Bon Vandredi! Welcome to the latest edition of Woy Magazine’s weekly newsletter, providing you with must-know news and commentary on Haiti and our Diaspora.
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Ring Your Rep
Today, Friday, March 11, 2021 the U.S. Committee on Foreign Affairs will be hosting a hearing in the House of Representatives to hear experts including economist Emmanuela Douyon and advocacy leaders Guerline Jozef and Rosy Auguste offer policy recommendations to the Biden Administration on Haiti. This hearing comes as several Congresspersons such as Maxine Waters, Andy Levin and Alcee Hastings have repeatedly called on the White House to stop all deportations and support for the Jovenel Moïse regime.
In order to support the movements tackling these issues, Woy Magazine has created a new “Call to Action” guide for Haitian-Americans interested in getting involved. It features step-by-step instructions to call your congressional representative, including a script to help set up your talking points when you do":
Script:
“Hi, my name is [YOUR NAME HERE], and I am a constituent from [CITY, STATE]. My zip code is [ZIP CODE HERE]. I don’t need a response. I am calling you with concerns about the constitutional crisis in Haiti. I know the House Foreign Affairs Committee will be meeting this Friday to go over policy recommendations for the Biden Administration on this matter. I strongly encourage that my Representative call for the Biden Administration to immediately cease all support for the Jovenel Moise regime and join the people in Haiti in calling for him to step down from power, and allow a transitional government to take over and begin work in scheduling and holding elections. Thank you.”
After you make your call, be sure to check out this new video (linked here) from the Haitian Bridge Alliance detailing how the Title 42 program has led to an increase in deportations of Haitians under former U.S. President Donald Trump, and now Biden.
Doctors Know Best
As expected, thousands hit the streets last Sunday for an anti-insecurity/JoMo march led and organized by doctors and healthcare workers following the shocking assassination of Dr. Ernst Paddy during a kidnapping attempt in late February. The march coincided with a two-day strike also held by doctors in protest of the country’s ever-mounting insecurity issues.
Quite noticeably, a group of people living with disabilities joined the protest, as well, despite the difficulties a full day of marching posed for them a in a country that does not provide much accessibility for non-able bodied persons.
Follow the Money
For the past several weeks, Woy has been tracking the story of Haitian senator Rony Célestin and his diplomat wife Marie-Louisa Célestin after they purchased a home in Laval, Quebec for more than $4 million. With this coming on the heels of the PetroCaribe scandal, many Haitians at home and abroad are concerned as to how the two government officials are able to afford such a lavish house.
This week, in a new podcast episode for Canadaland, Nou Pap Dòmi activist Velina Elysée Charlier, along with Canadian based activist Jean Jafrikayiti Saint-Vil break down this case and the responsibility of Canadian media, overall, to report everything happening with Haiti without resorting to patronizing and racist stereotypes.
In an extended interview, Charlier implicates Canada in supporting Jovenel’s hold onto power:
…we are seeing countries — so-called friends of Haiti, including Canada — who are looking at Jovenel Moïse, who is in rebellion against his own people and is selling whatever is left of Haiti to the Haitian elites and the international community. And Canada is not doing anything and not saying anything. They are strangely very quiet when there are human rights violations in Haiti. They are also very quiet when it comes to the end of the presidential term.
Additionally, Woy Magazine co-founder Nathalie Cerin was a guest on Burn It Down with Kim Brown to discuss the situation in Haiti. You can find her entire interview, below:
Meanwhile, in other money news, the World Bank has approved a $75 million grant to support Haiti’s “fight against food insecurity, natural disasters and health crises like the novel coronavirus pandemic.” (Source: The Haitian Times)
Pillage
Last year, immediately after her nomination was announced, now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett faced plenty of questions surrounding the adoption of her Haitian children. Besides obviously appearing as some kind of “white savior,” there were those who worried about the orphanage from which these kids came from. An October 2020 New York Times article reported about the home, which lost accreditation from the U.S in 2017:
Three adoptees who talked to The New York Times remembered the place with mostly hard feelings.
“If I was to put it in one word, it’s jail,” said Libien Becker, a 20-year-old business and carpentry student at Montana Technological University in Butte, who was adopted by a Montana family after the earthquake.
