Haiti On My Mind

As Haiti and its allies search for lasting solutions to the current violence-driven insecurity inflicted by criminal gangs, a multitude of passionate debates take place around the world in search of best ways forward.

As Haiti and its allies search for lasting solutions to the current violence-driven insecurity inflicted by criminal gangs, a multitude of passionate debates take place around the world in search of best ways forward.

Haiti On My Mind
Author
Henryka Manès
Date
Apr 2024
Updated
Sep 2024
Category

As Haiti and its allies search for lasting solutions to the current violence-driven insecurity inflicted by criminal gangs, a multitude of passionate debates take place around the world in search of best ways forward. This is an opportune time to also address the vexing issue of past American policies that deeply harmed Haiti, and the necessity to prevent this from happening again.      

The proximity of our two countries makes close relationships unavoidable and, indeed, desirable. But, the U.S. is the most advanced and richest country in the world with a population of 342 million, while Haiti is one of the smallest and poorest countries in the world with a population of eleven million. This imbalance puts the burden on the U.S. to ensure our policies result in positive outcomes for Haitians. Unfortunately and repeatedly, too many of our actions have left a trail of serious damage.

Here are four examples, out of many, of harmful U.S. policies:

  • When Haiti’s enslaved men and women won – against all odds – their independence from France (1804), the U.S sided with France when the latter forced the former slaves to pay “reparations” (a ransom) to their former French slave owners. It took Haitians more than a century to pay that forcibly imposed debt, assessed by some at $122 billion in today’s currency (NYT). Siding with France meant participating in the devastating economic blockade of the newly formed republic.
  • For nineteen years (1915-1934) the U.S. occupied Haiti. Among the most egregious actions during that time were forcing rural Haitians to work for free, called ‘corvée’, chillingly echoing slavery, emptying the country central bank’s coffers including its gold bars, and killing an estimated 15,000 Haitians (Trouillot).  
  • In early 1990s, the Clinton Administration forced Haiti to lower its rice import tax to barely 3%. In his 2010 public apology, President Clinton explained that he thought Haitians should be freed from the burden of growing food, and instead work in the industrial sector. This defies logic since Haiti has always been an agriculture-based economy as food production is vital for its survival, and an industrial sector that could employ millions did not exist.

    The end result is that the U.S. killed Haiti’s rice production, irreparably intensifying hunger and pushing smallholder farming families deeper into poverty.

    But this policy had one big winner: Riceland, the U.S largest rice company, located, as it happens, in Arkansas. While in the early 1990s Haitians grew enough rice to feed themselves, by 2022, Riceland’s exports of U.S. heavily subsidized rice supplied 80% of Haiti’s rice consumption (USDA).
  • Most recently, on July 7th, 2021, Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated. Many assumed that the U.S. – a constitutional federal republic – would support Haitians in following their constitution. But we didn’t. Instead, together with the Core Group, U.S. declared Dr. Ariel Henry the de facto country’s provisional head. Granted, Moise did express his wish to nominate Henry as his prime minister. But the president was dead; and Haiti’s constitution is clear on what steps to follow when a president becomes incapacitated (articles 149 and 149.1).

    A similar situation occurred in 2004 when a coup forced President Jean-Bertrand Aristide into exile. Haitians named Boniface Alexandre, the country’s senior judge, as the head of the provisional government which served for the prescribed twenty-four months. And, as mandated, it organized elections to choose the licit government. Haitians followed their constitution to the letter – and it worked.

    By imposing Henry, the U.S. deprived the Haitian people of their self-determination.

During Henry’s governance that lasted thirty three instead of the prescribed twenty four months, gang’s extreme and ruinous violence escalated considerably. Using insecurity as an excuse, Henry declared that elections could not be organized as planned – de facto extending his own mandate for an unlimited duration. The population revolted, the U.S. finally withdrew its support, and he was forced to resign.

The most dispiriting part of this is that following Henry’s resignation, Haitians found themselves in exactly the same position had they been empowered to follow their constitution thirty-three months earlier. Today, a temporary presidential council has been set-up, it has designated the provisional government’s prime minister, Garry Conille, who  named his provisional government, which was approved and is functioning.

