Partners in Health issues call for supplies, volunteers in Boston & Haiti

Partners in Health, the Boston-based organization that has thousands of medical personnel and volunteers on the ground in Haiti right now, has put out the call today for volunteers and supplies that they say are urgently needed both in Haiti and in Boston. Read their latest update here. For those staying in Boston, here's what PIH says they need in a volunteer here: Volunteers in Boston

Louverture's biographer on Huffington Post: Hire Haitians to rebuild Haiti

In a new post in the Huffington Post, Toussaint L'Ouverture biographer Madison Smartt Bell presents this novel idea as a key ingredient to re-building Haiti: "Hire Haitians."

Free clinics on TPS planned for Friday-Saturday in Dorchester

Catholic Charities says that it will work with immigration attorneys from Boston law firms to provide free advice to Haitian nationals who are eligible for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) under a directive issued by the Obama administration last week. The legal assistance clinics will be held on Friday (1/22) and Saturday (1/23) from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. at Catholic Charities Haitian Multi Service Center in Dorchester. Catholic Charities adds:

Interfaith prayer service starts at 5 p.m. in Mattapan

An Interfaith Prayer Service for Haiti has been scheduled for Sunday, January 24, at 5 p.m. at Jubilee Christian Church, 1500 Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan. The event is co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Boston, Black Ministerial Alliance, Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston and others.

Kerry Urges Sec. Clinton: Guarantee 'safety and timely removal' of Haitian orphans

Call Endorsed by McCain, 20 other Senators & 22 Members of House Members of Congress- Senator John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today (Jan. 21) urging her, and the State Department, to develop a coordinated and timely exit strategy that ensures the safe and timely removal of thousands of Haitian orphans. Here is Kerry's statement as sent to the BHR today:

Editorial: It's up to us

“For me right now, I feel like God sent me here for a purpose. Nothing’s happened to me, not a scrape. I’m doing all these things. I thought when I’d see blood I’d pass out. I’m not. I’m carrying dead bodies. I’m pulling people out with my own hands. I feel like I’m in a war basically.” — Richardson Innocent, Delmas 33, Jan. 15 These powerful words from our friend and colleague Richardson Innocent — relayed directly to our ears and onto our pages this week via cell-phone— tell the story. Haiti is under siege. It is battered, bloodied and bent. It is not defeated.

Water, Pedialyte drive underway at Dorchester bank

Mt. Washington Bank in Codman Square is the drop-off location for a supply drive focused on collecting bottled water and Pedialyte for transport to Haiti this weekend. The collection effort began on Wednesday and continues today (Thursday, Jan. 21) from 8:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., Friday (same hours) and Saturday, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. The bank branch is located at 305 Talbot Ave, Dorchester, MA 02124. According to event organizers, the Boston Harbor Ship Yard Marina of East Boston has donated a ship to send relief supplies and is sailing for Haiti on Sunday Jan, 24.

Morse code: The man behind the amazing Twitter updates from Haiti

After coming to some terms with the human scale of the current disaster in Haiti it dawned on me that some, all or most of our artistic treasures might be destroyed right now. The Centre D’Art, the murals of Bigaud in St. Trinite, the Presidential Palace itself (a gift from the US) and many other places. And what of the famous Hotel Oloffson? The place around which Graham Greene’s famous novel on Haiti “The Comedians” took shape and which also served as the center piece for the Hollywood film by the same name.

"Don't come here!" Boston man scouts ways to get relatives out through the D.R.

Updated on Jan. 25—Jimmy LeBon, a Haitian-American from Boston, traveled to the Dominican Republic last weekend in an attempt to enter Haiti to assist friends and relatives on the ground. Jimmy has been relaying a blog to a friend here in Boston — Elie St. Brice— who shared it with the BHR this week. Below (after the video) we print excerpts of his diary. Jimmy and his companions also filmed a brief video on Monday from the DR in which he urges other Haitian Americans not to try to come down "just yet." Jimmy has since made it into Haiti and is relaying information to friends and family here on ways that they can help relatives get out of Haiti through the D.R. The Reporter will update Jimmy's account with new excerpts as we get them.

Special print edition of BHR now available

Earthquake edition: Will be published on Jan. 21The Boston Haitian Reporter has published a special print edition of our newspaper that is now being circulated throughout Greater Boston's Haitian-American community. It is also available as a PDF version for online readers. This special edition includes news articles and photographs documenting the Jan. 12th earthquake and the week-long struggle for survival that followed. It also includes a section "Voices from Boston" devoted to the reaction of Boston's Haitian community with more than 20 contributors, including Steve Desrosiers, Yolette Ibokette, Elizabeth St. Victor, Riché Zamor, Sr., Joseph Chery, State Rep. Marie St. Fleur and State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, Max Clermont, Michaelle Raphael, Belinda Ancion, Nancy Rousseau, Joelle Jean-Fontaine, NECN's Scot Yount, Jacques Jean, Fafa Girault, and Bill Forry. The edition features an exclusive diary of Richardson Innocent, a former BHR staffer who survived last Tuesday's devastating earthquake while visiting friends in Delmas, Port-au-Prince. Innocent has been relaying daily accounts of his experiences in Haiti's capitol and the outskirts to the Reporter's newsroom. The Boston Haitian Reporter, founded in 2001, is published monthly and circulated in Greater Boston. It is a publication of Boston Neighborhood News, Inc., which also publishes the Dorchester Reporter, Mattapan Reporter and Boston Irish Reporter newspapers. For another vantage point on the last week's response in Boston's Haitian community, see this article in the Boston Phoenix.

Pages