Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 25 décembre 2019

 ‘Left in Misery’: UN Peacekeepers Fathered, Abandoned Hundreds of Babies in Haiti

Personnel enlisted in the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) fathered hundreds of babies during their deployment and abandoned the young mothers after being informed of the unexpected pregnancies, a new report published Tuesday by researchers and academics revealed.

MINUSTAH, which is known as one of the longest-running missions by the agency, ran from 2004 to 2017. It was originally launched in an effort to aid Haitian institutions with organized crime and political instability; however, its objective was later broadened after the 2010 earthquake and 2016’s Hurricane Matthew, which caused billions of dollars in damages and left hundreds dead.

Published in the Conversation, the findings revealed that out of 2,500 Haitians interviewed by a trained research team, 265 locals who live in communities surrounding the UN’s 10 bases in the Caribbean country had stories about children fathered by peacekeepers.

“The narratives reveal how girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated by peacekeepers and then, as one man put it, ‘left in misery’ to raise their children alone, often because the fathers are repatriated once the pregnancy becomes known,” reads the report.

“In many cases, the power differential between foreign peacekeepers and local populations allows foreigners, knowingly or unknowingly, to exploit local women and girls. The prevalence of transactional sex in our data underscores the significance of the structural imbalances – peacekeepers have access to some of the resources that are desired or needed by the local population, and so they are in a strong position to exchange those for sex.”

Researchers were made aware of several instances of UN peacekeepers, either uniformed or non-uniformed personnel, engaging in sexual exploitation in which either money was given to the women or services were carried out in exchange for food. Other cases included violent sexual encounters and consensual sexual relationships between local women and girls and peacekeepers.

“All day, I heard women who are complaining about the sexual violence that MINUSTAH did to them,” a male community member from Cité Soleil told researchers. “And they had given them AIDS through sexual violence. There are also some of them who are pregnant.”

In regard to cases of sexual violence, researchers stated in their report that such instances proved to be a “minority of reported sexual encounters,” and that the victims included not only women and girls, but also men and boys.

The case of a 14-year-old girl identified by the pseudonym Marie was highlighted in the study. Researchers discovered that she was impregnated by a Brazilian peacekeeper, and that soon after the individual was informed of the pregnancy, he returned to Brazil.

Left to deal with the pregnancy alone, the teenager was ultimately forced to leave her home and relocate to a relative’s house. “Her child is now four, and Marie has yet to receive any support from the Brazilian military, an NGO, the UN or the Haitian state. Marie provides what she can for her son but she cannot afford to send him to school,” the report states, noting that the teenager earns only 26 cents per hour.

In a “few extreme cases,” some of the new mothers wound up engaging in sexual relationships with other peacekeepers in an effort to provide for their children. 

A spokesperson for UN Peacekeeping told the Times in a statement that while global missions “are making steady progress” to prevent abuses, “much remains to be done.”

“All categories of personnel are vetted against a prior history of misconduct while serving in the United Nations. Perpetrators are barred from future recruitment with us,” reads the statement. “We have removed or repatriated both individuals and units where we deemed it appropriate and will continue to do so."

Academics involved in the research put forth three key recommendations to halt the current environment. They include, but are not limited to: training for UN personnel that focuses on understanding the power differentials in fragile peacekeeping economies; ending the UN’s practice of repatriating personnel implicated in cases of sexual exploitation or abuse; and allowing the UN’s Victims’ Rights Advocate to effectively work on the victims’ behalf and address problems at a “structural level.”

The latest research comes nearly two years after it was revealed that Oxfam, a charitable organization founded in the UK, had worked to cover up the sexual exploitation of Haitians by the agency’s employees.

Weeks after suspicious death, Haiti gay rights activist still not buried

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

DECEMBER 19, 2019 02:08 PM

Charlot Jeudy, a prominent gay rights activist in Haiti and founder of the LGBTQ advocacy group Kouraj, was found dead on Monday, Nov. 25 in the Caradeux neighborhood of Haiti’s capital.

More than three weeks after his death, Jeudy still has not been buried and no autopsy has been performed to find the cause of his death.

Jeudy, 35, was the leader and founder of Kouraj, or Courage, the country’s leading LGBTI advocacy group. He also was a member of the Global Fund’s Country Coordinating Mechanism in Haiti, which is chaired by the country’s first lady. The Global Fund fights to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by getting life-saving treatment to vulnerable populations.

According to Kouraj, Haiti’s chief government prosecutor had requested that the investigative arm of the Haiti National Police, the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police, investigate the death after receiving a request from lawyers representing Jeudy’s family. The same prosecutor also asked the justice minister to provide the financial resources so that an autopsy could be done.

A Haiti police official said an investigation is underway. Kouraj, however, said weeks after the request was made for the justice ministry to provide the coroner’s office with the financial means to perform the autopsy, “nothing is being done.”

“Despite many testimonies from the embassies, international institutions and even the Haitian president, the prospect of a serious investigation to clarify the circumstances of this sudden death have been buried in the cemetery of the Haitian justice system,” the statement said. “Forensic science is only a facade in this country.”

New Caracol power plant slated for construction in January

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and USAID will be funding the construction of a new power plant at the Caracol Industrial Park. IDB will contribute $16.5 million to the project, while USAID will contribute $6.1 million. Construction is expected to start in January.

Electricity project for Cap-Haitien

As part of the "Northern Department Electrification Program Evenson Calixte, General Director of the National Authority for the Regulation of the Energy Sector announced the construction of a 40-megawatt power natural gas plant and 16 Mw of solar electricity in Cap-Haitien.

He explained that this gas power plant, which will require the renovation of regional grids, will supply electricity to the communes of Cap-Haïtien, Plaine-du-Nord, Limbé, Bas-Limbé, Acul-du-Nord, Port-Margot, and Grande-Rivière-du-Nord.

Haitians in America: Young Haitian American Speaks On Being A Chess Master

By Bianca Silva

Haitian Times

Joshua Colas has risen through the ranks in chess since he began playing as a child, becoming international master-elect and has participated in numerous world youth championships from Brazil to Greece. At the age of 12, he became the youngest African American to receive the rank of national master.

Recently, Colas traveled to Sunrise, Florida to visit middle school students, a juvenile justice center and a public event where kids can learn how to play chess in support of the Sunrise Center for Excellence in Chess, a community program of the National Scholastic Chess Foundation.

