This is the 154th diary on the earthquake disaster in Haiti. The first diary was by Dallasdoc and previous diaries are linked below. This is the Justice Not Charity edition of the diary.
"The Haitian people are asking not for charity, but for justice."
The Uses of Haiti last paragraph pg. 307
What, then is to be done?
Speaking of events since the 1991 coup, Noam Chomsky has noted that "honest commentary would place all of this in the context of our unwavering opposition to freedom and human rights in Haiti for no less than 200 years." The first order of business, for citizens of the United States, might be a candid and careful assessment of our ruinous policies towards Haiti. Remorse is not a very fashionable sentiment. But for many, old-fashioned penitence might be the first step towards a new solidarity, a pragmatic solidarity that could supplant both our malignant policies of the past and the well -meaning but unfocused charity that does not respond to Haitian aspirations. The Haitian people are asking not for charity, but for justice.
See blueness's comment, original sin.
This is where Paul Farmer's book The Uses of Haiti ends. This is where our new diary begins. Farmer answers our question- what to do first, "The first order of business, for citizens of the United States, might be a candid and careful assessment of our ruinous policies towards Haiti. Remorse is not a very fashionable sentiment." that is what this diary will attempt to do (mainly through the discussion that takes place in the comments). Many of us are new to learning about Haiti. But we really want to help. This diary is a place to learn about Haiti, about US policy towards Haiti, and to advocate for Haiti.
At first I think it was absolutely correct to get aid to Haiti any way possible. Early on some of us felt that if we were to continue to post this diary regularly it was more respectful to Haiti to learn about it. Some others in the group agreed and we have used this diary as a place to learn about Haiti and to keep up with news and information about Haiti.It was just the natural progression of the diary to examine US-Haiti policy. As we learned about Haiti--Haiti's history and the aid situation, it became clear that to address Haiti's poverty we would have to work on stopping our government and the international community from exploiting and oppressing Haiti. How to do this is what we are trying to figure out. We hope to make more people aware of Haiti's strong and inspiring history as well as our continued oppression and exploitation of Haiti.
As I learn about NGOs and the harm some of them and foreign aid in general have done to Haiti, I find that in good conscience I can no longer post the standard diary with all the NGOs listed. So I created this version, Justice Not Charity, for our diary series.
I kept the NGOs that are doing what I believe to be good work (or in a couple cases NGOs others in the diary group felt strongly about keeping in). Some of us have been posting this diary since the earthquake and have been following the news as closely as possible. We have seen that some NGOs, like PIH, IJDH, HERF and others, are on the ground helping people and working to strengthen the Haitian government and institutions. And other NGOs are missing in action or worse yet continuing aid that harms Haiti.
We are having a special edition matching Fund diary: July 12 is the six month mark of the earthquake. The amazing Avila will post. The idea behind the diary is that while we may not have enough for even a small matching fund our small Haiti diary group could put money together to come up with a modest $500 matching fund. The first diary was posted by the amazing Deoliver47. We asked the DKos community to match us and of course the awesome community out did its self and we raised $3200. The wonderful tnichlsn donated and auctioned an Obama poster that really helped us raise money. This time I have a couple of Obama posters I will auction and people have mentioned auctioning different things. Our list of NGOs that meet our matching fund will be shorter this time. I hope you all join us.
Thursday is Haiti diary book day. This is where anyone that has read a book about Haiti can discuss it or if they just want to talk about different books from or about Haiti. It is pretty flexible.
This is our book list so far:
Mountains Beyond Mountains
Damming The Flood
The Uses of Haiti
Travesty in Haiti
Partner To The Poor A Paul Farmer Reader
Walking on Fire
Brother, I'm dying
Bitter Sugar: Slaves Today in the Caribbean by Maurice Lemoione [1985]
The Black Jacobins, C.L.R. James (h/t Deoliver47)
Edwidge Danticat's TheFarming of Bones
The Chosen Place, The Timeless People
PIH has a book list
PIH has a new website. PIH's new website has recommended reading with a book list, and links to websites with action alerts. Articles. I just ordered The Agronomist, Aristide and the Endless Revolution, and Breath, Eyes, Memory
I will add to book/video list. I am still reading The Black Jacobins.
PIH has a link to this cool website, RESULTS
Any suggestions? We are looking for books, articles, websites where we can get accurate information about Haiti. Please share any information. And feel free to correct any errors. As I said i am new to learning about Haiti. I think I will say that forever.
