Celebrating Our Work!

At the end of a long day on the last day of my working trip with AUMOHD we gathered to celebrate. Milka, Paul, Moïse, Evel, me, Issa (and photographer, Gentilhomme).

"EpiDor" is place on our main thoroughfare (Delmas) near the office, near home, and it is a fast food place with a difference. The name I think comes from the French or Creole meaning golden sword. Not really akin to the golden arches. The place has a little mascot that probably is a sword. In any case you can get burgers, chicken nuggets, salads, sandwiches, pastries. We bought a luscious strawberry cake to top off the celebration of the days in Cité Soleil, in Bainet, in Grand Ravin, and at the office and home trying to get our technology up to speed.

Just as we gathered we were visited by another neighbor, Moïse Jean-Charles, a well-known champion of the poor and human rights from the north and now working in the President's office. What a nice reunion! I had worked with him in 2005 when he needed an international observer to help him convince the UN that the demonstration he wanted to hold concerning demands for a fair election would be peaceful and observed.


The water purification campaign continued last week with several more trips to Cité Soleil. Here is a picture of just one of the dozens of community cisterns where residents must come to get their water. Because of the vulnerability of these cisterns to contamination the campaign is designed to raise awareness of the need to purify water in the cisterns as well as in the containers that are brought home.

13+ different neighborhoods in the vast inner city section called Cité Soleil (300,000 people) were organized tightly in teams of 1-2 people who took responsibility for taking a seminar in water purification, for advising their neighbors, and for delivering Chlorox and Aquatabs for the actually purification process. Each area has 1-3 community cisterns with water pumps. The water needs purifying in the cistern and in the home as well as it is kept in containers. AUMOHD gathered buckets for demonstrating in houses the process of decontaminating and keeping it pure with covers. These neighborhoods are not in the center of Cité Soleil and were feeling abandoned by all the authorities and service groups. AUMOHD, our partner, worked hard (see my post earlier) to calm things down and bring the Mayor and the people together.

Here is a picture of the water purifcation seminar about to get underway. The leader is a member of the water commission and he volunteered his time. All the group leaders were volunteers as well, residents of the areas. This scenen captures the group in a beginning meditation and prayer.






As my 21 days drew to a close I was taken on Sunday, Nov. 18 to Musique En Folie, now in its 2nd or third year of featuring Haitian musicians and their CD's It includes a festival of food and booths with many exhibitors including one for women's rights and for services to alcoholics. Most of the crowd was young and laid back with lots of young parents with children.

A Life of Faith, Family, Community

This is a pitch for changing outsiders' images of Haiti to one of normalcy, of faith, of family and warm community. The people are beautiful, gentle, and engaging. You should think of visiting here.

Those of us engaged in human rights struggles have by definition to expose unpretty scenes. And don't forget, these scenes have their roots in the ugly practices people from the "first" world have brought here--slavery, dictatorship, terrorism.

There is even a concerted effort on the part of some criminals who benefit from a bad image for Haiti. There are those also who because they have been attacked personally send out messages not to come to Haiti. The stained glass window in Atty Fanfan's home church is a beacon of faith and hope that inspires him and a huge congregation of 500 every Sunday at church. I'm suggesting that you think of Haiti as a majority of faithful, decent people. You would enjoy a stay here.

You should not hesitate to come. You should support the struggling tourist industry. There are suitable vacation spots, celebrations, film festivals, concerts. It will help everyone. Or come observe and/or work with some social change group and you will enjoy it.

I'm sitting here listening to a soccer game--the public electricity is on now and we have no problem keeping TV's going. Sweden and Spain are playing and ordinary folk unlike us crusaders are crowded about TV's everywhere. It is Saturday and people are out on the streets, crowding the lines at the banks, at the supermarkets, people just like us out getting what we need to keep home life going. Today it is the 8th birthday of Atty. Fanfan's son, Meltary.

