COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING IN HAITI

October 29-30.  Nothing changes more often than plans here in Haiti.  It was decided Tuesday that I would go with Rose Carmelle, a person whose job we would describe as a community organizer, to two villages where local community members are preparing to take responsibility for their community well and its operation.

The compelling need and the opportunity for a village to have a well and clean water of its own sets the table for the more critical task of coaching villagers, mostly illiterate, in the techniques of organizing for permanent management responsibility.  The well and clean water is a recognized need while the development of the local civic capacity to manage responsibly is not a need well recognized here in rural Haiti.  The concept, as well as the method, of responsible, transparent management is totally lacking.  As a result, the material resources directed to local communities are not well-used or sustained. We patrons of the poor in Haiti have trouble dealing with this.  We see a need and respond to the visible need without regard to the less visible need for an organized management structure based in the community to make sure wells, schools, medical clinics, tree farms, etc. are serving their community over the long haul.  That is what sustainable community development is all about -- building management capacity along with new community assets.

In this little church near St. Raphael, Haiti meetings are held regularly to prepare the way for a community well.  I was there twice this week.

These people, along with their community organizer, are are getting ready to govern the maintenance and use of the well and of the water according to their own enforceable regulations.

These children are among the hundreds of people who need this well and clean water.  

If there is to be a well that works for this community permanently, it will depend on a community management council with the capacity to operate it permanently.  That's the story from Haiti Outreach.

--kjl

PIGNON AND HAITI OUTREACH

October 28.  Today I left the FHC team for a scouting expedition to the headquarters of Haiti Outreach in Pignon (Piyon).  I met Neil Van Dine when he passed through Cleveland with his family this summer.  Neil has lived and worked in Haiti for nearly 30 years.  Haiti Outreach is a community development organization specializing in making wells as a means of building capacity for community responsibility at the village level.  From Pignon their operation extends virtually all over Haiti.  My friend, Dionissi Aliprantis in Cleveland, connected me with Neil.  Learn more about Haiti Outreach.

I am staying in their guest house.  It is comfortable, although more Spartan than L'Ermitage.  I am apparently the only guest tonight.  It is located across the road from the air strip.  It is a longer and better kept landing strip than the one at Hinche.  I hope the air traffic is not to brisk tonight.

I am suffering from being overfed.  The amount of food I am served is huge.  Just take a look at lunch today.  And let me assure you, it is good and hearty county cuisine.  Chicken, carrots, plantain with black rice and gravy.  There was a Coke too, made with cane sugar.  Remember how Coke tasted in the '50s?

Roberta, Neil's wife, is a Haitian physician just completing the mandatory service required to be licensed to practice in Haiti.  She has a vision for serving those most in need of primary care on a regular basis, especially children and mothers.

I am experiencing something new here.  There are families living near the guest house.  This evening I hear children playing, now that the sun is down.  Some men hanging around the office near by were eager for some conversation.

One man, George, is working as an independent interpreter.  He is engaged in some gardening at his house just down the road using new agrarian methods that he was very delighted to discuss with me.  I tried to make a go of it in Kreyol, but he wanted to talk in English so we could understand each other better.  Translation: My Kreyol is pitiful and slow.

Later, after he finished his office work at 7:00, Neil took me into Pignon for a couple of Prestiges at a tiny bar.  Seating was on stools in the street.  The street was paved with concrete, though.  We chatted for over an hour.  A missionary, Mary, strolled by.  She lives in Hinche, but has an ice cream store in Pignon.  Men, women and children strolled by.  Lots of cheery chatter.

I'm shadowing Neil tomorrow on a day of travel.  Now, I'm refreshed and heading for bed.

--kjl

WE ARRIVE IN PANDIASSOU!

Sunday evening we arrived in Pandiassou at LErmitage, the hotel where the team will live for a week. Just down the road is the headquarters of the Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnation where our work teams will report tomorrow morning.

Travel to Port Au Prince (PAP) from Cleveland via Miami was smooth.  The airport has been transformed into a well-ordered and comfortable facility.  I noticed immediately that there was less rubble and a greater sense of order on the streets.  More people were selling wares, more stores were open and there was construction going on all over.  The traffic is still a grind, though.

