PORT-AU-PRINCE _ Haiti has the highest rate of cholera in the world a mere year after the disease first arrived in the Caribbean nation, a leading health expert said Tuesday.
Dr. Paul Farmer, one of the founders of the medical group Partners in Health and U.N. deputy special envoy to Haiti, said cholera has sickened more than 450,000 people in a nation of 10 million, or nearly 5 percent of the population, and killed more than 6,000.
Farmer told The Associated Press on the anniversary of cholera’s arrival in Haiti that it’s also on the verge of becoming the leading cause of death by infectious disease in the Caribbean nation. Read more
News
Oct 17, 2011
On Thursday, October 20, social service advocates host a meeting to address continuing needs and challenges faced in the community after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. Local officials will tackle a host of issues such as immigration, housing, education and job training for the displaced.
This community meeting will take place at the Boston Baptist Missionary Church, 336 Dudley Street in Roxbury, from 6-8 pm. Featured speakers include Anny Jean-Jacques Domercant from the Governor's Office of Community Affairs, Vivie Hengst from the Office of Immigrants and Refugees, Robert Pulster from the Department of Housing and Community Development, and Dennis Riordan from the Boston branch of US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
For more information, contact Keke Fleurissaint at 617-296-6000 or Jean Vatelia at 617-866-3633.
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Oct 12, 2011
A new charter public school has opened its doors in Boston with a unique focus — immigrant families. It is the bay state’s first school that specifically focuses their efforts on English Language Learners and one of the first charters in the country to do so.
MATCH Community Day Charter Public School began its first school year with 100 pre-K and 2nd grade students from across the city. 70% of the students come from families whose native language is not English. This high rate is a result of robust community-based outreach.
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Oct 7, 2011
BHR October 2011: Click to download full PDF of this month's edition.Haitians are sometimes baffled when I tell them that I do not speak Creole (Kreyòl); rather, that I speak Haitian, the language of a politically and culturally established independent nation. Once I explain my position, they either agree with my reasoning or they completely reject it, and revert to their default beliefs. For many Haitians, the ‘Creole’ notion is a significant problem, and it is old.
The entire Caribbean region became a constructed space once the Spanish colonizers who decimated the original inhabitants brought in West African slaves. Shaped by European economic needs, the region became an initiate of the first systematic process of globalization, linking the “New World” to new markets – a system entrenched to the point that a restructuring the physical landscape of the region was rendered. Differentiated social class structures were established as the aristocratic Spaniards (who wanted to distinguish themselves from the various grades of descendants born in the colonies) referred to colony-born Spanish descendants as “Criollos”.
From the outset, the term “Criollo” became a social marker for otherness, describing un-pure Spaniards. As other European countries joined the colonial quest, they too applied the Spanish term to their own descendants. “Criollo” became “Criole” for the French during their conquests of the Americas in the early 1600’s.
Read more Oct 5, 2011
Dr. Garry Conille (AP)Jacqueline Charles from the Miami Herald reports that last night Haiti’s senate confirmed Dr. Garry Conille, a U.N. development official and former aide to former President Bill Clinton as prime minister. Tuesday’s vote - which put an end to almost five months of political gridlock - came after an eight-hour debate on the Senate floor.
According to Charles, opponents argued Conille did not meet the constitutional requirement for the job because he lacked an electoral card and had not lived in Haiti during the past five years.
Read more Sep 28, 2011
Haiti's new president said Friday that U.N. peacekeepers have committed ``unacceptable errors'' in his country but they should remain to help with the stalled post-earthquake reconstruction.
President Michael Martelly's first speech to the U.N. General Assembly bridged the anti-U.N. sentiment he campaigned on in an election held months after the January 2010 earthquake with his more conciliatory approach to the foreign troops since taking office.
``I am aware of the fact that unacceptable errors were committed that marred the prestige of the mission, but the trees must not hide the forest,'' Martelly said.
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Sep 20, 2011
Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) has co-sponsored a bill to evaluate the progress on all post-quake aid efforts in Haiti. Through this bill, Assessing Progress in Haiti Act, U.S. agencies would be held accountable for effective use of aid funds that bolsters the Haitian government and participation of the civil society.
In a statement released today, Senator Kerry said that the transition to long-term recovery needs to ensure "our relief efforts are doing the most possible for people who need them."
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Sep 19, 2011
The family and friends of Gabriel Josh-Cazir Pierre are hosting a candle light vigil on Monday, September 19 at 7 p.m. The vigil will be held at the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Floyd Street.
