Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 9 avril 2020

 A global shortage in key ingredient could affect coronavirus testing in Caribbean

A global shortage of a key ingredient in the COVID-19 testing process could lead to a slowdown in some Caribbean nations’ ability to rapidly test for the virus that causes the respiratory disease just when the toll of the global pandemic is expected to surge.

Dr. Lisa Indar, deputy director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, or CARPHA, which is doing testing for 18 Caribbean countries in its regional medical laboratory in Trinidad and Tobago, said the lab is actively looking for reagents. The chemical ingredient is critical to the chemical analysis recommended by the World Health Organization that’s being used to detect COVID-19 in specimens.

“Our current reagent capacity is such that we have enough media to take us through the next three weeks,” Indar, an infectious disease specialist, said Wednesday during a video press conference. “We are actively looking for more media.”

Indar said pre-orders were made as far back as January but it’s taking time to receive the supply of reagents for the molecular tests because of the global shortage.

While much faster rapid testing has become available, including a two-minute test the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for the coronavirus, Indar said such tests are not yet recommended by the World Health Organization. The time-consuming, intricate polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, procedure “remains the gold standard for COVID-19” due to its accuracy, she said.

Trinidad and Tobago currently has 90 confirmed COVID-19 cases and has registered five deaths related to the disease, according to its health ministry.

The rate of testing has sped up in the last two weeks, according a ministry representative. St. John said. She noted that CARPHA runs every sample that fits the criteria. However, they currently do not test for people who are asymptomatic or samples older than 10 days. Also it does not test for Haiti, Cuba or the Dominican Republic, three of the region’s most populous countries. Those countries have their own national laboratories.

Dr. Jacques Boncy, who runs Haiti’s national lab, said the country is not experiencing any shortages yet. Haiti has 16 confirmed cases and has so far run 154 tests.

“We project that when the number of cases begins to increase we will face a shortage,” Boncy said. “Most of the rapid PCR assays [for the detection of the virus] are being used for U.S. needs.”

Miami Compas Fest is canceled due to coronavirus pandemic, which is surprising to no one

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES

MARCH 31, 2020 03:03 PM, 

This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone watching the coronavirus global pandemic from the confinement of self-isolation on their couch. But Haitian music fans, here it goes: This year’s 22nd annual Haitian Compas Festival has been canceled.

Organizers say with the “Stay at Home” directive and the calls for social distancing — you know this just doesn’t work for konpa music — this year’s show, scheduled for May 16 at Mana Wynwood in Miami with some of the hottest acts in Haitian music, can’t go on.

In fact, with all of the public health emergencies, calls for social distancing, lockdowns and prevention guidance, the realization of the festival, which is also pays tribute to Haiti’s May 18 Flag Day commemoration, is just — well, “impossible.”

“We understand how crucial it is that Compas fans have time to make important decisions and plans,” organizers said. “But you understand, this is totally out of our control. We continue to defer to the authorities for guidance and there is no higher priority for us than the health, safety and physical well-being of each of you and your families.”

The festival has been rescheduled for May 15, 2021.

For those of you who already purchased tickets, they will be “honored and transferred to Haitian Compas Festival 2021.” No need to do anything, other than to call your airline and tell them Miami is out of the question for now.

AMERICAS

Every country in Latin America and the Caribbean now has coronavirus cases, health group says

Indar said the testing process at the regional Caribbean lab starts as soon as the samples are received, and depending on the time results can be turned around in 24 hours. Each testing kit can produce between 40 and 50 individual tests, and the process itself requires two steps for each sample and the use of two kits.

In the first step, lab technicians extract the virus’ RNA. This process takes about two hours.

In the second step, special chemicals are mixed with each sample and the combination is run in a machine for analysis.

At this stage, which can take six to eight hours, “the first thing is to determine if it’s coronavirus, and then the second is to determine if it’s COVID-19,” Indar said. ‘’If it is positive for the coronavirus, it is only then we would go into COVID-19 testing.” Not everyone who gets the virus will get sick; most people will experience only mild symptoms.

BARBADOS ACCUSES U.S. OF BLOCKING VENTILATORS TO HELP WITH THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

April 06, 2020 Updated 11 hours 37 minutes ago

Barbados is the latest country to accuse the United States of blocking it from acquiring critical medical equipment to fight COVID19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.

In a national briefing Sunday, Health Minister Lt. Col Jeffrey Bostic said that 20 ventilators purchased by a philanthropist had been seized in the U.S.

“Those ventilators were actually stopped in the United States, the exportation of those 20 ventilators,” Bostic said.