Our two days in PAP were very rewarding.  The highlights:

• Getting 18 people, counting the driver, into a 14 person van along with an incredible amount of baggage because of all the supplies we  brought.  Bonding was imperative.
• Visited the National Historical Museum for a lesson on Haiti's history.
• After dinner at the Trinity Lodge where we stayed, there was a briefing with staff personnel from the Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnation.  John Lentz presented them with $5,000 check from the fundraiser to go along with the gift of $2,500 in supplies, medicine and materials we brought along.  
• We got acquainted with Cindy Corell, the Presbyterian Church staff person who assisted us with logistics and planning for our time in PAP.
• Saturday was full of interesting adventures:

• Thanks to Carline Paul-blanc's connections, we visited a radio station and were unexpectedly invited to participate in a talk show for about 15 minutes.  Their broadcast gets to 70% of Haiti.  John Lentz expressed greetings from FHC and our team, while Carline gave a speech in Kreyol saying ... well, we are pretty sure it was a wonderful message.  As a result, she got a phone call from a politician in Hinche who offered to help us make some contacts to further the type of work we are doing.  That was followed by a short visit to a TV station.  
• A tour to Petionville, a suburb where people of importance and wealth live on a mountainside overlooking PAP.  It was a scenic contrast to the cramped and hard-scrabble life in the city below.  It was cooler too, a very big plus for us.
• Carline's connections and a cousin with cars enabled a few of us (names withheld out of courtesy) to go back to Petionville to a night club featuring one of Haiti's great bands, Boukman Eksperyans.  Here is a link to a sample of their style.  The performers are a family, some of whom Carline knows.  We got an introduction and some pictures.  The music was fascinating, LOUD and in an language I don't understand.  Did I say LOUD?  Anyone interested in Haitian/Caribbean contemporary music should check them out.  I'm glad for this extra-curricular embellishment of my cultural education.  My dancing attempts were an utter, and denounced, failure ... again.
• Sunday morning we attended church at the Episcopal Cathedral where the congregation worships in a specially constructed sanctuary while the Cathedral is being reconstructed.  It was devastated by the earthquake in 2010.  It was the first Sunday that the entire service was in Kreyol rather than French.  The country is gradually moving to predominant use of Kreyol instead of French.  This increases cohesion of the population and enhances a sense of national identity.
• Sunday afternoon we drove up into the mountains to Hinche and the village of Pandiassou.  For me, it felt like a homecoming and I am delighted to be back here.  It is so beautiful and so special to me.  

Our homecoming dinner was wonderful.  I am so greatful to be here!  Oh sure, there are challenges and some discomfort; but we are all feeling great and ready for tomorrow.  I will be going on a scouting trip 18 miles away to Pignon, a small city.  There is a community development program there of an organization called Haiti Outreach.  It has been in operation for about 25 years.  I hope to get an education on how they carry out the mission of building community in coordination with economic development.  They have  experience working with groups of people like us who want to be engaged alongside Haitians in building community capacity.

Nah weh pita, as we say in Kreyol.

--kjl

PS  Pictures are posing a bit of a problem on the internet right now, so they will have to be shown later.    

CARLINE AND JERRY -- ZANMI M AYISYEN (my Haitian friends)

My journal about Haiti must include a posting about Carline Paul-blanc and Jerry Delva, my new Haitian friends.  What a gift their presence is!

Carline Paul-blanc

Lourdevic (Jerry) Delva

The couple appeared miraculously at Forest Hill Church one Sunday morning last spring as visitors looking for a welcoming church family.  It could not have been more dramatic.  It was the Sunday after we learned that our Haitian leader, Ralph Jean-Mary (see previous blog post), would not be with us on the next trip to Haiti.  It was also the Sunday when we announced in church the Haiti fundraising event held in July.  After the service, Carline and Jerry asked about what was going on at Forest Hill Church involving their country. Needless to say, there were stunned people gathered in the coffee hour after church exclaiming over this amazing occurrence!