For the last week I have been out walking in the neighborhood, out to the main street, Delmas, to the supermarket, to the bank. This is an inner city neighborhood, crowded to be sure, narrow streets, packed with small merchants. Trucks actually can navigate these tiny streets. I prefer the country myself--where we were last Saturday in the mountains and then by the sea. But city life is exciting and stimulating, no doubt about that. People party here.

Here is a picture of Annie's, downtown. Not a smoky bar with lots of noise. We went there because it is owned by a friend of ours and there was a nice, calm birthday party being celebrated. Soft music filled the background. All young parents it seemed, some with babies and children. Nice time.


Walking on the streets is crowded.
Especially when the street also is a place for small merchants who put their wares on the ground so that the already narrow street becomes even narrower. It is mind boggling how these folks make a living, hawking their wares.

Yesterday I witnessed something that was a stark symbol of how hard life can be here. A young man, medium size was hauling one of those huge carts--they remind of a chariot or a rickshaw--you know where a human is where a horse would be in other places. As I was coming down a steep incline he was coming up and he stumbled and fell flat on his face. His load was heavy metal scrap. Another man was pushing from behind. But they both had to stop and catch their breath.


Here is a picture of my neighborhood. All cement block houses. Some are decorated with filigreed railings. Life is very crowded with the houses close together. I imagine that there is a small city in just this immediate area--10,000 or more people.

There is school here for those who can afford it. Universal education was a goal of the Aristide administration and more public schools were built here in his time than in the entire history of the country. The access for everyone goal is a long way off. People like the superstar rapper Wyclef Jean make a lot of collecting money for scholarships, but the system is simply not designed for everyone. But I'm back on my human rights kick. Enjoy these two school pictures of our partner's children.


SOLAR POWER

O.K. here is a mundane, but environmental friendly piece of our life here. Sun is abundant here and I've tried valiantly to make the sun work for us. It has been slow and has had its moments of doubts. This visit I found the system: 2 - 80 watt panels, a charge controller, an inverter and a bank of 4 batteries-- had been aging and that was the reason communications had been diminishing. Solar power is great but it, at least in my experience, is fickle, not just the sun hiding, but the electricity in the batteries can tend to come and go. You think you're set for working on the computer and "wheeeeeee" the inverter screams it is low on power. So you unplug and some times even that doesn't fix things. The inverter we purchased new is now headed for the cemetery. We went out and bought a small Vector MAXX 400 watt-800 max jobby that people sell to truckers or others with batteries to run appliances. This actually works as well as the professional one we are throwing away. Go figure.

Then there is the internet hook up. At first we installed a satellite dish. It worked pretty well but not during the rain. And then we discovered the "magic box" approach to catching the internet. This is a little portable wireless broadband receiver that you can put anywhere or carry it with you to different places. It connects to your computer or wireless router and you're plugged in. Trouble was this first "magic box" ($100 purchase, $50 monthly fee) didn't have a strong signal. So we had to find a new company (Hainet) recommended by a friend who does a lot of journalism uploading. It cost another $100 ($60 monthly fee), but it is fast and efficient. There it is being protected in our hallway by the stuffed animals!

Here is Delmas, 32 block, a huge main thoroughfare connecting from the bay to the mountains outside of Port-Au-Prince. We live quite a ways up and far away from the city center. This is the local supermarket. Just like home. And people out doing their Saturday shopping--those who aren't watching soccer.

Finally there is family. Here Uncle Saidel keeps 2 mos old Melgore happy while his parents are out. He is an extremely calm, happy baby--except when he is awake and left alone.

A Crying Shame - Street Kids Robbed Of Home!

Note: Check out my website to see a slideshow detailing this story. Click here: Lafanmi

Look at this gutted building and cry. It once housed a few hundred kids rescued from the streets of Port-Au-Prince by Fr. Jean Bertrand Aristide in the 90's and into the new century. It was called, Lafanmi Selavi (Family Is Life).

The fate of kids driven to the streets by poverty, abuse, or death back in the Duvalier dictatorship days was not only street violence, but, not unusually, extermination by paramilitaries. "Cleansing" the population was the way these utterly depraved men described what they were accomplishing. Fr. Aristide signaled the end of such treatment if he could have any say in the matter. A crying shame.