Bostic did not say who the good Samaritan was and corrected an earlier statement when he incorrectly stated that the seized ventilators were from Barbados-born songstress Rihanna. Five of those ventilators, which were announced last month by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, are scheduled to arrive next week, he said.

The Miami Herald emailed, called and texted Bostic for further details on the shipment, including whether he had reached out to the State Department or the U.S. Embassy in Barbados about his concerns. He did not respond.

A State Department spokesperson seemed to suggest that some previous media reports about seized medical exports may not be accurate.

“We remain concerned about pervasive attempts to divide international efforts through unsourced, unattributed disinformation campaigns,” a spokesperson said.

Earlier, Barbados Health Minister stated that ventilators purchased by @rihanna were seized in US; correction was subsequently issued indicating the exportation of 20 ventilators stopped in the US were not of Rihanna's order but of another philanthropic order

In recent days number of countries —Canada, Germany, France — and even some U.S. states, have accused the Trump administration and American suppliers of diverting medical equipment and not playing by the rules in the hunt for ventilators and scarcely available personal protective equipment such as N95 respiratory face masks as they struggle to mange their outbreaks.

The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel reported Friday that a delivery of protective equipment ordered by the State of Berlin in China for the coronavirus had reportedly been intercepted and diverted to the United States. Berlin’s Interior Minister Andreas GeiseI said they considered the confiscation to be “an act of modern piracy” and urged Germany’s government to demand that Washington play by international trade rules.

“This is not how you deal with transatlantic partners,” Geisel said. There shouldn’t be “wild west methods,” he said, even in times of global crisis.

That same day, the Guardian reported that a French official from a hard-hit region also complained about having a shipment of medical masks from Shanghai diverted to the U.S. after being outbid by “Americans.” “They offered three times the price and they proposed to pay upfront. I can’t do that. I’m spending taxpayers’ money and I can only pay on delivery having checked the quality,” the Guardian said Valérie Pécresse, the influential president of the Île-de-France region, told BFMTV. “So we were caught out.”

On Thursday, President Donald Trump lashed out at the Minnesota-based N95 respiratory mask manufacturer 3M, tweeting that “We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks.”

The next day, he invoked the Defense Production Act to require 3M to prioritize orders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for its N95 mask, and to ban “unscrupulous actors and profiteers” from exporting critical medical gear. The company almost immediately pushed back in a statement.

The administration, 3M said, had asked it to cease exporting its N95 respirators that it currently manufactures in the United States to the Canadian and Latin American markets.

“There are, however, significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators,” the statement said. “In addition, ceasing all export of respirators produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done. If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease. That is the opposite of what we and the Administration, on behalf of the American people, both seek.”

The company said it had already secured approval from China to export 10 million N95 respirators manufactured by 3M in China to the U.S.

“3M and its employees have gone above and beyond to manufacture as many N95 respirators as possible for the U.S. market,” the company said.

During Sunday’s press conference, Barbados’ health minister sought to reassure the nation that they had other channels to secure ventilators as the number of COVID-19 cases in the island of nearly 288,000 inhabitants rose to 56 and the first coronavirus-related death was recorded Saturday. The deceased is an 81-year-old Barbadian male who had a pre-existing medical condition.

As the number of cases in the Caribbean and Latin America continue to escalate, the role of the U.S. in helping nations in the region deal with the global pandemic is an emerging concern. Already cash-strapped, countries are facing everything from a shortage of test kits to ventilators and medical gear for health workers.

Recently Haiti’s new foreign minister, Claude Joseph, invoked the country’s vulnerability as he sought the help of chief of missions in helping the government acquire a list of medical equipment, including 100 ventilators and 200,00 N95 masks, in addition to the $18 million worth of purchase orders that had already been made to China. Haiti currently has 21 confirmed cases and on Sunday recorded its first coronavirus-related death, a 55-year-old male with diabetes and hypertension.

Cuban officials also recently complained about the U.S preventing aid from getting to them, citing the U.S.’s six-decade embargo. Chinese business magnate and Alibaba founder Jack Ma recently announced that his foundation was shipping 2 million masks, 400,000 rapid test kits, and 104 ventilators to 24 countries in the region, including Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Dominican Republic and Peru.

But Cuba’s shipment never made it, according to Cuba’s ambassador to China, Carlos M. Pereira.

Pereira said on his blog that Ma’s foundation tried to send Cuba 100,000 face masks and 10 COVID-19 diagnostic kits along with other aid including ventilators and gloves, but the airline would not transport them, citing the U.S. embargo. Cuba currently has 320 positive cases and has confirmed eight deaths.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 22 avril 2020

 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

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 29 avril 2020

 US church faces neglect allegations after Haiti child deaths

The wealth of the Church of Bible Understanding in the United States has long stood in contrast with the shoddiness of its two children’s homes in Haiti, which have faced years of infractions and failed two state inspections

ABC News

KENSCOFF, Haiti -- For a limestone mantel from the Waldorf Astoria, the church that owns the Olde Good Things antique stores asks for $8,500.