Carline, with her natural exuberance in full bloom, was overjoyed to discover that we were headed back to Hinche -- a city she knew well, and where members of her family were located.   We could not contain our excitement about finding someone who was so willing and so able to join our efforts to develop relationships in Haiti.  The connection was instant and nearly overwhelming!  It was surely an answer to prayer.

Carline and Jerry are in the United States to get advanced education in order to carry out their personal mission of helping build a better Haiti.  Carline is in nursing school and had recently come to Cleveland to complete her training.  Other members of her immediate and extended family are in this country as well, including two grown sons, Stefan and Fabien, who live here in Cleveland Heights.  Jerry and the young men are working and attending college part-time.  Like so many immigrant families, they face barriers of language and culture with a resilience and persistence that one can only admire and respect.  

Over the past six months Carline has been helping the Haiti team with the fundraising event, with making plans and organizing logistics for the trip, and teaching us some Kreyol.  She has a gift for teaching.  She will be joining our traveling group as both an interpreter and shepherd.   Her family in Haiti is very large and she has connections with people who are able to enrich our experience on this trip.  She is part of our medical services group as well.  

Jerry is rather shy and reserved, especially in English-only conversations.  He and I have had several chats.  He has an amazing story.  He is educated and is something of a "jack of all trades." He has worked as an accountant and financial advisor in Haiti.  He has a passion for social justice and for the poorest of the poor.  The story of his work with the International Red Cross of Geneva inspecting and improving prisons throughout Haiti is especially compelling.  He encountered the worst prison conditions imaginable and lived in the shadow of injustice with its most marginalized victims for years.  In his low-key way, Jerry shows a pragmatic and determined hope for a better, more just Haiti.  I hope he will be able to share his special witness with us personally as we get better acquainted.  Meanwhile, I pray that Jerry will be able to find work here at a level matching his abilities and needs.

I look forward to continuing the friendship with these Haitian friends now for a time my neighbors in Cleveland Heights.  They surely enrich life in my community.  Mesi ampil!

--kjl

THE HAITI TRAVELING TEAM FROM FHC

With two weeks until departure on October 25th, the Haiti team is getting serious about preparation.  Here is an introduction to the 18 who are ticketed, inoculated and cleared for take-off.  We are organized into three working groups.

Medical group (left to right): Dr. Tom Culver; Nurse,

Cassie Brent; Nursing Student, Carline Paul-blanc; Nurse,

Laurie Logan; Rosanna Sprague; Nutritionist, Kathy Hanna.

 
Construction - Agrarian Development group (left to right)
Paul Jennings; Gardenia Witherspoon; Charity McDonald; 
Rev. Dr. John Lentz; Jeanette Nemcek

Educational Enrichment group (left to right): Deanne Lentz;
Mary Ball; Joan Bacon; Elizabeth Shaw; Anne Smith.

Our Chief Executive Leader: Jeff Smith                           

                                     

 Scout and mascot: Kermit Lind

HAITI, CHOLERA AND THE U.N.

This is the news about making the U.N. responsible to Haitians for the cholera epidemic.

---

October 8, 2013

Rights Advocates Suing U.N. Over the Spread of Cholera in Haiti

By RICK GLADSTONE

Advocates for Haitian victims of the deadly cholera epidemic that first afflicted their country three years ago said they were taking the extraordinary step on Wednesday of suing the United Nations, asserting that the organization’s peacekeeping force in Haiti was responsible for introducing the disease through sewage contamination from its barracks.

The lawsuit, which the advocates said they would file in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Wednesday morning, will be the strongest action they have taken in pressing the United Nations to acknowledge at least some culpability for the outbreak of cholera, a highly contagious scourge spread through human feces that had been largely absent from Haiti for 100 years.

Cholera has killed more than 8,300 Haitians and sickened more than 650,000 in the earthquake-ravaged country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, since it first reappeared in October 2010. While the worst of the epidemic has eased, it still kills about 1,000 Haitians a year.

