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.

In Cabaret, Haiti: Another day, another earthquake

Richardson Innocent: Former Reporter staffer relays the latest news from Haiti.Wednesday, Jan. 20 — This morning, at roughly 6 a.m., Haiti was jolted for ten seconds by another earthquake measuring 6.1. Richardson Innocent, in Cabaret, tells me that he is fine. A wall just collapsed behind the house where he is staying with relatives. No one in the village seems to be hurt. “We were on the porch. Everyone was up anyway so we all just went out to the street,” he said. “We’re up with the sunrise here at 4, 5 o’clock. No one sleeps inside right now, so when the sun comes up, everyone’s awake and going to work.” “I’m going to try and see if I can help somehow,” Rich says. Earlier coverage of the BHR's Richardson Innocent's experiences in Haiti since Jan. 12: Rich Innocent, now safely in Cabaret, re-visits Port-au-Prince In Delmas, it's Haitians helping Haitians with no sign yet of outside help

WGBH-2 will air Hope for Haiti telethon on Friday

WGBH joins stations across the globe in airing Hope for Haiti Now, the benefit/telethon hosted by George Clooney, Wyclef Jean and CNN's Anderson Cooper, on Friday, January 22 from 8-10pm on WGBH 2/HD. Hope for Haiti Now features performances and celebrity appearances, as well as live news reports from CNN. All donations directly benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Jean's Yele Haiti Foundation.

Eyewitness: Boston man evacuated from earthquake zone

Escape from Port-au-Prince: Patrick Jean Louis was among the Americans who were evacuated from Haiti aboard a U.S. military cargo plane on Saturday.On Tuesday January 12, Patrick Jean-Louis arrived in Haiti for the first time in seven years. Besides visiting family, Jean-Louis — who works at Roxbury Community College —had heard that Haiti’s economic situation “was moving in the right direction, so [he] went to see that.” On the afternoon of his arrival, the 7.0 earthquake struck the two-floor building in Belleville where he, his uncle, and cousin were visiting. Jean-Louis asked his uncle, “What is that? It felt as though it was coming towards us.” His uncle replied that it was an earthquake. Jean-Louis ran down from the second floor and out the door. “It wasn’t easy getting out the house – the stairs were shaking.” There were smaller, nearby homes that collapsed but Jean Louis reports that the larger buildings in the area, including the one he’d quickly left, were intact.

"Certain" Haitian orphans cleared to enter United States

The Obama administration today has announced it will allow "certain" orphaned Haitian children to come to the U.S. where families are waiting to adopt them. The Miami Herald provides a full report here. The press release, sent to the Reporter by the Department of Homeland Security is below: SECRETARY NAPOLITANO ANNOUNCES HUMANITARIAN PAROLE POLICY FOR CERTAIN HAITIAN ORPHANS

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