations have for dealing with natural disasters (the stuff we saw in Germany during their floods, for example) Haitians don’t have, in large part because their state has been stolen from them by nefarious and manipulative businessmen, about ten to twenty of them in this era, who wheel and deal and steal, have taken over almost every important sector of the economy, and have convinced the international community that they are critical to Haiti’s development, when in fact they are among the biggest roadblocks that stand in the way.

Almost all of Haiti’s helicopters, for example, are privately owned by people in this group, and there’s not much money in the national coffer to pay the private sector for the emergency use of these things, the treasury having been massively looted during the previous two administrations of Presidents Michel Martelly and his protegé, the late President Moise. Of course, some of the members of this business mafya, as they are known in Haiti, will come through during an emergency, presenting themselves as patriots and offering things for free. But every favor in Haiti is paid forward down the line.

Another problem for Haitians trying to help each other during the earthquake’s aftermath are the gangs that have taken control of the southern exit of the capital and who thus block all access to the country’s biggest hospitals and best services. Today an ambulance carrying eleven victims was stopped by a gang and turned away from the southern entrance to Port-au-Prince in Martissant, which has been run by gangs for the past two months. Its passengers were held for ransom. Meanwhile major international media outlets had to rent helicopters to avoid the gangs and get out to where the damage is worst.

These street gangs are the leftovers of the Martelly/Moise era, and have been underwritten and armed by members of the mafya and their government cronies; they’re an essential part of the mafya’s business plan.

Soon, the U.S. will be back down in Haiti with a relief and recovery effort, along with Canada and no doubt others, same cast as after the even crueler earthquake of 2010, which struck at a shallower depth under the overcrowded, under-constructed capital of Port-au-Prince and killed an estimated 200,000 plus. This time relief and reconstruction will be run by Samantha Power, administrator of USAID under Biden. Last time it was Bill Clinton who ran the huge American response, under Obama, during which millions of dollars went unaccounted for and Haitians didn’t get much relief. Clinton along with his wife, who was then secretary of state, set the stage for all that has followed in Haiti: they helped certify the questionable elections of both post-earthquake presidents and thus allowed the rise of the corrupt and negligent Martelly-Moise administrations, and their criminal supporters… and the consequent ascension of the angry young shantytown gangs who now control the streets and highways of Haiti.

This morning, President Biden said, “I have authorized an immediate US response and named USAID Administrator Samantha Power as the senior US official to coordinate this effort.” We like to believe that Biden at least discussed this with Henry first, but…  We do know that Power had a good conversation with the Prime Minister after Biden’s announcement.

In any case, we can only hope and pray that Power does a better job than the Clinton duo. The last earthquake came at the end of the two-decade, on-and-off relay of the presidency between the progressive Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his protege René Préval. The questionable 2011 election of Martelly, a hardline right-winger, signaled to Haitians that the era of trying (though perhaps not achieving) real democracy had come to an end, and that the international community was once again willing to put its considerable weight behind Haitian politicians who seemed to have as their primary goal a kind of authoritarian pro-business stability, even if voters didn’t much like them. In the end, during the Martelly/Moise regnum, stability was nowhere on the agenda—no measures were taken to achieve it.

Perhaps this earthquake will lead to a similar and more profound (reverse) changing of the guard. (Hands clasped together in fervent hope…) For the moment though, the Moise assassination has left the same element in charge of Haiti who were in charge when Moise was alive. That single chess piece has been eliminated, but the rest of the team is still in place. Indeed, the earthquake seems to have offered Prime Minister Henry a backdoor to a new U.S. military intervention in Haiti, which is something that was proposed immediately after he took office, with US benediction, in early July. That proposal was rejected by Haitian civil society, and Biden did not warm to it, but with the earthquake, things have changed. Steeples are fallen in the roads, hotels pancaked, schools destroyed… and perhaps Haitian sovereignty, as well.

Anyway, now Henry can work with Power to help Haitians cope with the earthquake, while possibly turning away from the supremely difficult task of naming, arresting, and trying the perpetrators of the Moise assassination. The earthquake is virtually a gift from God for him. Politically, bringing the assassins to justice is almost an impossibility for Henry, who was part and parcel of the governmental apparatus surrounding the late president, and—as Prime Minister—represents in a way the culmination and the continuation of Moise’s rule, his appointment to that position having been Moise’s last act in office, very shortly before Moise was killed.  Henry would be risking… a lot …. if he actually were to hunt down and prosecute the real perpetrators and intellectual authors of the crime. Because, and I will say this only once, the dead president, his friends, and his enemies were all part of the same corrupt group that’s been running Haiti for a decade. Any one of Moise’s cohort could have helped authorize the killing (obviously, there are others to suspect outside of that circle).

