Nicole Simeon, Journalist, Port-au-Prince.
“My name is Bertha. I was very young when I began my life on the streets. I wandered all over town looking for a better life and freedom. I have had three children in the streets for three different fathers. One is dead, a little girl. The parents of the father of Alain, the eldest child, have taken charge of him since the death of their son. Jean, who is only one month old, lives with me. To live in the streets is difficult, even when you’re alone. With a child it is much harder. Since Jean’s birth, I stopped all my activities. I wait till he turns three months before I return to the streets to continue surviving.”
This is the testimony of a street girl in Cap-Haitien, the second city of Haiti located at 252 kilometers North of the capital.
She is better known by her nickname “Set dwet” (7 fingers) because of a birth handicap, she said. Read more ...
Merfy Jirolien, Journalist, Bon Nouvel, Haiti
Terrier Rouge is a community in the North-East department of Haiti situated at 36 kilometers from Cap-Haitien, the main city of the North. In 1984 the Episcopalian Church of Haiti established an agricultural technical school to train young men and women in the field of agriculture and the cultivation of vegetables in particular.
In early 2001, this centre had 37 students in the first year, with three women among them. The second year is being attended by 36 students (one woman in this group). The diploma course lasts two years, with one- week breaks following each trimester.
Sisal is the main crop that the community of Terrier-Rouge used to grow. Two factories, Fayeton and Derak, used to buy the peasant’s production of sisal.
In 1986, when the Dauphin factory closed its operations, the inhabitants turned to raising cattle, because many people believed that the land could not grow anything else than sisal. Read more ...
The business of drug has boosted the economy of certain coastal towns and localities oh Haiti.
Young and old, fishermen and farmers have neglected their traditional occupations to expect the fall/drop of this new manna from heavens or the ocean.
Baptiste is one these groups of people. Recently he left Marigot his home place in the south east and walked for 4 kilometers to reach Guillomonde in search of the precious powder. Read more ...