Colas is also a third-year student at Webster University majoring in Business Administration and Finance.

U.S. sending more food aid to Haiti to reach 100,000 people in need

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

The U.S. Agency for International Development is providing additional food aid to Haiti, and is making sure it gets to those in greatest need by donating an additional $1 million to the U.N. World Food Program to support its ongoing humanitarian operations.

“We feel that’s our moral obligation and that’s what we need to do in the short term,” said USAID Administrator Mark Green, who also announced $10 million to improve the Caribbean’s ability to prepare for, and recover from, natural disasters.

The extra 2,200 metric tons of emergency food aid for Haiti will reach approximately 100,000 people and arrive in the country in the coming weeks, USAID said. Last month, the agency tapped 2,000 metric tons of pre-positioned hurricane stocks of rice, green peas and cooking oil in Haiti for WFP to distribute after early warning systems showed that a growing number of Haitians, 3.47 million, were facing either a food crisis or emergency due to the wave of sustained anti-government protests, sporadic violence and political gridlock.

Speaking with the Miami Herald before heading back to Washington on Monday, Green, who also visited Barbados, said it was clear from his Haiti visit that the current “man-made disaster driven by politicians on all sides” and hitting Haiti in the form of corruption and violent unrest is creating “extraordinarily challenging situations.” Transportation routes have been disrupted. Schools have been shuttered and businesses have been unable to get parts out of customs, much less to markets.

“We are looking for ways to repair some of the damage that is a growing problem with this last unrest and the political stalemate,” Green said. The fact that “young Haitian youths hungry to try and make their way in the world,” have been denied access to the classroom for months, “is a terrible loss, a terrible setback.”

Once Haiti’s largest donor, USAID is not immune from criticism. During a recent congressional hearing on Haiti by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, activists criticized the effectiveness of some of its programs while calling for a re-examination, and questioning the impact of giving food aid in a country that should be growing agriculture.

Green said the strategy for Haiti must look at the short, medium and long-term. And in the short-term, he said, Haitians are hungry and they need food. In the long-term, they are looking at how to spur job growth and encourage investment in Haiti, where the economy has been suffering. But for both, political stability is critical.

• • “I tried to explain to some people that I met that there’s this American myth that says ‘American businesses are big risk takers,’ ” Green said. “No. They want to see stability. If they see instability, if they see roads blocked on a lingering basis, that’s a problem. If they see port operations such that their goods, going in or out, are mired at the port for weeks on end, that’s a problem.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 3 janvier 2020

 Haiti Jazz Festival to Push Through, Despite Country’s Instability

Since its inception, the Port-au-Prince International Jazz Festival (PAPJAZZ) has become a staple in Haiti’s calendar. Many anxiously await January to partake in the diverse musical events, discover new international jazz artists, see some of their favorite local artists and meet new talent. While the after parties afford a cozy intimate setting and spontaneous vibe that are as impressive as the concerts themselves.

The 14th edition of the PAPJAZZ Festival however is uncertain due to the sociopolitical unrest that has paralyzed the country on and off over the last 18 months, with the worst of it having taken place over the last four months. Under “peyi lok,” businesses at all levels have been impacted. Some enterprises were looted or vandalized, while others have had to downsize or lay off staff, or even close their doors indefinitely. In addition, the tourism industry, which for the past few years has been at an upward trend, is now at a standstill.

PAPJAZZ organizers though are moving forward, despite the many challenges they’re facing in putting together the event that is scheduled for Jan. 18 – Jan. 25, 2020. When festival organizers Milena Sandler and Joel Widmaier announced they were forging ahead with their plans, they received encouraging words urging them not to give up.

People were asking us not to give up and to save what can still be saved, Sandler, general manager of Foundation Haiti Jazz said. “The PAPJAZZ festival is one of the few things that we have left,” one supporter said to her. It is a commitment to the community and country, as well as a passion that has been driving the team despite the obstacles they’ve faced.

“With such challenges as a of lack sponsors – this past year has been so critical for the private sector. Most of them cannot commit to anything until things settle down, at best,” she said. “In addition, political uncertainty weakens public administration, everything takes more time and the government’s commitment vis-à-vis PAPJAZZ is also compromised.”

Sandler and Widimaier launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds and mitigate the impact the country’s civil unrest has had on the festival. To date, they’ve raised nearly $6,000 of their $10,000 goal.

Author Pens Book Celebrating Women’s Contribution to Haitian Revolution

On Dec. 14, Bayyinah Bello signed copies of her newest book, “Sheroes of the Haitian Revolution,” at Rendez Vous Creole Restaurant in Algiers. The book highlights the contribution of nine women to Haiti’s revolution.   Accompanied by her publisher, Frantz Derenoncourt, Algiers was the final stop of a thirteen city tour. Bayyinah, historian, teacher, writer and humanitarian worker, created in 1999 the Fondation Marie-Claire Heureuse Félicité Bonheur Dessalines, referred to as Fondasyon Félicité (FF). Through this foundation, Bayyinah Bello trains young volunteers in various fields such as research, administration, business management

5 Haitians That Contributed To American History

Black History Month celebrates the contributions blacks made to American development. Take a look below at these five Haitian Americans who made an impact on America’s history.

Jean Baptiste Point du Sable was one of the first permanent residents of Chicago, Illinois and is hailed as the founder of Chicago. Point du Sable was a successful fur and grain trader who established a base in the Great Lakes region of Chicago in the late 1770s. The son of a Haitian father and an African-born slave mother, du Sable was summoned by the British to represent their trading interests with the Indians in Detroit. In 1784, Du Sable returned to Chicago, creating several buildings and infrastructure that steadily flourished into a major trading center.

Henri Christophe was an influential Haitian leader who played a significant role in the American Revolution, serving in the French unit in Savannah, Georgia in 1780. A former slave and key leader in the Haitian Revolution, Christophe was among the five hundred forty-five Haitian free slaves known as the Fontages Legion, fighting for the freedom of men and women in America who desired to be freed from the shackles of oppression.

Pierre Toussaint was a former slave from Haiti who was transported to New York City by his owners in 1787. He later gained his freedom in 1807. Toussaint is acknowledged and respected as one of the leading black New Yorkers of his time. Toussaint later went on to become a philanthropist, delivering charitable services by establishing an orphanage for refugees and offering them employment opportunities. Toussaint also contributed to institution and construction of the St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral, in New York City. Pierre Toussaint was acknowledged as venerable by Pope John Paul II and is highly regarded by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.

