Covid-19: US government grants $13.2 million to Haiti
The multiple crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic in Haiti encouraged some partners to help the country. The US government through its development assistance agency will donate US$13.2 million to Haiti to fight the pandemic. The money will be used to support awareness-raising activities, access to water and sanitation, prevention, case management and laboratories across the country, USAID said on its Twitter account.
As part of the response to this global pandemic, the United States had already provided $2.2 million in assistance to the Haitian government to strengthen its communication efforts on risks, infection prevention and control, case management of COVID-19 among others. The United States says it has invested $1.8 billion in health care in Haiti and has provided nearly $6.7 billion in total aid to the country over the past 20 years.
For some time now, the American government has said that it has taken over the global humanitarian and health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are mobilizing all the necessary resources to respond quickly, both nationally and internationally.”
“As part of this comprehensive and generous U.S. response, the State Department and USAID are providing an initial investment of nearly $274 million in emergency humanitarian and health assistance to help countries in need, in addition to the funding we already provide to multilateral organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF,” USAID writes on its website.
A Demographic Profile of TPS Holders Providing Essential Services During the Coronavirus Crisis
While Americans continue to grapple with the coronavirus crisis, an estimated 131,300 Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders from El Salvador, Honduras, and Haiti are helping to support the nation by serving as essential workers. These individuals, who, due to their jobs, do not have the option to shelter in place or work from home, are exposing themselves to the risk of infection by continuing to report for duty as home health aides, repair workers, food processors, and more.
Despite the important role that large numbers of TPS holders are playing in the country’s response to the new coronavirus, they would all be without work authorization and protection from deportation had the Trump administration’s efforts to terminate their countries’ TPS designations not been put on hold by federal courts around the country. As these individuals continue to make critical contributions to society, they do so knowing that a court ruling could at any moment begin to unravel the protections that they and their families rely on.
Stop deporting coronavirus-exposed immigrants
President Trump late Friday signed an order penalizing any country refusing to accept deportations from our immigration detention facilities, which officials have called breeding grounds for infectious disease. Instead of releasing, with screening and quarantine, all those who pose no public-safety risk, he is deporting people to Latin America as if the coronavirus didn’t exist.
On April 7, the administration deported 61 people to Haiti — none a criminal alien — without appropriate screening, although asymptomatic people easily spread the highly infectious disease, for which no treatment exists.
Coronavirus has been found in many of our immigration facilities, among detainees and officers. Recently, three deportees to Guatemala were hospitalized with coronavirus soon after arrival. But it’s business as usual for this president.
One infected person can cause the virus to spread like wildfire. Yet, deportation flights to Haiti and elsewhere are scheduled.
Hundreds of thousands in the hemisphere’s poorest countries could get COVID-19 as a result and many may die. Health professionals and others have urged a halt to deportations for obvious public health reasons, to no avail.
Shouldn’t recklessly spreading coronavirus be a crime with serious penalties attached?
But that’s what the administration is doing in our name. Shame is too kind a word for it; we must stop the flights. How many Haitians and Latin Americans must die? And how many detention employees must be infected with the virus while policing these policies and endangering us all?
Steven Forester,
immigration policy coordinator,
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti,
Miami Beach
US against Illegal Migration
NOTE
The United States and the Government of Haiti remain concerned by ongoing illicit maritime migration efforts and strongly warn against such dangerous travel. Maritime smuggling operations are dangerous and too frequently end in tragedy and death at sea. There are many different reasons that migrants attempt such unsafe voyages at sea, but none of them are worth the risk of life.
The dangers of migrant ventures at sea are multi-faceted. The boats intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard and its partners are often severely overloaded, of poor quality, and lack safety equipment. These boats are often operated by smugglers, who have demonstrated little to no regard for the lives of Haitians in their pursuit for profit. Smugglers have been known to throw passengers overboard, or abandon their vessels. In some cases, smugglers are actually human traffickers who exploit migrants through some form of servitude, sexual exploitation, or other criminal activities.
Numerous U.S. agencies and their international partners are working around the clock to deter and stop these unsafe voyages before they end in tragedy. Too often these unsafe voyages result in loss of life, and they almost always result in a considerable waste of effort, precious resources, and time for the migrants themselves.
As we join efforts to combat COVID-19, we are concerned by the increase in unsafe, illicit maritime voyages and smuggling operations in which individuals risk their lives and those of their families. We urge all to remember that these dangerous voyages are very risky, not worth the loss of life, and are occurring at a time when the Haitian government is working hard to combat the spread of COVID-19.
