Inette handing Haiti card to Gareth Thomas

'Another Haiti is possible' was the message sent out loud and clear last weekend when three delegates representing 53 NGOs in Haiti visited London as part of a tour sponsored by CIIR, Christian Aid and the Haiti Support Group.

Inette Durandis, Sony Esteus and Jean Jerome Charles arrived in London last Friday (3 December) to represent a coalition of partner NGOs in Haiti calling on the international community for help after the tragedies that beset the country this year. Over the weekend they met with Government officials, journalists and partner NGOs in London to urge the European Union to put Haiti on the map in terms of international support, aid and solidarity.

Inette Durandis is director general of the National Council of Popular Finance and was previously general secretary of the Methodist Church in Haiti's Development Committee, which worked in the promotion of rural development and the provision of credit to small farmers. Jean Jerome is an agricultural advisor, a teacher, a professor in rural sociology and is also a director of Gadru, a Jesuit rural development centre. Sony is a journalist specialising in adult education and community communications and is also programmes and training director for SAKs, an NGO providing support and training to community radio stations in Haiti.

Inette told CIIR that she believes wholeheartedly that another Haiti is possible but said the country's future is largely dependent on whether the international community can provide the much-needed help and support at this critical time. 

She talked about the environmental destruction of the country and how deforestation has exacerbated the impact of hurricanes and other extreme climatic phenomena, saying that Haiti needs a national policy of tree-planting in order for their to be any kind of reversal of the damage caused by the uprooting and selling of trees for charcoal revenue. And she said haiti's infrastructure, such as the ruling government and the police force, would need a complete overhaul, alongside widespread disarmament of the violent military groups that terrorise parts of the country. 

She added: 'With clear participation of the population at all levels and with transparency fighting against corruption, we cannot say Haiti can become a developed country but we can make a lot of changes in five years.'

Lobbying the British Government

On Monday (6 December), Inette and Sony met Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington and Chair of the All Party Parliamentary British-Caribbean Group, to discuss how Ms Abbott has been calling on the British Government to open a bilateral aid programme in Haiti and do all it can to address the problems that cause poverty, rather than just supporting emergency measures to relieve the symptoms.

The meeting came hot on the heels of the recent launch by CIIR of a postcard campaign which asks members to sign and send a card urging Gareth Thomas, Undersecretary of State for International Development, to open a bilateral aid programme in the country.

Inette and Sony met Gareth Thomas and handed him a blown-up version of the postcard, while telling him how they need the British Government to do more than just provide emergeny relief after a disaster.

Mr Thomas said: ' Britain is backing civil society to help resolve conflict and rebuild Haiti. DFID is funding British NGOs who are working with Haitian civil society organisations. This comes on top of £4 million we spent on humanitarian aid this year and the £20 million we are putting into reconstruction through multilateral organisations. One of the great contributions of civil society is in helping us to improve the effectiveness of our assistance.'

Inette said: 'I would like to tell the decision-makers in Britain that just sending troops into a country is not a solution to our problems in the South. They have to help us work on the causes of poverty, not just on the consequences.' 

Inette, Sony and Jean Jerome also spent the weekend publicising the difficult and dramatic situation in Haiti that has befallen Haiti this year - the year of its 200th year of independence from slavery. Haiti was devastated by hurricanes and flooding in May and September; there was violence and civil disturbance following the departure of President Aristide in February 2004; and the country remains ensnared in an endless cycle of poverty and environmental degradation that comprises life in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

The Europe-Haiti NGO Network, which links together more than 20 European development agencies, solidarity groups and aid organisations in eight countries, has more than 100 partner organisations in Haiti.

Read more about the demands of the Europe-Haiti Coordination Network:

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