Notre Dame and CRS Partnership Improves Education in Haiti

Haitian Educators Embrace Creole In Attempt To Reform Broken School System

By TRENTON DANIEL 02/06/13 02:12 PM ET EST

CROIX-DES-BOUQUETS, Haiti -- Teenagers in blue-and-white uniforms pour out of classrooms of this boarding school at the edge of Haiti's capital, chattering in their native language of Creole about the science test they have just taken.

"Eske ou te byen konpoze?" asks one boy in the campus courtyard. In English, it translates as "How do you think you did?"  "I'm not so sure," a girl answers back in Creole with a shrug of her shoulders. "The exam was really difficult."

The students don't speak much French at the school, although it remains the primary language of instruction in most Haitian classrooms. In fact, less than 10 percent of the country's 10 million people speak French fluently, and in most schools, even the teachers don't understand it very well although they're asked to teach in it.

The private Louverture Cleary School has already broken from that linguistic tradition and is instead emphasizing the Haitian Creole children speak at home. The school is also introducing students to Spanish from other parts of the Caribbean and the English they will likely need in the future.

"It is a practical issue," said Deacon Patrick Moynihan about the Creole language-based curriculum at the boarding school. "It really is about being part of this region."

Elsewhere, students struggle using French text books and coping with what largely remains a foreign language in a country once colonized by France, but more and more under the sway of the powerful economies of the United States and Latin America.

In many schools, children copy French lessons by rote from the chalkboard, understanding little.

"I really have to work hard, because I don't speak French at home. My parents don't speak French at home," said 14-year-old Alexandra Julien, who attends another school, as she walked to class one recent morning. "They speak Creole."

Three years after a devastating earthquake killed more than 200,000 people here, Haiti's abysmal educational system remains an obstacle to building the expertise and skills needed to help this impoverished country recover.

Haiti's 1805 Constitution declared that tuition would be free and attendance compulsory for primary students. But the quality of education lagged through the years, and plunged during the 29-year-long dynasty of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude, or "Baby Doc," which ended in 1986. Haiti's professionals fled into exile to escape political repression, spawning a major brain drain the country has never bounced back from.

About 30 percent of the country's youth are now illiterate, according to the U.N.'s children agency, UNICEF, and only half of all children can afford to attend primary school. Less than a quarter attend secondary school.

In a 2011 report published in the journal "The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs," author Brendan McNulty wrote that 80 percent of Haiti's 16,500 or so primary schools are private, and they adhere to no academic standards. The article focused on rebuilding Haiti's education system after the quake.

Like the Louverture Cleary School, more organizations inside and outside the country are saying Haiti's educational crisis can be eased by educating the nation's children primarily in Creole, which all students and teachers truly understand, and bid adieu to French as Haiti's primary teaching language.

"We have lost, we have wasted, so many Einsteins because of the language barrier," said Michel DeGraff, a leading Creole scholar and Haiti-born linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. DeGraff led a four-day workshop in January to help Haitian teachers incorporate Creole into math and science curricula, challenging the notion that the language is not sophisticated enough for the hard sciences.

In a sign of growing interest in Creole's educational potential, the U.S. Agency for International Development last fall awarded a $12.9 million contract to the North Carolina nonprofit group, RTI International, to create a basic reading curriculum that includes the language.

The humanitarian group Concern Worldwide is also developing Creole course materials and training teachers in the language. Duke University recently held a Creole linguistics workshop for U.S. and Haitian scholars in Durham, North Carolina, that treats Haiti's native tongue as a subject worth serious academic study.
Haitian Creole, which grew out of a mix of 18th-century French and West African languages, is the nation's lingua franca, but it wasn't until 1961 that it joined French as one of the country's two official tongues.

President Michel Martelly and other government officials switch between Creole and French in public settings, depending on whether the audience is Haitian or foreign, and many speak English and Spanish fluently from years of living abroad. More English than French can be heard on the streets of the capital as Haitian teens increasingly listen to artists popular in the U.S. such as Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Lil Wayne.

But French remains the language of affluence and privilege, employed in polite society and government communiques and openly spoken in the upscale supermarkets selling brie and baguettes in the mountains high above the capital's shanties. Although used by Haitians of all social strata, Creole is seen by some as the language of the impoverished masses.

As a result, Haitian parents are often all too willing to let their children stumble in their coursework to "learn" a language that even their teachers barely speak. Children whose parents can afford tuition typically spend the first three years of primary school being taught in Creole, then move to French for the remaining years. Students often learn little, and few pass their national exams.

President Michel Martelly campaigned on promises to improve Haiti's school system, and the government says it has paid tuition at private and public schools for more than a million students though some believe the number may be lower.

Some education officials, however, are reluctant to let go of French-centered instruction.

The government has run workshops helping teachers better understand French, with some officials saying French instruction is necessary because few Creole textbooks exist.

"French remains a language that is very symbolic for Haitians," said Pierre Michel Laguerre, an Education Ministry consultant who oversees the school system's curriculum. "There is a history with that language. We have many of our authors who have won prestigious literary prizes in the Francophone world. We cannot leave French behind."

Creole advocates say that there's no shortage of Creole-language books and point to publishing houses such as Educa Vision, Inc. in Florida, which produce such materials. But they acknowledge that shipping the materials to Haiti is expensive and goods are often held up in customs.

The Louverture Cleary school, which was founded by St. Joseph Parish in Providence, Rhode Island, has a history of success in the classroom.

It serves smart children from families with modest means and says it has notched a 98 percent rate of students passing the national high school exam, compared to the countrywide average of 30 percent.

A challenge painted on a wall at the school appears not in the customary French but in Creole: "Nou pare poun rebate ayiti, e ou?" – "We're ready to rebuild Haiti, are you?"

Jeff Thomas says he is. The 18-year-old sees his new linguistic skills as more than a path to a career as a computer programmer.

"If we meet a foreigner ... in order to help him we should speak English to understand what he's saying," Thomas said in English, with a heavy accent.

Moynihan emphasizes that Louverture Cleary is only one possible model for the rest of Haiti's schools and that it follows Ministry of Education guidelines. Unlike most secondary schools, the children have already mastered written and spoken Creole, some of them in the school's morning day care program.

"What is beautiful about language at Louverture Cleary is that we know it's a bridge," Moynihan said. "It's a bridge for communicating."
___
Associated Press reporter Evens Sanon and videographer Pierre-Richard Luxama contributed to this report.
___

