Mar 15, 2010

News

Haiti Update

The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in January reversed the small but significant progress the country had made in the past years. Government buildings were shattered and democratic institutions struggle to fill the power vacuum. Parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for February 2010, have been indefinitely postponed, though President Préval has indicated that he will step down at the end of his mandate next February.

Haitians and the international community expect a slow and drawn-out recovery process. For the past few years, NED-supported programs have focused on strengthening civil society in rural and conflict-ridden areas. In response to the current crisis, NED grantees in Port-au-Prince and rural areas are revising their projects to facilitate aid access, organize recently-displaced Haitians, and serve as interlocutors between the Haitian people and the government. NED currently supports five grantees based in Port-au-Prince, including two organizations with a national reach, and five grantees based in rural areas.

In Port-au-Prince, organizations such as the Rassemblement National des Citoyens Organisés pour le Développement d'Haïti (RANCODHA), the Coordination Nationale des Organisations de Base (CONOB), and the Collectif des Notables de Cité Soleil (CONOCS) have been training grassroots leaders from the slums of Port-au-Prince in community leadership, conflict resolution and democratic values.

Now these organizations are bringing trained grassroots leaders together to conduct damage and needs assessments in the poorest neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. After a short training, community leaders are collecting objective information on the population’s needs, organizing it in a user-friendly way, and providing it to international organizations and government officials to better direct relief assistance. Some are also working in the new tent communities, organizing relief and citizen security committees. While coordination with the international community and government officials still needs to improve, communities are turning to their internal networks and groups to find solutions for themselves.

Meanwhile, the Center for Citizen Training and Development Support (CEFCAD) has spent the last five years on a project to establish and foster sustainable grassroots activism in rural Haiti. Borrowing from NDI’s Civic Forum program, CEFCAD created Initiative Committees (ICs) to help identify and articulate community priorities and build relationships with local authorities. In the aftermath of the earthquake, CEFCAD will use these community structures to assist Haitians who recently moved back to rural communities across the country. ICs will help identify the needs of internally displaced peoples, help them organize themselves in legitimate and representative organizations, and assist local authorities design processes for social and economic integration. CEFCAD will work in Jacmel and in four communities in the North Department.

Over the last six years, Fondation Espoir/Jeune Ayiti (Hope Foundation/Young Haiti) has trained hundreds of youth leaders on community development and democratic leadership. In training workshops before the earthquake, Fondation Espoir often challenged youth to imagine the possibilities and potential of Haiti. Following the quake, Fondation Espoir has been working to turn this tragedy into an opportunity. Among their ambitions ideas are proposals to decentralize political and economic power into various satellite cities, and to turn community and vocational schools into centers for the relief and reeducation process.

Each of the individuals making up these organizations suffered, in varying degrees, material and emotional loss in the earthquake. RANCODHA’s project director, Carlot Paulémon, and his family escaped their collapsing home, but sprinted out shoeless and with only the clothes on their backs. Many others have been sleeping outdoors, having lost all of their possessions. Countless youth working with CONOB were killed. All have lost friends or family.

But despite these personal losses, these NED grantees are true civil society and community leaders. They are back on their feet and are contributing to Haiti’s relief and reconstruction efforts. Everybody realizes this will not be easy, but they are ready to rebuild their lives and their country.

Watch a video on NED grantees in Haiti :: MORE

The National Democratic Institute honors Gerardo LeChevallier, NDI’s former director of Latin America and Caribbean programs and country director for Haiti, who perished in the January 12 earthquake when the United Nations building collapsed. See more here.

The Solidarity Center, a core NED grantee, is raising funds for education in Haiti :: VISIT