But for the death of each child in a fire at a home it ran in Haiti, the same church offered to pay just $50 to $100 in family compensation — along with $150 for funeral-related costs such as new clothes and transportation.

The wealth of the Church of Bible Understanding in the United States has long stood in contrast with the shoddiness of its two children’s homes in Haiti, which have faced years of infractions and failed two state inspections. But the gap came into even sharper focus on Feb. 13, when the fire killed 13 children and two adult caretakers described by the church’s lawyer as disabled. Authorities suspect the fire started because the home used candles instead of a functioning generator or battery in a country where power failures are frequent.

The deaths have devastated parents like Eustache Arismé, 33. His daughters Nedjie, 4, and Vanise, 3, died in the fire at the home, which is known as an orphanage in Haiti although most children in such homes have at least one living parent.

‘’At first, I was happy to see the children growing up in the orphanage. But now I profoundly regret my decision,’’ Arismé said. ‘

The lawyer for the church, Osner Fevry, said it is being unfairly singled out by critics in Haiti and overseas. Along with compensation and spending money for the parents, the church is assuming the costs of funerals for the 15 victims. 

“I don’t think the church can endorse legal responsibility, but moral responsibility, yes,” Fevry acknowledged. “Morally, how come there was a candle to get light for those kids?”

A series of inspections beginning in November 2012 found the homes the church ran in Haiti didn’t meet minimum health and safety standards, with overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and insufficient trained staff. Haitian authorities stripped them of accreditation. 

The orphanages failed another round of state inspections in 2017 but stayed open. Haitian child welfare authorities say closing an orphanage can take months or years, particularly if the management has money or influence. 

Through its U.S.-based spokeswoman, the church declined to comment on specific allegations of neglect and mistreatment at its children’s homes in Haiti. 

“We are devastated by the tragic fire that took the life of our children at our Haitian orphanage. Words would fail to express our immense grief and heartbreak,” the church said in a written statement. “We are taking this very seriously and are moving forward to help all of those affected by this horrific accident.” 

On the night of Feb. 13 this year, 61 children were sleeping inside the church’s two-story home in the town of Kenscoff in the mountains above the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, according to the Institute of Social Welfare, when a fire broke out after candles were lit in the absence of city power or a functional generator. Thirteen children, ages 3 to 18, died, along with a 39-year-old woman and a 34-year-old man.

Among them was Tania Caristan’s 6-year-old son, Ricardo.

Caristan makes a living selling items on the street and washing neighbors’ clothes. She said she had to leave Ricardo with her estranged husband when he was still a toddler.

It was only two months later that she learned her former husband had put the boy in a Church of Bible Understanding home. Shocked, she went there with a copy of the birth certificate to get her baby back.

But a white man told her through an interpreter that she couldn’t take him because she was not one of the people who had given him to the orphanage, she said.

‘‘I tried everything I could to convince the person in charge at the orphanage,’’ she said quietly. “I cried bitterly.” 

Through its spokeswoman, the church declined to comment on Caristan’s story. 

Haitian prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation into the church’s homes, which held 154 children at the time of the fire, according to the national child-welfare institute. 

Some children raised in the orphanages say they were generally treated kindly. Others describe conditions as mentally and physically abusive, including social isolation and beatings. 

Anaika Francois, 19, told The Associated Press that she entered the homes at six and children with bed-wetting issues from about that age were physically punished. In bad cases, they were stretched across a table and spanked by the monitor or head of the orphanage, she said.

‘’That would often produce marks, in which case the monitor would give you a bath with warm salt water,’’ she said. 

The church declined to comment specifically on former residents’ allegations. 

The Church of Bible Understanding has a thriving online business and retail shops in New York, Los Angeles and at the headquarters in Scranton, Pennsylvania. They cater to the market for antique and vintage home décor, offering such items as crystal chandeliers for as much as $22,000. 

A former accountant for the company, Rashida Lovely, says senior managers of the company were church members and lived in church housing. Lovely said older members of the church were doing most of the group’s work in Haiti.

“They did the best they can do up until now,” she said. “They are too old to be doing it anymore.”

