At Place Pigeon, a neglected refugee camp constructed after the earthquakes of January 12, 2010, the expectations of families housed in this temporary shelter remain the same. Their situation hasn’t changed, and every family maintains their own shelter as best they can. It’s as if the earthquake just happened yesterday in terms of the quality of life for these people. This camp reflects a complete absence of planning or help from authority figures concerning how to organize this poor area.

A committee hasn’t emerged to run the camp, despite the unstable situation, where families search for a way to adapt, especially those without a shelter.

Sanitation

In terms of sanitation, only water is always available. Everyone bathes publicly because of the unhygienic situation of the showers that the committee had installed. The gathering of garbage is one of the biggest problems families confront. Each family clears out their household garbage and cleans only their own area.

Weather

After the rain, it’s impossible to walk around the camp due to the mud. And even when it doesn’t rain, there are still swampy areas of stagnant water near the showers that had been put up, which expose the refugees to illness.

The problem of toilets was resolved with the JEDCO toilets installed by ACF (Action Against Hunger), the institution with the most visible presence on the Place Pigeon. It organizes meetings for awareness raising for women and children, teaching them how to take precautions and what to do remain in good health and avoid illness caused by the lack of hygiene.

Food distribution

During the last few weeks, IOM (International Organization for Migration) took a census at Champ du Mars, including Place Pigeon, by giving each family an identification card. With this card, families at the camp took part in a distribution. The families that were registered received a hygiene kit from CRS (Catholic Relief Service), a sack of wheat from USAID, flour, and beans. Families showed their contentment by saying that this was the first time that they had received food aid since they’d been living in the camp.

Safety and security

In terms of security, this is one of the camps at Champ du Mars that has a bad reputation for its lack of safety. Often escapees frequent the Place Pigeon, which attracts attention of National Police officers. Almost every night, the police come to the camp and arrest alleged criminals.

After International Women’s Day on March 8, a young man was arrested at the camp for attempted rape on March 10, 2010.

Almost every night, the police arrest two or three young men. The young women here are subjected to ill treatment from their husbands or partners. They are left vulnerable to all forms of violence: physical, sexual, psychological, etc. Because of this, some of them are even more worried about their deplorable situation.

Tuesday March 23, 2010, more than forty people were arrested, among them, one young girl. Most of them were escaped prisoners from the National Prison. Those who weren’t escapees or problem causers were released, about five of them. From then on, people noticed young men coming and going around the camp.

This blog post was originally written in French by the writer Carine Exantus, a student living in a refugee camp in Haiti. It was translated into English by the Conversations for a Better World team.

Place Pigeon, a camp situated at a strategic point on the Champ de Mars, near the presidential palace of the Ministry of Culture and Communication and the 2004 tour. The atmosphere is becoming more and more monotonous.

The most vital needs of every family living in the camp remain: food, shelter and health care.

Food

It’s been over a month since the families received a little bag full of nine pots of rice. There hasn’t been any other food distributed since. Twice they have received, from Brazilian agents from United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), portable bottles of water. This distribution took place in front of the “Palais National.”

The families in the camp are complaining that they’ve been abandoned. They’re doing their best to feed themselves with what little they have.

The need for shelter

The makeshift shelters grow every day. Everyone is trying to protect themselves from the sun and the rain and they are resorting to wooden pots, plastic, plywood, and sheet metal. Families have procured these materials — which most people don’t know where they got them from — by their own means.

Every time it rains, some families touch up — or reconstruct — their shelters to better protect themselves. They dig tunnels around their shelters to prevent the water from coming in. No weather condition is favorable to these shelters. When the sun is out, the families complain of the heat which is very strong inside their shelters. When it rains, it’s practically impossible to go around in the camp because of the mud caused by the rain.

Weather conditions

The families, already vulnerable to the least amount of rain, have become panicked at the news of the cyclonic season (June 1 to November 31). Every family on the Place Pigeon needs a tent to deal with this way of life.