The now requisite warnings: |
Please do your research before donating. The Charity Navigator tool is a useful resource for this purpose. For those not familiar, Charity Navigator evaluates and rates charities according to their financial responsibility and sustainability. Their homepage now lists comprehensive information the major organizations on the ground in Haiti now. (h/t DeepHarm and deb s) An additional resource for researching charities is the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance site.
There are a number of misunderstood messages, rumors, or outright hoaxes being circulated. If something sounds "too good to be true" or you have questions about it, Snopes has a Haiti page to verify or debunk them.
A note about ratings listed here: allie123 has looked up all of the charities listed here and we've put ratings next to the ones that have actually been rated. It looks like this: (****/A). The number of stars (1-4) indicates the rating from Charity Navigator and is also a clickable link to a detailed review of that particular charity. The letter grade is from AIP and is explained here.
The lack of a rating does not mean that something is wrong with it. A lot of good (and bad) organizations have yet to be rated. Also, Charity Navigator, for example, does not evaluate organizations that are exempt under Internal Revenue Code from filing the Form 990. If you don't see a rating, it just means that maybe you should do a little more research before donating. When questions have been raised about a particular entry here, we've either removed it or we've included the question or criticism next to the entry. For more tips, see: Evaluating Charities Not Currently Rated by Charity Navigator.
The Aristide Foundation for Democracy (AFD) was created in 1996 by former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (the first democratically elected president of Haiti) with a simple principle in mind: "The promise of democracy can only be fulfilled if all sectors of Haitian society are able to actively participate in the democratic life of the nation."
CanDo is a direct outcome organization that provides AID and relief in emergency situations.
Fonkoze (***) , a micro-lending organization in Haiti. From their Web site:
Fonkoze is Haiti’s Alternative Bank for the Organized Poor. We are the largest micro-finance institution offering a full range of financial services to the rural-based poor in Haiti. Fonkoze is committed to the economic and social improvement of the people and communities of Haiti and to the reduction of poverty in the country.
According to their Web site, their offices have taken quite a hit. This is another one in the category of long-term rebuilding. (h/t parryander and dizzydean)
Haiti Emergency Relief Foundation:
Haiti’s grassroots movement – including labor unions, women’s groups, educators and human rights activists, support committees for political prisoners, and agricultural cooperatives – are funneling needed aid to those most hit by the earthquake. They are doing what they can – with the most limited of funds – to make a difference. Please take this chance to lend them your support.
All donations to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund will be forwarded to our partners on the ground to help them rebuild what has been destroyed.
Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti:
We fight for the human rights of Haiti’s poor, in court, on the streets and wherever decisions about Haitians’ rights are made. We represent the unjustly imprisoned and victims of political persecution, coordinate grassroots advocacy in Haiti and the US, train human rights advocates in Haiti and disseminate human rights information worldwide.
L'Athletique D'Haiti:
“While many children and parents see the club as a way to make it to the Haitian National team and also as a route
to college scholarships or professional teams outside of Haiti, there’s more to the program than sports. By encouraging youngsters from wealthier families to compete with those from the slums, Robert Duval is also chipping away at the barriers of long divided Haitian society. And as Duval points out, ‘Some of these kids have a lot of talent, not only for soccer. Maybe it’s school or music or writing poetry. But sports will lift them to the next level of life.’”
- Finbar O’Reilly, National Post, Canada
L'Athletique D'Haiti
parryander describes Bobby Duval
Besides being an immensely generous and charming man, he can be delightfully blunt and wonderfully funny. He has no time for crap. He has been through the wars - those of his personal experience being a prisoner of Baby Doc, and also those of the violence in Cite Soleil - the gang wars.
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The Lambi Fund (
***) is a secular non-profit nonprofit whose mission is "to assist the popular, democratic movement in Haiti. Its goal is to help strengthen civil society as a necessary foundation of democracy and development. The fund channels financial and other resources to community-based organizations that promote the social and economic empowerment of the Haitian people." They support "projects that embrace the following principles: non-violent, non-partisan, community-based, promoting the advancement of women, using education and training for empowerment, and promoting the overall democratic movement."
Partners in Health (****/A+) has now started a BLOG about its efforts called Stand with Haiti. It has very useful information. Partners in Health is also putting out a call for health volunteers, in case you are a medical professional who can help out that way.
Matching Funds
Turn a $25 donation into a $50 donation.
Matching funds currently available at this link for Reiser Relief, a group that parryander works with:
Reiser Relief is a charity started by my friend Father Reiser - it funds our water truck, pays teachers salaries, feeds kids, and it supports orphanages and homes for the elderly and women.