Commentary: The three most important issues facing the Republic of Haiti

Published on April 13, 2013 By Jean H Charles   Jean Hervé Charles LLB, MSW, JD, former Vice-Dean of Students at City College of the City University of New York, is now responsible for policy and public relations for the political platform in power in Haiti, Répons Peyisan. He can be reached at: jeanhcharles@aol                  The Republic of Haiti has set itself to become an emerging nation by 2030. This will not happen by that time unless it takes steps now to deal with these three most important issues. 1. The complete degradation of its ecology; 2. The intergenerational and endemic misery of the majority of its population; and 3. The lack of sense of civism and the sense of appurtenance linking one citizen to another in a shared heritage.    Starting with the latest issue, the lack of the sense of civism and appurtenance, it is the gangrene that is ravaging the world today. The United States has just spent more than a trillion dollars to pacify and reconstruct Iraq after Saddam Hussein in the last ten years, but because not enough policy thinking and funding was earmarked for the issue of nation building, meaning injecting the sense of civism and appurtenance within the different sectors of the Iraqi population, the Shiite and the Sunnis, the situation is almost as explosive as ante. The successful nations of this world have no other magic formula. Before implementing any institution or infrastructure building they have given themselves the task of infusing the sense of civism amongst the different ethnic or geographic groups of their nation. Failure to do so, each citizen will try to take its own brick from the national edifice preventing any incremental unified construction. I am afraid it is the story of Brazil in spite of the buzz that Brazil is now an emerging nation. Haiti, in spite of its original role of pioneering nation-state, has enjoyed very few years of nation building experience. Its founder Jean Jacques Dessalines was assassinated two years after independence, as he was enforcing the doctrine that the state patrimony must be shared by all. Henry Christophe tried the same formula as King Henry in the northern part of the country, but fifteen years later, the whole edifice crumbled as the laissez faire doctrine of Alexander Pétion took hold nationally and survived until today. The different economic and social initiatives have all failed because they are not cooked with the oil of the sense of appurtenance. The benefits of social engineering have remained, as the Haitians have baptized with their natural wit, á l’oral, meaning without the expected outcome. The doctrine of the sense of appurtenance according to the Renan dictum, the bible of the concept of nation building, is the first ingredient to institute a nation state for any government that has the ambition to do so. It is the belief and the practice that all the citizens, whatever the confines of their geographic location or the shade of their color or the status of their parents, will receive the same appropriate services of sane institutions and adequate infrastructure. The child of the city as well as the child of the countryside can aspire and can achieve his greatest dream if he appropriates enough diligence and enough creativity. This is not the story of Haiti. Cumulative governments have accepted that 90 percent of the population lives marginalized, either in the country side without schools, health care and roads and economic incubation, or live in the slums of the city with the same indifference to the basic needs of that segment of the population. Different international organizations with social intervention in Haiti have either mimicked the culture of the government or have engaged in make believe initiatives that have compounded the problem. Canaan, one of the largest slums in Haiti if not of the Caribbean, has been built with design, concept and funding from Food for the Poor. To conclude this topic, the Haitian government must take steps to incorporate the education of civism in the curriculum of the grammar schools, the sense of ethics in the secondary schools and at the university. Through affirmative action, it must make sure that those who have been discriminated against for the past two centuries receive their share in the patrimony. This must be done with the consent and the assent of the elite as a natural obligation that each brother owes to his brethren. Once this step is taken, it will be easier to attack the second issue, which is the intergenerational misery of the majority of the population. The spectacle is the same whether in the capital, in the small towns or in the countryside, hordes of men and women are idle or engage in makeshift commerce where the return is so small that it is a psychological endeavour to continue the business of staying alive. The grandmother the mother and the child all inhabit the same hut with no prospect of a better tomorrow. The grandmother, who barely knows how to read and write, the mother with only a grammar school education, and a child in an underfunded school, ill nourished and doomed to quit school before achieving the Baccalaureate (high school). With such a large population with no formal education, it is difficult to apprehend the policy that Haiti is open for business of the government. Very few global businesses will entertain opening shop in such an environment. There will be some, but they are so inimical to good business practices that the population will regret that they were let in in the first place. The Haitian government should instead initiate a policy of Haiti seeking for business. Using the natural and creative talents of the majority of its population, Haiti must concentrate instead on value added products, using art as an addendum to machine-made pieces. Best Western hotel has just built its first major facility in Haiti. According to the corporate executives, Haiti has added a touch of art to each one of its rooms and each one of the walls of the Best Western Haiti is one of a kind piece of jewelry, tooled and retooled by hundred of artisans who were given a free hand to use their creative talents. The Haitian government, to employ its masses of unemployed and underemployed people, must incubate hundred of creative centers where any modern flat screen TV can be transformed with carved mahogany frame into a picture setting. The replicate of this model of art imitating nature and nature imitating art will be extended to all home furniture including the toilet cover. This is the forte where the Haitian people are best. They will find themselves useful to themselves, useful to society and useful to the world. The Haitian government can also use its mass of agricultural workers to produce organic and nostalgic fruits and vegetables for its Diaspora in the United States, Canada and France. The free zone should serve as a receiver for the packaging, and the dispatching of fresh produce to all corners of the world, bringing back precious foreign exchange money into the country. With a culture of export oriented nation, this intergenerational misery will come to an end and progressively the culture of wealth building will become part of the fabric of the society. The degradation of the ecology is a component of the misery of the population. Unable to wait for the tree to grow it has taken into the habit of eating the seeds. Haiti’s vegetation was once destroyed by the rapacious colonial practice of cutting its entire forest of hardwood trees, such as mahogany, cedar and chain for the construction of palaces in Europe. But nature has been so generous to the country that the loss was replenished with a vengeance, with the help of good soil and abundant rain. The population to feed was only around 500,000 people at that time. It is now 10 million people. Charcoal made of carbonized wood in a pit is the preferred ingredient used by the rich and the poor for cooking. It would have been sustainable if the wood was only the discarded ones. But, the peasants deprived of any other cash commodity are now indiscriminately using avocado, mangoes and all type of fruit trees for making coal for cooking. Inundation, flood, and construction in a fragile environment have also contributed to render Haiti a land so vulnerable that any constant rain of one or two days will cause disaster of biblical consequences. It follows if Haiti plans to enjoy the status of an emerging nation by 2030 it must first hold onto the land that it already has before the whole structure goes into the sea. It will have nothing to enjoy as it seeks to become an emerging nation. The government has declared 2013 the Year of the Environment but so far it has been as most programs introduced in Haiti, big propaganda with no result and no outcome in the end. The minister of environment has failed to engage the public in a massive conservation culture, where in each home vegetable residue is put into a pit to produce organic manure. The seeds of each eaten fruit are saved to be transformed into a seedling for planting later. Haiti has also failed to engage into the carbon exchange mode where it will use its mountains to partner with the pension fund of say New York or California State to invest into massive plantation of mahogany, cedar and other precious wood. This investment will bring high returns to the foreign retirees, to the nation and to the Haitian citizens while facilitating the cooling of the atmosphere. These are the steps to be undertaken to bring Haiti into the path of progress and development. They represent the groundwork upon which education, infrastructure, tourism and health can be tacked upon to deliver a true emerging nation well before the targeted date of 2030.

Haiti splashes slum with psychedelic colors

Published: March 25, 2013

By TRENTON DANIEL — Associated Press

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — One of Haiti's biggest shantytowns, a vast expanse of grim cinderblock homes on a mountainside in the nation's capital, is getting a psychedelic makeover that aims to be part art and part homage.

Workers this month began painting the concrete facades of buildings in Jalousie slum a rainbow of purple, peach, lime and cream, inspired by the dazzling "cities-in-the-skies" of well-known Haitian painter Prefete Duffaut, who died last year.

The $1.4 million effort titled "Beauty versus Poverty: Jalousie in Colors" is part of a government project to relocate people from the displacement camps that sprouted up after Haiti's 2010 earthquake. The relocation has targeted a handful of high-profile camps in Port-au-Prince by paying a year's worth of rent subsidies for residents to move into neighborhoods like Jalousie. The government is now trying to spruce up these poor neighborhoods and introduce city services.

"We're not trying to do Coconut Grove. We're not trying to do South Beach," said Clement Belizaire, director of the government's housing relocation program, referring to Miami neighborhoods. "The goal that we are shooting for is a neighborhood that is modest but decent, where residents are proud to be from that area."

While most residents welcome the attempt to beautify Jalousie, a slum of 45,000 inhabitants, critics say the project is the latest example of cosmetic changes carried out by a government that has done little to improve people's lives in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.