No one notices any donation, whatever it is: food, shelter, etc. Some institutions have carried out censuses which were not followed by any concrete action. The International Migration Organization (OIM) carried out a census of families with the goal of identifying people without shelter or families (giving them an identification card). Action Against Hunger (ACF) has also done a census of families and raised awareness about hygiene. Volunteers for National Development (VDH) has raised awareness among young people in the camp about safe sex. The Ministry of the Interior and Semi Autonomous Regions has also carried out a census, whose results we haven’t seen.

Keeping clean

To keep one’s shelter clean is one of the biggest priorities for people living there, in order to prevent illness. Each family cleans their own area where they live and collects their garbage in a little bag near their shelter. Certain families throw their bags on a pile of rubbish nearby; others throw them in a big garbage can near the Marron Inconnu statue.

Hygiene and bathing

During the first weeks immediately following the earthquake, people noticed the presence of a seven member committee that was trying to organize the camp in its own way. Now, it’s no longer here. The committee had constructed showers that weren’t very convenient. Because the water for bathing — which flowed out of a hole — reached the camp, stagnated and infested the camp with mosquitoes. Now, the showers are in a bad state; people can no longer use them.

Sometimes, there isn’t enough water in the reservoirs that ACF installed for domestic uses. ACF had also installed JEDCO toilets. These were not cleaned regularly. They smelled bad. This made the people take them far from camp and scattered them in the road.

This blog post was originally written in French by the writer Carine Exantus, a student living in a refugee camp in Haiti. It was translated into English by the Conversations for a Better World team.

On the Place Pigeon, the need for food is the primary goal of every family living in the camp. Certain families have received coupons for a small bag of rice, but only women are allowed to line up for distribution.

According to other families who haven’t received these, the committee has given these coupons out to people close to their own families. This distribution took place near the Palais National on Friday January 29, very early in the morning.

Access to shelter

From the evening of Wednesday February 10 to Thursday February 11, there was some rain, and the families all had to get up to make sure that the water didn’t damage the sheets that they were using both as shelter and as a bed. All their things got wet. The next day, the families washed their sheets, spread their belongings out to dry in the sun and tried to put together their shelters again with wood and plastic. Thus, protests started because no one in charge had foreseen this and taken steps to prevent the shelters from becoming wet.

The families want access to tents, only the families with greater economic means have bought tents, whose origins no one knows.

Often, you see people in the camp who chase after people who are rumored to have coupons but these people have not been identified.

Moving the refugee camps

According to rumors going around, the government of Haiti wants to move the people in refugee camps to send them to the Place Cathedrale, located at the Rue Docteur Aubry and Bonne Foi. It’s a housing center and its construction has already started.

However, people have noticed the installation of toilets by the JEDCO company in the back of the camp.

An atmosphere of anxiety

In the middle of the camp, near the back fence, shelters have been put up where young girls and boys are living, who are about fifteen to twenty five years old. Often, these young people fight and make a lot of  noise, despite their risky situation since the disaster. This creates an atmosphere of anxiety for the families living in the back of the camp.

Monday January 15, 2010, around 11:00 PM, police officers came to the Place Pigeon and were able to capture two prisoners who had allegedly escaped from prison in Port-au-Prince.

More and more needs arise

Days went by, more and more needs arise. The heads of the family–or more precisely, the women–complained of only having rice and that they needed other food to cook with and that rice wasn’t enough to feed their families.

In terms of health care, Cuban and Haitian doctors provided care to those wounded in the earthquake and to people suffering from illness. They are here almost every day between nine and twelve o’clock.

Presently, about a dozen of the JEDCO toilets are working, six for women and six for men. Only two are open at night. JEDCO provides toilet paper and a small tank of water and soap to use.

Shelter from the elements

Because of the strong rain in the evenings from Wednesday through Friday, the families living in this camp are reconstructing their cloth shelters by digging canals all around their shelters to avoid getting wet. This has sparked protests for tents from families so that they can protect themselves from the rain.

This blog post was originally written in French by the writer Carine Exantus, a student living in a refugee camp in Haiti. It was translated into English by the Conversations for a Better World team.

Many survivors of the conflict in Colombia have fled to Venezuela to take refuge where they face problems like unemployment and poverty. However, a workshop has given some refugee children the opportunity to express themselves through photography.

