HURAH!

UPDATE ON THE HOPE FOR HAITI:EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM YEAR #3 – CHILDREN FROM THE GRAND RAVINE COMMUNITY.  UPDATE ON THE LAWSUIT BEFORE THE INTERAMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL WITH SETON HALL LAW UNIVERSITY AND AUMOHD.

     A great THANK YOU! To all our sponsors, old and new, and to our friends who support our fundraisers Visit our website: http://haitischolarships.weebly.com

170 impoverished students from Grand Ravine in Port-Au-Prince finished year 1 in June 2011.

HHE has been able to pay the monthly tuition fee for our 100 students through April 2013!  This is the first time that this has been possible since we began. We realized we needed to reduce the number of students from 170 in the first two years to 100 this year in order to be able to sustain the program. With the generosity of an increased number of individual sponsors and donors and with the successful fundraising events listed here we are well on or way to meeting this year’s budget. Now we’re looking ahead toward getting a headstart on the 4th year of our commitment to these children who are in such need and are counting on us. Editor’s note: at the event reported on below, “Haiti Cultural Night” we received $20,000!  That has given us a headstart for year #4.  And will give us impetus to take care of other problems: hungry students, water needy students, students at risk of disease.

Donations: Attn. Treasurer Elena Gaudet educatehaiti@aol.com Haiti Liaison, Tom Luce 510-229-3571 hhecoordinator@gmail.com  510-229-3571 View our Hope for Haitiwebsite with a click:  HHE Website

*** For our Haiti Cultural Night and Visit from Haiti of Mr. Point-du-Jour, May 18, 2013 see our website:  http://haitischolarships.weebly.com

PICS FOR YEAR #4

Happy HHE students from Orion school, front row from left, teachers, Mr. Jean-Gilles (3 L) assistant to HHE Haiti Liaison, Mr. Point-du-Jour (4 L), overall Manager (volunteer) of the scholarship program.

                              DISEASE PREVENTION AT SCHOOL

Last month when our Haitian program reps. visited our schools they found a program that  teaches all students how to prevent and treat the tropical disease, “LF.” A special medical unit at Notre Dame University in Indiana has been working on this problem since 1992. 45% of the Haitian population is infected with this disease.

Flyer explains “Lymphatic Filariasis” (LF), a mosquito borne disease that swells body parts to enormous debilitating sizes.

Students at Orion (40 HHE students attend) are receiving information and medication for L.F. Just being in school and not in the streets is a prevention against all sorts of diseases and violence against children. Here they receive additional care.

OUR OTHER THREE HOPE FOR HAITI SCHOOLS: (photos taken February of 2013 at gatherings to thank St. Columba)

Brother Mareus school has 20 of our students who are very happy with their 3rd year in school.

Messiah school has 20 students.

Mary Magdalen school, part of St. Bernadette parish covering the Grande Ravine area, has 20 students.

                                            SLOW WHEELS OF JUSTICE BEGIN TO MOVE FORWARD: STOP THE VIOLENCE!

Idalia François is an icon of the victims of government sponsored terror in Grand Ravine that occurred  in 2005 and 2006. She was victimized 3 times (son killed, business and home destroyed.  After many long stalls (see link above), the campaign for justice has been slowly moving forward since then.  This past fall a group of student lawyers from Seton Hall took the case of several hundred Grand Ravine victims to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to make claims for reparation.

The Community Council for Human Rights of Grand Ravine (CHRC-GR) has been organized since 2005 to advocate for human rights for the people of Grand Ravine. The Council is non-partisan and committed to non-violence. When the St. Columba Haiti committee asked the CHRC-GR what was most needed in their community they identified education for impoverished families as the most important human right that needed to be addressed.   

  
In February the leadership of the CHRC-GR with Pres. Point-du-Jour (back row fifth from l.) and student lawyers from Seton Hall met to make videos of the testimony of victims in preparation for the hearing at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission in D.C. in the near future. Pres. Point-du-Jour is the volunteer manager of the Hope for Haiti scholarship program.

While St. Columba is making it possible for 100 of the poorest children in Grand Ravine to attend school and have hope for a better future, law students from Seton Hall University(click to read story) in New Jersey have been helping the people in Grand Ravine to find some justice for their community.

Sept. 3, 2006 Grand Ravine, Haiti, Esterne Bruner, the second president of the Grand Ravine Human Rights Council gives Tom Luce a tour of hundreds of burned-out homes. Two weeks later Bruner was brutally assassinated for his human rights work. The work of the case at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is based on this crime and one in 2005, a massacre at a soccer match attended by 5,000 people, orchestrated by the Haitian National Police.

HUMAN RIGHTS CHAMPION COMING TO ST. COLUMBA – MAY 18, 2013

  In 2005 citizens of Grand Ravine formed the GR-CHRC as part of a city-wide plan to gain recognition and freedom from partisan, violent struggles rather than continue with the political infighting that had plagued their community for years. The second president, Esterne Bruner, the father of six young children, was assassinated for promoting human rights for his community in a non-partisan and non-violent way.  The third president, Frantzco Joseph, had to move out of Grand Ravine due to threats against him, his wife, and two children.  He still voluteers with the GR-CHRC and helps with the Hope for Haiti scholarship program. As noted above Mr. Point-du-Jour is heavily involved in the case being brought before the Inter-American Human Rights Commission.

Choosing the specific students entailed much diplomacy between children and families and the community at large.  Then the process of identifying schools supportive of vulnerable children began.  Several schools close enough to avoid busing were available, all dedicated to working with inner-city children.  The GR-CHRC had to organize the purchase of school supplies–books, pencils, bags, uniforms.  Then distribute them.  And finally Mr. Point-du-Jour became the paymaster of tuition with each student at each school. 

Because St. Columba was not able to raise all the funds at the beginning of the school year Mr. Point-du-Jour had to negotiated with schools so that monthly payments could be make by St. Columba.  Making sure the students were staying school, following their academic work, creating special projects to communicate with St. Columba, and accounting for St. Columba grant money–all this had to be done while Mr. Point-du-Jour is doing his own job of teaching and being a husband and a father of two girls. He is assisted especially by Frantzco Joseph, the third presient of GR-CHRC, and Gentilhomme Jean-Gilles who is the assistant to Tom Luce who is the Haiti Liaison for St. Columba, Tom Luce. The more credibility the GR-CHRC gains in achieving real human rights for the community, the more it can accomplish, the safer and more respected members will be as community leaders.

-- 
Tom Luce, 
1515 Fairview St. Apt. C	
Berkeley, California 94703-2317
E-mail: hhecoordinator@gmail.com
Home Tel: 510-229-3556
Office Tel. 510-229-3571
Skype Tel. 510-423-0620 (mobile)
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