21068: (Hermantin) Sun-Sentinel-Businessman heads Haiti jobs drive (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Businessman heads Haiti jobs drive



By Alva James-Johnson
Staff Writer

April 3, 2004

As a Haitian businessman, Jean Milleret sees jobs as the future for his
country.

So these days he's in South Florida drumming up support for a Chamber of
Commerce in Port-de-Paix, a city on Haiti's northwestern coast.

Milleret is not alone. He's part of a new coalition between South Florida
organizations and Haitian businesses to rebuild that region of the country.
They will meet today to hear Milleret make his case.

"Most of South Florida Haitians are from the northwestern part of Haiti, and
they're the ones actually sending money" to their families, he said. "If
they get involved in developing businesses in Port-de-Paix, they won't have
to send money every month because the people would be able to work on their
own."

A native of Port-de-Paix, Milleret runs two businesses there. The first is a
cement-block manufacturing company, which employs about 25 people. The
second is a water plant, which employs about 15.

He said northwest Haiti exported coffee, banana, tobacco and cocoa until the
late 1950s. But dire poverty caused people to chop down trees for fuel,
sparking erosion. With few trees to anchor the topsoil in heavy rains, it
has washed into the sea.

Milleret said Port-de-Paix is home to more than 60,000 people. There are
about 250 businesses in the area, he said, but they don't create enough jobs
to employ most residents.

Today the inhabitants rely on the United States, the Dominican Republic and
Bahamas for all their food and basic items, which they buy with money sent
from abroad, mostly the United States.

"In the northwest everybody has somebody in the U.S. or Bahamas, and they're
either waiting for a check or making sure they can get to the U.S.,"
Milleret said. He said jobs are scarce, and Haiti's recent political crisis
devastated the region even further. He and other business owners had to
close because armed gangs took over the area and demanded money and goods.

Milleret said the situation is beginning to stabilize now that the country
has a new transitional government. He said the police department is not at
full force, but officers scared off by the gangs are slowly coming back to
work.

"The bank just opened last week," he said. "We're starting to work timidly,
but not to the point of big production yet."

About six organizations form the South Florida coalition to spark economic
development in Port-de-Paix. One group, Northwest Environmental Protection
Organization, is located in Miami. It formed 2 1/2 years ago to address such
environmental problems in Port-de-Paix as trash management, contaminated
water and tree replacement.

Cleomie Lambert, a Haitian-born Broward County refugee services case
manager, said she runs a mission in Port-de-Paix. El Bethel Missionary is
also part of the new coalition.

Lambert said she uses her monthly Broward paycheck to pay her nine
employees, including teachers, administrators and maintenance staff. She
also provides food, clothes and school materials annually.

"It's very hard to get two or three Haitian organizations together, but
things are improving," she said. "If we get together as a group to do
something that should make things better."

Milleret agreed. He lived in the United States for 30 years before returning
to Haiti in 1995. He opened the water plant in 1997 because people had to
buy clean water at exorbitant prices.

He said the opportunities for economic development in Port-de-Paix are
endless. He could see anything from a medical supply company to a
pasta-making business thriving there.

"People buy pasta in Santo Domingo. Why can't they make it in Port-de-Paix?"
he said. "That's the way you stimulate an economy. You have to employ
people."

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


Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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