Counting the consequences for the victims of the armed conflict in Colombia can be extremely difficult. Survivors and refugees have had to run from their own land and cross the Venezuelan border in order to guarantee security for their families. However, even then, the situation often does not get much better. Immigration problems, unemployment, poverty and other forms of insecurity have hurt the quality of life for these families.

Focusing on children

Within these communities, children can often be the most vulnerable, yet they have immense potential to grow. The group Ancla2, which has been featured on Global Voices last year, recognized this opportunity and gave a workshop to a group of refugee children in a town called El Nula located along the Venezuelan-Colombian border. The beautiful landscapes of the region were the backdrop for the workshop, which taught the children how to approach and appreciate the details of daily live and to have a sense a community. They communicated this through the use of photography and creative writing.

An ignored community expresses itself

Thus, the blog El Nula por la Paz [es] shows the experience and the results of these workshops telling the story of a community often ignored by the mainstream media. As the site’s description reads:

Some of the workshop’s participants are featured on the blog. Cleida, 13, chooses to photograph and to write about the cows she sees around her community [in Spanish]:

Photo by Cleida and used with permission

I’m going to write about the cows. Cows give milk, and I saw this cow that I am writing about when we were on our way to La Playita. The cow had a newborn baby and a dog was eating the cow’s placenta. I took a picture and then we went to the place where this cow was, and I loved seeing its beautiful little calf.

Fourteen-year-old Álvaro took a picture of his mom and titled the post “my mom is like a rose [in Spanish]”:

Photo by Álvaro and used with permission

I took this picture because she’s my mom and I love her very much. The other picture I took was of our neighbour because she’s very kind to all people and she teaches senior citizens and children. I like to take pictures of my mom, the neighbours, the animals and other things, and also of people that went to the workshops. I took pictures of our teacher, Álvaro, of people in the street, people I know. The picture I liked the most was that of my mom and Ingrid.

Photo by Ancla2 and used with permission.

The project also attracted admiration from others in the citizen media community. David Sasaki, published a post about this project that adds more context about the ongoing conflict and the refugees:

What I love about this project is that it doesn’t just represent El Nula as a war zone like every other reference to the community that you’ll find online. No, it shows El Nula through the eyes of those who live there. When tragedy hits next then the young people of El Nula will know how to use online tools to spread awareness and seek help. But until then, they also know how to spread awareness about all the good in their lives as well.

This blog post was originally published on Global Voices on .

As Haiti slowly treads on the path to recovery and rebuilding, there is a sense of renewed concern for the countries children-especially the orphans. Various news agencies have been reporting on child traffickers targeting vulnerable children in the country, including this report at CNN.

The orphan debate has a lot of US connections because the arrested church group was American and a lot of the orphans were destined for USA if adoptions continued. On the US blogosphere, the opinion on the missionaries seems to be divided, and the attitude of the US Department of State is also being questioned.

At the legal blog Right Juris, blogger Ryan questions the State Department’s handling of the situation. In the light of facts that have emerged-that 22 out of 33 “orphans” the missionaries were trying to get to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic have living parents, and the group did not have necessary permission and documentation to take the children out of country; the State Department has decided to take the “hands off” approach.

No matter what happens the US Missionaries Charged with kidnapping Haitian orphans appear to be stuck in Haiti for quite some time. They will be there even longer if the State Department doesn’t help try and secure their release, or a transfer of the case to The United States. The question though is should the State Department intervene? What do you think? Should this group be tried and convicted of kidnapping? Should the U.S. government press for their release? Did the group really have only good intentions when they attempted to flee the country with 33 Haitian children? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Brazen attempt of the missionaries to go through their mission, without ever seeking necessary permission in the United States or in Haiti has raised doubts.

Paul Shepard at the blog Black Spin says that the missionaries have a tough road ahead.

While their hearts might have been in the right place, their heads were clearly out of commission in trying to pull off such a dangerous stunt without informing government officials in the United States or Haiti about what they were doing.

No one doubts some orphans in Haiti today would be better served by moving to loving families in other countries, but that kind of effort takes time and coordination with local officials.