We are not prepared at all': Haiti, already impoverished, confronts a pandemic
By Will Grant BBC News
With barely 60 ventilators for 11 million people, Haiti is the most vulnerable nation in the Americas to the coronavirus. While many countries would struggle to cope with a serious spread of Covid-19, Haiti might never recover from one.
The reality inside Haiti's intensive care units is even bleaker than that number - taken from a 2019 study - suggests. According to Stephan Dragon, a respiratory therapist in the capital, Port-au-Prince, the true number of ventilators is actually closer to 40, and maybe 20 of those aren't working.
"We also have a very, very limited group of doctors who know how to operate them," Mr Dragon said.
The Haitian government has recently attempted to buy much-needed equipment - from ventilators to PPE, including tens of thousands of facemasks from Cuba - but Haitian healthcare practitioners like Mr Dragon fear it is too little, too late.
"To tell you the truth, we are not prepared at all," he said.
So far, this small impoverished nation has only registered three deaths from the virus and 40 confirmed cases, but many more cases may be going unreported, especially in remote areas.
Levels of testing are low and enforcement of social distancing is patchy at best. The Haitian population also suffers high levels of diabetes and other health conditions, and a major coronavirus outbreak would place an unbearable strain on a collapsing healthcare system.
Haiti declared a state of emergency in March after two confirmed cases of Covid-19
Haiti's ability to respond is confounded by its economic straits. Around 60% of Haitians live below the poverty line and many face a stark choice: either go about your daily business and run the risk of contracting COVID-19, or stay indoors, as the government advises, and be unable to put food on the table.
It is little wonder that so many are taking their chances.
That is the dilemma facing Jean Raymond and his family. He lives in Furcy, a mountainous village outside of Port-au-Prince where most families scratch a meagre living from land.
Jean Raymond, however, isn't a farmer but a motorbike taxi driver, part of Haiti's vast informal economy. Rremaining indoors is not an option if he is to feed his wife and two young children, he said.
"It's impossible for me to not leave the house," he said. "If I'm obligated to stay in my home, what would we eat?"
"It's impossible for me to not leave the house," said Jean Raymond, a motorbike taxi driver
Jean Raymond's wife, Lucienne, criticised the government for failing to show enough support in the village. "We want to respect the rules but we can't," she said. "I see what governments are doing in other countries, but here they aren't doing anything."
In the absence of the state, it has fallen to local grassroots organisations to carry out basic but vital tasks. Clean water is a precious commodity in Furcy - indeed it is a scarce resource across Haiti - and one environmentalist group called Ekoloji pou Ayiti has prepared dozens of water canisters to make handwashing stations in some of the neediest communities.
Given the deep distrust of NGOs in Haiti, it was crucial to "make sure the community leaders were part of the project," said Max Faublas, co-founder of Ekoloji pou Ayiti.
As well as building 88 water stations, the group showed people how to make their own hand-sanitiser using vinegar. They have also tried to tackle widespread misinformation with a public education campaign on the importance of wearing a facemask, avoiding handshakes and disinfecting shoes and clothes.
Jean Raymond and his young family washing their hands in Furcy
Still, although members of the community appreciate the rules in theory, putting them into practice can be hard. For example, Jean Raymond and his family live with his parents - six people in a tiny home, all living on top of each other.
And if social distancing is difficult in rural Furcy, it is almost out of the question for many in Haiti's sprawling, densely-populated shantytowns.
In Port-au-Prince, market days have been cut back, creating further demand for basic food supplies. Some are growing desperate. There have been chaotic scenes outside food distribution points and trucks selling bread. The government has been distributing food parcels to the most vulnerable households but many are angry at having to jostle and compete in a crowd for food.
It has fallen to local grassroots groups to create handwashing stations in communities
"The way they are distributing food is humiliating," one resident, Mesmin Louigene, told the Reuters news agency. "People do not respect social distancing. The government should organise it better. I'm very concerned at the sanitary conditions, it's very worrying."
That the looming healthcare crisis is a great threat to Haiti is of little surprise - that is true of most of Latin America and the Caribbean. What's especially deadly in the region's poorest country though is the combination of the pandemic and a crippling economic crisis. In a bid to stave off further economic ruin, the Prime Minister Joseph Jouthe said this week the country's textile factories would re-open later this month, but the move runs contrary to advice from the Pan American Health Organisation to keep lockdown restrictions in place.
