A VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS ::: YOUN VWA POU PEP LA

Our Beloved People of Ayiti is simply astonishing. Breathtaking. One of a kind. Each time, more and more, I understand the most, that our key role is just to hear and strongly support our brothers in their envisioning and determinations. They know where and how they want to go. And, after all, the whatever, the however, the wherever, the whenever they choose, it is up to them, they own their destiny, and, finally, if we really want to show up our solidarity we should be present, tireless, and conscious solidary coadjuvants.

Some quotes:

“We saw the National Palace destroyed. I would like to see Haitian engineers rebuild it not foreign engineers so we can look at the Palace proudly in the future and say that Haitians built the National Palace.” 
(Grande Ravine, Port-au-Prince)

“A child who is not educated has no tools for the future, he/she is not important in the society”.
(Grande Ravine, Port-au-Prince)

“Even if the country has been destroyed it will not die” 
(Port-au-Prince)

“Since the earthquake, we are all homeless, whether rich or poor. I would like to see the country rebuilt as one, without divisions.” 
(Port-au-Prince)

EXCERPTS

[FULL DOCUMENT VIEW/DOWNLOAD BELOW]

SUMMARY:

By conducting a series of focus groups in Haiti’s ten departments, six partner organizations have sought to capture the opinions and aspirations of Haitian citizens who are not members of organized civil society groups and, as such, would not be included in any of the consultation mechanisms conducted for the donor conference. The purpose of this exercise was to attempt to ensure that the opinions of average Haitian citizens on the country’s reconstruction and development could be heard. In the course of 156 focus groups, 1750 Haitian citizens articulated several clear messages:

• There is a strong demand for participation and an end to exclusion. The exercise was an opportunity, often for the first time, for people to express themselves on issues of concern to their communities and to themselves as individual citizens. After 12 January, the quest of the common man/woman to put an end to exclusion and be part of the decision-making process on the way forward is stronger than ever. There is now a firm expectation from people at grassroots level that they should be consulted on a regular basis.
  
  
• Haitian people insist on decentralization and deconcentration of public services with increased participation of local management. There is a common demand that the reconstruction package benefit all Haitians, regardless of their status and location. Most want job opportunities closer to home, no matter how remote their communities and demand a say in the development of their regions. Such aspirations are generally expressed in terms of “decentralization” and “deconcentration” seen by nearly all as the only way to rebuild Haiti better.
  
  
• A clear majority of focus group participants, from both rural and urban areas, strongly believe that there is a critical need to invest in people (“investisman nan moun”). The main priorities should be the creation of jobs, the support to agriculture in order to generate development, the building of schools, hospitals, roads and increased access to micro-credit, the main objective being to enable citizens to assume their own family responsibilities.
  
  
• Responsible aid must reinforce Haiti’s sovereignty. A clear majority of focus group participants, from both rural and urban areas, strongly believe that there is a critical need to focus on support to agriculture in order to generate development and create jobs. Other priorities in the economic recovery are the building of roads and increased access to micro-credit. The overall purpose of reconstruction should be to enable the country to progress while avoiding aid dependency. Haitians do not see their future as being passive recipients of foreign aid.
  
  
• Haitian people insist on being treated equally and with dignity. Any reconstruction programme should be designed to correct existing inequalities between poor/rich, rural/urban and the capital/regions.

Focus groups highlighted the following five key immediate priorities in reconstruction:

• Housing: new dwellings for displaced people and the introduction of earthquake resistant
  building methods;
  
  
• Education: overhaul of the education system throughout the country, the reestablishment and regionalization of universities, larger schools to accommodate the children of the displaced people, civic education;
  
  
• Health: better health care, building of primary health care facilities and hospitals;
  
  
• Local public services: potable water, sanitation, electricity;
  
  
• Communication infrastructure: primarily roads to link cities and the countryside, but also national ports and airports.

A VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS

nou ansanm tout pèp yo an Ayiti

Investisman Nan Moun

 

Haiti: A Future beyond Peacekeeping

From Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs >

{OtherStreams: Despite it had been written almost exactly one year before the January 12 earthquake it still remains as one of the best guidelines for envisioning a real better sustained future for Haiti. That is because it goes deep and to the point, uncovering some of the most important hidden issues that lead Haiti to its weakened situation just before the quake, and points up ways to overcome those difficult issues.}

[FULL DOCUMENT VIEW/DOWNLOAD BELOW]

Haiti - A Future Beyond Peacekeeping

A Post-Earthquake Rapid Assessment of Cité Soleil

Port-au-Prince - March 2010 by The Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED) - www.inured.org

"...A detailed, well-conceived and executed, and ambitious plan to assess local needs in both quantitative and qualitative terms, a report called "Voices from the Shanties" voices some concerns about security and trauma that are going under the radar.

