Big party for little ones in Haiti

PUBLISHED ON 1 DECEMBER, 2015 BY CLIFF JEFFERY

Haiti (MNN) — Defrosting a 20-pound turkey may take from 5-7 days, and that is a long time to prepare for a Christmas dinner for most people. But each year, the staff of For Haiti with Love Inc. starts planning their Christmas dinner in August.

FHWL will hold a Christmas party for up to 1,000 people on the beleaguered Caribbean island.

Every Christmas since 1988, FWHL hosts the party in Northern Haiti. They invite children and their families–as many as they can feed with that year’s donated money and food.

FWHL co-founder Eva DeHart says, “It becomes the social event of Cap Haitien. It’s kind of neat that the outstanding party of the year for Cap Haitien is for poor children only.”

Besides the meal, each child who attends receives a present and hears the Gospel message.

It is a chance to get a lot of children together to celebrate Jesus’ birthday, DeHart says.

The kids eat a good meal. They often take part of it home and share with others. Each child gets a present that was donated as far back as August just for this occasion. They not only hear the Gospel, they get to see it in a movie. This year’s Christmas party includes a showing of the Haitian Creole language JESUS film.

While it is too late to donate materials needed for the party, FWHL is still seeking monetary donations to pay for shipping costs. DeHart also asks for prayers for good weather, for the notification of the party to go out to those who are most in need, and for open hearts that are ready to accept Jesus.

The Deadly Cholera Book of Numbers Swells in Haiti

It has been four years since I have been in a cholera treatment center (CTC) in Haiti and five years since the United Nations infected the Mirebalais River by dumping raw sewage from the Nepalese encampment into the waterway.

The river system is forever contaminated, and cholera will never be eradicated from this island nation that had never before experienced the deadly disease. What followed was an attempted cover-up by the United Nations, and a slow response to a plague that has now killed almost 10,000 and infected over 743,000 since October 2010.

Truth spoke with the help of the courageous Organization of American States Brazilian diplomat and Professor, Ricardo Seitenfus. Seitenfus was fired from the OAS for telling the truth in 2010.

Standing outside the Nepalese United Nations camp on the banks of the Mirebalais River at the genesis of the outbreak, one could see the sewage pipes before they were entombed with rock in an attempt to bury responsibility. It was obvious what was about to happen as Vibrio cholerae slowly seeped into Haiti's central waterways; finally exploding beyond containment in Haiti's largest river, the Artibonite.

"The Book of Numbers" at the hospital in St-Marc is a volume of despair. The CTC continues to receive patients--196 admissions so far this November and two deaths as of last week. The "book" holds twenty names per page and is several inches thick. One must still walk through bleach before entering and leaving the cholera ward. You can disinfect boots, but not rivers and streams in a country that has no central water treatment facility.

The trends this year are tripled compared to last year. 19,949 cases and 170 deaths occurred countrywide in July 2015, as opposed to 7,739 cases and 56 deaths in July 2014. One must remember that these are cases that made it to reporting centers and hospitals. It is suspected that many more incidents go unrecorded in remote regions. Official counts change rapidly.

The flesh and blood people lying in misery on the cholera cots are testimony to the larger numbers. Babies, the young, and the very old inhabit the CTC in St-Marc. Seeing someone on a cholera cot is to see someone completely exposed and vulnerable. There is a hole cut in the center for the constant and interminable diarrhea and a bucket nearby for vomiting. Hospital gowns are stained because they cannot be changed fast enough. IV lines are taped to thin arms, providing life-saving rehydration, but the misery continues for days.

It is stunning to learn that the hospital does not have enough supplies: not enough rehydration fluids; and too few rapid detection tests after $95 million was promised by USAID for cholera.

Despite these millions and millions of dollars, a few boxes of rehydration fluids stand between the suffering people and the morgue. Odors from the morgue seep into the parking lot, and are a violent assault to the senses. One can smell the truth.