———

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through the Religion News Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

GOOD BY JOSUR PREVALUS

( unepetite ote de la journaliste: Farah Larieux)

The earth just lost a beautiful soul...Josue Prevalus, one of my video producers and the cameraman of Island TV. For the past 2 weeks, I have been calling Josue to check on him and to ask him how his family and him were holding on during this pandemic. My concerns were right. Another victim of #covid19. It was a pleasure working with you Josue. I will miss you. 

Jacqueline Charles

23 avril, 18:49 ·

ICE may start testing deportees pending results of coronavirus checks by CDC in Guatemala

Cette adresse e-mail est protégée contre les robots spammeurs. Vous devez activer le JavaScript pour la visualiser. AND

A team from the CDC was dispatched to the Central American country last week after health officials there said more than 70 detainees on two recent ICE deportation flights had tested positive and they were suspending deportations from the U.S. until further notice.

U.S. immigration officials, facing criticism from countries receiving deportees who then test positive for the coronavirus, may consider testing foreign nationals before they’re deported.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials told the Miami Herald that the decision on whether detainees are tested will hinge on findings by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Guatemala.

A team from the CDC was dispatched to the Central American country last week after health officials there said more than 70 detainees on two recent ICE deportation flights had tested positive and they were suspending deportations from the U.S. until further notice. It marked the third time since March 17 that the country had suspended U.S. deportation flights over the coronavirus

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/immigration/article242234111.html?fbclid=IwAR0ONxywrhYtxVyZZM7WMzBUCxHXN05aOUKC96Mf04CzacxQsfJwNBC4YvE#storylink=cpy

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 20 mai 2020

 Haitian Immigrants At Risk In Delaware Poultry Industry

The Haitian immigrant community, the majority workforce in Delaware and Maryland’s poultry industry, has been heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic amid an order by the US President to return to work in meatpacking plants essential workers. Coronavirus cases have recently spiked in the poultry farms and plants like Perdue’s, which employs many Haitians who can’t afford to miss work for fear of losing their jobs and a paycheck.

Among them is Tina, a 27-year-old mother works shifts at the Perdue packing plant in Georgetown, Delaware. She told AFP that she says a little prayer every time she heads to work at the Delaware poultry plant, but feels she has little choice but to clock in for her shifts, despite the risk to her and her family.

“I want to go home, I have three kids at home, a baby, but I can’t do that,” she told AFP, speaking behind a mask. “I have no choice; bills are coming from left to right.”

The number of coronavirus infections has recently soared in the Delmarva peninsula, which reaches south out of Delaware to eastern Maryland and the northeast of Virginia. Small Delaware towns – like Seaford and Georgetown – are now reporting some of the highest numbers of cases statewide, poising Sussex to push past more urban and populated New Castle County for the most confirmed cases. The Haitian community makes up about 8% of Seaford’s population.

The small town of Salisbury, the historic base of Perdue, is home to a community of some 5,000 Haitians, at least 40 percent of whom are infected, according to Habacuc Petion, the owner of Oasis radio, which broadcasts in Creole to an estimated 20,000 listeners in the Delmarva area. Many work for Perdue, and are refusing to stay home for fear of being sacked.

“Even if they have fever, they take a pill and go to work,” Petion told AFP.

Haitian-born nurse practitioner Emanie Dorival told AFP that back in April, a Haitian immigrant, who works in a chicken processing plant and lives in the Seaford area – had tested positive for the coronavirus, adding to the almost two dozen patients of those she has confirmed with the virus. She added that all of her COVID-19 positive patients work at a chicken processing plant.

“I am really worried,” Dorival, whose practice primarily serves the Haitian community in Seaford, was quoted as saying. “I am really worried for the Haitian and Hispanic community, and I don’t feel like there are protections in place.

“I am feeling helpless.”

Perdue Farms in a statement, meanwhile, said it remains “… focused on the health and safety of our associates, farmers, customers, consumers, communities, and business partners, as well as ensuring the continuity of our supply chain during the global COVID-19 pandemic.”

They added that they have “enacted numerous proactive measures to protect our associates during this uncharted time.” These, according to the company’s statement includes practicing social distancing not only in common areas, such as break rooms and cafeterias, but also on the production lines where possible and temperature checking at all production facilities.

Wyclef and other Haitian musicians unite against COVID-19 with virtual concert

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Because this is a virtual event, artists will be performing from their home base, which in this case includes South Florida, New Jersey and Port-au-Prince. The line-up stars Grammy winner Wyclef Jean, along with konpa bands, Klass, NuLook and Harmonik. There’s also Belo, Darline Desca, Ram, Paul Beaubrun, Vayb and Buyu Ambroise Jazz ensemble. They represent racine, jazz, twoubadou, folk and other genres. 