Te-Ping Chen at Change.org, questions the children focused relief effort in Haiti. In her thought provoking post titled “When ‘Charity’ in Haiti Kills Children”, Chen examines the effect the missionaries’ arrest is having on volunteers who want to travel to Haiti to help.

…Since the missionaries were arrested last month, the misbegotten travails of ringleader Laura Silsby & co. have had a chilling effect on doctors, aid workers and government officials (you know, the people who have a legitimate mission in helping Haiti with the recovery process) trying to save the lives of critically injured Haitian kids.

Now, the New York Times is reporting that 10 children have died or become worse while waiting for authorization from newly skittish authorities to get on flights out of the country for treatment.

Prior to the Americans’ arrest, every day, an average of 15 injured Haitian children were getting airlifted out of Haiti onto U.S.-bound flights. Since Silsby & co. bobbed onto the scene, though, only three children have been evacuated for treatment in the U.S. on private flights….

Chen joins a growing list of people, including some very well known names, who are asking whether is it an act of kindness to remove Haiti’s children from the country in search of better life. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson has criticized the missionaries for the brash attempt, saying that “True charity would have been to help those families care for their children — not to put them in a bus and drive them away. “

Marc Herman at a previous post in Global Voices noted that surprisingly the voice of Haitian themselves has been muted on the orphans issue. He also highlights a sudden rise of interest on Haitian children after the earthquake.

Late Wednesday evening, a Haitian judge ruled that 8 of the 10 missionaries be release immediately. They will soon be flown back to the United States, leaving behind Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter. Sisby is the group’s leader.

The already fractured public opinion in the blogosphere is sure to get more intense over the surprise release of the 8 missionaries. There will also be speculation over why 2 missionaries-Laura Silsby and Charisa Coulter are still being held, beyond the official explanation that the judge wants to investigate why the pair had traveled to Haiti before the devastating earthquake last month. It seems that Haiti’s children will once again be on the spotlight.

This post was originally published on Global Voices on February 18, 2010.

Many bloggers believe that the Somali government is recruiting young Kenyans to fight rebels in the Horn of Africa.

This is the first roundup of Somali blogs in 2009. Yes, it’s been more than a year since I took leave a long leave from blogging but now I’m back, for good. This is the first post and expect more posts about Somali blogosphere.

Blogger Royale Somalia profiles a young female Somali doctor in Mogadishu who’d graduated last year, he writes:

In December 2008, 20 Somali students overcame huge odds and graduated from medical school in Mogadishu—the first batch to do so for almost two decades in the failed Horn of Africa state.

Dr. Hafsa Abdurrahman Mohamed, 26, was one of those receiving a diploma from the capital’s Benadir University. Upon completing her studies, she decided to work for the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), using her skills to help provide free medical care in Somalia.

The East African Philosopher comments on Somali President Sharif Ahmed’s visit to US and the US government’s policy shift in dealing with Sharif:

In December of 2006 Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, currently only-in-name president of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, was on the run from the Ethiopian army, the CIA, and the U.S. Rangers.

East African Philisophers continues:

This week Sheikh Sharif is in Minneapolis, MN (and the home of this crazy congresswoman) meeting with Congressmen, Governor, and city councilmen/mayor. Couple of months ago he had a meeting with Secretary Clinton in Nairobi during her Africa trip. From terrorist to president for Sheikh Sharif in just two years. That, friends, must be a first. To me this says a lot about the U.S.’s awful foreign policy than anything else.

The Kenya Somali Blog says Somali government is recruiting Somali youth from Kenya:

Somalia’s U.N.-backed government has recruited more than 170 young Kenyans and former servicemen to help it fight rebels in the failed Horn of Africa state, local leaders in eastern Kenya said.

Mohamed Gabow, the mayor of Garissa, told Reuters the enrolment of ethnic Somali Kenyans was being conducted at a home in Bulla Iftin village, on the outskirts of his town.

The recruitment is not a secret. Those involved are not worried. They are going around all the villages to announce the exercise,” Gabow said in an interview late on Thursday.

This blog post was originally published on Global Voices Online on October 15, 2009.

Through citizen videos, different Colombian organizations share their unique perspectives on crime, violence and armed conflict, where it’s hard to tell apart the good guys from the bad.