"This is just to make it look like they're doing something for the people but in reality they are not," said Sen. Moise Jean-Charles, an outspoken critic of President Michel Martelly, arguing that the money could have been better spent.

Amid its narrow corridors and steep steps, Jalousie has no traditional sewage system or electric grid. The slum is lit at night by candles and a web of wires that tap illegally into the public power system, dangling above the concrete homes. Water is provided by an outdoor spigot where people line up with buckets.
Some people wonder why Jalousie was chosen for the makeover, though officials say they plan to expand the project to other Port-au-Prince shantytowns.

Jalousie is unique in that its mountainside presence makes it visible to people living in the wealthy district of Petionville. Critics have suggested that the choice of Jalousie is as much about giving the posh hotels of Petionville a pretty view as helping the slum's residents.

Belizaire said he welcomes controversy, adding that the project's visibility is important. It's a concrete accomplishment for the government and he contends that it does indeed help Jalousie residents.

"People are sitting on the balcony, having a beer, smoking a cigarette - whatever - and you have all of Port-au-Prince at your feet, and you're living in colors," Belizaire said, sitting in his office.

Jalousie, perched above rich Petionville, has become a flashpoint for class controversy in Haiti recently. It is among many slums that have sprawled across the hills of Port-au-Prince in recent decades because governments past and present have failed to provide affordable housing and basic services. Many of the homes crash down the hills every year during the country's rainy seasons.

Haiti's class divisions spilled into the streets last year when more than 1,000 people from Jalousie protested in central Port-au-Prince. They threw rocks at a luxury hotel and criticized rich Haitians, threatening to burn down Petionville if the government followed through with a plan to demolish their homes. Officials had wanted to tear down the homes next to a ravine to build a flood-protection project. During heavy rainfall, rocks from the ravine clog the entrance to a private school for the children of diplomats and wealthy Haitians.

The demolition never happened.

These days, most people in Jalousie chalk the protests up to a "misunderstanding," and talk about the project with pride.

"It's beautiful. Jalousie is not the same anymore," Resilia Pierre, a 53-year-old wife and mother, said as she waited at a well to buy water. "We don't have the means to do it ourselves. I would like to say 'thank you' to the people who did that."

The government's goal it to eventually paint 1,000 homes and other buildings.

Workers hired by three companies began two weeks ago by putting concrete finishes on the ash-colored facades of the slum's cinderblock houses. Then they paint over the finish with bright colors using rollers, standing atop wobbly ladders next to buckets of paint. The entire effort is supposed to take six months.
Duffaut, one of Haiti's most famous painters, was born in the country's south in 1923. He studied at the Centre D'Art in the late 1940s and his work, appearing in museums worldwide, has long been a source of national pride.

While the project in Jalousie may be inspired by Duffaut, when completed it will still require a bit of imagination by the viewer to see his psychedelic cities in the sky, with their dazzling colors and surreal tiers that seemingly hovering in the air.

What residents will have in their neighborhood high up on a mountainside will be a lot of bright colors and a love of the artist.

"The people of Jalousie," said Jamesson Misery, a coordinator of the project who lives in the slum, "we plan to honor Prefete Duffaut."

Read more here: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/03/25/2937238/haiti-splashes-slum-with-psychedelic.html#storylink=cpy

Haiti Doesn't Need Our Help

Advisor Network  3/22/2013

Tim Maurer, Contributor

Anne Reynolds and her daughter, Stephanie, put boots on the ground in Haiti in the year 2000, quite accidentally.  They were vacationing in the Dominican Republic and inadvertently crossed the border into the western half of the island of Hispaniola, which they found a great deal more difficult to depart than to enter.  So, while biding time until their documentation was cleared, they decided to explore the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, which has groaned under an eerie cloud of systemic dysfunction for most of its recorded history.

While Anne and Stephanie indeed saw signs of the discouraging plot lines most often associated with the Haitian narrative, the lasting impression of their visit was a stark and hopeful contrast.  They were so captivated by the intersection of the inspiring people and abundant natural resources that they decided to invest their lives’ work becoming part of the Haitian story themselves.  And as they began to mirror the indomitable spirit of the people they served, this sex educator and student from Alabama have helped create an agribusiness enterprise worthy of recognition in Forbes and a model for a new rendition of helping that I hope and pray the world’s aid organizations and NGOs consider adopting.

The ingredients for their success are the following: humility, curiosity, collaboration and vanilla (yes, vanilla).

Humility, Curiosity and Collaboration

Anne and Stephanie carry themselves with humility and insist that they are guests in this foreign land, not affluent do-gooders come to save a wayward people. That Americanized view of helping is often referred to as paternalism.  Here’s how Brian Fikkert, author of When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor, explains “resource paternalism”:

Being from a materialistic culture, North Americans often view the solution to poverty in material terms and tend to pour financial and other material resources into situations in which the real need is for the local people to steward their own resources.  In addition, legitimate local business can be undermined when outsiders bring in such things as free clothes or building supplies, undercutting the price that these local businesses need to survive.

Paternalism takes many forms—resource, spiritual, knowledge, labor and managerial—but they all boil down to doing things for people that they can do for themselves.  Its roots are found in ignorance and a false sense of superiority tied to the internalized “messages of centuries of colonialism, slavery, and racism,” on the part of helpers and short-sighted pragmatism on the part of those in desperate need of help.  The unfortunate result of so much of the well-meaning aid that is provided throughout the world by governments, NGOs, small groups and individuals is a subconscious condescension on the part of givers and a culture of dependency on the part of recipients.

Reynolds acknowledges that she brought her Americanized view of helping to Haiti, but it was the people of Haiti who helped teach her.  She required only the humility and the curiosity to be taught.  She did what so many of us are prone to avoid when faced with discomfort personified—she looked people in the eyes.  She saw them as people not as projects, and she came to know them, their joys and their struggles.  Anne describes the moment at which it all became clear for her: she was getting ready to come home to the States and one of the Haitian farmers she’d been working closely with asked her, “Are you coming back?”
“Haiti doesn’t want or need our help,” Anne says.  “They want our collaboration.”

The Vanilla Project

Anne’s initial assessment was that the remote village in Haiti, with which she and her daughter, Stephanie, had fallen in love, was in need of some basic necessities.  First, they helped create a feeding program to ensure the children were receiving adequate nutrition.  And there was no school, so Anne relied on her background in education to help build and staff a school.  This was all in 2000, long before Haiti became part of the global conversation following the earthquake that devastated the capital city of Port-au-Prince and many surrounding areas on January 12, 2010.

But Anne’s insistence that her work not merely create a cycle of dependency led her to search beyond the boundaries of her education and experience to find a way to introduce a sustainable source of revenue that could ably support the village into perpetuity.  Certainly, she might help introduce some expertise to enhance their primary vocation—farming, specifically cacao used to make chocolate—but doing so might only serve to stabilize the village economically to the point of subsistence.  In order to actually grow their micro-economy, they would need to introduce something new.  Having the second most popular ice cream flavor already covered, Anne and Stephanie pondered the world’s most popular—vanilla.

There is much good news about introducing vanilla as a crop.  This adaptable spice, both sweet and savory, is the second most expensive in the world, after saffron.  To put it in perspective, you’ll pay over nine dollars online for McCormick’s Gourmet Collection vanilla beans jar at Walmart—and it includes exactly two beans!  One of the reasons that the Reynolds women were so attracted to vanilla is that a single producing vanilla vine can support an entire Haitian family financially for a year, much as a cow might help a poor farmer subsist.  Haiti’s nearby neighbor, the United States, imports 70% of the world’s vanilla, while the largest producers of vanilla globally—Indonesia and Madagascar, are worlds away.  So why not make Haiti a major producer of vanilla, raising the standard of living of this impoverished nation?