United Nations officials have said they are committed to eradicating the cholera, but they have not conceded that the organization was inadvertently responsible for causing it. They also have asserted diplomatic immunity from any negligence claims, a position that has deeply angered many Haitians who consider it a betrayal of United Nations principles.

Haitian leaders, while dependent on the United Nations to help maintain stability and provide other important services, have also expressed unhappiness over the cholera issue. In an address last Thursday at the annual United Nations General Assembly opening session, Haiti’s prime minister, Laurent Lamothe, spoke of what he called the “moral responsibility” of the United Nations in the outbreak, and said the efforts to combat it had been far from sufficient.

Forensic studies, including one ordered by the United Nations, have identified the culprit bacteria as an Asian strain imported to Haiti by Nepalese members of the United Nations peacekeeping force, known as the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, which was first authorized in 2004 and maintains about 8,700 soldiers and police officers there, drawn from more than three dozen member states. The forensic studies have also linked the spread of the cholera to a flawed sanitation system at the Nepalese peacekeeper base, which contaminated a tributary that feeds Haiti’s largest river, used by Haitians for drinking and bathing.

Beatrice Lindstrom, a spokeswoman for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, the Boston-based rights group that prepared the lawsuit, said in a telephone interview that the listed plaintiffs were five cholera victims, who were seeking redress for themselves and all afflicted Haitians and their families. Ms. Lindstrom said the institute had decided to file the suit in New York because it is the site of United Nations headquarters and has an enormous Haitian expatriate population.

“We are asking for the judge to find the United Nations liable,” she said. “It has violated its legal obligations through reckless actions that brought cholera to Haiti.” The lawsuit did not specify the amount of compensation sought, which Ms. Lindstrom said would be “determined at trial.”

It was far from clear that the lawsuit would be accepted by the court, which affords broad latitude to diplomatic protections for the United Nations against such litigation. These protections are partly rooted in the formal legal conventions created with the inception of the United Nations after World War II. “The majority view is that the U.N. and U.N. entities are immune from domestic lawsuits,” said Jordan J. Paust, a professor of international law at the Law Center of the University of Houston.

Eight months ago, Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, informed Haitian leaders that it would not accept claims for compensation made by victims of the outbreak, citing a provision of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.

Ms. Lindstrom said the United Nations had also rebuffed her group’s attempts to address the issue. “They’ve refused to sit down for a conversation with the victims, or with us,” she said.

Navi Pillay, the top human rights official at the United Nations, suggested on Tuesday from her headquarters in Geneva that Haiti’s cholera victims were entitled to some compensation, although she did not specify who should provide it.

Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Mr. Ban, declined to comment on the lawsuit but asserted that the United Nations remained dedicated to helping Haiti overcome the epidemic.

“The United Nations is working on the ground with the government and people of Haiti both to provide immediate and practical assistance to those affected,” Mr. Haq said in a statement, “and to put in place better infrastructure and services for all.”

HAITI'S GOVERNMENT

Haiti has a governmental structure of institutions with familiar names to us.  But in the political news out of Haiti the personalities of office holders and their actions often overshadow the governmental institutions.  Actions of outside institutions -- the U.S., the U.N. and a large array of foreign and domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) -- often overshadow Haiti's government.  The first step in respect for the government of Haiti is recognizing its institutional structure.

The Constitution:  Haiti has 23 constitutions since 1801.  Its present constitution was adopted in 1987 following the end of the Duvalier regime.  In 2011 there were amendments enacted.  The constitution provides for a democratically elected national government structured in three branches -- executive, legislative and judicial.

Office of President:  Michael Martelly, the 44th President of Haiti, was elected in 2010 to a five-year term in a controversial election.  Martelly, known as Sweet Mickey, is a pop singer famous among Haitians for his music, often described as raunchy.  He is affiliated with the Repons Peyizan (Farmers Response) political party.  As President, he is the head of state while the Prime Minister heads the government. Together they lead executive branch of government.