A total of $20K in matching funds have been provided for Reiser Relief from Razoo.
As of May 13, over $4K remain (this number does not appear to be updated daily, but we will keep it as current as possible).
SOIL is based in Haiti (founded by two American females) and although their regular mission is :Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti, they are in the streets in PAP providing normal disaster relief services and translation (they speak Kreyol). They have said that all donations in the next 30 days (at least) will go directly to their relief work rather than their usual mission. They have been in Haiti for several years and are very familiar with the people and communities (h/t Royce)
TransAfrica:
Today, TransAfrica Forum campaigns against the crippling debt burden on the countries of Africa and the Caribbean by opposing Vulture Funds, companies that threaten the gains of already hard-fought for debt relief. TransAfrica Forum also struggles for international financial architecture that promotes sustainable growth and takes cues from civil society.
Other news and diaries: |
ShelterBox: carolina stargazer is still watching the store. ShelterBox diary- Tuesday's diary is up. A new diary will be posted Friday. And carolina will continue to monitor the Tuesday diary until she posts the Friday diary. Matching funds are available.
There are two excellent liveblogs by mindoca. This is the first one and this is the second. If you need more specific information, these are a great place to start. mindoca has spent time in Haiti and offers a true first-hand view of disaster relief and Haiti itself.
Mokurai has contributed The Real Story in Haiti and Haiti: Dimensions of Disaster.
FishOutofWater takes a moment to explore the benefits of Partners in Health's commitment to solar powered health centers.
Meteor Blades points the way to a better and more sustainable future for Haitians in Haiti Could Use a New Deal.
As the MSM (in the United States) turns attention away from Haiti, Deoliver47 reminds us that things are not suddenly all better: Raining Disease and More Deaths.
For some good pre-earthquake background on Haiti, see Daisy Cutter's Book Review: "Damming the Flood" by Peter Hallward, pt 1. This diary was published in July 2008 and presents a history of Haiti up to 1999 using Hallward's book as a reference. Excellent.
Two recent diaries by Deep harm remind us that the rains are coming and tents are needed.
This series was created by Dallasdoc and has been maintained with the help of (listed alphabetically): Aji, ALifeLessFrightening, allie123, AntKat, Avila, betson08, big spoiled baby, cosmic debris, Deep Harm, Deoliver47, Frederick Clarkson, J Brunner Fan, Jimdotz, maggiejean, marabout40, Norbrook, OHknighty, oke, parryander, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, Pluto, RunawayRose, swampus, and thebluecrayon. All of these previous diaries can be found by clicking here (listed in reverse chronological order).
IJDH is simply the most reliable source for information and analysis on human rights in Haiti.
— Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
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Please sign petition to help stop forced evictiions: |
Action Alerts:
Aid:
Evictions:
Stop Forced Evictions of Haiti's Earthquake Victims Institute For Justice & Democracy in Haiti has a petition, here.
The UN and Haitian Government agreed on April 22 to an immediate 3-week moratorium on forced evictions which expired, Thursday, May 13th. Within that period reports of evictions continued. Humanitarian aid, including food, water and sanitation facilities have been cut off in targeted camps (1, 2). In other locations, residents are being harassed and abused by the police. The people most affected by the earthquake, those who have lost their families, homes and livelihoods, now live in fear that they may be violently forced to leave their present settlements without viable options established for relocation (2).
Additional Action Alerts:
TransAfrica Forum
Stand up and be counted (Partners in Health)
HAITI ACTION COMMITTEE ACTION ALERT Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti |
UPCOMING DIARIES
Thursday: Book diary RunawayRose
Friday: parryander
Saturday: Aji
Sunday: ***open***
Monday: ***open***
If you would like to volunteer to contribute a diary to continue this series, please volunteer in the comments below. Norbrook has created a Google documents file** with the source code for our usual introduction and the list of charities the community has developed. Doing one of these diaries, thanks to Norbrook, is not nearly as demanding as it was early in the series. Also, updates need to be made far less frequently. You don't need to set aside huge chunks of time for it and it's easy to multi-task if you have other things to do, as long as you're able to check the comments every 30 minutes or so.
**There is also a backup to the original google doc. See this comment for more details.
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The icons and March 13 formatting revision of this diary series are courtesy of the html artist known on Daily Kos as Pluto. The "Help Haiti" image at the top of the diary that has become the "logo" of this series is courtesy of AuntKat.