Neg Mawon photo by Nienaber

There is an evocative sculpture in Port-au-Prince located on the "Champ de Mars," and near the site of the former national palace. The palace did not survive the earthquake of January 2010, but the statue, "Neg Mawon," or unknown slave, remains standing and undamaged. The late artist Albert Mangones celebrated the slaves who revolted against France from 1891-1804. The slave is chained, yet defiantly blows a conch shell to summon others in a fight for freedom.

There are many shackles still attached to the Haitian people. International meddling has tightened them, but cholera should surely be one of the easiest to loosen and break. It is the least the international community can do. It requires will, a moral stance and a sincere apology. Redemption from international sins demands atonement, not short news cycles focusing on the pornography of poverty and thecurrent electoral crisis, or breast-beating and years of mea culpas.

With Andre Paultre in Haiti

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/the-deadly-cholera-book-o_b_8690890.html

Picrures credit :Nienaber 

TASTE HAITIAN HOME COOKING AT PIMAN CAFE IN FORT LAUDERDALE

BY NICOLE DANNA

Not many people outside Haiti are familiar with Haitian food. That's a shame, because the island's cuisine is a colorful blending of African- and Caribbean-influenced fare. And — just like the language — Haitian food also has a bit of Creole mixed in for good measure: root vegetables, meats like oxtail, peppers, and a unique blend of spices working together to form basic, zippy dishes that sing with a soupçon of French complexity.

 That's exactly what you'll get at 1-year-old Piman Cafe, a small Haitian restaurant located on the outskirts of Wilton Manors just a few steps from Fort Lauderdale High School. According to co-owner Frandy Cardichon, Piman Cafe is also one of the few places in the area that offers several authentic Haitian dishes. Though there's no menu to help you decide what to order, the friendly staff will gladly explain the basic offerings that range from fried fish, chicken, and oxtail served with heaping portions of rice and beans and fat wedges of fried plantain.

For something hearty, order a bowl of Haitian legim stew: a complex dish with plenty of spices that help to make this combination of eggplant, cabbage, carrots, peppers, and spinach taste near sublime. The dish is a traditional Haitian meal typically flavored with braised meats like pork or oxtail and even seafood like conch or crab. It's thick, filling, and spicy and sticks to your ribs the way any good stew should.

For meat lovers, griyot (fried pork) is one of the more popular dishes of Haiti. But the pork itself is not the star of this dish; rather, it's the orange-based marinade that walks the fine line between sour and salty before resolving into a peppery heat that lingers on the tongue. On the island, it's often served with a spicy salad known as pikliz, Haiti's official condiment, a pickled vegetable slaw made with white-vinegar-soaked Scotch bonnet peppers, carrots, and cabbage. That's also how you'll find it prepared at Piman, where — if you're so inclined — you can even purchase a jar of the house-made condiment to go. 

Piman Cafe is located at 1560 NE Fourth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-356-7995, or follow them on Facebook.

Nicole Danna is a food writer covering Broward and Palm Beach counties. To get the latest in food and drink news in South Florida, follow her @SoFloNicole or find her latest food pics on the BPB New Times Food & Drink Instagram.

 http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/restaurants/taste-haitian-home-cooking-at-piman-cafe-in-fort-lauderdale-7396672

Haitian Woman Reveals Irregularities in Her Adoption, 30 Years Later

Mariette Williams Discovers She Was Taken without Parents' Consent

After thirty years, a Haitian woman finally revealed the irregularities that took place during her adoption process, according to media reports last Friday, November 27.

Mariette Williams, who was adopted in 1986, discovered that she was never given up for adoption and that the process occurred without the consent of her biological parents.

Her adoption papers reveal the name of an orphan who no longer exists and who belonged to Rose-Marie Platel, her godmother. Patel was responsible for the unauthorized adoption when Williams was nearly three and a half years old.

