Youth Leadership in Haiti
On Wednesday February 3, more than seven hundred young people gathered at the Aristide Foundation for Democracy to launch the Aristide-Lavalas Youth league (Ligue de la Jeunesse Aristido-Lavalasse). The goal of the Youth League is to bring young people together to vitalize Haiti’s democracy and to initiate service projects to help their communities in the fields of education and health.
Each department of Haiti was represented by a delegation of 10-12 young people all of whom made the long trip to Port-au-Prince because they want to contribute to the building of a participatory democracy in Haiti. Early in the morning of Feb 2, these departmental youth delegations met for a four-hour discussion/ workshop in the conference room of the AFD to share perspectives, brainstorm ideas, and create an orientation for the new organization. Pyschologist Wladimir Constant facilitated this dialogue titled, “The Leadership of the Young.”
Toussaint Hilaire, director of the AFD addresses the youth delegates
For the second stage of the event the delegations came downstairs, and onto the stage of the auditorium, where they were welcomed with thunderous applause by over 700 other young people from the department of the West (Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas), who gathered in the auditorium to welcome the national delegates and to officially launch this Youth League.
Much of the organizing to launch the Youth League was done by young UNIFA graduates together with the leadership of the Foundation. These young doctors who began their medical training at UniFA before the 2004 coup d’etat, and then finished their training in Cuba, are now back in Haiti and have been central to all the AFD’s efforts to assist in the wake of the earthquake. This initiative also builds on the Foundation’s efforts over the past year to empower young people to be at the forefront of service in wake of the quake (though mobile clinics staffed by young doctors, mobile schools staffed by young high school and college graduates, and our youth-led mental health project Soulaje Lespri Moun, and the the reopening of UNIFA ).
Youth Delegates on the stage at the AFD, Feb. 2, 2011
The launching of this youth league represents the determination of all the young people who have came together on February 3, to offer their energy, creativity, and vitality towards a new Haiti.
Rose Yvica Roche Volcy and Yves Merry Stuart Roche were the MC’s for the ceremony in the auditorium. Hancy Pierre Louis, professor of economics and former Vice Governor of the Central Bank, gave a presentation on Haiti’s economy.
Hancy Pierre Louis addressing the Youth League
Wladimir Constant, spoke again on the centrality of youth leadership, and Toussaint Hilaire, the Director of the Arsitide Foundation spoke about the importance of youth gaining confidence in themselves through service to the country and offered perspectives on the kinds of civic and service projects the Youth League might undertake, such as literacy programs for adults, and educational projects for children who are not in school.
Joseph Marc Anderson, a youth representative then spoke on behalf of the league and presented its charter to those present.
A cultural presentation by Kolonb Dor, the youth troupe of the Aristide Foundation followed.
We look forward to seeing this new organization evolve and flourish. Only Haitians can rebuild Haiti.
A Clinic for Those who Lost Limbs in the Quake
On January 7, 2011 the Aristide Foundation organized a clinic for 400 people who were injured or lost limbs as a result of the earthquake. Over 5,000 people are estimated to have lost a limb as a result of injuries sustained during the earthquake. The group gathered in the auditorium of the Aristide Foundation on the morning of the 7th. Each person then received a consultation with a doctor. Four orthopedists, two surgeons, and 15 general medical doctors (most of whom are former UniFA students, trained in Cuba) offered their services for the day.
After the consultation, crutches, wheel chairs, walker and canes for the elderly, were distributed free of charge to those in need of them. Most of the equipment we distributed came from a gift facilitated by Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, we thank them for enabling us to some help to those in need.
This event was the first in a series of events planned this week to mark the anniversary of the quake through service to the survivors.
Together We Are Strong
Watch a New Video on the work of the Aristide Foundation since the
January, 2010 Earthquake Together We Are Strong
A Democratic Debate in the auditorium of the AFD, photo Paul Burke
While the international press on Haiti has been abuzz with stories about Haiti’s upcoming Presidential elections, there is not much enthusiasm on the ground, where over a million and half people are still living in tents settlements across Port-au-Prince and the other areas hit hard by the quake.
Nearly every Saturday the Aristide Foundation holds a democratic debate were ordinary Haitians can gather and voice their views. These gatherings continue to draw participants from across the metropolitan area, the majority of whom are living under tents. What we hear from those coming to the AFD is disinterest in elections from which the largest political party in the country Famni Lavalas has been excluded, anger at the recovery process which has made almost no visible signs of progress in over 7 months and which offers no role for the majority of Haitians to participate, and a sustained call for the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his family to his country.
For a full analysis of the political situation please see Haiti Elections: Unfair and Undemocratic by Ira Kurzban (Miami Herald September 8, 2010). To support Haitians call for the return of President Aristide add your name to this petition.
As we enter the eighth month since the quake the Foundation has begun to switch gears from the immediate relief efforts (mobile schools and mobile clinics) which we activated in response the catastrophe. We’ve begun to focus on more durable long-term projects including:
- An agriculture project on the grounds of the UniFA campus which will put formerly agricultural land near the city back into productive use, and which will provide children from the mobile schools we operated in the wake of the quake a chance to learn agricultural skills and raise food for their families.
Farmers meet on the campus of UniFA, Photo by Paul Burke
- A micro-lending project to enable market women who lost their goods and businesses during the quake to restart their businesses and support their families.
Market Women in Downtown Port-au-Prince after the quake, photo curtesy of Unicef
- The reopening of UniFA, the University of the Aristide Foundation. The main classroom building, which sustained minor damage in the quake, has now been fully repaired. On September 1, 2010 computer science and Spanish language classes resumed inside the building. Over 300 young Haitians are now studying computer science on the campus. During the second week of September, 296 students how began their studies in the Spring of 2009 will complete their one-year Spanish language program. For the past several months, while the building was being repaired classes were held in open-air classrooms on campus, allowing students to continue their studies. For more on the reopening of UniFA please see the article which appeared in the Nouvelliste on Spetember 8, 2010 (French-language)
Computers Class at the AFD, Photo by Paul Burke
All the students currently studying at UniFA, and the thousands more who would like to join them, along with everyone connected to the Foundation, look forward to the day when UniFA can offer a full range of University-level programs to the children of the poor, including the reopening of the Faculty of Medicine which functioned from 2001-2004. With twenty-eight of thirty-two institutions of higher education in the country reportedly destroyed, the urgency of reopening and expanding the University to meet the incredible demand of Haiti’s youth could not be greater. We hope you will join us in finding the resources to making this dream a reality.
If you would like to support the work of the Aristide Foundation for Democracy tax-deductible donations can be made here:
Or mail checks to: Aristide Foundation, PO Box 490271, Key Biscayne, Florida 33149
All donations are tax deductible and will be acknowledged.
