23077: Nlbo: On a conversation I had in Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nlbo@aol.com

I was in Haiti for the past 3 weeks. Among many observations and encounters,
a conversation I had with a very affluent Haitian professional broke my heart.
 It resonates the issues of reaching out to the youth, education, and
involvement that I started addressing in my church committee in l995 and brought to
various  listservs , web sites, and newspapers in the past two years.

That woman  said, except for a Haitian professor,  she had no one in the
community to talk with while studying in the U.S. When students were going home to
other states for Thanksgiving, Christmas, long weekends, she couldn't go back
to Haiti. She had no where to go.  She didn't say that, but it would of
course have been expensive to go to Haiti that often during her time of studies.
Haitians or other Black people who study in the east coast of the United
States, if they are from California, Texas, it can be expensive to go home on
those holidays. Think about how we  can be a welcoming, hospitable community for
those young students away from home. For those commuting students like U/Mass
Boston, we need to have them be part of the Haitian community. We can no longer
afford to have such fragmented, disconnected generations. These young people
and professionals who study in the United States have a lot to offer to the
Haitian community. They can be role models to younger Haitians. If they can go
to universities, the younger ones would realize that they can also pursue their
studies.

I would like to make an appeal again to Haitian social service agencies and
churches to reach out to college students and young professionals by providing
an environment and attitudes so they can be part of the community.

Talk with the deans, work study programs, see how Haitian students can work
in the communities and get college credits and/or work study stipends. Catholic
and protestant lay ministers and clergy would have to get training to provide
a ministry comparable to these young people’s US /western culture they are
being raised into. The training or experience that those priests or pastors
obtained to minister to the poorest people in the hemisphere is not conducive to
meet the spiritual needs of young people attending or to those who have
attended universities in one of the most powerful and richest country in the world.
Like every other institution in the United States, her church be it Catholic or
Protestant contributes to make this  country what it is. Therefore the
Haitian churches be it Catholic or Protestant need those who are / were educated in
the United States as members.

Also, September is almost like a new year for parents and educators. Some
people make fall resolutions. I would like Haitian “ leaders” radio hosts,
priests, pastors, lawyers, college professors, computer techs, nurses, service
providers, policy makers, or whatever field one is in to look around and see if
there is one Haitian ten years younger than us in our immediate environment, in
our office as interns, volunteers, learning to do what we are doing. If not,
we are perpetuating the 200 year pattern of constantly starting over. We are
not providing a foundation for continuity.

African Americans have Bill Cosby, Jesse Jackson, Tavis Smiley to tell them
to take care of young Black people in their churches and communities, but
Haitians, African immigrants or West Indians don't have anyone telling them how
important it is to take care of our youth. If one upper middle class, light skin
Haitian talks about isolation, loneliness while living on a U.S campus , how
does the son and daughter of a blue collar immigrant from Florida feel on a
college campus? The children of the l980’s boat people influx are the ones
entering undergraduate and graduate programs in US campuses. Close to one million
Haitian in the United States, 80,000 in the Boston area, one young Haitian
person feeling isolated is too many. We have enough “established” professionals
who can  provide collective support to these young folks.

My advice in the Boston area is to the 501c3’s who get state and federal
monies to put together to hire a community organizer, someone to really focus on
the Haitian community as a whole. Individually, they are doing a good job
providing services that their organizations are supposed to provide, but as a
whole, elements such as active civic participation, a vibrant youth,
collobaration, interaction with other fields and mainstream media coverage that constitute
a good  image for a community are not there.
I think after four decades as a community, we wouldn’t need to go to the
“Blan” to hire a qualified person to help put the community together and start
creating at least on paper another image of the Haitian community.  Other
communities like the Asians who are viewed as “Model Minorities” have internal
issues. However, they have enough people writing, communicating with the
mainstream media, participating and contributing scholarly work  to universities, not
only to  lobbysts that allow them to project a “Model” minority image. They
invest in their human beings, in providing schools and learning in their
communities whereas we Haitians as other blacks we invest  in material goods as cars,
houses , designer outfits and jewerly. The amount of private homes I saw
being built in Haiti attest  to this assertion.

In any event, as we go from the transition of summer to fall, from vacation
to work, I hope as a community , we put our youth ,  education and changing
our group image as one of our top priorities.

Nekita