Meanwhile, the heavy toll of violence during the past thirty five months looms large: roughly 5,000 Haitians killed, thousands of women and girls raped, 400,000 internally displaced, and more than 300,000 fled the country, resulting in a staggering loss of life, talent, and brain power.  

We will never know if a constitutionally formed provisional government could have prevented the gangs’ onslaught on the capital and surrounding areas. But experience indicates that most Haitians would have considered such a government legitimate, and themselves as empowered.

This recurring pattern of U.S. harmful policies toward Haiti during the last two hundred years demonstrates that guardrails must be put in place to stop enacting harmful policies.            

Every few years, members of Congress call for a hearing to better understand Haiti’s current situation. This helps them evaluate proposed U.S. policies regarding Haiti. Within that framework, the Congress could order a study to analyze all past U.S. policies, describe the outcomes, draw lessons learned, and propose solutions to build the necessary safeguards.  

Undergirding any solution must be the iron-clad determination that our deeply rooted principles and values will not stop at the water’s edge. And, that leaders within Haiti and the diaspora will be included in articulating the way forward.  

Such a collaborative solution will provide crucial guidance, reinforce mutual trust and lead to a stronger, more transparent, and powerful bi-lateral cooperation. Critically, it will ensure an end to misguided U.S. policies whose nefarious impacts have been afflicting Haiti’s most vulnerable populations then and now.

Creating a protective safety net, however,  does not release us from the obligation to repair the harm we have already caused. Haitians need it to significantly improve their lives, and we need it to maintain our vital moral fortitude.

NYT: The New York Times, “The Root of Haiti’s Misery” , May 27th, 2022;
Trouillot: Michel Ralph Trouillot, as cited by Wikipedia: ”United States’ Occupation of Haiti”.
USDA: United States Department of Agriculture “Haiti’s US Rice Imports”.

Henryka Manès is the Founder and Executive Director of Ecoworks International. She has been working with developing and emerging economy countries for the past 35 years. Haiti is her 25th country. EWI was established in 2009 to work in Haiti as a way to paying it forward and thank Haiti for issuing visas and passports in 1937 to families fleeing Nazi persecutions.

Talia Farms Program

Disaster Responses

Frequently Asked Questions

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ECONOMY - AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES

Responding to local smallholder families’ expressed needs to gain more agency, access training, and improve the overall agricultural production, EWI is helping organize unaffiliated local farmers into agricultural cooperatives that farmers own and manage.

Two regional cooperatives have been established, and the remaining three will be added when security is restored. The two cooperatives serve 1,400members of participating farming families.

COOPERATIVE #1 – CAMA (Coopérative Agricole de Mare Roseau en Avant). 

Mare Roseau is a communal section of the Commune of Ganthier, and is located at about 6,000 feet in the La Selle mountain range.

At CAMA most men are farmers, and most women take care of farm animals and run their homes.

Once established, CAMA members chose to partner with EWI on establishing the Women’s Goat Project. Large farm animals are like savings accounts for the farming families. Women were trained in goat husbandry and took possession of 18 improved-breed goats . Each year the herd size doubles.    

Other projects focus on acquiring seeds for planting, continual farmers’ training, and planning for the next steps.

Woman Farmer_ Ganthier, Haiti
CAMA Coop Women's Goat Project

COOPERATIVE #2 – CADET, (Coopérative Agricole pour le Dévéloppement de Toman]

Toman is located at about 3,000 feet in the La Selle mountain range.

At CADET most men raise large farm animals and most women are small-merchants and take care of their homes.

For the past three and a half years, the gang blocks farmers from reaching markets to sell their animals and generate income. Consequently, we have increased our support of the small-merchant women who have now become the main bread winners.

Jointly, we have established a rollover fund so they can access affordable loans. Each year we increase the fund’s capital to grow the number of women who benefit from these loans. The fund is entirely managed by the women and their repayment rate is 93% which, given the circumstances, is excellent. The ‘normal’ repayment rate among these women is 96-98%.  