Elizabeth Clarisse Lange, also known as Mother Mary, was a Haitian refugee who fled to Cuba because of the escalating slave rebellion in Haiti. Lange later migrated to Baltimore, Maryland where an influx of French-speaking refugees settled. Although Lange was a refugee, she was educated and recognized there were children of refugees who significantly lacked education. Elizabeth and her friend, Marie Balas had a mission to provide housing to orphans seeking a home and education for children of fugitive and freed slaves.

Rodolphe Lucien Desdunes was a prominent Haitian editor, author, and civil rights activist from New Orleans, Louisiana. Desdunes is best known for his work in the Plessy v. Ferguson trial, one of the most critical civil rights cases in American history. Desdunes helped form a committee called, Comité des Citoyens (“Citizens Committee”), to combat laws segregating blacks and whites in public spaces. In 1889, Desdunes became the editor of the Crusader, a weekly newspaper created to inform black and Creole leaders of segregation laws and efforts to advocate for equal rights.

Haiti TPS Extended To January 2021

On Nov. 1, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it would extend the validity of documentation of certain foreign nationals under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations. The notice, which is scheduled to be published in the Nov. 4 Federal Register, will apply to TPS beneficiaries from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan. TPS-related documentation, including Employment Authorization Documents (EAD), Forms I-797, and Forms I-94, will be automatically extended by this notice until Jan. 4, 2021. TPS designations for these countries were previously set to expire in January and March of 2020.

For Haiti, Victory Is In Sight In Fight Against Cholera

Maryanne Murray Buechner

UNICEF USA

With no new cases since February, Haiti is on the road to eliminating cholera once and for all.

The moment Yolette Berdovil saw her baby son Jean's watery diarrhea, she knew what she had to do. She called for help.

Jean was quickly transported by motorbike to the Acute Diarrhea Treatment Center in Lascahobas, not far from the village where they lived in this remote, mountainous part of east-central Haiti, bordering on the Dominican Republic.

At the treatment center Jean would be given fluids to counteract the dehydrating effects of the diarrhea. And he would be tested for the bacterium that causes cholera — a preventable and treatable infection spread through contaminated food and water. 

When treated, most people recover from cholera without any lasting effects. But when the patient has acute watery diarrhea and treatment is delayed, the disease can be fatal. Cholera is particularly dangerous for the very young, the very old — and the undernourished. In Haiti, persistent poverty leaves many children vulnerable to malnutrition. 

Rapid response teams are focusing on remote areas — Haiti's last remaining cholera hot spots

Until health workers could confirm that Jean had in fact contracted cholera, his condition would be classified as a suspected case — enough to trigger the immediate deployment of a rapid response team to the area.

Jennyfer Joseph, the cholera project leader in Haiti for ACTED, an NGO and UNICEF partner, was part of the team that responded to Jean's case. These days, with cholera on the decline across most of Haiti, teams like Joseph's are working with the Ministry of Public Health to focus attention on the country's last remaining hot spots — remote areas like Lascahobas. “Sometimes, it takes four to five hours to reach suspicious areas, and we spend the night there because we do not have time to return to our base,” Joseph says.

First stop upon arrival is the family's home. A chlorinated compound is sprayed to disinfect the area. All homes within 50 meters receive the same treatment.

The team's presence attracts the attention of the neighbors — a great opportunity for Joseph to brief them on prevention tactics, and to distribute the disinfectant and other supplies, like soap and water purification tablets, and an oral hydration medicine to give to those with cholera-like symptoms.

“When you have diarrhea, or if you are vomiting, the first thing you need to do is take the oral serum,” Joseph advises those gathered. 

Yolette says she didn't hesitate to seek medical attention for her son because of past experience. Cholera had claimed the lives of many of her relatives in the past.

And Yolette isn't the only one haunted by memories of what the disease can do. The cholera outbreak of 2010 in Haiti has been one of the worst public health crises in modern history. From 2010 through December 2018, there were 820,300 suspected cases of the disease, and 9,762 cholera deaths, according to government data.

But those numbers have dramatically tapered off in recent years, largely due to the response by teams like Joseph's — coupled with broader efforts, supported by UNICEF, to improve access to safe water for drinking and cooking and enable best hygiene practices and other methods of prevention.

Not a single confirmed case of cholera in Haiti since February 2019

The fight against cholera has been so effective, in fact, there hasn't been a single confirmed case in Haiti since Feb. 4, 2019. This puts the country squarely on the path toward eliminating cholera altogether, those closely involved in the elimination efforts say.

"If we continue on this path, we will almost certainly be able to declare an end to cholera in Haiti in the very near future," says Ganddey Milorme, an emergency officer with UNICEF Haiti. Changing basic behaviors — like washing hands with soap before eating — will make all the difference, he says.

Three years must pass without a single laboratory-confirmed case before the World Health Organization can declare an official end to the 2010 cholera epidemic.

“We are very happy to say that there has been no new confirmed case of cholera since February 2019,” says Maria Luisa Fornara, UNICEF Representative in Haiti. “That said, we must not stop. We must keep up the efforts, to continue mobilizing, strengthening community surveillance and capacity of laboratories. We must also work with communities on better water supply conditions and better hygiene and sanitation measures. We are truly in the very last mile.”

What it will take for Haiti to defeat cholera once and for all

A lasting victory for Haiti against cholera will require sustainable improvements to Haiti's water and sanitation systems and infrastructure and equitable access to safe water and sanitation for all. With support from Giorgio Armani Fragrances and others, UNICEF continues to work with government and other local partners toward these goals. Making sure Haiti is prepared for the next extreme weather event — and having the proper emergency response mechanisms in place — will also help keep cholera at bay.

Haiti government demands justice for women and girls abused by U.N. peacekeepers

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Haiti said on Thursday it will demand action from the United Nations after a study found girls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated by U.N. peacekeepers before being abandoned to raise their children alone. 

Foreign minister Bocchit Edmond said abusers must face justice, after the study in the International Peacekeeping journal this month found “a multitude” of Haitian women and girls had been sexually exploited by U.N. mission personnel. 

“A peacekeeper’s role is to protect the communities they serve, not exploit and abuse them,” Edmond said in a statement sent to the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 

“We will be holding discussions with the U.N. to seek answers and the right actions without delay so that the victims receive the support and justice they deserve.” 