Garry Pierre-Pierre, the publisher of the Haitian Times, said the cross-section of Haitian genre was intentionally chosen to highlight the country’s diversity, and unity. 

“This is as much a celebration of our culture as it is a fundraiser,” said Pierre-Pierre. “We want to share our culture at the same time we’re asking for help. Haiti’s culture is rich and diverse and I believe people will get a glimpse of that.”

The goal of the event, he said, is to raise money for those in the Haitian diaspora who have been hit hard by the pandemic, and for Haiti. Infections in the country are rapidly rising and are expected to peak either later this month or June. Public health experts are predicting as many as 432,000 infected Haitians will be in need of hospitalizations, which would surely collapse an already weak healthcare system. The number of deaths are expected to be in the tens of thousands.

Along with the musical performances, well-known Haitian-Americans and others will share encouraging words of hope during the livestream.

“We felt that it is important to do something like this,” said Dr. Jean Claude Compas, a retired family practice physician and AMHE member. “The models of COVID-19 that we’re looking at for Haiti are flashing red and if we don’t do something, it will make the devastation from the earthquake look small in terms of human lives lost.”

The concert will be hosted by Carel Pedre, a prominent Haiti media personality.

Organizers have set an ambitious goal of $500,000 to be donated to the Haiti Global Health Alliance, which has been tasked to lead the response to the pandemic in the country. The funds will be collected via a Gofundme page created by the Haitian Medical Association Abroad, a non-profit working in the U.S.

As region eases restrictions on fighting coronavirus, PAHO expresses concerns

Major U.S. cities are now the only ones in the region that are starting to open up. All across Latin America and the Caribbean this week, governments have started to ease restrictions and gradually reopen their economies.

But the Pan American Health Organization is continuing to issue warnings that the global pandemic, which has infected more than 1.4 million people and killed some 80,000 in the region, still has not peaked in many countries. 

“It has now been three months since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in the Americas,” Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of PAHO said at its weekly press briefing Tuesday. “Three months is a long time, and there is growing debate about when countries can start to reopen, when can they ease social distancing and resume regular activities.”

CRUISE LINES FINALLY REPATRIATING WORKERS STRANDED BY COVID-19. NOT EVERYONE IS HAPPY

By Jacqueline Charles and Taylor Dolven 

May 12, 2020 07:10 PM

Crew stuck on cruise ships in Miami, some without pay

After cruise companies canceled all new cruises on March 13, most passengers got to go home, but many crew members, hoping to do the same, are still not allowed to get off the ships, even for a short break on dry land. By DAVID SANTIAGO | Al Diaz

After weeks of delayed efforts to repatriate crew members to their home countries amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, cruise companies are embarking on a Caribbean-wide tour to drop off stranded — and now unemployed — workers.

But not everyone is happy with the arrangements — or leaving it up to the cruise lines to determine if workers are infected.

The repatriation of 85 Haitian nationals to northern Haiti on Tuesday created consternation on social media, as the workers onboard Royal Caribbean International’s Adventure of the Sea and Vision of the Seas ships were allowed to disembark in the port of Labadee and head home without the Haitian government’s required quarantine and COVID-19 testing.

Coronavirus: Madagascar President Rajoelina hits out at tonic 'detractors'

• 12 May 2020
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• Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has said criticism of an untested herbal tonic that he is touting as a treatment for Covid-19 shows the West's condescending attitude towards Africa.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned against using untested remedies.
• Mr Rajoelina's tonic has not gone through clinical trials.
• The African Union has also said it wanted to see the scientific data on the "safety and efficacy" of the product, known as Covid-Organics.
• "If it was a European country that had actually discovered this remedy, would there be so much doubt? I don't think so,"Mr Rajoelina said in an interview with French news channel, France 24..
• Madagascar has reported 193 Covid-19 cases and no deaths.
• The tonic was tried out on fewer than 20 people over three weeks, a presidential aide told the BBC, when the product was first launched last month - which is not in line with WHO guidelines on clinical trials.

Despite the reservations, several African countries, including Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia, have already ordered Covid-Organics, which is produced from the artemisia plant - the source of an ingredient used in a malaria treatment - and other Malagasy plants.

WHO has said Africans deserved access to medicines that have gone through proper trials even if they are derived from traditional treatments.

• BBC Africa Live: Updates from the continent
• How close to developing a vaccine are we?
• Coronavirus in Africa tracker 

In the television interview, Mr Rajoelina said "African scientists... should not be underestimated."

But there is no peer-reviewed data to show that Covid-Organics is effective.

A meeting of 70 experts on African traditional medicine has agreed that clinical trials for all medicines must be carried out, the WHO's Africa region has tweeted.