The woman’s adopted parents, Sandra and Albert Knopf, live near Vancouver, Canada. During the adoption process 30 years ago, a man named Henry Wiebe told the hopeful parents that they could adopt a child in Haiti for US$3,500, and two for $6,000.

The negotiator brought Knopf to the orphanage managed by Platel in Haiti. It was there where Knopf found little girls with parasites, infected eyes, and apparently malnourished.

The Canadian couple never met the Haitian attorney who completed the paperwork, nor did they go before a court in order to be approved by a judge. Rose-Marie Platel, the “godmother,” was in charge of everything. 

Knopf admitted to her daughter that there were red flags during the process: wrong birthdates and the sudden appearance of documents. 

After searching to meet her biological family, Williams found a Facebook profile page of Pestel, Haiti, a town mentioned in the adoption documents. She posted a message on the town’s social network that read: “My name is Mariette. I am looking for my family.”

Weeks later, she discovered that she had four sisters and two brothers in Haiti; her mother was still living, but her father had passed away. 

Adoption irregularities like these frequently occurred in the Caribbean country. In 2013, the Center of Journalistic Investigation (CIPER) in Chile published a report on the unusual practices of the Multicolor Families Foundation, a Haitian organization which oversaw the adoption of Haitian children by Chilean families. 

According to the report, the foundation did not keep a directory or any sort of registry for each adoption. Instead of working with an attorney, the foundation went through a proxy “with good contacts.” CIPER further uncovered that at least seven kids were given up for adoption without being approved legally. 

The organization was never accredited in Chile, and although they had legal personnel in Haiti, the foundation operated under the guise of a protection house for children, which originally allowed them to establish themselves in the country.

 http://panampost.com/sabrina-martin/2015/12/01/haitian-woman-reveals-irregularities-in-her-adoption-30-years-later/

HOW HAITI TURNS TRASH INTO OPPORTUNITY

hnson December 1, 2015 No Comments

 Recycling bins are on every corner in many major cities in the United States. We take for granted that we have access to recycling - plastic recycling, metal recycling, glass recycling, you name it. However, it’s not so easy to recycle in developing countries.

Take Haiti, for example. In Port-au-Prince alone, every month around 9 million pounds of plastic waste is created. Not surprisingly, the majority of that plastic waste comes from plastic bottles. Since recycling including plastic recycling isn’t common there, the bottles are tossed into canals or on the streets. This habit is not good news for Mother Nature.

One man – Ian Rosenberger – had a vision to change the plastic pollution landscape in Haiti after helping with disaster relief efforts in the country. He also wanted to help with the poverty so many Haitians struggle with in a country that has a 40% unemployment rate.

From this vision, Thread was born as a solution to both the plastic waste and the poverty struggles in Haiti. Thread turns the mountains of plastics into fabric (i.e. plastic recycling) – and jobs for impoverished Haitians.

So how does the plastic recycling solution work?

People throughout Haiti can collect plastic bottles and turn them into the Ramase Lajan, a network of 26 plastic-collection centers sponsored by Executives without Borders (a non-profit) and owned and operated by Haitians. These people are given an immediate sum of cash, which allows them to provide for their family and keep the plastic waste out of their country.

After the plastic bottles are collected through the Ramase Lajan collection centers, they’re then moved to Haiti Recycling in Port-au-Prince to be cleaned and shredded down into a raw material called “flake.” The flake is packaged and exported to the United States.

After arrival in the U.S., the flake is melted and extruded into fiber and spin yarn that's made into a variety of different fabrics like 100% recycled PET polyester. Some of the plastic thread is also blended with cotton or canvas. Once the fabric is made, it’s sold to manufacturers that turn it into boots and shoes, bags and totes, sports apparel as well as a variety of other consumer products.

All of the polyester fabrics Thread manufactures are 100% post-consumer material. These fabrics need approximately 90% less water and 80% less energy to manufacture compared to virgin polyesters that are made straight from oil.