The U.N. in Haiti “remains committed to assist complainants and victims get the support they need so that justice is served,” a spokeswoman for U.N. peace operations said. 

U.N. Peacekeeping has said it takes the issues raised in the study seriously, and it is supporting 29 victims and 32 children born of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers in Haiti. 

Under the current system, the U.N. can investigate crimes and send peacekeepers home but has no power to prosecute individuals. 

There have been multiple reports of sexual contacts - and several rape claims - involving peacekeepers in the 13-year mission to stabilize Haiti following conflict and a 2010 earthquake. 

The issue received fresh scrutiny with the International Peacekeeping study, based on interviews with more than 2,000 Haitians living near U.N. bases about the experiences of women and girls during the peacekeeping mission, which ended in 2017. 

About 10% mentioned children fathered by peacekeeping personnel, though it was not clear how many were referring to overlapping cases. 

Their stories highlighted how extreme poverty often led Haitian women and girls into exploitative encounters, where they sold sex for small amounts of money or food. Some said women and girls had also been sexually assaulted. 

“They put a few coins in your hand to drop a baby in you,” one young man was quoted as saying in the study, while one woman said peacekeepers impregnated girls of 12 and 13 and then “left them in misery with babies in their hands”. 

The study’s authors have urged better training for U.N. peacekeepers and stricter disciplinary action against those found to have committed sexual misconduct. 

Reporting by Sonia Elks @soniaelks; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 8 janvier 2020

 Madan Janba, a Haitian woman who could be "125" is at the threshold of the Guinness World Record

In the 8th section of Petit-Goâve, in the locality called Moyette, is an old lady who would have been born two decades before the American occupation of Haiti of 1915. Bernicia Souffrant is her maiden name. She is better known to her community as Madan Janba, and could be the world’s oldest person according to Guinness World Record, if research confirms that she is indeed 125 years old.

Several journalists met Bernicia Souffrant on Saturday September 8, following an initiative of the Rector of Quisqueya University (UNIQ), Jacky Lumarque. At this meeting, Lumarque unveiled some of his projects about the elder, including the submission of authentic documents to prove Souffrant’s age to be 125 years. Another project consisted of building a courtyard allowing students to stay with Madan Janba to learn about her story.

According to one of her grandsons, Rosier Laguerre, Madan Janba, who is his father’s mother, was married and had four children, three of whom were the product of her marriage to Jean-Baptiste Laguerre, hence the nickname Madan Janba.

In good health, both physically and mentally, “Madan janba” took her nutrition very seriously. She says she consumed very little rice in her entire life, and focuses her nutrition on fruit and vegetables. Questioned about what she did during her youth, she said she had a little business, and spent her entire life exercising generosity with those around her.

Jacky Lumarque says he recognizes the importance of confirming Souffrant’s age. He explained that the birth certificate of Madan Janba’s twin sister was found and an Anthropo-sociologist was hired to deepen the investigation to determine her actual age.

It should be noted that the dean of humanity is the oldest person on earth at a given time. At least, the person who is recognized as the oldest. Since the death of Chiyo Miyako on July 22, 2018, the current dean of humanity is Japanese Kane Tanaka, born on January 2, 1903 and aged 115. The proven record of longevity among women is currently held by the French Jeanne Calment, who lived until the age of 122 years and 164 days.

It remains to be seen whether the process begun by Jacky Lumarque and the scientific research will bear fruit and prove the 1500 months and more of existence of Madan Janba. Apart from her, persistent rumors speak of a Normina Louis, another lady born in Grand-Goâve who herself could be 150 years.

On the 216th Anniversary of Haiti’s Independence, 1200 Haitians were arrested in DR and expelled at the same time

The administration General of Migration continues its operations against illegal foreigners in the Dominican Republic and, during the celebration of the New Year, arrested 1,200 illegal Haitians and repatriated them immediately.

Rezonodwes.com –The Dominican newspaper El Nacional also revealed that other illegal nationals, including Venezuelans, Colombians, Chinese, and other nationalities who were engaged in various activities without a prolonged residence permit in the Dominican Republic, were placed in detention to be returned by air to their respective countries.

In a note sent Thursday to El Nacional, according to the media, the administration of the Migration Service stated that “It continues to receive all the support of the Army, the National Police and Cestur, in operations conducted in different parts of the country, in search of undocumented immigrants.”

The arrests, according to the newspaper, took place in the rural and urban areas of Santiago, Mao, National District and Santo Domingo Este. They were made on construction sites, or in the middle of the streets where, according to the DGM, illegal men and women of different ages were selling various items. Some were followed and arrested when they reached the uninhabited houses where they sought refuge.

Hope for Haiti gets major gift from GoDaddy founder ahead of earthquake anniversary

By Jacqueline Charles Miami Herald
774 words
31 December 2019 The Miami Herald MHLD

When Haiti's deadly earthquake hit on Jan. 12, 2010, Renee and Bob Parsons knew they wanted to help.

The couple had no connection to the devastated country, had never visited and did not have the slightest idea which charity they could support.

Then the Parsons came across Hope for Haiti, a small organization running an education and healthcare program in the southern area of the country. It was located in the city of Les Cayes, outside the earthquake zone, but its doctors, nurses and teachers were all Haitian, and more importantly, Renee Parsons said, most of the money it collected went into helping the communities it served.

"We felt that of all the organizations we had looked at and the research we had done, Hope for Haiti had the most significant impact; that the dollars could be leveraged for the people that they serve directly as opposed to administrative costs, advertising," she said.

So Renee, who was working as the community outreach person for GoDaddy, the internet domain registrar and web hosting company that her husband founded, wrote her first grant. It was for $500,000.

Now almost 10 years later, Parsons and her husband are multiplying that gift through their own charity, The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, and are gifting Hope for Haiti $3 million over the next five years to help support its mobile clinics and other healthcare initiatives.

"They are boots on the ground, they're in the communities that they serve and very much invested in them," said Renee Parsons, who has since visited Haiti three times since the quake to see first hand the work the organization is doing.

She describes the visits as life changing.

"It really is rewarding, it's emotional. For us, we really were filled with hope that things could improve there, we really could make a difference and that we wanted to keep investing in the communities that we were serving. That's why we are sitting here 10 years later and still involved with a fresh new grant," she said.