In Furcy, Jean Raymond was under no illusions about what a major COVID-19 outbreak would mean to his village.
"If Coronavirus comes into my community, it would be a disaster. We don't have a hospital or even a good road. The conditions we live in…" his voice trailed off.
"There's no way. We will all die if coronavirus comes here."
Historical symbol of Haitian identity gutted after church dome goes up in flames
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
A historical landmark church inside Haiti’s UNESCO World Heritage site, a symbol of Haitian identity, was in ruins Monday after an early morning fire gutted its unusual wooden dome and much of its circular interior.
Built after the Haitian Revolution in 1809, according to its priest, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church in Milot sits among three iconic structures inside the National Historic Park in northern Haiti outside the city of Cap-Haïtien. The park encompasses the Palace of Sans-Souci, which the Roman Catholic church is a part of; the fortified site of Ramiers; and the Citadelle Henri, the mountaintop fortress outfitted with hundreds of cannons.
Symbolizing Haitian freedom, the monuments were built by King Henri Christophe, the self-proclaimed ruler of Haiti who governed over a divided nation following the death of founding father and revolutionary hero Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Twelve years after slaves launched a revolt against their French colonial masters in the northern hills of Haiti on Aug. 22, 1791, Dessalines declared the country free from French rule on Jan. 1, 1804.
His death on Oct. 17, 1806, however, led to a divided country. On Feb. 17, 1807, Christophe, Dessalines’ war general, became president of the State of Haiti, as he named the northern region. Alexandre Pétion, another war hero, ruled the South.
In the north, Christophe sought to fortify the country’s newfound freedom through military engineering designed to protect the new nation from future French attacks. While Ramiers was to serve as bunkers, Sans-Souci was his residence and the administrative center of power after he declared himself king in 1811. Predating the city of Milot, it was effectively the capital of Christophe’s northern kingdom, and the unusual church, with a circular body and dome roof, was his.
Following the Haiti earthquake of 1842 that destroyed much of the north, the church was the only element within Sans-Souci to be rebuilt, getting a new roof almost a century later.
“This church is the pride of Milot. It’s the pride of the North. It’s the pride of Haiti,” said parish priest, Father Alain Prophète. “I am in shock.”
Prophète and another priest, Father Delince Exalus, who spoke to the Miami Herald, said an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the fire, which started at the back of the structure. Both said it took ill-equipped firefighters an hour to arrive from neighboring Cap-Haïtien, which at most should not have taken more than 30 minutes at that time of the day.
“They didn’t arrive until 3 a.m. and by then all of the roof had already burned,” Exalus said.
Prophète said he learned about the fire when he was awakened from his sleep shortly before 2 a.m. Monday. When he arrived in front of the church’s blue and white building, he saw the blaze and the population of Milot desperately trying to put it out.
“They fought, and fought; some were even injured,” Prophète said. “In the moment we are speaking, we do not have a church. ... Only the walls are standing.”
In an open letter to the Haitian government, members of the business community and historical preservationists in the north called on the government to prioritize historical sites. They noted that over the weekend, the Citadelle was also vandalized. They denounced the fact that in the very year of the 200th anniversary of the death of Christophe in 1820, the monuments he built are being quasi-abandoned.
“What explains why the Palace of Sans-Souci cannot have police officers 24-7 to ensure the security of the premises,” the letter stated. “Stop this denial of our history as a people! Only these monuments remain testimonies of our history of struggles, suffering and hope.”
Patrick Delatour, a former Haiti tourism minister and architect who has been studying the church since the 1970s, said he and a team plan to inspect the structure later this week to see what’s salvageable.
“This is a disaster,” Delatour said of the fire. “But it’s also an opportunity for the Haitian government to take the leadership in the reconstruction of the country by the process of rebuilding two major symbols of Haitian identity: the chapel of Sans-Souci and the National Palace.”
Life Skills Haiti Foundation
Proudly Made in Haiti! In Partnership with the Don Bosco Technical School in Fort Liberté, Students and teachers participating in our program have manufactured and distributed high quality face masks to the police department in Fort Liberté and all surrounding areas or the Nord Est, as part of Life Skills Haiti's effort to help mitigate the risk of Covid19 infection. These masks are locally made for the local community. All materials and skills are local.
Help is needed to expand the work and to continue support local communities in some of the more remote areas in Haiti's countryside!
visit the website https://lifeskilsshaiti.org