HURAH SUPPORTERS NEWS BULLETIN
– 9.26.10
Dear Friend of Haiti,
On the road again! After looking at the need again, at my still relatively privileged status and after consulting with the Hurah board, I’ve decided to stay on the job a little longer. I’ll need everyone’s help, of course. Every little bit counts. There is a big program and a small one. I hope you will be moved to give again. Please read on!
GENTILHOMME: OUR HURAH “DEFENDER” of Human Rights:
HE WILL CONTINUE! PLEASE HELP WITH HIS BUDGET. DONATE
The trainee period is over. Wow 6 months have sped by! Gentilhomme has agreed to stay with us even though my request for donations these past 2 months has not resulted in sufficient funds for him. So I’m making another appeal. Just $3,160 for a whole year! Monthly $263. I figure by providing him with expenses for rent (his room is his office), internet, gasoline, phone, he can survive while also helping human rights go forward. This is the field he would like to stay in. He still works with AUMOHD as well. If we can raise this whole budget we could give him a stipend of $1.25 per hour for personal expenses. See our DONATE page for more explanations.
BIG DEAL: SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT! The big project we started and then had to drop after the earthquake is now back on. Not just the word, “sustainable“, not just an idea, but a plan with roots in the ground already. It’s the “coop” model guaranteeing education, food sufficiency and income from ecotourism. You will remember that we began working with a land coop, Galette Chambon, after the earthquake. This was the generous group that offered to take in several thousand earthquake refugees, not just temporarily, but as settlers in a green, sustainable land coop. Read about this below and get excited!
SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM: Gentilhomme has helped St. Columba Parish in Oakland to work out a scholarship program for kids not able to afford to go to school. HOPE FOR HAITI: EDUCATION Over the years we have restricted ourselves to advocacy in legal/judicial reform. Education is a human right, of course, but we leave that to others. In this case Hurah is helping establish the scholarship program with our long time friends and human rights defenders community in Grand Ravine by providing liaison with St. Columba Parish.
THANKS! As always a big thank you to everyone who donates
and who supports us in any way!
ENJOY AND GET ENTHUSED!
Tom Luce
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Online; Send Checks to Tom Luce, 1515 Fairview St. Berkeley, Ca. 94703
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Gentilhomme (GH) Jean-Gilles: THE HUMAN RIGHTS BEAT
note:
don’t forget we need money for Gentilhomme: DONATE
INDEX:
1. SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: COOPS, THE TOUR! Human Rights Through the Arts!
2. SCHOLARSHIPS FOR GRAND RAVINE
– find out how to help
Picture below: On Friday, Sept. 24th a local windstorm of an estimated
60mph ripped through Port-Au-Prince destroying several thousand tents, killing 5 people and destroying many trees. GH went out to survey the damage. Here is one sample of tree damage. The storm also knocked out electricity systems. GH’s solar panel was not destroyed but he had to bring it down off the roof to protect it and he has no electricity.
Send Checks to Tom Luce,
1515 Fairview St. Berkeley, Ca. 94703
====================================
1. SUSTAINABLE FUTURE:COOPS, THE
TOUR, HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH THE ARTS!
by Tom Luce
HURAH
is again backing sustainable development in Haiti. In January we called
it SIHRH–Sustainable Investment and Human Rights In Haiti–as
the earthquake complicated –beyond the imagination– the life of the poor in
Haiti.
SIHRH: The bold, essential program aimed at creating a
sustainable socioeconomic model for a new Haiti based on agricultural coops
with complete K-12 education, and eco tourism for income, is worth our efforts.
We have been asked to monitor the human rights values involved in the implementation
of the coop model, to provide a temporary account for donations until the cooperative
bank is opened in Haiti, and to assist in fund raising. In February I visited
the agricultural coop of peasant farmers in Galette Chambon, 40 miles east of
Port-Au-Prince on the border with the Dominican Republic. This group of people
was open to receiving quake refugees to settle on the coop and allowing them
to become owner-members and participate in their plans for sustainable agriculture
and an eco-tourism business. They enthusiastically offered to take in thousands
of quake refugees as part of our SIHRH plan to permanently organize Haitians
in food self-sufficiency, economic self-sufficiency (eco tourism) and assure
education for all children (ending the restavek system.).Our “Defender”,
Gentilhomme, will be studying the coop movement as it has developed in Haiti
and will be establishing contacts for Hurah with the coop leadership. Hurah
wants to support the best in human rights commitment at every level so that
democratic rule, equal access, inclusivity, worker rights etc. are will govern
the coops.