CADET Coop, Members' Field
CADET COOP - Women's Fund Meeting

SHARED KNOWLEDGE

EDUCATION - THE PATRICE LUMUMBA COMMUNITY-BASED SCHOOL

The school that started with 18 pupils in a sublet classroom, today has its own building and educates between 260-300 students from five to sixteen years old. Since the inception of this partnership in 2009, the school and EWI worked jointly on many projects, among them:

Construction, Curriculum, Rainwater Collecting System, School Lunches, books,  and so on.

Helped complete the construction of the school building, and provides continuous support to grow the curriculum and the student body.

Civics Course

EWI and the school designed and offer a civics course to teach students their responsibilities as Haitian citizens, and to learn about the main democratic tenets. This is in addition to the national curriculum.  

The first ever class president election to promote citizen's responsibility to vote

Rainwater Collecting System

EWI funded and the school installed a rainwater collecting system so students, faculty and staff could drink and wash their hands with safe water.

School Lunches

The current catastrophic economic decline resulted in parents’ loss of income so severe they could no longer feed their children three daily meals. EWI and the school responded overnight by establishing a kitchen in the schoolyard that provides 300 daily school lunches to students and staff.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In addition to EWI’s support, the Patrice Lumumba school receives funding from most parents, teachers, local community leaders, and the U.S. Ganthier diaspora. Students whose parents cannot contribute, remain in school to continue their education. This is a truly community-based school.  

WOMEN’S LITERACY

EWI initiated a Women’s Literacy program in Ganthier’s communal section of  Galette-Chambon. Forty women of all ages participated in this one-year course. Using the Alfalit method, the participating women who couldn’t read or write when the course started, successfully completed it.

As they received their diplomas, many expressed their gratitude, pride and agency in a thank you letter written by hand and addressed to Henryka Manès our Founding Executive Director, who they befriended during her regular visits and classroom participation.

There were many emotional moments during that year – by far the two most salient were when each woman could, for the first time, write her name; the other was when they could write the thank you letter.  

Teacher congratulating student on writing her name for the first time, and a thank you note from graduate of EWI literacy one-year course.
Graduating Class - Women's  Literacy Program

ABOUT THE GANTHIER REGION

The Commune of Ganthier and EWI signed a cooperative agreement in the first months of our arrival in 2009. We agreed to prioritize the needs of the local small holder farmers, support the community-based school, and advance women’s equity. These common objectives became the genesis of the Talia Farms Program.

Being close to the capital, the region has been affected by the 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew, Covid, and lately has been overrun by the brutal 400 Mawoso gang.

Through thick and thin, we have supported each other and doggedly continue our cooperation, finding solutions to the challenges we encounter. It has been fifteen years of close friendship, and mutual trust and respect

Tragically, at this time the town of Ganthier and much of the region is under the occupation of the 400 Mawoso gang.  All schools and institutions are closed. Almost all of the town of Ganthier (about 25,000 people) are in hiding, scared and hungry. See Disaster Relief section for more information.

MAP-REGION OF GANTHIER

Frequently Asked Questions

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CURRENT EMERGENCY

As You Celebrate – You can Also Help!

Sunday, July 21st, 2024, at 3:00 AM the 400 Mawoso gang viciously attacked the town of Ganthier.  

All anyone could do is grab one’s children and run as fast and as far as possible. Once the town emptied, gang members went from house to house,  looted it and burned it.

Residents formed clusters of groups that spread widely over the region.  They live in hiding, are scared, and hungry. Food is the most critical need.

As most of you know, our teams are made of local residents – and are now among those who had to flee.

Despite the risks and danger -  and thanks to our local teams who are among the refugees - we have been able to organize food deliveries. Each food package contains rice, beans, and cooking oil. One package costs $16 dollars and enables a family of six people to eat for 8-10 days.  

To avoid at all cost the dire consequences of persistent hunger such as chronic diseases or children’s stunted mental and physical development, we do what we can to make the food deliveries on a regular schedule.  