Hope for Haiti CEO Skyler Badenoch said the Parsons grant will make a huge difference, especially in its outreach to provide medical care and medications to underserved rural communities in southwest Haiti that otherwise would not have access to health care.

"We are beyond grateful that they trust us, they are our partner," he said. "I can't state how important multi-year funding is because it really allows you to take a longer-term approach than just having funding for a year."

h4h_Day3-3592 (1).jpgHope for Haiti, which provides healthcare in southern Haiti, recently received a $3 million gift from The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation. Bob Parsons is co-founder of GoDaddy.

Recently the charity launched the Haitian Solidarity campaign to raise $10 million. The Qatar Haiti Fund gave $2 million in October and the Kellogg Foundation also provided funding. The Parsons' donation, Badenoch said, will bring the fund to about $6 million.

"The whole idea of it was to raise money in solidarity with the Haitian people but also to use it to tell this story that is counter to the narrative on the 12th, all of this money flowed into Haiti and nothing happened," Badenoch said.

Page 2 of 3 © 2019 Factiva, Inc. All rights reserved.

"We know that's partially true. We can go on and on about what went wrong, but I think it does a disservice to say that nothing happened to the 53 staff members who have been working really hard on our team over the last 10 years. And if we say nothing happened, what are we saying about their work?"

The Parsons' grant, he said, shows that there are organizations and individuals who still remain committed to the country years after the earthquake.

"It gave us a shot in the arm and it empowered us, and reminded us there is still a lot of good work to do," Badenoch said.

And while Hope for Haiti is not the only organization that employs an almost-all-Haitian staff, Badenoch said he considers it one of the organization's greatest assets.

"We fund-raise in the United States and we raise awareness in the United States, but all of our team in Haiti is Haitian. That's how we believe it should be, Haitian doctors, Haitian nurses, Haitian educators, technical staff," he said. "They were truly the first responders to the earthquake, before the international community came in, before anybody sent a dollar of aid, the first real responders were people who were there."

hit on Jan. 12, 2010, Renee and Bob Parsons knew they wanted to help.

The couple had no connection to the devastated country, had never visited and did not have the slightest idea which charity they could support.

Then the Parsons came across Hope for Haiti, a small organization running an education and healthcare program in the southern area of the country. It was located in the city of Les Cayes, outside the earthquake zone, but its doctors, nurses and teachers were all Haitian, and more importantly, Renee Parsons said, most of the money it collected went into helping the communities it served.

"We felt that of all the organizations we had looked at and the research we had done, Hope for Haiti had the most significant impact; that the dollars could be leveraged for the people that they serve directly as opposed to administrative costs, advertising," she said.

So Renee, who was working as the community outreach person for GoDaddy, the internet domain registrar and web hosting company that her husband founded, wrote her first grant. It was for $500,000.

Now almost 10 years later, Parsons and her husband are multiplying that gift through their own charity, The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation, and are gifting Hope for Haiti $3 million over the next five years to help support its mobile clinics and other healthcare initiatives.

"They are boots on the ground, they're in the communities that they serve and very much invested in them," said Renee Parsons, who has since visited Haiti three times since the quake to see first hand the work the organization is doing.

She describes the visits as life changing.

"It really is rewarding, it's emotional. For us, we really were filled with hope that things could improve there, we really could make a difference and that we wanted to keep investing in the communities that we were serving. That's why we are sitting here 10 years later and still involved with a fresh new grant," she said.

Hope for Haiti CEO Skyler Badenoch said the Parsons grant will make a huge difference, especially in its outreach to provide medical care and medications to underserved rural communities in southwest Haiti that otherwise would not have access to health care.

"We are beyond grateful that they trust us, they are our partner," he said. "I can't state how important multi-year funding is because it really allows you to take a longer-term approach than just having funding for a year."

h4h_Day3-3592 (1).jpgHope for Haiti, which provides healthcare in southern Haiti, recently received a $3 million gift from The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation. Bob Parsons is co-founder of GoDaddy.

Recently the charity launched the Haitian Solidarity campaign to raise $10 million. The Qatar Haiti Fund gave $2 million in October and the Kellogg Foundation also provided funding. The Parsons' donation, Badenoch said, will bring the fund to about $6 million.

"The whole idea of it was to raise money in solidarity with the Haitian people but also to use it to tell this story that is counter to the narrative on the 12th, all of this money flowed into Haiti and nothing happened," Badenoch said.

"We know that's partially true. We can go on and on about what went wrong, but I think it does a disservice to say that nothing happened to the 53 staff members who have been working really hard on our team over the last 10 years. And if we say nothing happened, what are we saying about their work?"

The Parsons' grant, he said, shows that there are organizations and individuals who still remain committed to the country years after the earthquake.

"It gave us a shot in the arm and it empowered us, and reminded us there is still a lot of good work to do," Badenoch said.

And while Hope for Haiti is not the only organization that employs an almost-all-Haitian staff, Badenoch said he considers it one of the organization's greatest assets.

"We fund-raise in the United States and we raise awareness in the United States, but all of our team in Haiti is Haitian. That's how we believe it should be, Haitian doctors, Haitian nurses, Haitian educators, technical staff," he said. "They were truly the first responders to the earthquake, before the international community came in, before anybody sent a dollar of aid, the first real responders were people who were there."

Document MHLD000020191231efcv0025t

Don’t abbreviate 2020 when signing documents, police warn. It can be used against you

It’s easy to accidentally write the incorrect date right after New Year’s but experts warn that abbreviating 2020 could lead to something more serious: fraud.

The East Millinocket Police Department wrote in a Facebook post that writing “20” instead of the year 2020 could result in fraud because dates could be manipulated. For example, “March 3rd, 2020 being written as 3/3/20 could be modified to 3/3/2017 or 3/3/2018.”

“This is very sound advice and should be considered when signing any legal or professional document,” the police department posted. “It could potentially save you some trouble down the road.”

“When writing the date in 2020, write the year in its entirety,” he wrote. “It could possibly protect you and prevent legal issues on paperwork. Example: If you just write 1/1/20, one could easily change it to 1/1/2017 (for instance) and now your signature is on an incorrect document.”

Others agree that the threat of fraud is real.

Ira Rheingold, executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocates told USA Today that scammers could backdate a document in order to cash in an older check or even try to establish that debt is unpaid.

“Say you agreed to make payments beginning on 1/15/20. The bad guy could theoretically establish that you began owing your obligation on 1/15/2019, and try to collect additional $$$,” Rheingold wrote to USA Today.