CREDIBLE CHAMPIONS
Randolph
Voyard, the architect of SIHRH and also Pres. of the American
Museum of Creole Cultures (AMCC) has invited us to take up the
challenge again and work with AMCC to raise funds for the cooperative program
he has continued to promote since the earthquake. It was he along with dozens
of coops in the late 90’s who promoted cooperative farming and econtourism,
a way for landless, impoverished Haitians could claim ownership, provide for
food, and benefit from the tourism industry.
The same network of people is involved, the already established
coops in Haiti’s agricultural center. We will be consolidating connections with
the rest of existing coops–some 40+. They have been working at the coop plan
for decades with Randolph providing technical expertise for land management,
banking tools, and business development.. I am proud to join in this new push
for bringing their dreams to reality.
The AMCC is not yet established itself in Florida but because
of the earthquake and its commitment to equality it is foregoing its own development
in favor of Haiti. I believe that the management problems that caused us to
suspend our involvement in April have been surmounted. The conditions in Haiti
have not improved–only 15% of the promised international aid has arrived. The
government faces more destabilization with the upcoming contested elections.
Meantime there is the same old non-sustainable programming being pushed without
regard for the majority poor.
THE TOUR: THROUGH THE ARTS, HUMAN RIGHTS
A new fund raising program for our Haitian human rights programs,
THE TOUR
is being organized now by AMCC for 2011. This will be a combination of auctioning
donated works of the French master, Georges
Braque, as well as artwork of African American artists who emigrated
to France because of discrimination in the Jim Crow era. The story of slavery
and the history of slavery up to the present, so amply included in the book
by Nell Irvin Painter, “Creating Black America: African American history
1619-present will be told in connection with this rich collection of art. It
is this history that the TOUR will feature, stimulating not just art appreciation
but the promotion of fundamental human rights, never to allow any more slavery
in our present time. Names like Archibald Motley, Palmer Hayden, Hale Woodruff
and many others of these expatriates provide rich experiences of life affected
by racism.
SLAVE TRADE:LA FRATERNITÉ
THE
TOUR will also include educational activities organized by a unique
group from France–Le Bateau Pédagogique (Teaching Boat)–building a
replica of the slave ship, L’Aurore, that will connect historical slavery and
modern day slavery with challenge to remedy this blight on humanity. Le
Bateau Pédagogique is a project out of Nantes, France (largest
slave trading port in Europe).L’Aurore was a major (500-600 slaves each shipment)
transport vessel in the “The
Triangular Trade“ (Africa, Europe-France, the Americas 17-19 centuries)
of slaves. La Fraternité is joining AMCC and Hurah in the TOUR to contribute
to the educational component.
THE TALENT SCHOOLS
Using the funds for the Haitian Coop movement will
be an example of how to remedy the effects of slavery, giving Haiti another
chance of being a model for equality and opportunity for all as it was in 1804
when it became the first freed slave republic. We are focusing on tuition free
education as the centerpiece of the coop model and are calling the education
piece, THE TALENT SCHOOLS. The plans encompass more than just a school building
but homes for the families, meals for the students prepared on site with up-to-date
kitchen equipment, food grown on site with green methodology, environmentally
sound sanitation means. Ten such schools are envisioned in all parts of Haiti’s
rural lands.Long term economic systems funded by eco-tourism will provide income
and employment for sustainable development.
For a copy of the complete “TOUR” plan, go to this link:
“TOUR”
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2. Scholarships for Grand Ravine
Children by Gentilhomme
As mentioned last month Hurah’s Rep, GH, has been working with the Grand Ravine
Community Human Rights Council CHRC-GR on scholarships. Pres.Point-Du-Jour gathered
a group of 170 eligible children on 9.12.10 and GH took photos (see left). The
parish of St. Columba in Oakland, California has taken on the challenge of raising
funds for these children.
An average of $222 per year is what it costs, school fee and school
materials (uniform, shoes, books, pencils, etc). A first installment of several
thousand dollars will be made to help some start school on Oct..4, the delayed
opening due to the earthquake.
GH will see that each child will have a picture and a personal
statement for the scholarship donor.
If you would like to contribute, send a check to St. Columba
Parish, Haiti Committee, 6401 San Pablo Ave., Oakland, Ca. 94608
=========================================================
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Online; Send Checks to Tom Luce,
1515 Fairview St. Berkeley, Ca. 94703
=========================================================================
CLICK HERE TO DONATE
Online; Send Checks to Tom Luce,
1515 Fairview St. Berkeley, Ca. 94703
===============================================================
Human
Rights Accompaniment In Haiti-Hurah, Inc.
a 501(c)(3), non-profit
1515 Fairview St., Berkeley Ca. 94703 President, Tom Luce, president@hurah.org
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