Through their 100% transparent supply line, Thread has been able to support the creation of nearly 4,000 income opportunities in Haiti and Honduras (Thread also operates in Honduras). In addition, they are able to collect and re-purpose around 300,000 pounds of plastic waste from these impoverished countries each month.

If you like to support responsibly made products, look for apparel and accessories made with Thread Ground to Good fabrics.

All imagery courtesy of Thread International and Jesse Colaizzi Productions

 Chrystal Johnson

Chrystal, publisher of Happy Mothering, Founder of Green Moms Media and essential oil fanatic, is a mother of two sweet girls who believes in living a simple, natural lifestyle. A former corporate marketing communication manager, Chrystal spends her time researching green and eco-friendly alternatives to improve her family's life.

Montclair's seventh annual Concert for Haiti scheduled for Jan. 30

Americans tend to have short attention spans. Every time a new disaster or story of suffering hits the news, we tend to forget the last one. However, the nation of Haiti is still reeling from a series of devastating earthquakes in 2008 and 2010. And that's why Cindy Stagoff is letting the Montclair community know that the Seventh Annual Concert for Haiti is fast approaching, and its cause is as urgent as ever.

The concert is once again being held on January 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 67 Church St, and will raise funds for WhyHunger, Haitian Education Leadership Program, Edeyo Foundation and Lamp for Haiti. And if the past is any indication, tickets and sponsorships will once again go quickly. Those interested in sponsorships can contact Cindy Stagoff at cstagoff@comcast.net. Tickets can be purchased at Watchung Booksellers, 54 Fairfield St., or online at Ticketleap: http://outpost.ticketleap.com/haiti-2015.

Talent from near and far

Once again, the concert shines the spotlight on local and international Haitian artists and performers. "The concert is a vehicle for raising funds and bringing people together," Stagoff added, "and part of bringing people together is finding a writer or an artist. And every year it's something different. This year it's Francks Deceus."

Stagoff learned about Deceus from Deb and Jason DeSalvo, who own several of the artist's works. "We went to a Caribbean-African art fair in the Puck Building a bazillion years ago," said Deb DeSalvo. "He has a very distinctive style and voice, and it definitely has to do with coming to this country with the American dream, with family, and with the image of the black man."

"We're trying to bring a multimedia perspective to the concert," added Stagoff. "I've had artists before, but this artist takes my breath away."

The concert itself will feature a combination of local and nationally-known artists including Paul Beaubrun with Zing Experience, Richard "Earthman" Laurent and Soleil Laurent, Big Mamou, Passing Notes and the Temple Ner Tamid group, including Cantor Meredith Greenberg, Leora Perlman, Bob Mellman and Peri Smilow with Tom Parente and Melissa Schaffer.

In addition, iconic folk duo Aztec Two-Step will give a rare local show, and jazz giant Melissa Walker will sing accompanied by the Jazz House Kids.

Full Circle

One more performer will be on hand who has special meaning to Stagoff: Harry Chapin's daughter Jen Chapin. "This year we're also working with WhyHunger, [which was] started when I was in high school by Harry Chapin, his colleague Bill Ayres when it was the Food and Hunger Hotline. Unfortunately Harry died in 1981 in a car crash, but his family and friends have continued this foundation ever since.

"I became a lawyer to focus on poverty issues and women's rights. So for me, my meeting with Harry Chapin was one of my first meetings with someone interested in social justice and poverty issues.

"I met Jen at the WhyHunger annual event. We chatted briefly, and I told her about my historic connection to her father, and the organization in New York City. So it just feels like it's coming full circle with Jen performing."

Between now and the concert, Stagoff is busy signing up sponsors and alerting the town that tickets are already on sale - and that they go fast.

"Every year it's harder and harder to organize this event," said Stagoff, "because people are focused on other things.