Enter the bad news.  Vanilla is expensive for a reason—it’s very hard to grow.  Vanilla is only indigenous to Mexico, where it is pollinated successfully by the local variety of the Melipona bee.  The rest of the world learned of vanilla’s existence after Cortez brought it back to Europe, along with chocolate, in the 1520s.  Mexico remained the world’s dominant producer of vanilla for three centuries until an adventurous botanist discovered that it could actually be pollinated by hand in the mid-1800s.  Since the plants must be pollinated within a mere twelve hour window, the crop didn’t proliferate outside of Mexico until later that century, but now nearly all of the world’s vanilla is hand-pollinated.  Doing so is work-intensive and requires training—and not only of the farmers, but also the plant.  Vanilla is a vine that requires a tutor, another plant or tree on which to grow, and some work better than others.  Oh, and it takes five years to produce fruit—not optimal for families in dire need of an economic boost now.

Undeterred, the Reynolds women and their Haitian counterparts brought vanilla plants to Haiti to begin test trials in 2002.  With the help of “The Vanilla Queen,” Patricia Rain, they solicited the expertise of agronomist, David Gardella, who conducted a scientific feasibility study and confirmed success was a possibility.  But yet again, the only way success was possible was through collaboration.  They needed to find the optimal tutor for the vanilla vines.  And after many attempts to court a suitable tutor, the most natural partner of all accepted the vanilla vine’s proposal—cacao—chocolate.

The potential was extraordinary.  “If this works,” Anne thought, “we’d have a vanilla rainforest extending for hundreds of acres.  And with sizable cacao growing regions in both the north and the south, a new industry could potentially be born!  Paris of the Antilles [an 18^th century nickname for the northern coastal city of present-day Cap-Haitien] is still here, and it’s capable of being cultivated!”  But it would take over a decade of dedication—and more partnerships, ideally with an ice cream company that needed a lot of vanilla—to make it possible.  “More” called in March of 2012, in the form of Darius Wilmore, a former Def Jam Records Art Director, known for working with artists Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Run DMC and Haiti’s own, Wyclef Jean.  But it wasn’t music Wilmore wanted to discuss with Anne Reynolds.  He wanted to talk about ice cream.  Darius, a Severna Park, Maryland native, had left the corporate realm to put his creative weight behind a fledgling social enterprise in Baltimore called Taharka Brothers Ice Cream, and they were interested in Anne’s Vanilla Project and Haiti, in particular.  Wilmore found Anne at the end of a Google search for “Can you grow vanilla in Haiti?”  So he picked up the phone and called.

Taharka Brothers Ice Cream

Taharka Brothers bears the name of Taharka McKoy, a young man who grew up, and sadly died, in the Baltimore city housing projects.  The trajectory of his life was re-directed several times as he was mentored as a teen, watched his mother rebuild her life and interacted with the criminal justice system, but as a young man of 25, he had become a neighborhood activist for social change.  He was tragically and fatally shot wrestling a gun out of the hands of a boy he mentored, only 14.  Mirroring their namesake, Taharka Brothers Ice Cream is now owned and operated by young men who are attempting to rise above the culture of drugs and violence in Baltimore’s toughest neighborhoods.  Although it was founded as a charitable non-profit, Taharka is now an employee-owned B-Corp—a benefit corporation, or for-profit company with a charitable mission. 

Creative capitalism as a tool for social change.

 While the Taharka Brothers vision has never faltered, the company has limped along for the bulk of its existence, but after surviving the Great Recession (when most of the local and regional ice cream producers in Baltimore folded), Taharka Brothers is picking up steam.  They’re being served at nearly 60 scoop shops and some of the finest restaurants in Baltimore.  And orders from outside of Baltimore are also coming in, including a recent boon from the renowned DC-centric restaurant chain and “community where racial and cultural connections are consciously uplifted,” Busboys and Poets.  Taharka Brothers acquired a larger production facility that is helping them keep up with demand, and Darius Wilmore is helping to crystalize their brand and tell their story.

 Taharka Brothers’ interest in the Vanilla Project was twofold: First, they need vanilla—lots of it.  In addition to vanilla ice cream, the spice is a primary ingredient in many of their delectable flavors (like Blueberry Pancake, Gravel Road and my personal favorite, Honey Graham, as well as the more culturally significant, the Jazz Man’s Blues and A Richard Pryor Moment).  Second, Wilmore’s appreciation of black history led him right to Haiti, to which he feels black Americans owe their freedom in part.  What? Long story short, the indigenous population of Haiti was decimated shortly after the Europeans landed in the late 15^th and early 16^th centuries.  Beginning with Spain, European powers battled over the territory until France officially colonized it in 1664, then repopulating it with African slaves to work the plantations rich in natural resources.  The Haitian Revolution—a slave revolt—began in 1791 and finally rebuffed Napoleon’s last gasp effort, to become a free black republic in 1804, emboldening future abolition efforts in Britain and the United States.  Essentially, as Darius puts it, “The fall of the African slave trade began with Haiti’s revolution.”
 
Wilmore’s fascination with the role that the Haitian Revolution played in the fall of slavery in the States was spurred by a visit from a delegation of Haitian government officials and media representatives, who ended up tasting Taharka Brothers ice cream and the spirit behind it on a U.S. tour following the devastating earthquake.  They were searching for social enterprise business models to emulate in Port-au-Prince, and the World Trade Center Institute in Baltimore connected them to Taharka.

But it’s not African Americans alone who have the Haitian Revolution to thank, Wilmore posits.  “Americans of every color, from the Mid-West to the left coast don’t speak French today because of, in large part, the Haitian revolution.”  Indeed, the loss of his Caribbean jewel, the key to Napoleon’s dreams of a western empire built on trade, significantly devalued his American assets and likely hastened the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.  So as far as Darius and Taharka Brothers are concerned, “Black folk, as well as all Americans, we feel, owe the people of Haiti a debt and not charity.  A debt.”

These sentiments are also echoed by Anne and Stephanie Reynolds.  Stephanie has complemented her work in Haiti with a Master’s degree concentrating in African American and Latin American/Caribbean studies, and the Haitian Revolution specifically.  “Being from Montgomery, Alabama—a city that prides itself on being the ‘birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement’—we see the Haitian Revolution as a pivotal event that paved the way for domestic progress,” says Stephanie. “Given that so many of our nation’s own policies have negatively impacted the economy of Haiti, we have an obligation to do what we can to improve the economy of Haiti today. To do so is to carry on the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement.”

The Big Payback

The collective effort to repay the debt is called “The Big Payback.” Why?  “Snatched from the chorus of one of James Brown’s greatest funk singles—1971’s ‘The Payback’—the song has lived forever immortal in the music collections of the African American community since its release and has been the funk foundation of countless rap and R&B songs up until the present day,” Wilmore educates.  He saw the youth and vibe represented in the ice cream company harmonizing with their partners in Haiti, a country in which 60% of the population is under the age of 24, and deeply impacted by music.  “The least Taharka Brothers could do, being a company primarily run by young black men under the age of 25, would be to buy ice cream flavor ingredients from the farmers of Haiti as ‘payback’ and thank you for their ancestors’ courage and for their continued perseverance over tremendous daily struggle.”