That human beings, let alone young children, could ever be treated this way is not the only shame. Almost as soon as the doors were opened back in the 90's, enemies of Aristide's social programs began plotting to keep this home from becoming a beacon of hope for the poor. It was attacked and damaged. Outsiders plotted with some residents to overthrow the home and denounce it as a bad place for kids. Subsequently these same kids confessed to the ruse.

Finally in Feb. of 2004 the place was closed for good. Then President Aristide was kidnapped by the US government in a ruse to protect him from a "popular uprising". In fact it was a small band of mercenaries who went on a rampage with powerful CIA-derived weapons in the north, killing innocent people. To read some powerful testimony of this terrorism go to Hurah's website by clicking here - Plateau Centrale Report. Lafanmi Selavi, the home for street kids, already virtually closed, was further ransacked after Feb. 29, staff beaten, and left abandoned. A crying shame!

One of the residents of Lafanmi Selavi was Reagan Lolo who was driven to the streets by family violence at age 11, but was soon rescued by the Aristide staff. He prospered there and became nationally known for his news commentary and disc jockey work at the Aristide Foundation's Youth Radio and TV station.

When the last coup brought down Pres. Aristide in 04 and thugs began attacking the home, Lolo, now living with friends and finishing high school, went to its rescue, put street kids back in, recruited adult volunteer caretakers, and put up barricades. After a few weeks the police arrested Lolo without any warrant and clamped him in prison where he languished for over 3 months in jammed cells, eating infested food and drinking contaminated water.

An honest judge threw his case out but to no avail. The justice department under the control of the illegal interim government of Gerard Latortue (a US supported measure) did not respect such orders regarding anyone connected with Pres. Aristide.

On June 25, 2004 through the dogged efforts of Atty. Evel Fanfan, President of AUMOHD a Haitian human rights, non-violent/non-partisan, advocacy group, Lolo was freed from prison, a first for the partnership of Hurah, Inc and AUMOHD. You can read the history of all this human interest story on our website at LOLO

Now Lolo is continuing to work on his dream of working for street kids by laying a solid foundation for the revival of Lafanmi Selavi. He has been elected among his peers from the former residents as coordinator of the team to bring Lafanmi Selavi back to life.

Lolo has already formed a community organizing project. You can read about this new organization at SODAHAITI. SODA is a Creole acronym meaning "Neighbors Talking Together" and is a model of community organizing that emphasizes equality, justice, and care for the poor. SODA has established 4 schools taught by volunteers and providing a hot meal once a day for only poor kids. And it is supporting this new undertaking at Lafanmi Selavi.

Here is a new kid, amazingly young, hanging out at the old Lafanmi Selavi and part of a group of 20 invited by Lolo and his committee to consider forming a "family" in his old home. There are substantial parts of the building left where a classroom, a storage room and living quarters are slated to be made permanent. Beside the structural difficulties that need to be rectified there are the problems of ownership, and vagrants who consider this their territory. But Lolo and his committee are working carefully with the authorities and with AUMOHD to get this groundwork taken care of as they look for funding.

Here Paul, a volunteer, Lolo, me Tom Luce, and Patrick a former resident and member of the steering committee stand out front of the home. The sign was for the now closed women's health clinic that came in after the home was ransacked.

If you would like to donate to this heart wrenching project go to Friends
of Soda, a 501(c)(3) corporation in the US which is assisting with
financing of SODA proejcts. Write Lolo at lolodesoda@yahoo.fr

If you would like to donate to AUMODH which fought for Lolo's freedom go to
Hurah's Website and click on the GOOGLE link in the left menu frame.

LET'S PUT AN END TO THIS CRYING SHAME!--

Community Human Rights Council Launched At Bainet-by-the-Sea

Saturday, Nov. 10

Leaving the capital of Port-Au-Prince for the south east provides breathtaking beauty of the mountains Haiti is famous for. But 10 hours (coming and going) on washed out dirt roads to give 4 hours of a seminar on human rights has to take the prize for dedication to a cause.

