Grassroots Haitian movements for social justice have set themselves a formidable task: not only addressing the ongoing humanitarian crisis, but also challenging the reconstruction effort to include their leadership and avoid reproducing the conditions that helped make the earthquake so disastrous.
Part of a special journal issue dedicated to strategies for societal renewal in Haiti., Fonkoze, "the bank the poor can call their own," is a bank that provides more than just loans. It also sees access to reasonably priced savings, remittance transfer, and currency conversion as a right of even the poorest. This article tells the story of how -- after the devastation of the 2010 earthquake -- Fonkoze found itself positioned to serve Haiti's rural population before other banks were back on their feet.
Part of a special journal issue focusing on the role of the U.S. Foreign Service in Haiti., The work USAID and the State Department have done in Haiti after the January 12 earthquake shows why these organizations should take the lead in disaster relief.
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
46 p., In the aftermath of the disastrous earthquake of January 12, 2010, Haiti will receive unprecedented aid for reconstruction and for its promising economic strategy; but given the country's legacy of corruption, massive aid could simply result in another massive Haitian failure. As explored in this paper, success hinges on facing corruption squarely and developing a hard-headed, politically sensitive anticorruption strategy.
"I know he's looking down now on [President Obama] saying, 'Good job Barack, but you've got a lot more to do,'" said [Joseph Biden], who was introduced by the university's interim president, Sandra T. Thompson. "It's not merely the news reel, this is zeal," he said of the earthquake's impact on Haitian-Americans. "It's about their brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers." Of his visit to Miami's Haitian community, the vice president said his attempt to participate in an "off-the-record" visit to a church so that he could attend a Catholic Mass in Little Haiti resulted in Haitian-Americans demonstrating tremendous generosity, "even in the midst of their grief."
In this context, the achievements of yesterday and of today are intimately linked. Sojourner Truth thundered against slavery so that Frederick Douglass could agitate. Douglass agitated so that Thurgood Marshall could argue the law. Marshall argued so that Rosa Parks could sit. Parks sat so that Martin Luther King Jr. could stand. King stood so that young people could march. Young people marched so that Shirley Chisholm could dare to aim for Congress. Rep. Chisholm dared so that Jesse Jackson could run. Jackson ran so Barack Obama could win. And Obama won because a majority of voting Americans - red, yellow, brown, black and white - were ready to finally say: Yes, we can!
Part of a special journal issue dedicated to strategies for societal renewal in Haiti., It's not the earthquake that kills people, it's the collapse of buildings that were poorly designed and built. This case narrative describes a building model that will work for Haiti and why it is critical to use a homeowner-driven model rather than a donor-driven one.
As President of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW) and Founder of the Haiti Support Project (HSP), I have just returned from leading a team to Haiti to allocate the first contributions from the IBW/HSP Haiti Relief Fund. A total of $56,000 was distributed to nine community-based/grassroots organizations including women's, youth and peasant groups for relief and capacity-building. Deeply concerned about the plight of Haitian children orphaned by the disastrous earthquake, our team also visited orphanages and assessed the progress of the Oasis Institute, an ambitious Initiative which is designed to relocate orphans and extended family members from tent communities to an interim camp with safe/secure environment, post-traumatic stress counseling and a world class education.