While waiting for the vanilla project’s expansion into mass production, De La Sol: Haiti was born.  The De La Sol / Taharka connection began with a single employee in Haiti on a makeshift rooftop factory, using a grinder attached to a lawnmower motor.  “Six months later,” says Darius Wilmore, “that one person has ballooned to eight people (and growing), working in a new facility as of March 1, 2013. These are people who did not have jobs six months ago, and who spent their days trying to figure out how to eat. It’s been an incredible thing to have helped instigate and to see blossom.”

And they’re just getting started.  After a year of working with everyone from the Haitian farmers to the country’s Embassy, they expect to begin buying 100 pounds of cacao monthly “for starters.”  Then next year, they’ll begin importing the precious vanilla that will be ready to harvest, as well as sea salt, coffee, mango, cinnamon and other delectables that will find their way into ice cream consumed by Baltimore and beyond.
Humility, curiosity, collaboration and vanilla; and now, chocolate, sea salt, coffee, mango and cinnamon.  Inspiring, isn’t it, to hear a story about young black men in Baltimore that isn’t stereotypically about guns and drugs, and of Haiti that isn’t about what the country lacks, but about beauty and abundance?  How much, furthermore, could the practice and business of helping improve over the next generation if we began to focus less on what hurting people need and more on what they have to offer?

The Way We Think About Charity Is Dead Wrong

Cubs unveil plans for new Dominican academy

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- The Cubs are starting fresh in Latin America and making a big splash in the Dominican Republic.

At a news conference Thursday at El Embajador Hotel in the country's capital, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and members of his family, pitcher Carlos Marmol, shortstop Starlin Castro and a contingent of club personnel unveiled renderings of a new academy that will be constructed over the next two years.
"It's about doing everything we can to be the best organization in baseball, and you can't be the best organization in baseball unless you have a strong presence in the Dominican and a strong presence in Latin America," Ricketts said. "Obviously, Latin America is very important to us. We feel we have a great director [of Latin American scouting] in Jose Serra, and we feel we have great scouts, coaches and great trainers. Soon, we will have a great facility for those people to work in, plus take care of all those players that come into the academy."

Located in La Gina, outside of Santo Domingo, the facility will span 50 acres, making it the largest academy in the country. It will be open year-round, complete with baseball fields and training facilities, housing for Minor League players during the season and for Major Leaguers in the offseason, and will serve as an education center for Cubs prospects.


The new academy will serve players from across the world, including Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Nicaragua, Aruba, Curacao and Mexico, in addition to the Dominican Republic.

"We have been to the Dominican Republic three times," Ricketts said. "On the first trip, we wanted to see how we treated the players and what kind of facilities they had to make sure it was consistent with how we want to treat people in our organization. And what we found out was that people treated the people very well but the facilities were behind. [During] the second trip [we] decided to get some land and address the issues we recognized. We have spent the last couple of years getting ready for this trip to finalize the plans."
The academy will feature four fields, including one with artificial turf, four covered batting cages, eight bullpens, a weight room, a cafeteria and kitchen, two locker rooms, two meeting rooms, a large classroom that can be converted to four smaller classrooms, plus a theatre and video room. An on-site dormitory will house up to 80 players and eight staff members.

The academy will serve as an educational center equipped with classrooms and staff to teach English and Spanish to players and personnel, and players will be able to earn their GED high school equivalents. The Cubs say the center will place an emphasis on education, health and nutrition.

"A project like this is very important because all the players on the island are getting the opportunity to train in the type of facility the Cubs will have if they sign," said Castro, who signed out of the Dominican with Chicago in 2006. "We have an owner that really cares about the players and the people on this island. This is going to be the best academy in Latin America."

The Cubs estimate the complex will take 12-18 months to build and will cost the club between $6-8 million to complete.

"What the Ricketts family has done to support our Latin Players and our Latin players of the future makes you feel lucky to be a part of it," said Oneri Fleita, the club's vice president of player personnel. "I have been here 18 years and I feel like this is my first day and I've just started with this organization for the first time."
The Ricketts family also recently donated to the Institute for Latin American Concern to help fund a clinic whose goal is to reduce hypertension and diabetes in the northern part of the country.

"We very much care about the players we sign," Ricketts said. "Very few make it to the financial stability of a Major League contract, but we will treat them all the same and recognize that these are all valuable years for them even if they are not going to be players in the U.S."

Dominican Republic wins World Baseball Classic

Read the Story!

French Film Festival: Fatal Assistance

French Film Festival, Richmond VA

21-24 March, 2013

Award-winning Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck invites us inside his 2-year investigation of the challenging, contradictory and colossal rebuilding efforts in post-earthquake Haiti.

Fatal Assistance powerfully illustrates the work behind the scenes and the twists and turns of international aid in Haiti, all the while questioning its impact and consequences.

 Friday, March 22 – 7:00 p.m at the Byrd Theater ~ 1h40 ~ General Audience

 Click here for more film information.

Will 'Made In Haiti' Factories Improve Life In Haiti?

by Jason Beaubien

February 14, 2013













Three years after the devastating Port-au-Prince earthquake, one of the largest international relief projects in Haiti isn't anywhere near where the quake hit. It's an industrial park on the north coast halfway between Cap-Haitien and the border with the Dominican Republic.

Aid agencies are pouring millions of dollars into the project to encourage people to move out of the overcrowded capital and create jobs. Critics, however, say the jobs don't pay enough to lift people out of poverty.

The Caracol Industrial Park is one of the most tangible developments to come out of the billions of dollars in post-earthquake aid to Haiti.

Continue reading...

My visit to Cerca Carvajal, Haiti

Kathy Gross, of St. Edward's Haiti ministry, spent six weeks in Cerca Carvajal, Centre, Haiti.

During her stay there, Kathy kept a journal of her experiences, insights which will give anyone a unique look into the daily lives of the people in Haiti.

We highly recommend reading her blog.  Follow this link to her blog, go to the bottom of the page and start reading up!

Kathy's Blog

Haiti - Country of Dreams

by Adele DellaValle-Rauth
special to The Catholic Virginian

I am not long back from my trip to Haiti Dec. 5-14.
A favorite scripture of mine, upon returning, is always: Luke 10:17 “The disciples came back rejoicing.” That is how I feel.

How can this be after visiting a country plagued still by endemic poverty, with virtually no infrastructure — roads that defy gravity — no government concerned about the people, a broken justice system? I could go on and on.

The flip side is that Haiti is a country of dreams, of visions and visionaries, of mystics, of hope beyond hope. This is the Haiti that I have come to know and love and which calls me to go again and again, burdened with an urge to “tell the story.” So, another feeble attempt.

With me were my husband Bob, my brother Jim Della Valle and his son Jason, age 25. It was Jim and Jason’s first mission; they are the first of my family to go and gave me a feeling that perhaps it was time to “pass the torch!”

Continue reading...

Canada & Haiti

YorkRegion.com

MP Fantino sets record straight on Haiti

International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino wants to set the record straight on Canada’s role in Haiti: existing programs will continue and the department he is in charge of, CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency), will be “recalibrating and rethinking how we can continue to do our work".

The minister and Vaughan MP caused a stir earlier this month when an interview he gave to Montreal’s La Presse suggested there would be a "freeze” on future CIDA projects in Haiti.

