On Thursday, April 11, schools were finishing their exams, and our kids were nearing Easter vacation. In the container, we found had some arts and crafts materials and instructions for building a bird house. So, what better way to enter this special time of year then learning to build and design one’s own bird house. As you can see, everyone took special care on how they wanted it to look. 🥰
Richardson, a resident of Jacmel and student from Madonna University, Livonia, MI, who is completing his service hours for graduation, gave a workshop this week to our teens. (Richardson is the one standing on the left with the green tee shirt). Thank God for solar power for electricity!
A few years ago, Sister Julitta from our Krakow Prince in Poland came to the Felician Haiti Mission for two weeks. She bought along with her a gift from her pre-school–a colorful parachute that is used to play different games. Each time we use it, we think of our dear Sister Julitta, who desires to return and be a part of the Haiti Mission.
Here we are learning our colors and learning how to work together…
Each day our children come at 3 p.m. to work on their home work. Now they are preparing for their exams before the end of the quarter and before report cards. So many of them are so poor in their studies. Our teens help them with their homework. And so do we.
If they did not come to the Mission, they would not have a table or chair to do their work nor a sharpened pencil to complete their homework.
We are grateful that many of you are sponsoring these children to go to school or have sent school supplies that assist us to assist them.
All our children say, “Mesi anpil, thank you very much for your love and care for my education!”
Sister Karola from our Przemyśl Province in Poland, together with the Sisters of her local home, organized an Easter market sale of Easter decorations. The decorations were made during a workshop led by Sister Karola, during which she taught mothers of the children she teaches how to make them. The proceeds from the sale will be given to the Felician Mission in Haiti.
Thank you, Sister Karola! Thank you, Sisters and ladies that were a part of this beautiful sharing of your hearts and talents with others!
COMMENTARY
You Can’t Understand Haiti’s Protests Without Understanding History
https://www.wbur.org/inside/staff/aaron-richterman
Life in Haiti slowed to a standstill last month when national protests began, once again, in the face of a rising cost of living and a national currency in free fall. Outside of Haiti, media coverage of the crisis has focused primarily on violence, looting and corruption.
Interviews with foreign volunteers, tourists and missionaries highlight that they are trapped or stranded, and that in some cases they have been evacuated by helicopters as if from a war zone. The U.S. Department of State has urged citizens not to travel to Haiti “due to crime and civil unrest.” The Core Group –representatives from the U.N., European Union, Organization of American States and six countries including the U.S. — issued a statement deploring violence and property damage and stressing that “change must come through the ballot box.”
We are doctors who divide our time between Boston and rural Haiti, where we work in HIV clinics staffed by Haitian physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and community health workers, supported by Partners In Health and its sister organization, Zanmi Lasante. We have witnessed the impacts of the worsening economic state in Haiti over the past few years, and we were in Haiti during the most recent protests and during those in the fall of 2018. We believe that the prevailing characterizations of the deteriorating situation in Haiti by the American media and government are inadequately informed by history and that a broader view reframing of the crisis is essential.
Although some of the demonstrations have turned violent, most have been peaceful. The demonstrators are calling for the resignation of Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, arguing that he has failed to deliver on promises to improve the country’s economic conditions. At the center of the anti-government movement are accusations of mismanagement and the theft of $2 billion from PetroCaribe, a discount oil program operated by Venezuela and intended to generate savings to fund socioeconomic development. However, it is clear that the PetroCaribe corruption is just one of many factors that have led to the economic despair voiced by the thousands of Haitians who have taken to the streets or desperately sought refuge outside of Haiti.
The impoverishment of Haiti has not been accidental. It cannot be explained only by the recent actions of corrupt Haitian government officials, and it cannot be understood without examining historical events. Since Haiti won its independence from France in 1804 — the only nation founded as the result of a slave revolution — a series of policies by foreign entities have stifled development and precipitated economic catastrophe.
In 1825, France, in exchange for recognizing Haiti’s sovereignty, extorted today’s equivalent of $21.7 billion from Haiti, paid over a period of 122 years, as compensation for lost property — the bodies of the Haitians themselves. Haiti’s subsequent crippling debt prompted the U.S. to invade Haiti in 1915 and occupy the country for 19 years. The U.S. expropriated the holdings of Haiti’s treasury, designated 40 percent of Haiti’s national output towards debt repayment, enforced a system of forced labor, and murdered thousands of Haitians who resisted the occupying forces.
The impoverishment of Haiti has not been accidental.
Haiti’s more recent history has been marked by substantial involvement of foreign states in its democratic processes. For the past three decades, the U.S. — consistent with its practices throughout Latin America — has wielded foreign aid, forced tariff reductions and financed coup d’etats to ensure that Haiti remains aligned with U.S. interests. The current protests can be understood, in part, as the demonstrators’ lack of confidence in an electoral process they view as fraudulent and influenced by outsiders.
Current international events have also influenced Haiti’s protests. President Trump has made offensive, stigmatizing and false statements about Haiti and Haitian-Americans, and his administration’s Haiti policy can be summarized by an attempt to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for some 59,000 Haitians who have lived and worked legally in the U.S. since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Although the U.N. has admitted responsibility for introducing cholera to Haiti, creating an epidemic that has killed more than 10,000 Haitians, U.N. countries have pledged a pitiful amount of funds to address the problem. Finally, many Haitians see their government’s recent vote to no longer recognize Venezuela’s president — a decision they view as a political maneuver, orchestrated by the U.S., against Haiti’s long-standing ally — as another reason for the ongoing protests.
To describe the Haitian protests as merely “anti-corruption” is to willfully ignore the complicity of the U.S. in installing and upholding corrupt leaders in Haiti for its own benefit. To focus on the impact of “violent” protests on a few Americans and Canadians in Haiti is to obscure the structural violence that U.S. policies have levied on Haiti throughout its history. The current crisis can only be understood after acknowledging the culpability of foreign countries and centering the discussion on the experience of Haitians who are disadvantaged by complex systems of power.
We stand in solidarity with our Haitian colleagues, patients and friends who live the daily reality of the conditions brought about by the centuries of history we have only briefly touched upon. As guests in Haiti, we hold ourselves accountable for interrogating the ways in which the “Republic of NGOs” undermines Haiti’s development, and we are committed to working to support public institutions. As Americans, we petition our government to reverse the unjust termination of Temporary Protected Status for the Haitian people who are now a part of our communities. We implore the American media and public to pay close attention to our government’s ongoing role in the events that are unfolding and to insist on accountability when warranted.
It has been a busy week of re-entry here. The children have returned to do homework and participate in our food program; mothers are here with their babies; and the sick reach out to us for help.
On Thursday, we received a call from Vilcia, who comes twice a week to help us with the laundry. She said she had been sick for the past two months, very weak and barely able to walk. She also has had a fever. Dr. Yves and Sister Marilyn went to see Vilcia in her small home, that had two chairs and a bed. After Dr. Yves. examined her, he suspected malaria and possibly typhoid. We needed to get her blood tested immediately. So we took her to a clinic where they could take these tests. On Friday, we received the results, and she does have malaria. Since it was malaria, she could receive the medication for free; and we needed to send a report to the Ministry of Health. We gave Vilcia the shot she needed, as well as starting her on the medications. She should be feeling better today. 😀
So many of you help us and are benefactors of the Mother Angela Clinic. You are making a difference, one person at a time. Thank you for saving lives with your prayers and help. 🙏🏾🕊❤️