Post-dating documents could also be a potential issue.

A check dated “1/1/20” could be labeled “1/1/2021,” making it active, Rheingold wrote.

An easy solution? When in doubt, write out the full date. That means write January 02, 2020, not 01/02/20.

Millions in Haiti face hunger in 2020

(CNN) — In a single week, eight of Rob Freishtat's tiny patients died of hunger.

In his photos, the children already seem to be vanishing, dwarfed by diapers three times their girth and the thick gloved hands of medical staff. Small comforts on their hospital beds, like the rolls of baby blankets printed with cheerful ducklings make them look even tinier.

All were under 2 years old when they died.

"Over the years, I've seen plenty of kids in Haiti with malnutrition get sick with infections or something else and die. Sad but not unusual. This is the first time that I have seen them literally starve to death," Freishtat told CNN after returning from a week at Sacre Coeur private hospital in the northern Haitian city of Milot, in early December.

Freishtat is the chief of emergency medicine at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, and he has volunteered his pediatric skills in Haiti every year for the past decade, ever since a devastating earthquake hit the Caribbean nation on January 12, 2010.

Now, just days ahead of the 10-year anniversary of that disaster, Haiti's population appears little prepared to face the next major shock, with millions threatened by hunger in 2020 due to a spiraling economic and political crisis.

Official mortality statistics for 2019 have not yet been made public, but doctors and medical staff working across the country tell CNN that unusually high levels of malnourishment are already claiming the country's most fragile lives -- and that more deaths are expected in the coming months.

Food insecurity headed for 'emergency levels'

Haiti has been on a rollercoaster of good intentions since the 2010 earthquake. Attention and donations from the rest of the world spiked in the immediate aftermath of the 2010 earthquake -- and then dropped. A deal with Venezuela known as PetroCaribe temporarily provided the country's government with cheap fuel, but then foundered and became linked to a scandal over the alleged mismanagement of the resulting funds.

Basic public services like hospitals and food access are supported by international aid organizations (which come with their own set of problems), but more and more Haitians simply cannot afford the food they need. According to the UN disaster relief organization OCHA, the cost of the most basic, joyless kitchen essentials in Haiti -- rice, wheat flour, maize, beans, sugar and vegetable oil -- jumped 34% this year alone.

"Marasmus (the medical term for starvation) was uncommon in Haiti since most families previously could afford rice or sugary drinks. That is no longer the case," said Freishtat.

In the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, a 25 kilogram bag of rice costs about $23 -- a steep increase over 2017 and 2018. (Though inflation can vary wildly level across different regions.)

"The under-2 group of kids is particularly vulnerable because formula is exorbitantly expensive there. Breastfeeding would be great, but the moms are starving too, so their milk dries up," he adds.

According to a new report by OCHA, things will only get worse. Forty percent of Haitians will face food insecurity by March, the agency predicts. For least 1 in 10, food insecurity will reach "emergency levels."

A national lockdown

Since 2018, Haitian protestors have been calling for change, their fury over the country's economic path fueled by official reports alleging massive corruption. But the resulting clashes have sometimes taken a toll on fellow citizens.

This fall, Haitian protesters demanding President Jovenel Moise's resignation pulled a desperate lever: peyi lock, a countrywide lockdown. Barricades were erected on roads across the country, some with as little as a kilometer between them, some manned by armed men. But the strategy failed to pressure Moise out of office, and further choked the country's flailing economy and emergency services.

Between fuel shortages and blocked roads, medical workers struggled to send supplies to rural areas, including vital flows of blood and oxygen to hospitals. Outbreaks of violence, including reported gang attacks, forced many schools to close down -- cutting off essential distribution points of food aid for kids.

One November evening during peyi lock, a young woman in labor with twins arrived at a small maternity hospital in the south, recounts Sandra Lamarque, the head of the Belgian mission of Doctors without Borders in Haiti. She urgently needed specialized obstetric care.

The facility did not have a specialist on hand, so it contacted a nearby general hospital, which refused to accept her. A second hospital said it no longer had a gynecologist, and a third said that because it had been looted and vandalized twice in October, it no longer saw patients after 6 p.m., Lamarque recounts, speaking from the southern coastal city of Port à Piment where the maternity hospital is located.

A fourth facility, a private clinic, finally agreed to see the woman, but wanted payment of $400 -- in a country where half the population lives on less than $2 per day. "The patient was taken care of and this is a happy ending, but if MSF had not made the transportation, contact with all hospitals -- and paid -- she would have died," said Lamarque.

Lamarque worries that, as inflation rises, even the medicines and services to save Haiti's hungry and injured will go up in price. According to local media, inflation drove up the cost of drugs and hospital services by about a third in 2019.

The number of mothers dying in childbirth was "extremely high" this year, she adds -- and that's only counting women who made it to hospitals to begin with. At least 45 women died in Haiti's southern region in 2019, Lamarque said -- more than anywhere else in the country, and a 35% increase over last year.

2019's long tail

By December, protester' barricades had been lifted, but the deadly aftereffects of the year's troubles are expected to extend into the new year. Ominously, there's no sign of political resolution on the horizon.

The children being hospitalized now are in a sense the country's canaries, the earliest victims of a danger to which the state can offer little response.

"There's always a delay between the nutritional state and the crisis ... so a rising death toll is expected," said Cédric Piriou, Haiti director of NGO Action Against Hunger, speaking to CNN from the capital Port au Prince.

Institutions that should nurse Haiti back to relative health in periods of calm have been crippled, with some hospitals remaining closed or understaffed. And while health services in the country are more developed and wider spread than they were before the 2010 earthquake, Piriou and other medical staff interviewed by CNN emphasize that the country is in no condition to deal with another major disaster.

"There isn't blood or oxygen in hospitals. It's been worse in these past three months," Piriou said, adding that other services like orphanages and prisons are also faltering. Haiti's Ministry of Public Health did not respond to multiple requests from CNN for comment.

Piriou, a Bréton who has worked in the country for two decades, has been personally touched by the crisis -- his wife's cousin, he said, had to go to two Haitian hospitals when she gave birth because the first one had no blood. Her child died within 24 hours.

Even without another major disaster, Haiti's hospitals could soon see a new wave of children suffering from the accumulated effects and complications of months of hunger, predicts Freishtat, the pediatrician.

"First you see the little babies, then you're going to start to see the bigger kids," he said.

