UN struggles to stem new rise in Haiti cholera cases

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - A deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti that experts say was introduced by UN peacekeepers from Nepal is on the rise, with hundreds of new cases registered weekly, a UN official said Thursday.
Pedro Medrano, the UN coordinator for Haiti's cholera outbreak, said years of work to beat back the disease are in jeopardy as donors turn away from the emergency.
"Unfortunately because of lack of resources and of the rainy season, in the last six months we have moved from a thousand new cases a month to almost a thousand a week, " Medrano told AFP in an interview.
The UN official predicts more than 50,000 new cases this year, up from 28,000 last year, the lowest level since the outbreak began in October 2010.
More than 8,800 people have died from cholera and 736,000 Haitians have been infected since the outbreak that expert studies have shown was brought to the island by Nepalese troops.
Studies traced the bacteria to the sewage system of a peacekeeping base run by the Nepalese that contaminated a river used by many Haitians for drinking water.
This year alone, 113 people have died and there have been 11,721 new cases in Haiti but there are fears that with the start of the rainy season in June, the number of cases will soar.
At the same time, many aid agencies have left Haiti and treatment centers have shut down.
"The risk here is that all the progress we made so far can be lost," said Medrano.
"For the donor community this is not an emergency, and because it is not considered an emergency, the money, the resources we need to deal with the humanitarian crisis are not coming," he said.
Left unchecked, the epidemic could spread to neighboring Dominican Republic or Cuba, he warned.
The United Nations has officially refused to recognize its responsibility for the cholera outbreak despite lawsuits brought by the victims, but it is leading an effort to rid Haiti of the disease.
The United Nations is hoping to vaccinate 300,000 people this year, but it needs $1.9 million for the effort.
About $37 million dollars in total are needed to fight cholera this year.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/un-struggles-stem-rise-haiti-cholera-cases-213217357.html

Syracuse University graduate student plans to return to Haiti to help fix emergency communication system

Jackin Alix Bien-Aime was on the eighth floor of the tallest building in Haiti when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck in January 2010.

The earthquake hit at 4:53 p.m., and Bien-Aime spent about the next three hours assisting those who needed help.

“I think that at least we lost one person because that person after the earthquake couldn’t send information to other people to say exactly where they are,” said Bien-Aime, who also lost his godmother and many of his friends in the natural disaster. More than 230,000 people died as a result of the earthquake.

He worked for a company in the country’s capital, while his mother was in Cap-Haitien, located a few hours away. Bien-Aime wasn’t able to contact his mother until two days after the earthquake, not because he left his cell phone at home, but because communication in Haiti at the time wasn’t up to par.

His experience with the earthquake inspired him to apply to the Syracuse University–Université d’État d’Häïti Student Exchange Program, which began in 2011 as a way for the university to help Haiti after the earthquake as a result of efforts by the Syracuse University Haiti Support Committee.

For Bien-Aime, the program has proven opportune. As a student in the School of Information Studies, Bien-Aime is working toward a master’s degree in telecommunications and network management, as well as a certificate of advanced studies in information security management.

According to the SU website, the committee that established the exchange proposed an “educational exchange program” with the State University of Haiti, to support Haitian students in continuing graduate studies.

Now a second year-graduate student in the iSchool, Bien-Aime plans to return to Haiti after graduation and use what he learned to help his home country.

“After the earthquake, the communication world was just bad, and I said, ‘Maybe we can find solutions in technology,’” Bien-Aime said, “because if you can’t communicate with someone, you can’t share the important information.”

Paula Johnson, a professor in the College of Law, began the program with Dr. Linda Carty, a professor of sociology and African American studies said she and the committee believed that it was important for SU as an educational institution to go beyond the immediate relief effort.

“We called for bringing students from Haiti to come to SU in order to get advanced degrees in areas that were deemed to be particularly important to the longer term rebuilding of Haiti,” Johnson said.

Johnson said this year’s class might be the last group that SU will be bringing in from Haiti because the university hasn’t committed to financially supporting the program in the future. But she believes the program is worthy of external funding.

Bien-Aime wants take what he learned in the program and aid in improving the country’s emergency communications. After he returns home post-graduation, he hopes to get government help when implementing his capstone.

His final project involves improving wireless communication in the event that providers like T-Mobile or Verizon aren’t working.

“This is just one of the ways that I can help Haiti if something like that happens again,” Bien-Aime said. “I am a technology guy. Because we had a communications issue and a technology issue, I’m just trying to find a technological solution that we can use to face those types of situations.”

Bien-Aime, along with five other students, is part of the second group that SU brought in from Haiti in 2013. Like the others who were selected for the program, Bien-Aime stood out in his field, Johnson added.

“Jackin Alix has a particular awareness, pre-earthquake and post-earthquake, of what his country needs to increase the telecommunications within the country and across countries…” Johnson said. “He is precisely the type of person that we saw benefiting from this program and taking what he learned back to Haiti and building on it there.”

Published on May 7, 2015 at 8:00 am

Contact Clare: clramire@syr.edu

http://dailyorange.com/2015/05/syracuse-university-graduate-student-plans-to-return-to-haiti-to-help-fix-emergency-communication-system/

Arcade Fire Opening Haitian Restaurant in Montreal

Win Butler and Régine Chassagne will launch Agrikol this summer with celebrated Toronto restaurateurs

By Jon Blistein May 7, 2015

Read Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne are opening a new Haitian restaurant, agrikol, in Montreal this summer with the help of celebrated Toronto restaurateurs (and fellow husband-wife duo) Roland Jean and Jen Agg, The Globe and Mail reports.

Agrikol will feature Haitian cuisine, visual arts and, of course, music. Butler and Chassagne's friendship with Jean and Agg got off to an inauspicious start. After Butler commandeered the stereo in Agg's Toronto restaurant with a Haitian Creole festival music called rara, he accidentally blew up the PA system.

But the friendship endured, in part because both couples have roots in Haiti — Chassagne's parents emigrated from the country, while Jean was born there. As their relationship developed, the foursome discovered a mutual desire to open a Haitian-inspired space in Montreal.
"It’s more of an art project. The idea is that it’s a cultural space," Butler said. "The thing that we were really impressed with at [Agg's restaurant] Rhum Corner is that it’s this space for Haitian and Caribbean culture and it’s really cool and contemporary. Régine’s family moved to Montreal from Haiti, like a lot of Haitians, and moving to this tundra, you know …"
"You miss the warmth," Chassagne added.
Agrikol's kitchen will be helmed by Jesse Grasso (the head chef at Rhum Corner), who traveled to Haiti and worked with Jean's sister to prep for the new gig. Agg noted that while the food will be presented differently, they're shooting for authentic flavors, including MSG, "which is used in Haitian cooking in a real way, and we want to get rid of the stigma." She added that it will be easier to secure proper ingredients, like djon djon mushrooms, in Montreal as well, since it boasts a Haitian community of about 200,000.
Arcade Fire have been tireless advocates for Haiti, raising money for the country since 2005 and stepping up their efforts significantly following the country's devastating earthquake in 2010. In 2011, the band played a surprise show at the Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince, and their ensuing trip throughout the country provided inspiration for Arcade Fire's 2013 album, Reflektor.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/arcade-fire-opening-haitian-restaurant-in-montreal-20150507