We were squeezed 4 in the back and two in the front of our land rover which proved a good match for the at times mud pools and deeply rutted steep hills. Breathtaking beauty just the same and a totally different world from the teeming capital.

The winding and roller coaster hill roads pass through rock walls with many tumbled down rocks, through a couple of rivers. It is amazing to see that people actually live and apparently are at home here. The temperature is more pleasant. The hills are verdant. Lots of corn growing. Many beasts of burden used for transportation as well as mopeds.

Bainet is a sea town (78,000 pop) in the south east near the more famous cinema festival town of Jacmel. We went there at the request of friends and families of an AUMOHD volunteer lawyer, Bainet-born Atty. Toussaint.

Bainet probably was a quaint resort town back in the days of the Duvalier dictatorship--you can see the beach is only attractive to the donkeys-- but now seems to be pretty hard hit by all the ills of Haiti's hard times.

In looking up this town on Google I found several organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life there--schools, clinics, etc. The town celebrated its patron saints, Peter and Paul, this past summer in a huge celebration that included all sorts of dignitaries, politicians, UN personnel. It sounded like a huge and important celebration. But I read nothing in the report about human rights and the needs of the people, just the merits of following in the footsteps of Peter and Paul. Still, given all the panoply of the church and political presence in this place, I had to wonder whether our outreach was really needed.

The people of Bainet had heard about the model of a Community Human Rights Council (CHRC) which AUMOHD has been building in 4 of the inner city zones of the capital from Bainet native and AUMOHD volunteer lawyer, Atty. Toussaint. They wanted to gear up to advocate for their rights with this model apparently because they didn't feel recognized or empowered to work for them. To judge from the attendance (50+), the attention span, the questioning, the signups for follow-up, the CHRC model has a lot of credibility.

Atty Fanfan presented a thorough study (with a handout) of the refinements of human rights citing international documents as well as the Haitian constitution of 1987. He received lots of heads nodding in agreement about the difficulty of establishing and maintaining a state with respect for human rights and that a new model was needed--non-political, non-violent--to move forward with an improvement in the lives of people in Haiti. His talk with a question period lasted over an hour.

Atty. Toussaint went into more detail with definitions and case examples (with handouts) in the advocacy for human rights during another hour presentation with questions.

Everyone was attentive, asked pertinent questions including "Atty. Toussaint, how can you explain the fact that Pres. Bush pushed for the death penalty of hanging for Saddam Hussein, if this is against international human rights pacts?"

More than 8 different sectors signed up to form the new CHRC--clergy, school professionals, community activists, women and young people reps. There were no politicians or political party people in attendance and it was clear that the purposes of the CHRC model were not being met by existing organizations.

AUMOHD is obviously fulfilling a felt-need. There was no charge for this service--as is the case for all its services--but there are costs involved, namely, transportation (including wear and tear on the vehicle) printing, and food.

Think about helping AUMOHD by contributing through GOOGLE on our website. online: Click Google in the left menu frame. Google no longer charges non-profits!!!

Sweet In Haiti - How To Help Hurricane Victims

Left to right- Tom Luce, Evel Fanfan, Patrick and Lolo celebrating freedom and dedication to helping the poor.

Talk about real sweet! Evel Fanfan, Haitian attorney and human rights champion when we met at the National Penitentiary, site of hundreds of political prisoners. Among these was Lolo, a street kid rescued at age 11 by the staff at President Aristide's home for street children, Lafanmi Selavi (Creole for Family Is Life).

In spite of no case and a judge's order to free him, Lolo languished in prison for 4 months, food bug infested, water contaminated and many people to one cell. After a week of intense shuffling from court to jail to police station, Atty. Fanfan obtained Lolo's freedom on June 25, 2004.