Already members of the investigative team looking into the assassination have had to go into hiding because they know or might reveal facts about the crime.  For now, the probe continues, and investigators scratch their collective chin. Who did it? Well, let’s say this: Someone knows.

Will the truth ever be revealed?

Ask the killers of Lebanon’s Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated in a massive explosion on a main street in Beirut in 2005. As Marlise Simons wrote in The New York Times this week, a tribunal established to prosecute the assassins of Hariri failed to show who ordered the attack, or why, after twelve years of investigation and $800 million spent.

That probe is now closed.

How to help Haiti ? Ask its citizens.

The timing could not have been worse. Just five weeks after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse plunged Haiti into political chaos, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake ripped through the nation’s rural southwest coast, buckling roads, leveling tens of thousands of homes, and reducing already flimsy infrastructure to rubble. Residents and aid workers were still taking stock when a tropical storm descended upon the region.

Nothing snaps the world to attention like a natural disaster. Haiti has been here before. In 2010, when a similar magnitude quake struck the capital city of Port-au-Prince, the entire globe, it seemed, reached out to help. 

But within two years, just half of the funds had been delivered, and the world’s attention had long since moved on. Haiti was back where it started – alone in the dark.

In the intervening years, much of the news out of Haiti has centered around misappropriation of donated funds.

“We have a fair amount of hubris when it comes to intervening in other countries and thinking we know what’s best for them,” says Robert Maguire, a retired international affairs professor. “We don’t have a very good track record in listening to the people in these places and hearing what they are telling us.”

“The look for quick results has really gotten in the way of the longer, slower work of helping to reinforce and create institutions,” he adds. 

Money is needed, of course, but equally important are patience and a willingness to recognize the agency and expertise of the Haitian community. 

“The same people who survived and rebuilt after 2010, they are still there,” says Kathie Klarreich, a journalist who lived in Haiti for two decades. “The honest, hardworking humanitarians who live there will surface.”

B.M.

*U.S. steps back from call for Haiti elections this year after quake, virus and assassination*

_BY MICHAEL WILNER_

_UPDATED AUGUST 17, 2021 05:36 PM_

The Biden administration is no longer calling for elections in Haiti to be held this year as it assesses the political repercussions of the recent earthquake, which devastated part of the country just weeks after the president was assassinated.

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that leveled buildings in Southwest Haiti on Saturday has only heightened U.S. concern over the security situation as gang activity and the probe into President Jovenel Moïse’s July 7 killing have overstretched the Haitian National Police.

“It’s too early to tell what the impact on the political process of the earthquake is,” Jake Sullivan, White House national security advisor, said at a press briefing. “We’re in the process of assessing that.”

A senior administration official told McClatchy earlier Tuesday that the White House supports Haiti holding new elections when possible, citing the earthquake, assassination and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“We strongly support holding elections as soon as they are viable,” the official said. “Even pre-earthquake, they’re in the middle of a pandemic, and the security situation was one that was concerning.”

The comments from both officials are a step back from repeated calls from the State Department for elections in Haiti to be held this year after Moïse’s murder.

“The policy remains that we want to make sure Haitians can freely and fairly exercise their right to vote,” the senior administration official said. “Right now the focus is on an immediate response to the aftermath of the earthquake.”

Officials do not anticipate the scale of the devastation to compare with the 2010 earthquake which struck near the Haitian capital and resulted in an estimated 300,000 deaths.

But the humanitarian crisis around the recent earthquake is still expected to be severe, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development. The death toll from the weekend earthquake is now over 1,400.

Haiti’s hospitals have been understaffed, ill-equipped, and filled with COVID-19 patients in a country where very few people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus.

On the day of the assassination, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that “it is still the view of the United States that elections this year should proceed” — a position the administration has repeated multiple times since.

Days before the quake, Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council published a new calendar for elections and a controversial constitutional referendum — dates that now seem uncertain.

“The earthquake may delay that process even more now, probably into early 2022,” said Georges Fauriol, an expert on Haiti and senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“That puts a burden on key international supporters, in particular the United States,” Fauriol said, “because the more you move into 2022, the more you hit the historical calendar of presidential terms — and that essentially means you run into ‘22 with the delayed beginning of a normal presidential term.”

Moïse was already governing Haiti by decree before his assassination because the country had failed to hold elections on time. U.S. officials had been pressing Haiti to hold elections as soon as technically feasible to reconstitute parliament and fill local offices.

The new calendar calls for the first round of presidential elections to take place on Nov. 7 and runoffs in January. But in an interview with the Miami Herald on Sunday, Prime Minister Ariel Henry dismissed the new dates.

“We do not have an election calendar,” Henry said.

_McClatchy White House correspondent Francesca Chambers and Miami Herald Caribbean correspondent Jacqueline Charles contributed reporting._