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To amplify the voices of the vulnerable, the marginalized and the excluded. |
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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 ...
By: Ives Marie Chanel & Ronald Colbert[1]
Haitian authorities have not yet demonstrated any official interest in the promotion of the Internet. The investments are still limited in this sector, which serves a minority with economic means – in a country whose yearly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) does not exceed US$457 per capita[2]
The globalization spreading around the world meets in Haiti a terrain characterized by archaic structures and inaccessibility of information. Public authorities are not very sensitive to the need of being open towards technology that could allow the more efficient delivery of their services to the people. The principal problem of connecting to the Internet relates to the infra-structural and organizational deficiencies of the telecommunications sector.
“If we do not make a jump to get into line, the gap between Haiti and the other countries will be even wider than it is already. It takes an eternity to obtain an authorization for accessing the Internet by satellite. One has the impression that pulling strings works better¼,” Reynold Pauyot said, Coordinator of the Haitian Telematics Network for Research and Development (REHRED).
Various people interviewed for the preparation of this briefing expressed the view that today, on the eve of the third millennium, we need a collective effort to understand the economic, social and cultural importance of the Internet to Haiti. Read more ...