"This is not just a concert that we're organizing. We're also trying to raise money, and you don't raise much money for the four nonprofits that we're supporting through ticket sales. So I have to work really hard to get sponsors."

Despite the many concerns in organizing the concert, the cause itself is always on Stagoff's mind. "There are so many people in need and so many issues and disasters occurring that it's harder every year to get people to refocus on what's going on, and what still needs to be done.

"But Montclair rises to the occasion every year," she added. "Montclair is a beautiful community filled with kindhearted, empathetic, activist-oriented people. That's why we live here."

Email: cannon@northjersey.com

Rebuilding Haiti, One Stitch at a Time

Visiting Haiti is an experience measured as much in magic as it is sadness. On a recent trip back I had the opportunity to retrace the footsteps of a fashion icon who’s left a part of his heart where an earthquake left the already struggling nation in physical and economic ruin.

In an industry seemingly disinterested in the trappings of the world’s afflicted, Kenneth Cole has made humanitarianism an emblem woven into the core fabric of his brand. The man did it decades before it was cool, and he continues to do it because sincerity in its truest form doesn’t fatigue with time.

With the shock of fast charity subdued by time and
disinterest, a hardheaded few still remain to see Haiti’s
 potential birthed . They’re helping it along with a kind of
philanthropy the world is unaccustomed to.
 As Mr. Cole puts it, “we’re in a love/Haiti relationship.”
It’s a fitting motto; sometimes love must
come tough.

What follows is an essay recounting of a few days I spent with Mr. Cole in this place of remarkable contrasts, where I witnessed the emergence of a pioneering style of humanitarianism and development work that puts the fate of Haiti in its own hands.

The dream of Haiti is not easily reclaimed from its greatest nightmare. Five years removed from seismic upheaval, the poorest nation in the Americas region continues to see its impulse for beauty and progress wrestled into stagnation by demons both natural and self-made.

But for the mountainous range of challenges Haiti faces, its young crave a chance to lift their restless hands in defense of the idea that their country is better than the poverty and corruption that bind it.

Bluntly, Mr. Cole remarks “we’ve gotta make better shoes,
damnit.” The sentiment, delivered with a reassuring laugh,
 is a rare breed of honesty that comes not just innately
from perfectionism, but as a means of protecting this
fragile moment of possibility from going undeveloped.

Like a fine tapestry, the delicacy of this task requires it be done with careful finesse . Thread by thread, fabric by fabric, Haiti finds itself stitching a future from an exciting moment of genesis. Craftsmanship has deep roots here in Haiti, and it is the kind made by hand that best define this country’s rare magic.

From the iconic papier-mâché that populates Carnival to the intricate metalwork made from repurposed materials, Haitians have the spirit of imaginative creation imbued in their cultural DNA.

At Rebuild Globally, where his company has partnered with an initiative to turn old tires into high-end footwear, charitable interest in the line is just not enough to move product in a way that guarantees survival. They have only the barest of tools after all.

HIS PLAN?

Connect them to the global supply chain, giving them a small but vital component that’ll give the shoes the uniform look they need to be taken as seriously as they deserve.

As Haiti begins to grow an identity in manufacturing, altruism must match the elevated standards of the modern day, if only to be the jewel its nickname implies: The Pearl of the Antilles. Haiti must be measured against other pearls, and its most valuable allies in this will be those who don’t treat foreign aid as something to be tossed from the back of a pickup truck.

With the institutions of self-sufficiency seeded, eager Haitians know their time has come.

One of Mr. Cole’s longest standing causes has been in pushing HIV/AIDS research forward, and that’s been no different in Haiti. He’s partnered with amFar to build a revolutionary clinic working to eradicate the transmission of HIV from afflicted mothers to their unborn children with great success. Click the red button to make a donation to amFar and help keep initiatives like this alive.

