It's been decades since the last trolley route ran regularly in New York City.  Are there finally glimmers of hope for a trolley revival in the city's most populous borough?

...Continue reading in the Winter 2011 issue of Overflow Magazine.

Port-au-Prince—For many people around the world, the earthquake that struck Haiti last January was a catalyst that spurred donations and an interest in learning more about the world’s “first black republic.” But for California couple Bill and Harrier Mohr, news of the earthquake stirred up more unusual feelings.

“We were watching the television and we saw an Israeli medical team setting up in Haiti.,” Harriet Mohr recalled. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Isn’t it amazing, Haiti was there for the Jews in 1930s and 40s to save them from the concentration camps and now the Israelis are arriving to save the lives of the Haitians.

“There seemed to be an incredible completing of the circle.”

The Mohrs had more than just a passing interest in the history of Jews in Haiti: Bill and his family arrived in Port-au-Prince in 1939, refugees from the Holocaust in Germany.  The family stayed for just 10 months, until they acquired U.S. immigration papers, but the Mohrs are sure that Bill was saved by the generosity of the Haitian government, which let them into the country when many others around the world had closed their doors.

“The Haiti earthquake cast a spotlight on Haiti,” said Harriet Mohr.  “So we began to be talking about Jews in Haiti—it all of a sudden had new meaning.”

There has been a Jewish presence in Haiti since colonial times, beginning with a few Jewish members of Christopher Columbus’ crew, and continuing to the present-day—a handful of Jewish families still live in Haiti, many of whom are prominent business owners. 

This past spring, a Haitian medical student, Joseph Bernard, Jr., who has Jewish ancestors, published a history of Jews and Arabs in Haiti (“Histoire des colonies arabe et juive d’Haïti,” 2010).  Bernard’s book touched briefly on the Jewish presence during World War II.

But when the Mohrs began looking more deeply into the history of Jews in Haiti during the war period, they were surprised at the lack of information available.

“We called a few people on different campuses who should have known and they said they didn’t know what we were talking about,” said Harriet Mohr.   “We were always getting the same response: ‘Jews, Haiti, Shoah—we don’t know what you’re talking about.’”

According to historians, Haiti had originally offered to allow as many as 50,000 Jews to take refuge within its borders after the 1938 Evian Conference. 

Historian Dr. Matthew Smith, a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, says pressure from the U.S. likely forced the Haitian government to scrap that idea.  The Haitian president at the time, Elie Lescot, was heavily dependent on U.S. support.  But even Dr. Smith, an expert in 20th century Haitian history, says he isn’t aware of much research about Jews in Haiti during the war.

The Mohrs have set out to make sure this aspect of Haitian and Jewish history isn’t forgotten, especially in a time of such need for Haiti.

They’ve set up a blog, the Haiti Holocaust Survivors project, to collect histories and stories from people around the world.  They’ve already collected several personal histories of Jews who lived in or were helped by Haiti.  The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington D.C., has also helped with some of the research, and has found information about at least two Holocaust survivors who passed through Haiti.

“The main way that we helped is that we have a survivors’ registry, which is a voluntary registry, and we facilitated contact with a few survivors who were in Haiti,” said Steven Vitto, a researcher at the museum who helped the Mohrs with their research.

Vitto said he had come across references to survivors in Haiti during his research previously, on a limited scale.

According to Vitto and the Mohrs, some Holocaust refugees also escaped from Europe by being issued Haitian passports even when their owners had never been to Haiti or planned to go.  The passports facilitated their passage to other countries during the war years.

“There’s an oral history project run by the Visual History Foundation, run by Steven Spielberg,” said Vitto.  “They have two people who were issued those [Haitian] passports.”

A key turning point in the Mohrs’ research came a few months ago when they began talking to the Joint Relief Distribution Committee, a Jewish organization that helped  refugees around the world during World War II.  The Committee had records that showed it sent aid to between 100 and 300 Jews in Haiti during the war era.

“They estimate between one and three hundred,” said Harriet Mohr. “The numbers were always changing, because people were waiting for their number to be called by the United States and we’re not sure if they went to other places” such as other Latin American countries.

“Not everybody left,” Bill Mohr added.  At least two families that the Mohrs know of stayed for a few decades after coming during World War II.

After just a few months of research and spreading the word, the Mohrs have already caught the attention of some professors at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, which this fall plans to inaugurate a new research center, the Center for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies.  Professors there, too, are eager to learn more about an almost-forgotten angle of Holocaust history.

The new Center will host an exhibit of the Mohrs’ findings so far—an event the couple hopes will inspire even more Jews who received aid from Haiti, or their descendants, to come forward.

They also hope it will keep Haiti on the minds of people around the world as the country struggles to get back on its feet.

At least one Haitian-American leader has also taken note.  Rodneyse Bichotte is a candidate for district leader in the 42nd Assembly district in Brooklyn, a heavily Haitian area that also has a significant Jewish population.  Bichotte wants to use the story of Haitians and Jews helping each other to build more bridges in the local community.

“These are communities that for whatever reason see themselves as very separate,” said Boris Noble, a volunteer with Bichotte’s campaign.  “This way, they can see they also have a history together.”

Building bridges and rekindling memories of Jews and Haitians alike is exactly the goal the Mohrs have been working to achieve, starting with Bill’s family but continually expanding.

 “It’s a wonderful merging of the past and the present,” said Harriet Mohr.

