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To amplify the voices of the vulnerable, the marginalized and the excluded. |
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In the rural areas of Haiti, wood is an important fuel. Everywhere throughout the country, it is women who walk daily for hours, often crossing dozens of kilometres, in the search for this precious commodity.
In Mabial, a locality situated 18 kms North of the town of Jacmel in the South-East of the country, deforestation has reached its high point. The peasants must cover many kilometers to find wood in other localities. Paleus Garraud is one of the women who uses wood to cook her family food. She tells of her experience.
“I used to fetch wood from my gardens, now the bushes have disappeared. There are no more trees near my house. To find enough wood, I must walk for long, sometimes for hours. My feet hurt. It is hard to walk long distances and carry heavy loads,” she says.
Sarah Jean-Louis who lives in the community of Gosseline (district of Jacmel) has watched trees grow around her house. She saw them disappear one by one, year after year. That means a lot to her. Actually, it means less birds and cattle, less water and much less wood to cook with. Read more ...
The Haitian society still has far to go in encouraging, in the media, the expression of children, the adults of tomorrow. The involvement of children in the media and the ideas that they can convey would play a vital role in the sustainable development process of Haiti.
This was found by a documentary study conducted by the Panos Institute( 2) during the first half of the year 2000, focusing on the participation of children in the media.
In their programming, many media devote a special place to children. However, most of the content inserted seems yenyen (3): without any emphasis on the child’s contribution as a human being in its own right, endowed with its own intelligence and personality, and in a quest for true social changes. Also daily news programmes do not take account of the opinions of children about the realities around them.
Read more ...By: Nicole Siméon, Journalist
Thousands of Haitian children are left in the streets at a very young age and can be found in the capital as well as in towns throughout the country. They are usually abandoned without anyone taking responsibility for them and very often involve themselves in undesirable activities such as thievery, drugs, and prostitution. There aren’t many street children who have parents they can count on in the towns they are from and they don’t usually have a place to stay.
In Jacmel, a city 118 kilometers Southeast of Haiti’s capital, Port‑au‑Prince, this phenomenon is being alleviated since a study was conducted by Dr. François Ponticq and Martine Bernier in 1998.
The progress that has been made in dealing with this situation is not attributed to a miracle. A social‑cultural and artistic association called Ligue des Artistes Sans Frontières (Artists League Without Borders), known as LASAF, and located in Jacmel, has been assisting poor children especially those who find themselves in the streets.
One of the persons in charge of LASAF explained to us the path and interventions the association has been taking to help the children. Read more ...