False positives

First, mothers and family members show up to march against the armed forces impunity on the deaths of young men due to what has been called False Positives. In the latest false positive situation, it seems that military lured young men with promises of work to rural areas where they were then assassinated and passed off as guerrilla members killed in action. However, the 17 accused members of the military were released when the trial deadlines were not met.

Landmines and indigenous people

The second group is the Nasa indigenous community, who through their YouTube channel have the opportunity to tell a side of the story usually avoided by mass media. In this case, the mines, mortar shells and other weapons left on their indigenous preserve, which is in the middle of the disputed areas between legal and illegal armed groups. The indigenous security service has to frequently “sweep” the area, including houses, to dispose of these weapons left by both the national army and the guerrillas. In the video, they ask the armed forces to please stop laying landmines and to at least come and pick up the unexploded ammunition before the members of their indigenous community stumble upon them.

A plea from police

In this third example, a neighborhood newspaper interviews the police to ask for the end of the year balance. In the interview, titled “Watch out for the bad neighbor” the officer mentions an incident where members of a criminal gang lived in a well-to-do apartment building much to the surprise of the neighbors, smuggling out weapons inside duffel bags designed to transport tennis raquets. But what is surprising is the recommendation the officer has for anyone: keep an eye on your neighbors and if you see young men with lots of money living on their own, eating out most of the time and bringing attractive young women into their apartment, particularly if they look like call girls, they might be members of the mafia.

Do you know of any other communities and organizations who are using video to tell stories not covered by mass media or to share different perspectives on the stories making the news? Please share them with us through the comments or write me a note!

This post was originally published on Global Voices Online on January 20, 2010.

Travelling and making videos of what we experience is a way to share it with the world. Following, a series of videos uploaded by user kdarpa on YouTube, featuring a group of volunteers and the people they met while they travelled to Rwanda and worked with local communities.

Among the videos recently posted is this one showing the final presentation of the drama workshop a team of students from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry gave for genocide survivors:

The youth and adult groups also had a music workshop, here is a snippet of it:

A dance workshop was also organized, and here is their final presentation:

And the members of the writing workshop also danced to celebrate the culmination of their workshop:

This post was originally published on Global Voices Online on December 24, 2009.

Though the major conflict has ceased in Darfur, in western Sudan, the continuing instability and ongoing attacks have been particularly harmful for region’s young people. But youth both within and outside of Sudan have been vital in raising awareness and funds and trying to bring change to Darfur.

Though the major conflict has ceased in Darfur, in western Sudan, a recent U.N. report says those living in the region still suffer from major human rights abuses and a fundamental lack of freedoms. The continuing instability and ongoing attacks have been particularly harmful for Darfur’s young people, as nearly half of those affected by the conflict are children.

Conflict in Darfur

Since 2003, when the fighting began between rebel groups and Sudanese government forces in Darfur, the U.N. estimates as many as 300,000 people have died. During this time, more than 2.7 million Darfuri people have also been displaced, forced into refugee camps in Sudan and Chad. A study released last month shows that more than 80 percent of the deaths during the conflict were the result of disease, not violence, suggesting that many people remain at risk even though the fighting has decreased. To make matters worse, last year the Sudanese government evicted many international humanitarian groups after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur; the government continues to expel foreign organizations.

Effect of conflict on the young

The situation has been especially hard on the country’s young people, as an estimated 1.8 million children have been affected by armed conflict, many exposed to health concerns, a disruption in education and other services and brutal violence. In Darfur, 700,000 children have grown up knowing nothing but the conflict and an estimated 4,500 children are believed to be associated with armed forces and groups. These young people, however, are not the majority, as youth both within and outside of Sudan have been vital in raising awareness and funds and trying to bring change to the region.