Both Fanfan and Lolo have continued to pour their lives out in service to the most poor of Haiti's capital. You can read about Atty Fanfan's work on our website He has been a community organizer as well as effective and absolutely pure attorney in liberating illegal prisoners. (A practice of some lawyers in collusion with corrupt police and judges especially during the illegal, US supported government 2004-2006 was to blackmail prisoners into paying for their release. Atty Fanfan and his group, AUMOHD, work for free.

Check out the amazing work of Lolo and his colleague, Patrick, on their websites. Unbelievable selfless giving!

#1. Friends of SODA, a new 501(c)(3) set up by Reed's mom and friends. There you will be totally impressed with what they are accomplishing. And then if you follow the right buttons you'll be connected to a second website

#2. :SODAHaïti
http://www.sodahaiti.org/projects.html There you will be again blown away by what they are accomplishing--4 schools up and running all free, for children who can't pay for any school, volunteer staff; and then Lolo's dream, Lafanmi Selavi (the Aristide home for street children he grew up in which was attacked and vandalized in 2004 and left abandoned).

Santa Claus--Père Noël! Just as my camera shutter froze when I wanted to make a little video a crowd of school children at Don Bosco School, Cité Soleil, amassed around our car as we were leaving to do public awareness announcements about preventing water born diseases as a result of Hurricane Noël. Earlier in the week a couple of these kids had been present at preliminary meetings and began calling me as often Haitian kids have done, "Père Noël" This time they raised the cry and kept us from leaving for several minutes! Fun!


Yesterday we met at Don Bosco's to hold a press conference covering the community awareness project before we left in two cars with bull horns and factual exhortations to the people to avoid contact with the muddy water and to participate in water purification projects in the coming days.

This is an extraordinary community organizing project for many reasons: an undertaking by a private group--AUMOHD--a vast territory of lowlands and 300,000 inhabitants divided into over 13 local communities. Each local community has at least 5 separate water sources and some have huge water towers.

Atty Fanfan has a great gift at bringing people together and helping them to collaborate instead of being beaten down by their circumstances. He has brought the Mayor together with the people with his gift of persuasion. On Monday when we went to the outlying, most hard hit locales the people began putting up roadblocks to protest the lack of city and state government help and reported criminal activity in the shelters. When Atty Fanfan finished his meeting, everyone was convinced that working together was the best way to get the job done.

The local Community Human Rights Council (CHRC) established by AUMOHD has solid roots in this vast poor zone, pastors, school directors, community leaders. The coalition (Haitian Non-violent, Non-Partisan Coalition-HNVNPC) formed at the height of battles between armed groups and the UN troops last New Year. Shortly thereafter a ceasefire was achieved. The HNVNPC continues to collaborate on all aspects of community development and is leading this disease prevention effort.

To help AUMOHD (transportation, organization matierals, communications) send
money through GOOGLE on our website.

The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN)Haitian
Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN) has sent out a detailed alert on how to
help the victims.

Bittersweet In Grand Ravine

Caption for first picture: Esterne Bruner, 38, non-violent champion of Justice, Grand Ravine, shot 9/21/06, R.I.P. On Oct. 18 2007, the "Jacques Roumain" High School (high on the hill) was opened with 1300 enrolled. Only a dream and a mission when Esterne Bruner was killed for his championing of justice in the double massacres and houseburnings in 05 and 06. Caption for second picture: These happy high school students now have a public school thanks to the constant lobbying of AUMOHD and it's Community Human Rights Council (CHRC) in Grand Ravine. A joyous memorial to Esterne Bruner

It was impossible for me to be morbid and teary-eyed today as I went back to the scene of such bloody, burned out homes, and terrifying out of control police and the interim government back on Aug. 25, 2005. That was when Atty. Evel Fanfan gathered victims and families of the first "soccer" massacre at the high school without a name ransacked shortly after Pres. Aristide was kidnapped.

What a beautiful white three story building shining in the sun, but stripped of every piece of furniture and closed to the community which had planned on sending their children to a public school, planned and built by the Aristide government in 2003. On that August day in 2005 I was touring the school with one of the American UN policemen when a shout rang out that the police were on their way. The dreaded Haitian National Police! They who had orchestrated the massacre of some 50 people in broad daylight at the St. Bernadette soccer stadium down the hill in the sprawling poor community of Martissant were marching toward where we were.

