23353: Nlbo: Thinking of the youth as Boston is burying one (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Nlbo@aol.com

I wrote most of this reflection this past September. But since Boston is
burying a 26 year old graduate of Emmanuel College today, a young woman of
Gonaives, whose body was found floating on Boston's  Charles River two weeks ago, a
woman whose dissapearence was widely covered in Boston mainstream T.V, radio,
and papers, I think I'll share it again.

I was in Haiti for  3 weeks over the summer. 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 have been addressing in my church committee since  l995
and brought to various  listserves , web sites,  newspapers, political leaders
in the past two years, religious and community leaders in the past five years.
So far nothing concrete seems to happen or no one seems to listen to the need
to educate ourselves to learn to SAVE OUR HAITIAN YOUTH.  As the school year
begins, I would like us, Haitian adults, to think again how we are serving or
meeting the needs of our young people. Other cultures like Asians and Muslims
are out there in the "mainstream" reading, seeing, what they are doing and
having their children do the same activities while teaching them their own culture
also.

The  woman I talked with 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.  Like every other institution in the United States, her
church be it Catholic or Protestant contributes to making 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. What happened to the
Haitians  who were baptized in our churches 20, 30 years ago? Can we find 10 of them
in the Boston Haitian Apostolate?

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 in our community.

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 , federal, and
private 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,
collaboration, 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”( white man) to hire a qualified person to help put the community together
and start creating at least on paper another image of the Haitian community.
We don't need a " foreign intervention" to help us with our Youth. Many of us
have attended the same high schools and universities as those whom we seem to
depend on to take care  of us,  be it in Haiti or in the diaspora. 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.

In any event, as we go from the transition of summer to fall, from vacation
to work, from daylight savings time to shorter days, I hope as a community , we
put our youth ,  education, formation, and life long learning skills, as one
of our top priorities.

Nekita