Source: http://www.ryot.org/rebuilding-haiti-kenneth-coleone-stitch-at-a-time/946923

#GivingTuesday: In Haiti, your gift saves lives AND families

In the foothills of Haiti where we live, the plaintive eyes of hungry children bore through us, their hands upturned, begging for food.

This country of more than 10 million, located in the verdant Caribbean, suffers from unrelenting chronic food insufficiency. This paradox defines a nation where 15 percent of children are orphaned or abandoned, many because their parents can no longer afford to feed them.

Extreme unemployment, lack of access to birth control and stunning poverty all conspire to force children out of loving families and into orphanages, or worse – into the cruel streets.

Children who are truly without parents need proper supervision and love in the confines of a clean, licensed orphanage, but many orphanages that house these ‘economic’ orphans lack quality living conditions and adequate food supply. Certainly the answer to proper childcare for those with parents lies somewhere outside these ill-equipped orphanages.

For the 80 percent of the Haitian population, who live on less than two dollars a day, a small offset of their daily expenses means the difference in keeping their children in the home or turning them into one of the thousands of economic orphans.

Consider the story of one young orphan we encountered. Jono* had noticed that the nightly portions of food that he and his five siblings received were gradually decreasing.

During the eight short years of his life, he had increasingly been falling behind his friends in height and weight, and now he looked more like a four-year-old than a second-grader.

He knew the people living in his rural area of Haiti had always struggled for food, but since the earthquake, it seemed worse.

He had seen his mother talking quietly with the orphanage director down the road, but there was no way he could know they were talking about him.

Within the week, his mother had tearfully pushed him through the orphanage gates, turned her back on him and walked away.

Jono had entered the surreal world of the economic orphan, not abandoned by death, but rather rejected by living parents who could no longer afford to feed him.

The knowledge that his brothers and sisters were enjoying the relative comforts of familiar surroundings and each other was almost crushing to his diminutive frame.

For the 80 percent of the Haitian population who live on less than two dollars a day, a small offset of their daily expenses means the difference in keeping their children in the home or turning them into one of the thousands of economic orphans.

At our non-governmental organization, LiveBeyond, we identified 70 children who were at least 40 percent underweight and at risk of being turned out of their homes in Thomazeau, Haiti.

We began feeding these children two meals per day, supplying daily vitamins and providing scholastic tutoring, leadership training and daily physical fitness routines.

We measured physical and cognitive parameters at one-month intervals and periodically assessed family well-being, and have seen remarkable improvement throughout the year. Additionally, the costs of the program were a fraction of the monthly costs for housing children in an orphanage.

Besides experiencing the obvious benefits of keeping children in a functional home surrounded by parents and siblings, these children are thriving by being part of a cohesive group of children who like them were struggling to survive. While these benefits are priceless, the costs of the minimal investment to keep children in their own homes far outweigh the emotional and spiritual trauma that awaits the abandoned.

As you think about where your dollars can be most effective on this #GivingTuesday, remember Haiti, where a little goes a long way, and your donation not only feeds a child, but helps him or her to remain in a home with a family.

We see this as the most cost-effective solution to the orphan crisis, and it not only can help stabilize the family unit, but the community as a whole.

Dr. David Vanderpool is founder and CEO of LiveBeyond, a faith-based, humanitarian organization improving lives of the poor in Thomazeau, Haiti, with sustainable solutions in medical and maternal health care, clean water, education, and agricultural and economic development.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/12/01/givingtuesday-in-haiti-your-gift-saves-lives-and-families.html

Sean Penn says his work in Haiti inspired by IsraAID

By Abigail Leichman  DECEMBER 1, 2015, 4:29 PM

Sean Penn in Haiti. Photo: courtesy

On his first visit to Israel, American actor and humanitarian activist Sean Penn declared that the work of his nonprofit J/P Haitian Relief Organization has succeeded largely because of its cooperation with volunteers from IsraAID-The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid.