Our American UN policeman gathered everyone--some 30 people only 4 days previously subjected to machete-wielding hackers and police guns--in the basement. He pledged along with his sole mates (1 other policemand and two investigators) to put their bodies on the line at the gate of the school and do whatever was necessary to stop the police from advancing on these people. It was a moment of true valor never to be forgotten.

But today I wasn’t feeling badly. I couldn’t. The shiny white school was teaming with some 800 students (another 500 cannot be accomodated for lack of electricity in the late afternoon session) all smiling and full of life, clearly ecstatic and fully occupied with their schooling.

The picture of me and Franzko, the young man who has replaced Esterne Bruner as the coordinator of the Grand Ravine CHRC, shows us standing in the exact spot where I stood with “Bruner” on Sept. 2, 2006, just a couple of weeks before he was brutally murdered. The chief of the murderous gang, The Little Machete Army, Roody Kernizan, has committed suicide and his wife is in jail. Several others have been killed in confrontations with the police. This kind of justice is not what we have wanted and not what we are looking for in the future as we press for reparations and convictions of the remaining killers.

After meeting with the school administrators and visiting classes we went to visit the mother of Esterne Bruner, a gentle and beautiful and dignified octogenarian. And then we went to a meeting of the Grand Ravine Community Human Rights Council (CHRC), some 50 people in attendance. This is the second CHRC established by AUMOHD to be an ennabling force among communities so deprived of human rights as these inner city communities are. There a lively discussion of what was still undone by the authorities, the court case to put those officials responsible for the first massacre on trial, to put the murderers and house burners of the second massacre in July 06 on trial. Even though the chief of the most flagrant band of killers, Roody Kernizan, has committed suicide and his wife is in jail, there are many others including 15 police free on the streets. Some deal has been made behind the scenes according to AUMOHD President Fanfan to forget about these cases, but the CHRC is adamant that they go ahead with the cases nonetheless. They also set up a delegation to visit the city water commission this afternoon to pressure them to take measures to clean up the water after the Noël flooding. These folks are a model of community organizing at its best. They are passionate in their discussions and yet respectful to the utmost of each other’s opinions. Decisions are made by consensus.

By the way the Aristide high school has been named, the "Jacques Romain" High School. Roumain was a great intellectual and a Marxist! We think though--the Grand Ravine CHRC and AUMOHD-- the school should be named the "Esterne Bruner Memorial High School". At least we're going to present a plaque saying as much to the authorities. Also we want to do something about the total lack of electricity--help us with gathering money and expertise for a solar system--to accommodate an afternoon session and to pump water to the bathrooms and kitchen. A small detail left out by the USAID, UNICEF, and OIM grants.

It has been a glorious day.

Noël In Cité Soleil

FLASH: If you don't have time to digest this post, please go to our website and consider donating through Google to hurricane Noël relief.

In spite of my plans for my first days in Haïti, Noël has taken front stage. Barely out of the airport after a two-hour delay on Friday by Spirit Air, I was whisked to the AUMOHD office to help with stuffing emergency packets for victims of Noël in Cité Soleil.

We filled about 30 bags with canned goods, crackers, rice, and candles. AUMOHD workers were very candid about this being a drop in the bucket, but nonetheless a heartfelt outreach effort on these volunteer human rights workers part. I thought maybe that someone had donated the rice since the bags had American flags, and of course, the proud label, "American White Rice". But no, this was purchased by AUMOHD, no donations.

I hadn't seen much detail about Noël's impact on Haïti. It seemed to me that it had barely grazed the territory as it headed on to Canada-Nova Scotia. But AUMOHD was aware of tough times in a tough place like Cité Soleil. This vast flatland by the ocean is probably at sea level or even below in some spots. Flooding was the result, houses ruined, crops spoiled. Later in my third trip to the sprawling poverty ridden communities we learned that 2,800 persons have been housed in temporary shelter. Some 43 deaths in all have been registered in Haiti. I don't have specifics for Cité Soleil.