Reaction from, among others, former governor-general Michaelle Jean, who is United Nations special envoy to Haiti, was negative. Ms Jean said “if (aid) becomes a closure, that would be a catastrophe".
Mr. Fantino’s  remarks were also criticized by United Nations and U.S. State Department officials on the ground in Haiti.

But in a telephone interview with The Citizen, Mr. Fantino stressed that “there was a misconception about an inaccurate headline,” which he said started everything. “Our care and concern for the Haitian people has been misunderstood and misrepresented. “We are not going to cut off programs that we feel are meeting outcomes for the Haitian people. We are reaching the people most in need, people who need health assistance, who are hungry and homeless,” he said.

And Mr. Fantino had strong words for anyone who would put Canada’s contribution to Haiti’s recovery in a bad light. “Shame on them. It’s unfortunate that people have run off without full information about what we’re going to do. These comments from (UN representatives and U.S. State department representatives) are irresponsible when matched with our commitment. We should be thanked upside down and sideways. We pledged $400 million over two years in March 2010 at an international donors conference and we are one of very few countries that actually meets its commitments,” he said in defending Canada’s participation in the rebuilding effort in Haiti since a devastating earthquake killed upwards of 300,000 people three years ago, left 300,000 homeless and caused an estimated $12.5 billion in damage.

He reassured those who are worried about Canada’s future place in Haiti’s reconstruction and development.
“We are a good neighbour and we are not walking away. We should be proud, we have always risen to help the needy,” he said. The minister had the chance to visit the Caribbean nation in late November and received a first-hand look at the destruction wrought by the earthquake and by Hurricane Sandy. He admitted to being “devastated” by what he saw. “I can understand and appreciate full well the calamity of the earthquake and the number of people that have died and the destruction, but everyone rose to help out. Three years along we should have been making more progress.”

He said that, “going forward, first and foremost we will concentrate on humanitarian aid. If another hurricane or earthquake happens, Canada will be there. We will continue with our good programs resulting in good success and good outcomes. We need to be responsible stewards of Canadian taxpayers’ dollars.”

Merry Christmas 2012!

Sandy fuels growing fears of food security crisis in Haiti

By Jacqueline Charles
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

(Click to enlarge image)

 PETIT-GOÂVE, Haiti -- Before Sandy dumped more than 20 inches of rain on Haiti, rural towns like Petit-Goâve were relatively prosperous, their crops of banana, pigeon peas and yam helping feed the island-nation’s southern peninsula.

The hillside farms and plantations were among those that had been mercifully spared from previous disasters and disease in a country struggling under the weight of a severe food crisis. Now, with ruined roads and crops destroyed throughout the country, international aid and Haitian authorities are worried about a worsening food crisis in a country still recovering from a year of drought, a weak economy and a previous storm.

“Whatever was left of a potential harvest is gone,” said Johan Peleman, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs here. “Even the banana harvests seem to be gone.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/04/3082030/sandy-fuels-growing-fears-of-food.html#storylink=cpy

Continue reading...

Clintons land in Haiti to showcase industrial park

By TRENTON DANIEL
 Associated Press – 
10-22-2012 

CARACOL, Haiti (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton encouraged foreigners to invest in Haiti as she and her husband Bill led a star-studded delegation gathered Monday to inaugurate a new industrial park at the center of U.S. efforts to help the country rebuild after the 2010 earthquake.

Actors Sean Penn and Bill Stiller, fashion designer Donna Karan and British business magnate Richard Branson were among the luminaries at the opening of the new Caracol Industrial Park, which is projected to create thousands of jobs more than 100 miles from the quake-ravaged capital of Port-au-Prince.

Hillary Rodham Clinton told a roomful of investors gathered for a luncheon that she had made Haiti a priority when she became Secretary of State.

"We had learned that supporting long-term prosperity in Haiti meant more than providing aid," she said. "It required investments in infrastructure and the economy that would help the Haitian people achieve their own dreams.

Continue reading...

UK puts Haitian art in the picture with major exhibition

Mark Brown
Arts Correspondent
Guardian.Co.UK,
Sunday 21 October 2012

Haiti is often known for its grinding poverty, brutal oppression and natural disasters but the biggest exhibition of its art ever staged in the UK aims to provide more of a balance.

"When you walk in here, hopefully it is, on a simple level, visually eye-popping, astonishing," said the director of Nottingham Contemporary, Alex Farquharson. "These images speak to a very rich culture. There is a lot of joy."

Continue reading...

Hands, hearts across Haiti: Blount family adopting child, helping impoverished Haiti

By Melanie Tucker | The Daily Times

A little girl who deserves a second chance and a Blount County family with hearts big enough to make that happen are drawing some much-needed attention to the ravaged nation of Haiti.

Jeff Ledford is a deputy for the Blount County Sheriff’s Office who thought he had seen everything in his 16 years as a community servant. But when he arrived in Haiti back in January, what he saw not only changed his life forever but also set into motion the adoption of the 12-year-old girl the Ledford family will now be bringing home.

 Working on a plan
Ledford was part of a group of about 15 from Foothills Church who arrived in the village of Camatin to help build a cistern. They stayed for seven days and had the construction project 90 percent complete. It’s now finished. While there, Ledford said his heart went out to the students living in the town’s orphanage. One girl in particular, 12-year-old Christella, stole his heart away.

The whole experience of being there, of seeing families living in them most primitive of conditions, weighed heavily on Ledford when he returned.

“I had never been on any kind of trip like this,” he said. “I was home for three or four weeks before I could even talk about it.”

When he was finally able to relay his experiences, Ledford said he talked to his wife Kyla about adopting Christella. The family already includes a 21-year-old daughter, and three sons, ages 4 to 13. Ledford admitted he had already decided before this trip that they were done having any more. “But God had a different plan for us,” he said. Kyla was just as excited as he was.

The required paperwork to complete the adoption has been turned over to authorities in Haiti. The Ledford family now waits for word they can go and get Christella and bring her home. Ledford said it could happen as early as December or as late as a year from now.

Continue reading...

Donor Fatigue Hampers Haiti's Recovery

The Toronto Star
Published on Sunday August 12, 2012

Hardscrabble. That’s the only way to describe life in Haiti, where people still struggle to rebuild shattered lives 2 ½ years after the earthquake that wrecked Port-au-Prince, killed 220,000 and left a million homeless. As the Star’s Catherine Porter wrote in this weekend’s World Weekly section of the Star, money is tight and donors are fatigued. Haiti is in danger of becoming an afterthought.

Unlike some, Canada is well on track to deliver the more than $1 billion in aid we promised from 2006 through this year. Given Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s decision to pare back the overall aid budget, the follow-through on Haiti is commendable. Others have reneged. Of the $12 billion donors pledged in earthquake relief, Haitians have seen barely half.

Moreover, even innovative Canadian projects, such as the $20 million cleanup of Champ de Mars square in the capital where 5,000 families camped out, go only so far. Ottawa’s $500 subsidy to help them relocate is enough to cover this year’s rent in modest digs. Other elements of the program provide jobs and skills training. But as Porter reports, many wonder how they will fare when that lifeline runs out. Cheap, solid housing remains scarce and pricey. Hundreds of thousands are still living in flimsy shelter in camps. Former U.S. ambassador to Haiti Raymond Joseph calls that a “horrendous” situation that indicts policy-makers and donors alike.

What’s the take-away? First, that Canada has a residual responsibility to Champ de Mars families and others who may still need help next year. We should be prepared to extend another year’s rent as needed, rather than see people forced from their new homes. Second, at donors’ meetings Canadian officials should press the case for building new homes at a far faster rate, and for repairing damaged ones that are salvageable. That would provide much-needed jobs, along with more shelter. There’s an urgent need as well to rebuild hydro, ports, water and sewage lines, and other basics.