In America, this is a time of celebration with our family and friends. Would you, kindly, consider to help providing a basic food package to one family that has been uprooted, lives in fear, and experiences hunger. Any amount would be deeply appreciated.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, mèsi anpil.

Residents of Ganthier who fled - in hiding, at an abandoned and unfinished building 9.10.24
Pregnant woman and her husband receiving their food package. EWI second food distribution, September 2024. " (c) EWI
Ganthier in habitants in hiding-food distribution 9-11-24

2021 EARTHQUAKE - NIPPES

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the southwestern region of Haiti on August 14th, 2021. The epicenter of the quake was located in the Nippes Department, but affected a large swath of the region. More than 2,400 people were killed, 12,200 were injured, and more than 137,000 buildings were destroyed.  

We were contacted by Michel Simon, one the country’s foremost experts in the fishing industry, who works closely with the local fishermen. Fishing is the region’s primary economic sector  and employs the men who fish and the women who sell the fish. The fishermen requested help in rebuilding the under-the-sea fish attracters so they could immediately resume fishing and start generating income.

Fishermen stringing sea buoys. They will signal where attracters are placed and will anchor
Fishermen Building the weights to keep the attracter moored
A big fish caught in Petite Riviere de Nippes
Fishermen are getting ready to fish

We cooperated and helped to quickly rebuild the two systems they requested.  

COVID

During the height of the COVID pandemic, the Mare Roseau communities requested public access to water so children and adults could regularly wash their hands. Jointly we installed hand washing stations throughout the region. Parents learned and then trained their children how to properly wash their hands, which helped preventing virus’s spread.

2020 EWI Hand Washing Water Station for handwashing to prevent Covid-19 infections

2010 EARTHQUAKE - PORT - AU-PRINCE

On January 12th, 2010, a 7 - magnigude earthquake hit Haiti’s capital, its surrounding areas, and Jacmel. The results were devastating, close to 300,000 dead, another 300,000 injured, and 1,5 million homeless.  

We temporarily reduced our activities in Ganthier and rushed to the Bernard Mevs Hospital, Haiti’s premiere surgical and trauma center, located in Port-au-Prince. Following our initial hospital visit and consultation with the medical staff, we devised the following activities:

  • Within hours, we set-up an outdoor kitchen in a safe place and provided daily lunches to all patients, their families, and the staff.
  • Renovated a wing of the hospital and installed a physical rehabilitation center to treat recent amputees and the seriously wounded. Brought a senior trauma and rehabilitation team from Israel to train hospital staff.
  • Brought in regular short term U.S. doctors and nurses to help alleviate the hospital teams’ workload.
  • Provided equipment surgeons requested and brought a US team to train local doctors in its proper use.  
  • Donated an ambulance to safely transport the wounded.  
  • Focused sharply on wounded children and recent amputees as many had no families left; ensured they had places to go, and provided transportation.  
  • Secured tents as patients were too traumatized to enter any building, thus had to lie on the ground. All patients were housed in tents.
  • As medicine and medical supplies were in extremely short supply, we assured daily rounds to distribution centers to obtain them.

Working so closely with the Bernard Mevs medical and support staff made clear how outstanding their expertise and dedication were during these excruciatingly trying times. It was an honor to work by their side.  

What made this major emergency response possible (which included so much more, like providing food to three orphanages, installing a water pump in a devastated area, etc.) was a major grant from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), donations from our loyal and first time donors, logistical support from SOUTHCOM which transported needed equipment for free, and our volunteers. We are forever deeply grateful for this extraordinary generosity.

Photo of the destruction made by the 2010 EARTHQUAKE
2010 earthquake Church in ruins

2010 - EARTHQUAKE, The Iron Market, HAITI
Photo of a young patient enjoying his lunch, by EWI
A young patient enjoying his lunch
KS, the youngest amputee at B Mevs Hospital, living with Henryka Manes in Haiti - regaining her strength
Author
Henryka Manès
Date
Apr 2024
Updated
Sep 2024
Category