28273: Walsh (announce) Norwalk Connecticut opens Haitian consulate (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Amber Walsh <Amber.Haiti@snet.net>


Norwalk opens Haitian consulate

April 13, 2006

NORWALK -- Haiti's first satellite consulate office in Connecticut
officially opened at Norwalk City Hall yesterday.

The satellite office, in Room 124, will provide passport and other
services from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. every other Wednesday, starting April
26.

A satellite office on Hope Street in Stamford, which also will
provide consulate services twice a month, will open early next month,
officials said.

Rahoul Dupervil, a founding member of the United Haitian-American
Society and vice chairman of the city's Human Relations Commission,
said demand for consular services in Connecticut is high.

"The Haitian community in Connecticut is growing," said Dupervil, a
20-year Norwalk resident. "This is a good service . . . not just for
people from Norwalk but people from Connecticut in general."

It is expensive and difficult for many Haitian nationals or people
who have family in Haiti to get to Manhattan, where the main
consulate is, he said. Though the local satellite offices will not
issue passports, they can help people through the process and provide
travel permit paperwork for emergency visits.

The Norwalk office and the future one in Stamford are joint ventures
between the consul-general's office in Manhattan and the United
Haitian-American Society. Haitian Consul-General Felix Augustin
attended yesterday's event.

According to the 2000 Census, residents of Haitian descent make up
1.8 percent of Norwalk's population, or 1,499 people, and account for
3 percent of Stamford's population, or about 3,500 people.

Elisabeth Youngerman, director of Norwalk's Human Relations and Fair
Rent departments, said having the satellite office at City Hall could
provide the benefit of introducing people to services provided by her
departments and others.

-- For more information about the Haitian consulate's satellite
office in Norwalk, call the United Haitian American Society at
(866) 413-8427.

-- Peter Davenport

Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.

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