I found this to be a very interesting clip.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU4bfjEUu8c
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Carnival in Haiti
Although Haiti has its struggles they still set them aside to celebrate what they do have. I believe its something we should all do.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Newspaper Article
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
About orphanages in Haiti
By Tim Collie
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 3, 2006
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti · Officially, 200 homes for orphaned or abandoned children are registered by the state.
But the figure is at least 10 years old.
Ten years of political upheaval, violence and international military occupation.
Ten years of societal breakdown rooted in the AIDS crisis and in the mass migration of thousands of poor families pouring into cities from an environmentally collapsed countryside.
The government doesn't know how many orphanages operate.
"You can't even begin to figure the true number," says Roosevelt Jean Louis, an officer with Haiti's social service and child protection office. "We have a form, a process, a licensing mechanism for registering an orphanage, but there are so many that do not bother. "
Some so-called orphanages merely serve as fronts for child merchants who are paid by relatives to take the children. These children may work as domestic servants and are often abused, according to UNICEF and other child advocacy groups.
The "official" number 200 doesn't include any number of church orphanages, private home orphanages, missionary efforts to provide programs for orphans. It doesn't include dozens, perhaps hundreds, of smaller independent efforts like Aaron Jackson's and the Comfort's homes for HIV-positive orphans.
A 2002 study of orphans in Haiti by Family Health International, an international medical charity, found that many homes are not inspected, and many struggle "to supply food, education and other necessities to the children they house.
Orphanages are poorly regulated for several reasons.
Child protection officers, like so many government workers, are often viewed as corrupt. Official-looking people with official-looking papers will show up at orphanages and threaten to report them, or worse, threaten violence, if the "officials" are not paid a bribe.
It's easy to get registered as an orphanage, but they're never going to visit you to inspect you,'' says Brother Pierre St. Vistal, director of the Foyer d'Accueil, an orphanage for girls in God's Village, a slum along Port-au-Prince's waterfront.
If you want an inspection, you have to go pick up the child protection officer at his orphanage, because they don't have cars. You have to drive him to your place, and he just does the inspection. It's a joke really."
Those who register do it more to protect themselves from corrupt inspections.
You just want to be on record because you never have any idea when someone is going to show up, saying you're in violation of something and demanding a bribe," says Aaron Jackson, who runs a home for HIV-positive children, as well as another for healthy children through the Homeless Voice in Hollywood.
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
About orphanages in Haiti
By Tim Collie
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
December 3, 2006
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti · Officially, 200 homes for orphaned or abandoned children are registered by the state.
But the figure is at least 10 years old.
Ten years of political upheaval, violence and international military occupation.
Ten years of societal breakdown rooted in the AIDS crisis and in the mass migration of thousands of poor families pouring into cities from an environmentally collapsed countryside.
The government doesn't know how many orphanages operate.
"You can't even begin to figure the true number," says Roosevelt Jean Louis, an officer with Haiti's social service and child protection office. "We have a form, a process, a licensing mechanism for registering an orphanage, but there are so many that do not bother. "
Some so-called orphanages merely serve as fronts for child merchants who are paid by relatives to take the children. These children may work as domestic servants and are often abused, according to UNICEF and other child advocacy groups.
The "official" number 200 doesn't include any number of church orphanages, private home orphanages, missionary efforts to provide programs for orphans. It doesn't include dozens, perhaps hundreds, of smaller independent efforts like Aaron Jackson's and the Comfort's homes for HIV-positive orphans.
A 2002 study of orphans in Haiti by Family Health International, an international medical charity, found that many homes are not inspected, and many struggle "to supply food, education and other necessities to the children they house.
Orphanages are poorly regulated for several reasons.
Child protection officers, like so many government workers, are often viewed as corrupt. Official-looking people with official-looking papers will show up at orphanages and threaten to report them, or worse, threaten violence, if the "officials" are not paid a bribe.
It's easy to get registered as an orphanage, but they're never going to visit you to inspect you,'' says Brother Pierre St. Vistal, director of the Foyer d'Accueil, an orphanage for girls in God's Village, a slum along Port-au-Prince's waterfront.
If you want an inspection, you have to go pick up the child protection officer at his orphanage, because they don't have cars. You have to drive him to your place, and he just does the inspection. It's a joke really."
Those who register do it more to protect themselves from corrupt inspections.
You just want to be on record because you never have any idea when someone is going to show up, saying you're in violation of something and demanding a bribe," says Aaron Jackson, who runs a home for HIV-positive children, as well as another for healthy children through the Homeless Voice in Hollywood.
Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Still Struggling
I am still struggling to try and get my head around the experiences we had in Haiti. I think about the people we drove by that were without a doubt starving and in extremely difficult situations and I feel heartbroken. I remember the kids at the orphanage and realize the pain many of them have gone through separating from their families either through death or a mother handing over her child in hopes that they will be fed and have a chance for a better future. I think about the water bottles filled with filthy water from the streets and watching people drink them not because they want to but because they really have no choice.
I think about how random life seems and how blessed we are to have been born in a country that provides opportunity and put many of the challenges Haiti faces behind us. I think about the huge party we witnessed while there and the massive energy and enthusiasm everyone had as they danced and put the challenges of daily life down for a few hours and just enjoyed themselves. I remember the pride on the mens faces as they walked by, things looked unbearably impossible but they face the challenges with a certain dignity and grace.
This experience has made me take time to reconsider my life and the huge opportunities I have had. I have a renewed energy to make a difference for as many people as I can both at home and in Haiti and I now have a greater testimony of our responsibility to help each other and look beyond ourselves.
I think about how random life seems and how blessed we are to have been born in a country that provides opportunity and put many of the challenges Haiti faces behind us. I think about the huge party we witnessed while there and the massive energy and enthusiasm everyone had as they danced and put the challenges of daily life down for a few hours and just enjoyed themselves. I remember the pride on the mens faces as they walked by, things looked unbearably impossible but they face the challenges with a certain dignity and grace.
This experience has made me take time to reconsider my life and the huge opportunities I have had. I have a renewed energy to make a difference for as many people as I can both at home and in Haiti and I now have a greater testimony of our responsibility to help each other and look beyond ourselves.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Home
We have been home for a few days now and I am just now able to add an update. I have heard from many that Haiti will become a part of your life and that you cannot understand until you have been there. I add my voice to both of these statements, I have not been able to get Haiti and the unbeleivable struggles they face out of my mind since I returned. We end up taking so much for granted in our lives and I am embarressed when I think about the things I worried about just a few short weeks ago. My family is so blessed and needs to do more to help people who have so few options in their own lives.
Haiti weighs heavy on my heart and I am determined to do as much as I can to support change, education and most importantly the orphange.
Haiti weighs heavy on my heart and I am determined to do as much as I can to support change, education and most importantly the orphange.
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