Powerful images

Over the past several years, Darfuri children’s experiences during the conflict have been chronicled via their drawings. Some of these drawings are being used as evidence submitted to the International Criminal Court as part of the investigation of war crimes. In 2005, two Human Rights Watch researchers went to the Chad-Sudan border, during which time schoolchildren offered them hundreds of drawings. Many pictures showed bombings by Sudanese government forces, shootings, rapes and the burning of villages. Ethan Zuckerman, a co-founder of Global Voices Online, blogging on My Heart’s In Accra, said the images were powerful:

When I was at Human Rights Watch a week ago, there was a pile of these sketches on a conference room table, along side a pile of photographs from Janjawid militamen. What amazed me was how details in the children’s drawings echoed details from the photos – the stocks of the automatic rifles, the round shape of the houses, the posture of two gunmen riding on horseback. It was immediately clear to me that these drawings weren’t of weapons imagined by children, but eye witness accounts.

Art makes a difference in Darfur

A Waging Peace researcher collected similar drawings in 2007, some of which are shown in this video. Drawing is also being used as a way to help children heal, shown in this video, as are other forms of art. The documentary Darfur Plays shows a group of two dozen young people in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, who are using street theater to spark discussion and increase awareness. Tambay, blogging on Shadow and Act, comments on the film:

Love this!

Art makes a difference in Darfur, where a troupe of self-taught young actors take theatre into the streets and refugee camps.

Their medicine for ailing Darfur is theatre, drama, song and dance – a testament to the power of art to heal!

Young people outside of Sudan raise awareness

Young people outside of Sudan are also working to raise awareness and improve conditions for Sudanese youth. In addition to a host of celebrities, youth in many Western countries have been drawn to the situation in Darfur. Youth initiatives over the years have varied greatly, from creating poetry and organizing rallies to podcasting student voices and finding fundraising programs.

And the initiatives continue. In Canada, the youth-led group STAND Canada has developed a campaign called ‘Stand For The Dead.’ Beginning this month, Canadians will be encouraged to wear t-shirts bearing one Darfuri victim’s name and the group will be showing a film called Darfur. Lori L. Tharps, blogging on My American Meltingpot, came across a different Darfur t-shirt-campaign years ago and at first questioned its effectiveness:

Throughout the day in New York City, I kept seeing more and more teenagers with Darfur t-shirts on. Like it was a fashion statement. Like supporting Darfur was cool. At first I was amused, then a little perturbed, like ‘did these wealthy White kids have any clue what modern-day genocide really meant?” But then I reasoned, even if they didn’t, they were increasing awareness with their simple black & white t-shirts…

…Black teens, White, Asian…I’m seeing a multicultural mix of young people up in arms for not only the victims of Darfur but for people around the world who are suffering, caught in the crossfire of violence. I stumbled onto the website Teens4Peace and was overjoyed to see that American teens have more to care about than MySpace, Ashlee Simpson and the latest iPod manifestation.

Meanwhile, a high school in Long Island City, New York, organized a fundraiser in December to help youth in Nyala. The blog Stories From Darfur elaborates on the event:

I received an email from a friend and activist in Nyala Darfur. He works with a group of youth who are trying hard to preserve and nurture Darfur’s musical and cultural heritage. The youth write and perform their own songs and develop theater pieces based on issues their communities care about the most. Some of the pieces are nostalgic and speak of life before armed militias violently displaced them, others are purely entertaining while others are calls for justice, freedom and peace. For war affected youth and their audiences this group is a great forum for expression, community building and healing. My friend asked us to help them start a mini orchestra…Our youth at Long Island City High School decided to support their effort and packed their school’s auditorium last Thursday for a Talent Show fundraiser. From Hip Hop dance performances to an impersonation of Lady Gaga, they put together a 30 act show that raised over $800.

Other strategies are being used to engage even more youth. A few years ago, a free, online, student-developed video game called Darfur is Dying was released. In the game, players learn about the conflict and must keep their refugee camp functioning despite possible attacks. The game has led to at least 50,000 people taking action to help end the violence. Steve Rothman, blogging on The Social Media Soapbox, critiques the game:

To play the game, you first select from one of several Darfurian avatars, but they are no more than cartoon figures. Perhaps if a fictional profile for each of the figures had been provided, it might have had that effect. I also wondered if transforming such things as foraging for water or hiding from the militia into game objectives could potentially backfire and desensitize people to the plight of Darfurians…

…Nobody will be spending hours playing Darfur is Dying in order to “keep their camp functioning,” the stated goal of the game. But of course that isn’t the point. I imagine the greatest value of this game, and others like it, will be to engage a mass audience of young people in social issues and causes — an audience that is less accessible through more traditional communications channels.

