20639: (hermantin)Sun-Sentinel-Family fleeing Haiti finds help from an unexpected ally (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Family fleeing Haiti finds help from an unexpected ally in Jamaica

By Alva James-Johnson
Staff Writer
Posted March 21 2004

Manchioneal, Jamaica · A few years ago, two fishermen launched their boat
from this tiny village for a day's work and returned three weeks later after
seeing the worst and best of humanity.

Desmond Gordon, 47, and his friend were stranded for three days in Haitian
waters, then robbed at sea.


A Haitian fisherman named Oristel St. Joie took the strangers into his home
in a fishing village on Haiti's southwest coast and helped them fix their
boat so they could return to Jamaica.

Last month, Gordon returned the favor.

When 32 Haitian refugees washed up here in a 15-foot wooden fishing boat on
Feb. 23, St. Joie, his wife and seven children were among them. Gordon and
other Manchioneal villagers brought clean clothes, food and water to the
travelers.

"Even now I can't believe it," Gordon said, standing in front of the
Manchioneal police station where the refugees were processed. "It's a very
small world."

The world has indeed become smaller for Jamaica since mid-February, when
Haitian immigrants, fleeing the most recent political strife in their
country, started arriving on the island.

Although government relations between Haiti and Jamaica are in tatters over
the presence of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in small,
economically strapped villages, connections between the two countries
couldn't be stronger. Jamaican natives sacrifice the little they have to
ease the plight of the sea-borne refugees, whom they consider their
Caribbean brothers and sisters.

"It's humanity at its best," said Pierre-Henri Philippe, a Haitian activist
who's lived in Jamaica for 19 years. "Some of these people are
shack-dwellers, who have to send their kids to school, and still they find
enough to give to Haitians."

Over the years, Jamaica has been a refuge for Haitians, some of whom head
toward the island during political crises in their homeland. Since Haiti
began spiraling into chaos a month ago, 134 Haitian immigrants have reached
Jamaica's northeastern coast, where the battered vessels that brought them
through rough waters still lie on the white sandy shores.

The Jamaican government and social service agencies are working to build
temporary homes for these refugees and others who may come later.

Jamaica's minister of land and environment, Dean Peart, said the government
is refurbishing seven buildings and constructing two additional barracks in
the western part of the island, in Montpelier in the parish of St. James, to
provide the refugees with simple housing and a place for educational and
social activities -- even though they may not stay long.

Food for the Poor, a Deerfield Beach-based organization, is constructing the
buildings and donating furniture and appliances. Peart said the project will
cost about $600,000. The cabinet has also approved about $107,000 for
medical expenses.

Businesses and private contractors also have been donating money and time to
help the refugees.

"We have to look after the 134 that are here and make provisions in case
more come," Peart said. "We want to accommodate them and make them
comfortable. We don't want them in a prison atmosphere."

Peart said he expected the refugees to return to Haiti in the next few
months when conditions settle down. The facility would then be handed over
to the Ministry of National Security, Office of Disaster Preparedness and
Emergency Management, and Food for the Poor.

For now, the refugees are housed at three shelters in Port Antonio, a town
in the parish of Portland on the northeastern end of the island, about a 2
1/2-hour drive from Kingston. The shelters are run by the Salvation Army,
the Red Cross and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Pastor Ian Grant said some of the refugees were fleeing political
persecution, but many are youths who had not formed any political opinions.
They just want a better life.

Forty-two of the refugees are staying at the church. Ten are at a nearby
rehabilitation center. At the Winnifred Rest Home, a two-story concrete
building normally used for retreats, another 82 men, women and children
roamed the premises, just waiting for time to pass.

St. Joie, 43, and his family were among them. A resident of the fishing
village of Anse d'Hainault, he said, the family had to flee their home to
escape political persecution.

He said he was arrested five times by his local government for being a
member of Aristide's Lavalas Family party. The family was under house arrest
when they escaped one night and got on a boat with other villagers trying to
escape the island. The group included fishermen, teachers, plumbers and
carpenters, as well as two babies and several older children.

They were so desperate to leave that they didn't care where they were going.

"We were just fearful for our lives that anywhere we landed would've been
good," St. Joie said through an interpreter.

He and other immigrants said the sea was rough, and they had to paddle when
the wind died down. The children on board cried and vomited throughout the
five-day journey. When the group saw the lights of Manchioneal, they headed
toward the island.

St. Joie said he had no idea that his friend Gordon would be there. But when
they arrived, one of his sons saw Gordon, whom they knew as "Soldier." The
boy began yelling the nickname, and St. Joie realized it was his friend.

"We embraced each other and held on strong," he said. "I gained strength as
I saw him."

St. Joie said he helped Gordon when he came to his country because his
mother was a Cuban immigrant whom Haitians welcomed to Haiti. She taught him
to be kind to strangers, and he knew Gordon would reciprocate.

Now that he's in Jamaica, Gordon said St. Joie has no intentions to return.

"I'd rather die here than go back to Haiti," he said. "I want a better life.

Such sentiments are not unfamiliar to the residents of Manchioneal, a
countryside village of about 2,000 people. It sits about 14 miles southeast
of Port Antonio, once a thriving tourist area that has lost cruise ship
business to the more popular Ocho Rios area to the west.

Residents said they are able to squeeze out a livelihood farming and
fishing, but things could be better.

On a quiet afternoon, Gordon and other fishermen hung out near the beach.
Across the street, Mabel Matthews, 65, cooked pea soup in her kitchen, while
her three grandchildren roamed about surrounded by chickens and goats. Her
77-year-old husband, Silburn, sharpened his cutlass.

Matthews said she remembers the day the first boatload of refugees arrived.
Ten came on Feb. 14, among them eight armed police officers. They said their
original destination was the United States, but they landed in Jamaica
because of poor navigational skills, according to the Jamaica Gleaner
newspaper.

Local fishermen found them and helped them ashore, where they were taken to
a police station, dehydrated, exhausted and hungry. The sight of the
refugees drew people from surrounding villages, and the media took pictures.

Matthews, who provided the refugees with clothes, said she asked the police
if she could hire one of the men to work her land, where she grows plantain,
banana and pumpkin to sell at markets in Kingston once a week. But the
police refused.

"I wouldn't mind if they come in the country," she said of the Haitians.
"There's a whole heap of wasteland here, not working. Let them come and help
themselves."

Errol Bennett, a district constable, said he assisted the refugees when they
were first brought on shore and called the police station.

"I don't speak their language, so we made signs for them to sit down under a
cool tree," he said. "It was awful to see them. They were very weak."

He said the first thing he did was group them together. They looked so much
like Jamaicans, he said, that he didn't want them to get lost among the
native population.

The latest group of refugees came March 7, and included an 8-year-old boy
and pregnant woman, who left Haiti in the dead of night, after family and
friends were slain, according to the Gleaner.

Winsome Knowles, Matthew's 46-year-old neighbor, said she is touched when
she sees the women and children.

"I cry when I see them come out the boat with little babies," said the
mother of three. "You should see the tears come from my eyes."

Alva James-Johnson can be reached at ajjohnson@sun-sentinel.com or
954-356-4523.      Email story



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