In Haiti, Local Artists Spread The Christmas Spirit During Lull In Protests

Carrie Kahn, NPR - December 23, 2019

A lull in the demonstrations that have rocked Haiti for the last several months has given residents a break from the violence and a chance to get into the Christmas spirit — especially artists.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: 

After weeks of unrest, the streets of Haiti are back to their usual busy, traffic-clogged state just in time for Christmas. Anti-government protesters who had put up barricades and burned tires are taking a holiday break. It's allowed businesses to reopen and local artists to spread the Haitian Christmas spirit. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports from Port-au-Prince.

CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: Francisco Silva (ph) shakes a can of bright red spray paint before he adds the final touches to the large red face that is the centerpiece of his latest mural. It's covering the wall in front of the National Bureau of Ethnology that showcases Haiti's Vodou culture.

FRANCISCO SILVA: (Speaking Creole).

KAHN: This is Makaya, a Vodou spirit which we celebrate the same time of year as Christmas, he says. Makaya embodies the winter season.

SILVA: (Speaking Creole).

KAHN: "And the colors are the same as Christmas, red and green," says Silva. Green is for the Earth and red is for life. Artist Gary Francois (ph) is adding dozens of green leaves to the mural all around Makaya's red face. The eyes remain white, he says, to emphasize the spirit inside. Francois is studying at the ethnology school. It's located just across the street from the site of the former National Palace, which still hasn't been rebuilt since Haiti's devastating earthquake nearly 10 years ago.

GARY FRANCOIS: (Speaking Creole).

KAHN: He says most of his work reflects the political crisis engulfing Haiti right now. Until just a few weeks ago, he and his partner Silva couldn't have been out here so close to the scene of many street battles between police and demonstrators. Opponents of current President Jovenel Moise want him to resign. They accuse the president of massive corruption and theft - a claim Moise denies. Artist Gary Francois shows me a picture of a political mural just blocks from here, one he and Silva painted at the height of the opposition marches and riots this fall.

FRANCOIS: (Speaking Creole).

KAHN: In it, he depicts lawmakers as pigs, the president as a cat, the prime minister as a goat and the Haitian elites as sharks.

So it seems like there's a zoo in charge.

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: (Speaking Creole).

FRANCOIS: (Speaking Creole).

UNIDENTIFIED INTERPRETER: So, yes, many animals manage the country.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

KAHN: On the other side of the mural, the national Vodou dance company called 21 Nations is practicing for an upcoming New Year's Day performance. Erol Josue, director of the company and the National Bureau of Ethnology, says, sadly, this Christmas in Haiti is not joyous for many. The months of relentless protests, which claimed more than 40 lives, have taken a toll on everyone.

EROL JOSUE: It's hard. It's hard. But we working on it. We have hope.

KAHN: New Year's Day is also Haitian Independence Day, a sense of pride, he says, for everyone. It's also the day the opposition has called for protesters to return to the streets. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRACEY CHATTAWAY'S "STARLIGHTS")

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Two Haitian photographers in 2019 soar in France and the USA

Photojournalists Dieu-Nalio Chérry and Jean Marc Hervé Abérlard have each seen one of their photographs ranked among the best for the year 2019 in the United States and in France. The French newspaper “20 Minutes” ranked one of Abérlard’s photos in the top 13. While Time magazine considers one of Chérry’s photographs to be the top 100 in the world.

The photo of Jean Marc Hervé Abérlard ranked among the best of the year in France was taken in Port-Au-Prince, November 10, 2019. In this shot, the photojournalist of the daily newspaper “Le Nouvelliste” and the Spanish Agency Efe, shows a motorcycle riding in the middle of burning tires during a protest the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse. This photo was selected as of the 13 best photos of 2019 by the French newspaper “20 Minutes.” In a retrospective of last year, it shows images that describe the waves of protest that have exploded around the world, especially in Haiti. See photo below.

On the other hand, Dieu-Nalio Chéry, a collaborator at the Associated Press (AP) agency, saw one of his photos ranked among the top 100 of the American magazine «TIME» for the year 2019. The selected image was taken on September 23, 2019, on the court of the Senate of the Republic, when the Senator of the North, Jean Marie Ralph Féthière opened fire against a group of opposition activists who had stormed the space. During the heat-up, the photojournalist himself was shot in the face. Below is the moment in question, immortalized by a click of Chéry.

The two (2) Haitian photojournalists did not hide their satisfactions following this classification. I am really happy to have been selected among all these talented photographers! Thanks to Time’s», wrote Dieu-Nalio Chery on his Facebook page. For his part, Jean Marc Hervé Abelard is happy. «Yon lòt fwa ankò, foto m pami 13 pi bèl foto nan SIPA, pou lane 2019 lan», he was delighted, renewing his determination to maintain the torch of professionalism in Haiti in 2020.

The photos taken by Chery and Abélard, it should be noted, are used to being among the best, within their respective agencies in 2019, and by other international institutions evolving in the field of journalistic image. Let us also remember that Dieu-Nalio Chéry and Jean Marc Hervé Abélard are both (2) co-winners of the 2019 Philippe Chaffanjon Prize. They won this prestigious award in France, in collaboration with our reporter Luckson Saint-Vil, following a multimedia survey carried out last year in Cité Soleil. «Cité Soleil: les dessous d'une paix fragile», a journalistic work that highlighted the relationship between armed gangs, politicians and businessmen in Haiti’s largest slum.

haiti

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 17 janvier 2020

 
Security Council Press Statement on Haiti

The members of the Security Council expressed concern regarding the ongoing political impasse in Haiti.  They reiterated the immediate necessity for Haiti’s stakeholders to engage in an inclusive and open dialogue to form a government that responds to the needs of the Haitian people without further delay.

The members of the Security Council noted the ongoing efforts of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), and the good offices role of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti.  They stressed the need for all stakeholders to continue to avail themselves of this opportunity and act promptly.

The members of the Security Council emphasized the urgent need to address deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Haiti through coordinated action by the government of Haiti, the United Nations, and the international community.

The members of the Security Council recalled the need for the government of Haiti to address the underlying causes of instability and poverty within the country.  They urged all stakeholders to refrain from violence and to resolve differences through peaceful means.  They stressed the importance of ensuring that those responsible are held accountable and of bringing justice to the victims of the recent spikes of violence, in particular the violent events of November 13 and 14, 2018 in La Saline and November 4 to 7, 2019, in Bel Air.