A message to young people everywhere

Whatever the method, Emily Holland found that increased awareness is exactly what some youth in Darfur want. Blogging for the International Rescue Committee, she talked to about 50 young people in a refugee camp. When she asked them, “What is your message to young people your age around the world?,” they said:

We want them to know about our activities and our problems.

We want them to support us. To understand that we need education and healthcare.

The individuals whom people from outside Darfur are exposed to are not always necessarily from the camps. We want youth from all over the world to see what life is like here. To hear the real story.

Photo of Darfuri girl in red by wanderingzito on Flickr, Creative Commons.

Régine Zamor is a Haitian-American based in New Rochelle, New York, but raised in Brooklyn. Her Haitian family is from Martissant. She decided to come to Haiti after the 12 January earthquake and volunteer on her own, without signing up with a major NGO. She had contacts in Haiti and the Dominican Republic before arriving, having volunteered with Haitian indentured laborers in Batey Ocho, Barahona, in the Dominican Republic last summer. Her family and friends in the United States were supportive of her decision.

Régine is a film producer and writer who just finished a documentary film on street children in Cap Haïtien, titled Bagay Dwòl. She has been blogging about the film and about her first-response volunteering at her blog, Bagay Dwol Journal.

When she initially arrived in Haiti, a couple of days after the quake, she researched where her help was needed and wound up volunteering in food distribution, information sharing — both in person and through her blog — and in medical supplies distribution through various contacts at smaller NGOs such as SOIL, Wynn Farm, and COHEF.

Georgia Popplewell and I met with her at the Hotel Oloffson a couple of afternoons ago.

“I didn’t want to wait”

When I told other Haitians living in the United States that I was traveling to Haiti with Global Voices, many who were on waiting lists with large well-known NGOs and US government agencies expressed dismay. For example, my friend Alex — who holds a masters degree in public health administration and has been working in the healthcare industry in the United States for years — was itching to be picked from a volunteer list. When Régine explained to Georgia and me how she made it to Haiti shortly after the quake, I immediately thought of Alex and all the others waiting in the U.S.

Régine decided not to wait, and in this video she explains how she connected with the work she wound up doing:

(A version of this video with French subtitles is also available on dotSUB.)

Régine and other first-responders took food distribution in their own hands and at their own cost

I have only spotted one UN-run food distribution line since my arrival here a week ago. It was near the National Palace, and proved so chaotic that either tear gas or pepper spray was allegedly used on the crowd. A handful of UN officers seemed to be handling a crowd of thousands. A system for the distribution of the global influx of aid by either the UN or the Haitian government has yet to materialize. But in speaking to Régine, it became clear that many Haitians and others willing to help took matters into their own hands during the first-response period.

Here Régine explains how she coordinated with an NGO contact in the Dominican Republic to buy food, have it sent to Port-au-Prince, and distribute it to Orphelinat l’Amour du Bon Berger.

Volunteering with the Parc Antoine Izméry Clinic in Delmas 33

When we met Régine at the Oloffson, an American buddy from her hometown of New Rochelle, NY, interrupted our meeting to introduce some doctors to her. Régine left Georgia and me to go and meet them, and eventually introduced us to one of them, an American doctor who has served Haitian patients in the Bahamas for the past 11 years. She turned to us and said: “He just agreed to come to the Sité Solèy Clinic with me tomorrow morning.”

That is precisely what Régine means by her role in “information sharing”. Via word of mouth and using all means available, she has connected tens of people to whatever service needs she has identified or become aware of.

Here Régine shares a bit about the work she has been doing at the medical clinic at Park Antoine Izméry in Delmas 33:

On her blog, she explains how she delivered needed medical supplies to Kenscoff.

Régine’s journey is far from over. Like many of the Haitian-Americans I have met in Port-au-Prince, she is planning on installing herself permanently here in the next few weeks. Here are her “Helpful Resources for Volunteering in NYC.”

This blog post was originally published on Global Voices Online on January 31, 2010.