It also uncovers some practices from individual families to abuse the system by fanning out into many camps (which if neighborhood groups were organizing the distribution would be much more difficult - not to mention less likely for corruption or violence - as grassroots groups constantly point out).

Primary concerns remain sanitation - literally shit - and its health consequences in the U.N. run camps.

As almost every report from the field has shown, Haitian survivors are doing an amazing job of working together, of building solidarity, of organizing neighborhood-level committees.

This comes as no surprise to those who know the Haitian people, but apparently this knowledge seems not to trickle up to mainstream foreign media, policymakers, donors, and large NGOs.

Survivors are excluded from the process.

The U.N. cluster meetings exclude Haitian survivors and even government officials, as Reed Lindsay reported.

Meetings are held in French, a language that 90 percent of the population does not speak and cannot write.

Even progressive solidarity organizations are having conversations in English.

A network of 47 progressive groups in Haiti and other countries met to critique the exclusion of Haitian civil society from this plan, publishing a statement on March 18 signed by 26 groups.

The plan does appear to be more of the same..."

David Schuller for The Huffington Post >

Voices From the Shanties

Haitians Express High Resolve, Community-Mindedness

Go to Original (Gallup) >

Its people may be key assets in Haiti's recovery

by Steve Crabtree and Johanna Godoy

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite the oft-reported challenges facing Haiti's recovery process, Gallup polling in the country before the earthquake suggests its people have much to offer toward building a new future.

More than 8 in 10 Haitians (81%) surveyed in December 2008 said they have a particular talent of some kind -- easily the highest proportion among 12 Central American and Caribbean populations of which the question was asked.

Almost two months after Haiti's catastrophic earthquake, one of the most challenging questions facing Haitian leaders and the international community alike is how to move forward in a way that places Haitians themselves at the center of the rebuilding effort. Activating a government-run civic service corps that could work with Haitian and international organizations to implement local rebuilding projects is one proposed idea. In a recent Los Angeles Times editorial, experts Robert Muggah and Robert Maguire argued that such a corps would tap the potential of Haitian youth and help "stimulate recovery from the bottom up."

Gallup's 2008 poll results offer reasons to expect many Haitians would embrace opportunities to improve the quality of their own lives. Almost three in four (73%) Haitians said they have some plan or idea in mind to improve their standard of living. Again, this figure is among the highest in the area, far outdistancing the regional median of 53%.

What's more, despite the chronic poverty and lack of economic opportunity in the country, Haitians believe in the value of hard work. More than three in four (78%) said people in the country can get ahead by working hard; that figure is close to the median of 80% among populations in Central America and the Caribbean.

Community-Mindedness

Mobilizing the talent and creativity of individual Haitians also depends on their capacity to engage in collective action -- that is, their readiness to spontaneously organize in support of projects that benefit all the participants. The 2008 survey also offers reasons for optimism about Haitians' community orientation and charitable spirit.

Forty percent of Haitians said at the time of the survey in 2008 that they had donated money to an organization in the past month, significantly higher than the 25% of Dominicans who said the same and somewhat higher than the median proportion of 33% among 12 populations surveyed in Central American and the Caribbean. Similarly, 38% of Haitians said they had volunteered their time to an organization in the past month, compared with 25% of Dominicans and a median of 25% among populations in the region.

Haitians' high rate of reported religious participation may also help strengthen community ties. About 7 in 10 Haitians (69%) said in the 2008 survey that they had attended a place of worship or religious service in the past seven days. By comparison, 53% of Dominicans said the same, similar to the regional median figure of 54%. Relatively high levels of religious participation suggest Haiti's faith communities could be important platforms for mobilizing Haitians in rebuilding efforts -- particularly if relief initiatives can be used to unite rather than divide Haiti's Christian leaders and leaders of the country's syncretic Vodou faith.

Bottom Line

Haitians have been no strangers to tragedy and hardship throughout their history. Gallup's survey results offer clues about their resilience in the widespread belief in their own talents and resourcefulness and in the community-mindedness implied by their relatively high rate of reported participation in volunteer activities and religious organizations. The international attention Haiti is receiving offers an opportunity to tap those assets in the immediate rebuilding process and to establish institutional supports that help more Haitians contribute to the country's growth and development.

Survey Methods

Results from Haiti are based on face-to-face interviews with 500 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted Dec. 8-13, 2008. For results based on this total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4.7 percentage points.

Results from the Dominican Republic are based on face-to-face interviews with 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted July 21-Sept. 2, 2009. For results based on this total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3.6 percentage points.

Regional medians for countries in Central America and the Caribbean include results from Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago. All surveys were conducted between June 2006 and September 2009.

For results based on the total samples of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error ranged from a low of ±3.3 percentage points in most countries to a high of ±4.8 percentage points in Trinidad and Tobago. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.