Office of Prime Minister: Laurent Lamothe is the Prime Minister and has held the office since May, 2012.  Prime Ministers are selected by the President and confirmed separately by the Senate and the House of Deputies, Haiti's two legislative bodies.  Before he became Prime Minister Lamothe was briefly Haiti's Foreign Minister under Martelly.  He was head of a global telecommunication business before entering public office.

The Cabinet:   Besides the Prime Minister, there are 13 other Cabinet Ministers in Haiti's government who oversee specific administrative functions.

Legislature:  There are two branches of the National Assembly.  The Senate consists of thirty members, one-third of which are elected every two years.  The Chamber of Deputies consists of ninety-nine members elected for four-year terms.

Judiciary: Haiti's legal system is based on the Napoleonic Code.  There are four levels of courts: the Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) which deals with matters of constitutionality and procedure; the courts of appeal, civil courts and magistrates courts.  Judicial officials are appointed by the national government and serve at its pleasure.  The justice system has been subject to severe abuse and is not regarded as independent and reliable in the administration of justice.

Regional and Local Government:  Haiti is divided into ten departments.  Our travel will be to the Central Department.  It has a population of 565,000.  Each department is divided into districts called arrondissements which are named for principal cities.  There is a total of 42 arrondissements. In the Central Department the City of Hinche is the seat of one of four arrondissements in the Department.  Arrondissements are further divided into communes, of which there is a total of 140 in the country.

The provision of governmental services at the regional and local levels in Haiti is hampered by a lack of capacity.  Government is highly concentrated in the capitol city, Port au Prince.  The ability to deliver governmental services and keep order in accord with law is one of the capacities needing development in Haiti.  Advances in health, safety, education and security require capacity and community building at the local level.  That is a long term commitment we who care for the people in Haiti need to keep in mind.

--kjl

THE AGRONOMIST: DON'T MISS IT!

Last year before our exploration to Haiti's Central Plateau region, our team watched a movie called The Agronomist.  It tells the true story of, Jean Dominique, a Haitian agronomist converted to passionate journalist and crusader for democracy against dictatorship during the Duvalier years.   The movie is going to be shown twice this month before the next FHC Haiti trip.

When:           7:00 p.m. Wednesday, October 16
                      7:00 p.m. Sunday, October 20

Where:          Forest Hill Church, Fellowship Hall, South

Admission:    All are welcome.  It is free.

Rating:           PG-13 (Some violence and brief nudity)

See the trailer here.

Jean Dominique and his wife owned and operated Haiti’s oldest free radio station.  They broadcast news that exposed the injustice, oppression, corruption and poverty in a country under the control of ruthless dictatorship.  They broadcast in Kreyol, the language of ordinary Haitians.  They advocated democratic government and free, fair elections.  

Jean Dominique was in exile in New York for much of the ‘80s and ‘90s.  He was assassinated in 2000 after returning to his country and his radio station.  The murder was a political assassination professionally done.  No one was convicted or arrested for this killing.  There were reports from Haiti suggesting the CIA and the United States were behind it.  At the time, U.S. policy was seeking to influence the timing and outcome of elections in Haiti in a way that would diminish the hopes and demands of Haiti's poor and rural population, the very people who listened fervently to the news and music from Dominique's Radio Haiti.

 One of the film's producers is Edwidge Danticat, a Haitian-born author and MacArthur Genius Award winner, currently recognized as one the most important Haitian writers of all time.  Among her publications is a collection of essays entitled Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist At Work.  Danticat took her title from Albert Camus’ last public lecture, “Create Dangerously,” in which Camus declared, “For the person with creative potential there is no wholeness except in using it.” Danticat's accounts of Haitians who were tortured and killed during the Duvalier regime include the story of Jean Dominique.   She knew and revered the agronomist turned political advocate.  Like Jean Dominique, Danticate fled into exile with part of her family at age 12.  Like Dominque and so many Haitian exiles, she portrays an insistent desire for a homeland in which ordinary people can live free of fear and free from domination by self-interested foreign powers.

If you care about Haiti and its people, it is important to know the story of Jean Dominique and what that story means in Haiti's history.  Come see and discuss the movie on the 16th or the 20th of this month.

--kjl