Grassroots International is commemorating Black August with a series of reflections from our recent delegation to Haiti. Gina Athena Ulysse is a feminist artist-anthropologist-activist and self-described Post-Zora Interventionist, and she currently teaches anthropology at Wesleyan University.
Grassroots International is commemorating Black August with a series of reflections from our recent delegation to Haiti. Marie Helene Fabien Hall lives in Jackson, Mississippi and supports Cooperation Jackson, a Black and Latinx cooperative economics movement and fellow member of the Climate Justice Alliance.
This week, Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity (BOLD) and Grassroots International are leading a delegation in Haiti. A group of U.S.-based Black female organizers and activists are travelling the country, meeting with Grassroots International partners and sharing lessons of resistance.
In response to government inaction and ineffectiveness, Haiti’s largest social movements have banded together to take command of the nation’s future. Haiti’s social movements recently joined hands in a historic show of unity and people power, putting the final touches...
Far from hapless victims, Haitians have a vibrant history of resistance. On January 1st, 1804 Haiti won its independence and was the first to defeat the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. As Grassroots celebrates this movement and the victories it won, this history remains relevant for organizing around the world today.
Hurricane Matthew made a direct hit on Haiti on October 4, pounding the island nation with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph. The first Category 4 storm to hit Haiti in more than 50 years, the cyclone assaulted the precarious infrastructure and flooded the denuded countryside. As Rosnel Jean Baptiste from Tet Kole explains: "Haiti is a very vulnerable country -- and because of our vulnerability hurricanes do not pass by without doing terrible damage."
This Father’s Day we celebrate three men who courageously strive to overcome adversity and improve the lives of their families and of their communities: Carlos Marentes, Sr., Antonal Mortimer, and Alfredo Lopez.
Haitians are preparing for an influx of deportees from the Dominican Republic. That’s what we learned during our recent site visit to Haiti from some of the organizations we met with like the Limonad Women's Association for Development of Agriculture and Artisanal Production (AFLIDEPA), who were preparing to welcome and do what they can to support them..
Five years ago on this day, a colossal shifting of the ground brought Haiti to its knees. On January 12, 2010 the island nation was devastated by the trembling. 0ver 300,000 people were killed according to Haitian government statistics, but the truth is that nobody knows how many were killed that day. Port-au-Prince was left devastated and in ruin. Today is a day to remember and mourn the people who were killed. It is also a day to reflect on how the devastation came to be so great, what happened afterward, and where Haiti is today.
Since coming to power in 2011, the administration of President Martelly has failed to hold elections for senate seats, the chamber of deputies, and local. Fed up with inactivity, the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH) renewed calls for elections in Haiti, joining other human rights organizations throughout the nation.
by Jen B.
Human rights defenders in Haiti risk their lives to protect the basic rights of Haitian citizens. Exile, intimidation, death threats, and assassinations have become part and parcel with human rights work in Haiti. Since January 2014, 15 local human rights defenders have been the targets of physical attacks and death threats that aim to end their critical work.
It has been almost four years since the devastating earthquake of 2010 shook Haiti to its core. In the aftermath—amid grand plans to ‘build back better’ and huge promises of international aid—more than 1 million people settled into makeshift camps, their homes destroyed by the quake. Many of these camps were in public areas, highly visible on roads and highways--glaring evidence of the need to re-build.
On March 28, 2012—more than two years after the devastating earthquake—884 displaced families living under makeshift tents and tarps in the displacement camp of Gaston Magron in Port-au-Prince were busy putting their children to sleep when bullets suddenly began flying. A gang of thugs had broken into the camp searching for the camp’s security volunteers, apparently in retaliation for being stopped from entering the camp previously. They shot and killed three people, wounding several dozen others including a pregnant woman. They set fire to tents, raped several women and girls, verbally threatened terrified camp residents, and then left.
Se Ra, Se Ta!-- Later is too late” was the resounding cry of people in Haiti on November 25, 2011, in the various actions held in honor of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This affirmation also acknowledged that in the aftermath of the January 12, 2010 earthquake, the devastating effects of other forms of violence, such as crime, disease, economic and structural violence have been equally traumatic to the people of Haiti.
Two years following the earthquake, community-based organizations in Haiti are still advocating for the same changes and considerations as they did last year, namely land and housing rights, respect for national sovereignty in the reconstruction process and aid accountability.
Since returning from exile last year, former dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier has been treated like an old friend by Haitian President Michel Martelly, rather than a brutal dictator responsible for the deaths, torture and disappearances of thousands of Haitian citizens. Duvalier’s excesses as commander-in-chief of Haiti’s notorious “Tonton Makouts” have been denounced internationally as crimes against humanity.
Haitians, whether in Haiti or the diaspora, will always remember where they were on January 12, 2010, when tragedy shook us to our core. Devastating images emerged from Port-au-Prince after the earthquake that brought to mind cinematic depictions of the aftermath of a blitzkrieg. I had to constantly remind myself that an earthquake did this, not indiscriminate bombing. In the days that followed my heart wanted a seat on the next airplane to Haiti, but my mind grounded me on a simple fact: I had no medical training and my presence could not give the kind of help that was immediately needed. But I wanted to do something…
On December 10, 2011, the Platform of Haitian Human Rights Organizations (POHDH) will celebrate 20 years of human rights promotion and defense in Haiti. A partner of Grassroots International, POHDH is a non-partisan association of eight non-profit, non-governmental Haitian rights organizations bound by shared beliefs in human rights (individual and collective), democracy, and public education around the issues of social, political, and cultural rights.