The 17-month old Dorchester toddler died last Monday after he was left unattended in a van for most of the day. His death remains under investigation.
In a statement released though the Boston Police Dept. today, the public was invited to attend the vigil.
"The family understands that there are many who are grieving with them and many of whom will come out to be there during this time. All are welcome to share this time with family," the statement read. Read more
Sep 19, 2011
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti Former aide to ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton has been overwhelmingly approved by Parliament's lower chamber to be Haiti's next prime minister.
Dr. Garry Conille's nomination was approved Friday on an 89-0 vote in the Chamber of Deputies. The nomination now goes to the Senate for a vote expected Tuesday.
Haitian President Michel Martelly's administration has been without a prime minister for four months. Martelly's first two picks were rejected and many reconstruction efforts from last year's earthquake have been on hold.
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Sep 9, 2011
September issue is available now.
Retiring in Haiti has long been a dream for many in the diaspora. So for many years, most of the people who returned to live in Haiti were from an older generation. Over the last 5-7 years that trend has shifted to a younger generation. Many young Haitian professionals have been actively involved in Haiti. Many had even worked there, on limited-time contracts for non-profits, government agencies and the private sector.
However, once the earthquake hit, the diaspora returned in droves for numerous missionary trips, school-building and agricultural stimulus initiatives and to support family affected by the destruction. And many returned to live for good – including some of Boston’s brightest.
Linda Accime holds a Masters of Arts degree in Sustainable International Development from Brandeis University. She was born in Miami, Florida and grew up in Boston, and had been interested in working in Haiti for quite some time. As part of her experiential learning for her graduate work, she went back to Haiti to work on a public health initiative in 2008. Through a project with Hospice St. Joseph, she worked to increase access to health care services for Haitians living in the countryside.
Read more Sep 9, 2011
It may be hard to imagine any parallel between Ireland and destitute, still earthquake-ravaged Haiti, and yet there are any number: analogous gripping histories of famine, long stretches of political and economic repression, and the bad geographical luck of being adjacent to a super power or dominant force that presents undesirable attention. It is always difficult fighting a bully in your own backyard.
Human rights attorney Brian Concannon wrote of these dilemmas three years ago in the Boston Irish Reporter and in the Boston Haitian Reporter.
“Like the British response to Ireland’s famine, bank programs (in Haiti) do not rise to the need,” he wrote, predicting the inevitable in a column headlined: Eating Dirt in Haiti and Ireland. “They are too late—they will not provide relief for months, perhaps years. They are too little—they stop where the requirements of helping poor people conflict with the requirements of the bureaucrats’ economic theories. In the meantime, just as Ireland exported food during a famine, Haiti will keep exporting money. So more Haitians will die of the diseases of hunger, and more children will grow older without going to school.” Read more
Sep 1, 2011
Shabazz AugustineShabazz Augustine stood silently in a Suffolk Superior courtroom today as he was officially charged with the heinous murder of 26 year-old Julaine Jules, his one-time love interest who was found dead in the Charles River nearly one month after she went missing from her South Boston workplace back in 2004.
Augustine, 32, was arrested on a warrant issued after the Boston Police Cold Case Squad began probing the Jules murder this year. Augustine was a suspect early in the murder investigation, but according to prosecutors, his recent arrest was prompted by "incriminating remarks" that he allegedly made after the killing. The Dorchester man, who has been working at a dental clinic in recent years, was taken into custody at his workplace in Roxbury in June. He's been jailed ever since and was once again ordered to be held without bail pending his trial — which will not likely take place until September 2012.
Read more Aug 30, 2011
Partners In Health and Jim Ansara will host a Volunteer Open House for all those planning to volunteer — or those thinking about volunteering— int he construction of a new hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 6 p.m. at the Boston Beer Works, 112 Canal Street, Boston. Read more
Aug 23, 2011
(AP) -- Hurricane Irene cut power to more than a million people in Puerto Rico, downing trees and flooding streets on Monday, and forecasters warned it could be a major storm as it threatens Florida and South Carolina by the end of the week. There were no reports of deaths or major injuries in Puerto Rico, but Gov. Luis Fortuno declared a state of emergency and urged people to stay indoors to avoid downed power lines, flooded streets and other hazards.
"This isn't the time to go out to find out what happened ... This is the time stay in your homes," Fortuno said at a news conference.
