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Welcome to The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong on . Local Time . |
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Haiti Earthquake Appeal |
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The Correspondent magazine, January-February 2010, p.4 |
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The FCC and Bloomberg TV have organized a Club-based fundraising exhibition and appeal after the recent Haiti earthquake with proceeds assisting Oxfam and the Zanmi Lakay charity, which works with Haitian street children. The exhibition runs from February 8th to 28th. |
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I first went to Haiti in 1997 and lived at Lafanmi Selavi, a home created for street children by Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1986 when he was still a parish priest. Close to 500 children found their way to Lafanmi Selavi for a variety of reasons. Some were orphans or abandoned, others had been abused, many families could not afford to take care of their kids, and many were restaveks or child slaves. I took their pictures and got to know them during the years I worked on my documentary project and held Photography Workshops.
When Lafanmi Selavi closed, many children no longer had the opportunity to go to school, a place to sleep, food and clothing, sports, music, art, or a family that their former home provided. Street life is harsh, miserable and dangerous for children in Haiti. They have no one and they need help. They want to learn and go to school, they want to be safe, and they want to contribute to society. Zanmi Lakay was created because of the growing needs of street children in Haiti, and my husband and I want to continue helping them on a more consistent basis. The seed of Zanmi Lakay was the Photography Workshops. My inspiration was the book, Shooting Back about a successful project founded by Jim Hubbard while he was working with homeless children in Washington D.C.
Haiti has been plagued by political violence for most of its history.
Haiti is almost exactly the same size as Massachusetts, with a population of over eight million people; Massachusetts has 6.4 million. But per capita income in Haiti is under $400, compared to nearly $42,000 in Massachusetts. Haiti’s early history is slavery, succeeded almost continuously by even more brutal tyranny. As a result, 80% of Haitians live in abject poverty, at least 50% are illiterate, and two thirds have no formal employment. Over 40% of the population are under the age of 15. According to UNICEF, more than 173,000 Haitian children are domestic workers (restaveks), 3,000 have been trafficked in the Dominican Republic, and 200,000 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Many schools charge tuition, plus the costs of books, uniforms, food and transportation. There are small group homes in Port-au-Prince, as well as food programmes, and various NGOs that are helping street children. But the number of street children is estimated at 9,000-250,000, and obviously assistance is pitifully inadequate. In addition to our outreach programme and Photography Workshops, Zanmi Lakay supports a group of homeless and at-risk youth with general living and educational assistance. We would like to do more.
Jennifer PantalŽon,
Director, Zanmi Lakay.
For more see www.zanmilakay.org
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