Teachers came to the orphanage to give classes on basic literacy and math, and often the children played basketball in the courtyard. But they also recalled stretches of hunger and corporal punishment
Now, Ayibopost is taking a closer look at the foreign adoption process in Haiti in a new article. The team’s research finds that parents who are forced to put their children up for adoption are left with no way to ever hear from them again, and/or are led to give up their children under false pretenses:
Dans d’autres situations, les parents biologiques sont victimes de fausses promesses. « Parfois [les crèches, orphelinats ou missions étrangères] leur promettent une maisonnette ou de l’argent, sous prétexte d’un parrainage, en échange de l’enfant ».
What’s more, the parents who’ve lost track of their children usually do not even have information about the orphanage they trusted, in the first place:
In June 2010, Pierre Dalida gave birth to Pierre Dawensley. She never saw the child's father again after the birth. Shortly after, she began a relationship with Fritzner Louis. "Dawensley was entrusted to an orphanage at Thomassin 32, in 2011, since he was not doing well and that he could not be taken care of", says Pierre Dalida.
Asked about the orphanage and the head of the institution, the couple did not know what to answer. The child was entrusted to the good care of "Madame John", and the main person in charge of the institution was "Miss Magalie", explains Fritzner Louis.
Pierre Dawensley left for France in December 2013. Since then, there has been total silence. The family has no more news.
Additionally, this week, a human-rights activist in the Dominican Republic is ringing the alarm about a rise in child trafficking at the border. Jorge Galván warns:
…these minors are illegally transferred from Haiti, they are exposed to all kinds of abuse from the traffickers, stressing that the problem is dramatic and that an urgent solution must be sought because more and more of them are arriving every day.
He said most of the children and adolescents spend nights in public places or sleep in abandoned buildings.
“On the day, they walk the streets with shoe polish boxes, others clean the windows of vehicles, still others devote themselves to begging, collecting bottles, plastics and other objects that people throw away and that they can resell, often on behalf of unscrupulous individuals.” (Source: NY Carib News)
Half the Sky
Earlier this week, a group of researchers and scientists headed by Judite Blanc and Sabine Lamour released some statistics detailing the state of women and young adults in Haiti, and the picture is a troubling one. Here are some of the disturbing figures:
Médecins Sans Frontières reported that more than 80 percent of patients treated between 2015 and 2017 were rape victims, with 60 percent them being under the age of 18.
Psychological distress and hypertension are common ailments among young adults.
From 2017 to 2019, the number of murdered people in Haiti rose by 42 percent.
The piece also laid out clear demands to both national and international leaders to begin tackling these concerning matters:
4) Yon komisyon tranzisyon ki monte sou baz konsiltasyon nasyonal, epi makonnen ak travay syantifik Ayisyen konpetan ki gen etik yo, pou pran direksyon peyi a pandan 2 zan pou òganize eleksyon onèt. Nan tranzisyon ki enpoze l kom solisyon pou rezoud kriz la, sante mantal ak fizik dwe priyorite. Nou konstate konsekans krim kont limanite ki ap fèt sou timoun ak granmoun se yon ijans sante piblik Ayiti ;
5) Nou mande aktè entènasyonal yo pou respekte sa nou vle pou nou, paske yo pa ba nou dwa foure bouch nan politik lakay pa yo, aloske y ap maspinen moun Nwa. Moman politik n ap viv la se moman pou nou aprann geri twomatis istorik (konsekans lesklavaj ak kolonizasyon), kolon blan ki te soti an Ewòp blayi sou pèp Nwa, depi plis pase twa syèk. Se premye rasin kriz manch long Ayiti ap travèse a. Nou vle gen dizon pan nou nan ede Ayisyen ak Ayisyèn konsolide lyen ant yo, epi chita diskite sou jan yo vle konstwi sosyete yo. Se nou menm Ayisyen ak Ayisyèn ki pou deside ki aktè entènasyonal nou vle ak nou bò tab nou an.
In the Presence of Elders
Following his enlightening and lively conversation on dictatorships, Beethova Obas will be joined by Koralen for a conversation in his “Koute Pi Gran” series. The discussion will be taking place this evening at 6 PM on Youtube. See you there!
Another Call to Action!
Before we let you go, we wanted to bring to your attention a GoFundMe created to support a Haitian student studying abroad. Donating to this fundraiser will help student and musician EJ stay and complete his degree in Florida. Check out his story and contribute, if you can, here.
We’ll see you all next week!
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