Finally, the Harper government has the credibility to remind the world that it promised to help Haitians “build back better” from catastrophe. Haitians are eager to do their part. But they can’t get far on just half a helping hand.

US pledge to rebuild Haiti not being met

By TRENTON DANIEL and MARTHA MENDOZA Associated Press

Posted:   07/21/2012 01:01:24 PM EDT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti—The deadly earthquake that leveled Haiti's capital more than two years ago brought a thread of hope: a promise of renewal. With the United States taking the lead, international donors pledged billions of dollars to help the country "build back better," breaking its cycle of dependency. But after the rubble was cleared and the dead buried, what the quake laid bare was the depth of Haiti's dysfunction.

Today, the fruits of an ambitious, $1.8 billion U.S. reconstruction promise are hard to find. Immediate, basic needs for bottled water, temporary shelter and medicine were the obvious priorities. But projects fundamental to Haiti's transformation out of poverty, such as permanent housing and electric plants in the heavily hit capital of Port-au-Prince have not taken off. 

Critics say the U.S. effort to reconstruct Haiti was flawed from the start. While "build back better" was a comforting notion, there wasn't much of a foundation to build upon. Haiti's chronic political instability and lack of coordinated leadership between Haiti and the U.S. meant crucial decisions about construction projects were slow to be approved. Red tape stalled those that were.

The international community's $10 billion effort was also hindered by its pledge to get approval for projects from the Haitian government. For more than a year then-President Rene Preval was, as he later described it, "paralyzed," while his government was mostly obliterated, with 16,000 civil servants killed and most ministries in ruins. It wasn't until earlier this year that a fully operational government was in place to sign paperwork, adopt codes and write regulations. Other delays included challenges to contracts, underestimates of what needed to be done, and land disputes.

Until now, comprehensive details about who is receiving U.S. funds and how they are spending them have not been released. Contracts, budgets and a 300-item spreadsheet obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request show: 

— Of the $988 million spent so far, a quarter went toward debt relief to unburden the hemisphere's poorest nation of repayments. But after Haiti's loans were paid off, the government began borrowing again: $657 million so far, largely for oil imports rather than development projects.

— Less than 12 percent of the reconstruction money sent to Haiti after the earthquake has gone toward energy, shelter, ports or other infrastructure. At least a third, $329 million, went to projects that were awarded before the 2010 catastrophe and had little to do with the recovery—such as HIV/AIDS programs.

— Half of the $1.8 billion the U.S. promised for rebuilding is still in the Treasury, its disbursement stymied by an understaffed U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince in the months after the quake and by a Haitian government that was barely functional for more than a year.

— Despite State Department promises to keep spending public, some members of Congress and watchdogs say they aren't getting detailed information about how the millions are being spent, as dozens of contractors working for the U.S. government in Haiti leave a complex money trail.

"The challenges were absolutely huge and although there was a huge amount of money pledged, the structures were not there for this to be done quickly," said former U.S. Ambassador Brian Curran. "The concept of build back better is a good one, but we were way over-optimistic about the pace we could do it."

The U.S. Special Coordinator for Haiti Thomas C. Adams, who oversees USAID spending here, says the first priority in the critical days after the quake that killed more than 300,000 was crisis management, and the U.S. government spent $1.3 billion on critical rescue operations, saving untold lives.

Three months later, the goals shifted from rescue to what would become a $1.8 billion reconstruction package aimed at building new foundations.

"U.S. taxpayers, in the past, have spent billions of dollars in Haiti that haven't resulted in sustainable improvement in the lives of Haitians," said Adams. "The emphasis was never on 'spend the money quickly.' The emphasis was on spending the money so that in a year or two, we could look at these projects and see that we've helped create a real base to jump-start economic development and give Haitian families and businesses the kind of opportunities they deserve."

Haitian government officials are appreciative, and said the U.S. provides generous support for projects that impact long-term development. As for going back into debt, "Haiti needs all the assistance it can possibly get at this point," said Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe's deputy chief of staff Dimitri Nau.

PROMISES UNMET

Within months of the quake, Congress approved a 27-page plan detailing a partnership with the Haitian government to "lay the foundation for long-term stability and economic growth." USAID, an agency overseen by the State Department, was held responsible for getting the job done by choosing contractors, selecting projects and overseeing the work. But just as there's little to show for the $2 billion the U.S. spent in Haiti in the two decades before the earthquake, it hasn't built much that is permanent with the new influx of cash.

The plan laid out broad categories: infrastructure, health care, education, economic development. It was followed by a strategy that included specific benchmarks. This month, as about 40 of those come due, some are met, like a new police hotline to report abuse. But others are not.

For example, the U.S. had planned to improve the business environment by working with the local government to reduce regulations, pass national e-commerce laws, expand mortgage lending and update the tax code. The measurement of success, said U.S. planners, would be a better ranking by the World Bank's "Doing Business" indicators.

Instead, this year Haiti sank eight points lower compared with the rest of the world as a place to do business in categories including securing construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, receiving credit, enforcing contracts and paying taxes.

And so far, the U.S. has no public plans to build a clean water or sewer system in Port-au-Prince, even as the country grapples with the world's biggest cholera outbreak that medical researchers say was likely introduced by a U.N. peacekeeping unit after the earthquake. The U.S.'s largest jobs program is a garment manufacturing plant being built in Caracol, 280 kilometers (175 miles) from the capital. Adams said some investments, like fixing the electricity system, are taking more time.

A $137 million effort toward supplying reliable electricity in Haiti, including blackout-prone Port-au-Prince, stalled after a contract dispute led to a stop-work order—leaving the capital with electricity only about 10 hours a day. Those who can afford it use private generators and those without use lanterns or candles. To date, just $18 million has been spent on electricity—largely to build a power plant at the northern industrial park in Caracol.

The single largest recipient of funding is Washington, D.C.-area contractor Chemonics, which has received more than $58 million, including $6.8 million to remove rubble, $7.2 million to develop a market for environmentally friendly cook stoves, and money for youth soccer tournaments and "key cultural celebrations" including Flag Day, patron saints days and Mother's Day. Chemonics spokeswoman Martha James says 67 percent of the federal money went to Haitians, including salary for 94 Haitian staff, and Haitian subcontractors, grantees and vendors.

Meanwhile, 390,000 people are still homeless. The U.S. promised to rebuild or replace thousands of destroyed homes, but so far has not built even one new permanent house. Auditors say land disputes, lack of USAID oversight and no clear plan have hampered the housing effort. USAID contested that critique.

The State Department says 29,100 transitional shelters have been built, to which residents are adding floors, walls or roofs to make permanent homes, although homes once again vulnerable to natural disasters. U.S. funds also supported 27,000 households as they moved in with friends or families, and repaired 5,800 of the 35,000 damaged homes they had planned to complete with partners by July 2012. Also by this month the U.S. had planned to help resolve 40,000 to 80,000 land disputes, but at latest count had helped 10,400.

The State Department acknowledges that efforts to build shelters has been slower than anticipated.
While more than 1 million people have been moved out of the tent camps, most went to stay with family or friends, or moved into temporary shelters.

"Having tent cities in the capital 2 1/2 years after the earthquake is horrendous," said Raymond Joseph, a former Haiti ambassador to the U.S. "It's a condemnation of those who had the money and dragged their feet."