So thanks to AUMOHD's work over the last 4 years there has developed an on site network to handle human rights issues, the Community Human Rights Council (CHRC). Pastor Doceus is the President. This CHRC formed a larger coalition of church, school, community groups that have worked together before during the horrible battles between the UN troops and the armed groups this past winter. A ceasefire resulted just as this Haitian Non-violent, Non-partisan Coalition (HNVNPC), banded together and demanded a peaceful approach to the struggles. Now with Noël's devastation this network is positioned to lend basic organizational help. Pictured below with the crutches is the current President of the Community Human Rights Council, Pastor Doceus entering his church/school

Since the ceasefire the whole place has opened up. I was astounded this weekend at the freedom to circulate in a place where I originally had to be escorted in by trusted people scrutinized by machine gun guards at strategic checkposts. I've been three times now and all the roads are open and the people circulate freely. I have to say that the people react cheerfully and friendly to our passing by their humble surroundings.

Even if the promised money we read about in the papers from all quarters for relief for hurricane Noël victims were to actually arrive, there would still be problems. The problems of Haiti go back 200 years and no help, will be timely and adequate. So thanks again to AUMOHD and it's HNVNPC partners we not only brought our token relief packages which were distributed with the utmost caring and fair way, but we held a meeting with reps from a half dozen communities.

The problems were already diagnosed: no effective public awareness program, no organized distribution of relief, no preparation for preventive action regarding post-flooding disease control. AUMOHD President Fanfan hammered out plans for a general mobilization on Thursday when large groups would be gathered and public information would be shared especially information on how to purify water to protect young children first of all. AUMOHD is also collecting for economical water purification chemicals.

Today, Monday we again went to Cité Soleil and covered several of the hardest hit areas. As we ended up our whirlwind tour we found on trying to return that people had set up a roadblock partly in trying to keep the roads from being further eroded, but also in part to bring attention to everyone, especially people like ourselves, and the government vehicles (I noticed later that police and UN cars were headed in our direction). But because we had leaders from these same communities, we were greeted with applause and the roadblock was removed enough for us to get through. We told them we were headed to the city hall to meet with the officials.

At city hall we were escorted ahead of long lines of citizens, briefly were seated in the mayor's office (Mayor Gustave), and then whisked out of the building quickly to our cars and we were taken to another city hall building down the road and met for two hours with city officials.

I saw Evel Fanfan, President of AUMOHD at his very best in this meeting. I have seen him working this way since we first met in April 2004. He has an unrelenting perseverance in his eyes and speech, and yet he always connects with his counterpart in strategic points with punctuations of laughter and mutual recognition of shared viewpoints. It is magical. Pastor Doceus, the president of the Cité Soleil Community Human Rights Council, has the most wilting eyes and facial expressions as he grasps his crutches bringing his points across.

Mayor Gustave was consummately professional, speaking in almost a whisper the details his administration had collected and what he was doing to go into action. He asked for the group's help. During the meeting he received several calls, one of which was from the Assistant to the UN representative, Madame Elizabeth. This woman had heard stories of mobs and gunshots where the assistant mayor was present. He assured her that this was not violent and was always under control. He gave the phone to Attorney Fanfan, known personally and respected by Madame Elizabeth and the two of them exchanged views productively.

In the end it was clear that although the government was in charge, having the figures about the displaced and the needs of the victims, it was not capable of doing the job alone and depended on the services of the HNVNPC and AUMOHD to help with the mobilization and organizing of a community effort. AUMOHD and the community folks have been asking for a structure of community networks with communications infrastructure in place to deal with emergencies just like this as well as getting the communities organized for regular development. The 20million USD promised last winter as a result of the end of the hostilities has yet to be seen. We will be following up on this as well as the flood aid.

Keep posted about the community wide mobilization and training on Thursday!