Farewell, Fred Voodoo

Been reading Amy Wilentz’s ‘Farewell, Fred Voodoo’ on life in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake.  If you’d like to immerse yourself in Haitian communities and their legendary resilience, this is the avenue – and the agony and the ecstasy. There’s an openness to new ideas in our communities there that consistently inspires.  We’ve introduced a full plate of programs to some of Haiti’s most neglected communities – schooling, adult literacy, adult vocational training, orphan reunification, computer labs and training, English classes, dance, chorale, yoga, meditation – many of which were utterly foreign to our participants at the onset.  Nevertheless these programs have been met with…

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Return from Haiti: Trauma Relief and Healing in Wharf Jeremie, Cite Soleil

From our ASR Newletter…. We returned from 12 days in Haiti last month and it has taken these past weeks to distill our experience there. Our focus in Haiti was to implement a stress-reduction program for the women of Cite Soleil, Port au Prince’s notorius slum and to vet child services and reforestation projects.  While we were there, Haiti got under our skin. Wharf Jeremie- Our project neighborhood Haiti feels overwhelming. It has something to break everybody’s heart: utter poverty, alarming rates of unemployment, illiteracy, rape, orphaned and abandoned children; and a once-lush countryside which has been almost entirely deforested.…

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On Our Way to Haiti

Tomorrow we leave for Haiti to implement our pilot program for Trauma Relief in the Wharf Jeremie neighbohood of Cite Soleil, the worst slum of Port au Prince. We’re filled with both hope and apprehension; hope and excitement that we can make a difference in this community, apprehension as we received yet another Travel Advsiory from the US State Department, declaring Haiti a Red Alert due to unrest. On  Monday, August 8th Aid Still Required, in conjunction with our local partners, the nouvelle vie branch of The International Association of Human Values and WeAdvance Women’s Clinic with special contributions from…

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