'NOTHING TO DO WITH THE QUAKE'

Making progress in Haiti has been easier with established programs that were under way before the earthquake. Contractors had already been chosen, and plans drawn up. As a result, much of the recovery and reconstruction funding was awarded to projects that were not damaged in the earthquake— from medical clinics to rural farms. Of the $988 million spent to date, $1 out of every $5 went to HIV/AIDS programs, though $49 million went to farming projects and $16 million supported elections.

Lack of education has long been a problem. Haiti has about 4.5 million school-age children, about half of whom were attending school before the earthquake. The largest U.S. education program after the quake was through the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research, which was a few years into a $25.6 million U.S.-funded project to train teachers.

"Then the earthquake happened and everything changed," AIR vice president Jane Benbow said. "They said we need you to take the resources you have left and we need you to redirect them, we need you to start doing other things with that money."

In April 2011, USAID announced that a $12 million AIR project had "constructed or is in the process of constructing more than 600 semi-permanent classrooms serving over 60,000 students."

But when pressed for details, AIR spokesman Larry McQuillan said the number of classrooms actually was 322. They were serving at least 38,640 students each day, many in two shifts.

The organization left Haiti last year after building 120 temporary schools. Today, about half of Haiti's school age children attend school, about the same as before the catastrophe. The Haitian government says it wants to put another 1.5 million children into school—by 2016.

The education money has made no difference for Odette Leonard, 39, who lost her husband, and her home, to the quake. Like most Haitians, she cannot afford to pay even the modest school costs for uniforms and books.

"People like me won't be able to see any of that money," Leonard said. She had to send her two children to her mother's house in the countryside so they could attend an affordable school.

One of USAID's most tangible post-earthquake accomplishments was the construction of a bridge across the muddy, winding Ennery River. The strong and well-engineered span eases a key route from the north to the south 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Port-au-Prince. The bridge had been down for more than a year before the earthquake, a casualty of the 2008 hurricane season. Plans had been sketched for a new bridge, but there wasn't funding.

Engineer Larry Wright, who temporarily moved to Haiti from Wyoming to lead the $4 million project, said he didn't know the funding came from earthquake reconstruction funds.  "This had nothing to do with the quake," said Wright.

AND YET MORE DEBT

When the earthquake hit, world lenders were already several years into forgiving Haiti's substantial debts, many of which dated back to millions in loans taken by the dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, who was overthrown in 1986 and suddenly returned last year. In June 2009, seven months before the earthquake, donors wiped out $1.2 billion of the Haitian government's debt. In January 2010, as the capital lay in ruins, it still was $828 million in the red.

In March 2010, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) said canceling the debt is "one of the simplest but most important things we can do to help Haiti."

And to date, debt relief is the largest single item the U.S. has spent toward Haiti's rebuilding: $245 million.
But since taking office in May 2011, President Michel Martelly's administration has borrowed $657 million, largely from Venezuela for basic fuel needs, but also from Taiwan, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the International Monetary Fund and OPEC. Next year Haiti is expected to spend close to $10 million servicing those debts, according to the IMF.

"The U.S. government cannot dictate how the government of Haiti, as a sovereign country, chooses to address its financial situation," said USAID's Haiti task team leader in Washington D.C., Beth Hogan, whose office facilitated the payments. The U.S. is now only providing grants, not loans, to Haiti.
Waters now says she's disappointed, but not surprised, that Haiti has resumed its borrowing habits.
More than half of Haiti's annual $1 billion budget comes from foreign aid.  "Haiti needs grants, gifts and loans," said Haitian official Nau. "Every country in the world has debt and Haiti is no different."

OFF THE RECORD

A major frustration for watchdogs of the U.S. effort is a lack of transparency over how the millions of dollars are being spent.

From interviews to records requests, efforts to track spending in Haiti by members of Congress, university researchers and news organizations have sometimes been met with resistance and even, in some cases, outright refusals.

As a result, U.S. taxpayers are told they've agreed to spend $7.2 million for a project to design and distribute cleaner cooking stoves to 10,000 street vendors and 800 schools and orphanages, but there's no public accounting for how that will break down: How much might each stove cost? What are the office expenses? What are workers' salaries?

"The lack of specific details in where the money has gone facilitates corruption and waste, creates a closed process that reduces competition and prevents us from assessing the efficacy of certain taxpayer-funded projects," said Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, a New York Democrat whose district includes the second largest population of Haitian immigrants in the country.

Legislation introduced last year in Congress would direct the Obama administration to report on the status of post-earthquake humanitarian, reconstruction and development efforts in Haiti.

The AP filed a Freedom of Information request to learn what was accomplished and how much was spent on a two-day retreat for 12 senior U.S. staffers in Miami in March 2011. USAID released the hotel sales agreement, the facilitator's purchase order and an agenda. It did not release information about what was accomplished, and withheld another nine pages, citing concerns that it contained information that had not been finalized.

State Department officials say they are trying to be responsive, noting that in the past nine months, they have coordinated 51 briefings to members of Congress and their staff on Haiti and delivered five congressionally-mandated reports.

One of the problems with following the money in Haiti is that the records are not up to date.
A State Department inspector general report in June found the embassy's political section retains about 10 linear feet of paper files dating back a decade in several safes, and the narcotics affairs team doesn't have a coherent filing system.

In its own effort to follow the money, this year the AP began contacting firms that have received U.S. funding since the earthquake. A memo went out two weeks later.

"A series of requests from journalists may come your way," cautioned Karine Roy, a spokeswoman for the USAID, in an email to about 50 humanitarian aid officials. "Wait for formal clearance from me before releasing any information."

U.S. contractors, from pollsters to private development firms, told the AP that USAID had asked them not to provide any information, and referred to publicly released descriptions of their projects.

The Durham, North Carolina-based group Family Health International 360, for example, received $32 million, including $10 million for what the State Department described as an "initiative designed to increase the flow of commercially viable financial products and services to productive enterprises, with a focus on semi-urban and rural areas."

When the AP asked for a budget breakdown, FHI 360 spokeswoman Liza Morris said, "We were pulling that for you but were told that it was proprietary by our funder."

Who is the funder?

"Our funder," she said, "is USAID."

On Haitian TV, Masses Laugh at Other Half

Part of the show involves the host and producer, Georges Béleck, far left, chatting with cast members and guests, including the Haitian author Gary Victor, far right.

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: July 10, 2012 

 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Two and a half years after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, life here can still be a struggle. 

“I couldn’t even get my mom a decent Mother’s Day gift,” Soraya said, pouting. “Finally, I used my measly allowance and bought her a ticket to Paris. It’s nothing special, but I figure it’s the thought that counts.”

Soraya isn’t a real Haitian, at least not exactly. She’s a character played by a 26-year-old actress named Belinda Paul in a sketch-comedy television show called “Regards Croisés.” 

Soraya is a caricature of a certain kind of privileged, bubbleheaded daughter of the Haitian elite — a Zuzu. Zuzu girls are conspicuous in places like Miami and Paris, but they are hard to see in the hills of Port-au-Prince, where they shop, go to the gym and party behind high walls topped with bougainvillea and concertina wire. Zuzu-speak, an affected whine of Creole, French and “omigod” English, is deliciously recognizable to the less fortunate masses, and every Saturday night Haitian viewers roar, clap and rock with laughter at Soraya’s airs. 

Continue reading...

The TV Watch: Haiti

Alessandra Stanley, the Times's chief television critic, looks at several cultures from around the world through the prism of their television programming.

Produced by Shayla Harris