The first hurricane of the Atlantic storm season posed an immediate threat to the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, though the center of the hurricane was expected to miss neighboring Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola. Nearly 600,000 Haitians are still homeless due to the January 2010 earthquake and that country could still see heavy rain and tropical-storm-force winds, said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
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Aug 19, 2011
Originally published: August 18, 2011
Updated: August 19, 2011
WASHINGTON (AP)- Many illegal immigrants who were facing deportation despite having no criminal record will be allowed to stay in the country and apply for a work permit under new rules from the Homeland Security Department. Republicans are balking at the change.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Thursday that the department will focus on deporting illegal immigrants who are criminals or pose a threat to national security or public safety.
Napolitano announced the plan in a letter to a group of senators who support revamping the immigration system. Under the change, approximately 300,000 deportation cases pending in immigration court will be reviewed case by case. Read more
Aug 12, 2011
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ Thousands of Haitians living in one of the biggest tent camps created after last year's earthquake could soon have a new home: the mountains north of Port-au-Prince.
City officials plan to relocate the almost 20,000 people living on the 42-acre (17-hectare) Champs de Mars plaza across the street from the crumbled National Palace if the central government approves, Port-au-Prince Mayor Jean Yves Jason said Wednesday.
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Aug 4, 2011
August issue on stands now!McKendy Fils-Aime first started writing poetry “like any high school kid does” – after being dumped by his high school sweetheart. Now, almost 10 years after his high school debut, he is one of five members of the Boston team at this year’s National Poetry Slam in Cambridge.
Born in New York City to Haitian parents, Fils-Aime moved to New Hampshire when he was young and attended local high school, where he first began exploring the medium of poetry.
“I said to myself, ‘I really like writing poetry, and I think I should start taking this more seriously,’” Fils-Aime said of his first experiences with writing.
During the rest of his high school career, he began to hone the craft of spoken word poetry, concentrating on his delivery and performance style. He then began to enter poetry readings and local “slams,” which he continued doing when he got to the University of New Hampshire.
Since his debut on the slam circuit, Fils-Aime has performed in the last three National Poetry Slams, for the Manchester, NH team in 2008, the Worcester team in 2009, and the Manchester team again in 2010. This year, he decided to take his craft to the bigger Boston slam clubs and made the Boston team, which will compete in Cambridge for the 2011 National Poetry Slam on August 9.
Read more Aug 4, 2011
Rachelle Villarson, at the 2011 Women of Power luncheon in Boston.
Last week’s National Urban League conference in Boston featured many nationally reknown figures from Soledad O’Brien, Henry Louis “Skip” Gates to Rev. Al Sharpton and Bill Gates. Many Bay State officials welcomed conference attendees including Gov Deval Patrick, Mayor Thomas Menino, several state representatives, administration leaders and members of the Boston city council.
However, one key group that helped to ensure the smooth operations of the conference was the hard-working volunteers. And one dynamic leader responsible for recruiting, training, coordination and execution for volunteers for several main events was Rachelle Villarson. Villarson, who was born in Brooklyn and came to Boston as a teen, is a finance supervisor at Partners Healthcare. She was appointed to the board of Young Professionals Network of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts (YPN-ULEM), as co-chair of the community service committee last summer. She hit the ground running.
Read more Jul 14, 2011
Mothers Care members at the I AM KREYOL showcase in August.On June 26, acclaimed Boston designer Joelle Fontaine organized a fashion benefit to raise funds for Boston Mothers Care and Physicians for Haiti at the Red Fez in Boston’s South End. Both local non-profits, established in response to the January 2010 earthquake, continue to work in Haiti to support communities through long-term rebuilding efforts. Donations received from the benefit , for instance, will help Boston Mothers Care fund their latest project to bring clean, accessible water to Colminy, a small town outside of Saint-Marc, a coastal city 40 miles northwest of Port-au-Prince.
“This event has gotten us one step closer to meeting our goal of having a water well in Colminy,” said the co-founder Ines Palmarin. “It [also] gives us more exposure, to a different community - the art community.”
Read more Jul 14, 2011
Jeanpierre Augustin training in South BostonAfter the Haitian earthquake last year, Jeanpierre Augustin welcomed three family members into his family’s Lawrence home – survivors of the earthquake that killed 13 other relatives of the Augustin family. Jean-Pierre knew he had wanted to box for the past five years, but, after the quake, he knew for sure that he wanted to box for Haiti … in the Olympics.
The 25-year-old light heavyweight boxer, originally from Boston, is on the track to an Olympic appearance in London next year, where he will don red and blue.
“For a country that has nothing at all, if I can bring some light to it, that would be a good thing,” Augustin says.
The road to the Olympics, however, is an unsure one, requiring self-discipline and travel to intercontinental tournaments and foreign rings.
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