“The indirect impact of IsraAID is that everything that JP/HRO has accomplished would not have existed without the inspiration and support that they provided,” said Penn, the keynote speaker at IsraAID’s November 30 conference in Tel Aviv, “Can Haiti Grow? Haiti and Israel Partners in Recovery and Development.”

Following the program, IsraAID introduced Penn to representatives of eight Israeli startups that offer technologies in agriculture, water and solar power to developing nations.

The conference was geared to raising awareness about the current situation in Haiti nearly six years after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the impoverished island country on Jan. 12, 2010.

Israel was among the first countries to send humanitarian aid. The Foreign Ministry flew over 236 military, security, rescue and medical personnel that set up the first field hospital to treat victims. The delegation included a search-and-rescue and victim identification team from ZAKA; prosthetics maker Yehuda Pilosof from Rishon LeZion; and a 12- member medical team of IsraAID volunteers.

IsraAID founding director Shachar Zahavi told ISRAEL21c that his team was introduced to Penn by IsraAID’s goodwill ambassador, Hollywood actress Moran Atias, who accompanied Penn to Haiti in the aftermath of the disaster in which at least 230,000 Haitians lost their lives and 300,000 were injured.

 Actor-humanitarian activist gives keynote address at
‘Israel and Haiti: Partners in Recovery and
Development’ nearly six years after Haiti earthquake.

“Our mission was to spend a few weeks in Haiti as a 24/7 delivery service for drugs for the hospitals that needed them,” Penn told the audience in Tel Aviv. However, like IsraAID, he decided to remain there to help organize long-term relief efforts.

IsraAID and J/P HRO worked together for a few years in J/P HRO’s refugee camp in Port-au-Prince, where they established a school. Penn’s organization also runs a clinic and community center in Haiti, among other projects.

Several international aid organizations remain active in Haiti, but IsraAID founding director Shachar Zahavi tells ISRAEL21c that his NGO is the only Israeli one still there. “We have two volunteers on the ground, and professionals coming in and out constantly,” says Zahavi.

The Israelis identified specific niches in trauma and post-trauma care where Israeli knowhow can be uniquely helpful, he explains. These include a medical facility, psycho-social support groups, a Haiti Grows agriculture program, a youth empowerment center and a gender-violence program for women who suffered abuse in tent cities after the quake.

Gradually, each of these programs is being turned over to Haitian NGOs in keeping with IsraAID’s policy of establishing an infrastructure to rehabilitate affected communities and training local residents to run them in the long term.

“We still have a contribution to make,” says Zahavi, who is showing Penn around Israel for the next two days. “We have some cooperation with his group, and we will see what else we can do to enhance our work with J/P. How much longer we stay in Haiti may depend on our development with Sean’s group.”

Penn said his NGO plans to launch a $300 million reforestation project next year to further assist Haiti in rebuilding its shattered economy. He called Haiti “a special place” and encouraged others to come help in reconstruction and rehabilitation projects. “We started, IsraAID started, I’d like you all to start,” he told the audience at the Dan Panorama Hotel.

Zahavi echoes that sentiment. “Billions of dollars were spent in Haiti, some wisely and some not, and it has a lot of potential for growth. There are very smart people there, and it’s a country that has been neglected for years even before the earthquake.”

Other speakers at the conference, which was supported by the Pratt Foundation, included Dr. Nachman Ash, IDF Chief Medical Officer at the time of the quake, who headed the IDF field hospital in Haiti; Danny Biran of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Efraim Laor, head of IsraAID’s delegation to Haiti in 2010; former Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe; and IsraAID’s Dr. Diddy Mymin Kahn, who discussed the gender-violence program.

Penn also met with former Israeli President Shimon Peres during his visit. Peres reportedly told the Academy Award-winning actor: “I saw the Mystic River and Milk, but the real Oscars go to you for what you have done in Haiti.”

http://www.israel21c.org/sean-penn-says-his-work-in-haiti-inspired-by-israaid/