The members of the Security Council reiterated their commitment to working with Haiti towards a democratic, peaceful, and secure future.

8 January 2020

Clinton can’t escape blame in Haiti failed recovery from the earthquake, critics say

By JACQUELINE CHARLES, Miami Herald

The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, backed by the United States government and co-chaired by former President Bill Clinton, was supposed to be Haiti’s chance to “build back better” after its cataclysmic Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.

But a decade after the commission’s formation in the wake of the disaster and its eventual dissolution under Haitian President Michel Martelly, Haiti is no better off, its multibillion-dollar recovery effort a dismal failure, according to critics. They say blame lies with the Haitian government, which missed an opportunity, foreign donors who didn’t make good on their billion dollar pledges — and Clinton.

“The [commission] was a full-time job. For Clinton to have done a good job he would have needed to do it full time,” said Jean-Marie Bourjolly, who added that Clinton, who also had served as United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti, delegated too much to his staff. “It’s a job that demanded he man up and go fight with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, France, Canada and everyone else who pledged money ... to force them to turn over the money.”

The recovery commission and Clinton did not escape other criticism. Though the commission’s projects were approved unanimously, the Haitian members, including Bourjolly, complained in a public letter that they were being marginalized, and some groups in Haitian society asked for the panel to be dissolved before the end of its 18-month mandate. The commission remained in place until the end of the 18 months, but Haiti did not renew it.

Other criticism centered around accusations that Clinton and his wife, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were running a pay-to-play operation in Haiti, which the Clintons have long denied. Neither the State Department, which Hillary Clinton oversaw, or the Clinton Foundation that Bill Clinton headed, gave favorable treatment to foundation supporters in Haiti, they have said.

Lots more to say about why neither Clinton nor the Haitians are blameless. Start with the huge star role given to Cheryl Mills who was the go-to person for both Bill and Hillary. Look into Preval’s micromanaging through his loyal aide appointed to be the executive director of the commission. Examine the exclusion of Haitian expertise to the benefit of a bunch of inexperienced and unqualified assistants paid huge sums for running around. Dive into electoral manipulation to the benefit of Martelly, Lamothe and the many celebrities who found them a cool bunch to hang with while most Haitians saw them for what they were: carpetbaggers salivating at the million dollar possibilities

“It’s a job that demanded he man up and go fight with the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, France, Canada and everyone else who pledged money ... to force them to turn over the money.”

Haiti’s 2010 earthquake killed hundreds of thousands. The next one could be worse.

Ten years ago, when Haiti was hit by its worst natural disaster in more than a century, the country didn’t have its own earthquake surveillance network.

It does now. The problem is, the 10 foreign-trained quake monitors who work there can’t stay in the building that houses the unit overnight because it is not earthquake resistant, and even if it were, there isn’t enough money to pay anyone to spend the night.

When the ground shakes again, they’ll have to run out of the facility’s only exit.

U.S. Embassy Statement

 Today we join Haitians and their partners around the world in honoring the thousands of lives lost and forever altered by the devastating earthquake of January 12, 2010.

 We remember, with awe and gratitude, the extraordinary efforts of Haitians during relief, recovery, and rebuilding.  We remember how in the most difficult of circumstances, Haitians put all differences aside and worked together to help rescue their fellow citizens and reclaim their country from destruction.

 Those efforts, together with the work of the international community, resulted in one of history’s most significant humanitarian responses: heroic rescue efforts; thousands of surgeries and medical interventions; and the largest emergency urban food distribution ever, feeding more than 4 million people. As a longstanding partner and friend of Haiti, the United States through USAID, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Coast Guard, the USNS COMFORT, FEMA, and other agencies worked tirelessly alongside Haitians to save lives and start the process of rebuilding.

 As we reflect on the past, the United States remains committed to a safe, secure, and prosperous Haiti. May the lessons learned from this day serve as inspiration to all to renew efforts to contribute to a better future for the Haitian people.

PUERTO RICO

Puerto Ricans Left Homeless After Biggest Quake in Century

Nearly 750 people were staying in government shelters in the island’s southwest region as Gov. Wanda Vázquez declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard

By Danica Coto AP Associated Press

Cars, cots and plastic chairs became temporary beds for hundreds of families who lost their homes in southwest Puerto Rico as a flurry of earthquakes struck the island, one of them the strongest in a century. The magnitude 6.4 quake that struck before dawn on Tuesday killed one person, injured nine others and knocked out power across the U.S. territory. More than 250,000 Puerto Ricans remained without water on Wednesday and another half a million without power, which also affected telecommunications.

Another strong aftershock of a 4.7-magnitude struck on Wednesday near the island's southern coast at the same shallow depth as Tuesday's earthquake. No serious damage was immediately reported.

More than 2,000 people were staying in government shelters in the island’s southwest region as U.S. President Donald Trump declared an emergency and Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez activated the National Guard.

"The magnitude of this event is so serious that the state government and the municipal governments of Puerto Rico do not have the capacity to respond effectively,” she said as she praised Trump's decision.

The hardest hit municipality was the southwest coastal town of Guánica. More than 200 people had taken shelter in a gymnasium after a quake on Monday, only for the latest shake to damage that structure — forcing them to sleep outside.

Among them was 80-year-old Lupita Martínez, who sat in the dusty parking lot with her 96-year-old husband by her side. He was sleeping in a makeshift bed, a dark blue coat covering him.

“There's no power. There's no water. There is nothing. This is horrible,” Martínez said.

MILLIONS went to rebuild Haiti’s churches. So why is Notre Dame Cathedral still in ruins?

By Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald

Unlike the Notre-Dame de Paris, the cathedral in France that attracted worldwide attention after a fire broke out in April, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l’Assomption in Port-au-Prince has largely been forgotten. There has been no billionaire bailout, and its estimated cost of rebuilding — $50 million — would have taken up all of the money donated by U.S. Catholics to help Haiti reconstruct its fallen houses of worships and other religious structures after the quake.

Still, as Haiti prepares to mark the 10th anniversary of the tragedy Sunday, the new archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Max Leroy Mesidor, is giving a lot of thought to the twin tower historic landmark that was constructed between 1884 and 1914. Its reconstruction plans once attracted 250 architects from around the world collaborating to submit 134 designs in a blind judging competition sponsored by the University of Miami, the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince and Faith and Form magazine.