Read more: Haitian Times - Revealing a Forgotten History in Haiti

PORT-AU- PRINCE— Beverly Bell has worked in Haiti for the last thirty years and has gained a reputation for her stinging critiques of both the Haitian government and many of the international organizations that work on the ground in Haiti.

Bell is the founder or co-founder of several organizations in Haiti working for economic justice and human rights, and has worked for presidents Aristide and Préval. Currently, she’s an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and heads the group Other Worlds.

Bell answered questions via phone from her home in Louisiana last week.

Let’s start with the homeless problem here in Haiti right now, the refugee problem.  Do you know how they're counting people?

The UN says 1.9 [million].  No one has any idea, in fact.  No one knows how many refugee camps there are.  No one knows how many people are living out in the countryside--the figure that’s used for that is a half a million.  You know, it’s all guesswork.  No one even knows how many Haitians there are.  There’s never been a census. 

The government of Haiti says 1.5 [million in the camps].

What’s the status of the plan for temporary housing right now as far as you can tell?

 

There is a housing cluster [made up of NGOs working in Haiti].  There are supposedly about 5,000 transitional shelters now [completed]. 

It’s all too little, too late.  As you know, people continue living in these horrible and absurd lodgings that make them prey to theft and rapists; where the conditions are terrible; where bathing, sanitation elimination, food and drinking water are moment-to-moment challenges; where people suffer extraordinary instability in their daily lives.

It’s been seven months.  It’s time that this is resolved, and the fact that there is no plan for resettling these people is an indicator of the total apathy and really disdain of the elite for the majority of those who are oppressed.

Who’s responsibility do you think this is, ultimately?  Should it be a partnership between the Haitian government and NGOs?

It’s the Haitian government’s responsibility.  These are their citizenry.  There’s no jurisdictional question about that. 

Obviously everyone knows that they are poor and disorganized, and one would think that they would enter into good partnerships with NGOs and with the United Nations or with other foreign governments or agencies that are interested.  But they have done nothing except two things: one, to evict people from time to time.  And second is to move people from one set of tents…to another set of tents.

You know, they’re putting these people in deserts—in traffic, two hours away from downtown Port-au-Prince, where their community is, where their family is, where jobs are, or work possibilities, school and healthcare.

It’s really criminal neglect, is what it is, of 1.5 to 2 million people.

Do you think the NGOs bear some responsibility for not putting up better structures, not pressuring the Haitian government?

 

They don’t have legal responsibility, but I would say they have moral responsibility.  They have an obligation, ethically, to ensure that those who are the most vulnerable are taken care of.

What about the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission?  Do you see any hope in that particular body?

No one is taking note of the fact that the governance of a nation has been handed off to a commission.  It’s unheard of. 

Here you have people who literally pay money to have a seat at a completely unaccountable and undemocratic institution that gives no state of the union address, that reveals no focus, no papers, no plan—there’s no number that you can call.  There is no way for the Haitian people to know what is being planned in this critical, critical moment of [reconstruction].

Is there anything that an American can do to help?  Or is being aware the most important thing right now?

No, there’s a lot that we need to do.  We need to demand accountability from our government.  We need to demand that the government respect international law.  We can denounce this commission and the takeover of a nation.  We can advocate for greater transparency and accountability from the World Bank and the other institutions, especially the financial institutions, that sit on the [Interim Haiti  Reconstruction Commission].

I think that we need to demand that the US step up and really act around this refugee crisis.

How can people contribute or figure out which organizations are really the most sustainable?  A lot of people want to give money. 

I think a lot of people are giving money because it’s not obvious what else one does.  Here we are now, moving into the second half of the year since the earthquake, and I think some policy leverages are becoming more clear. It’s been really hard to know what to do… aside from bringing international attention.

People are still trying to figure out how to be useful besides sending a check.  I think that’s going to be happening.  From [the US] it might seem as though it’s been very slow, but in Haiti there’s been a lot of chaos and crisis… I think we’re reaching a different point now, where we can organize more proactively.

Do you think the presidential election is going to be an opportunity for change? 

It should be, but when you look at who’s running [in the election] and the systems that it’s reinforcing, I don’t see that.  And furthermore, what is the role of a president when the country is run by a foreign protectorate?  I mean, I’m delighted that they’re continuing on with the constitution…. But the political process has never served Haiti’s citizens and I doubt that it will now.  It comes back to the fact that Haitians need leverage points through which they can pressure their government to be accountable.


Read more: Haitian Times - Q A with Beverly Bell “It’s really criminal neglect is what it is of 1 5 to 2 million people ”

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Maude Fleurisant, a mother of three in Port-au-Prince’s Fontamara neighborhood, sews dozens of plastic bags a week to sell downtown, buoyed by small loans which enable her to buy materials and travel to the market.

“People buy my bags because they know mine are stronger,” Fleurisant said proudly. “It’s helping me”.

Fleurisant is one of 20 women to participate in the first round of micro-loans from Haiti Microcredit, a micro-credit institution which begun this year after the January 12 earthquake.

“I’ve watched it become more successful than I ever thought it would become,” says Mooney.

“It’s helping me,” Fleurisant says simply.  She has run her business for years, but since the earthquake has relied in part on the loans to help her find and pay wholesalers for the plastic material she uses, as well as send money to her children who left for Cap Haitien after the disaster.  The loans will also enable Fleurisant to set up a savings account, something she’s never had before.

Micro-credit institutions are growing in popularity in Haiti, as hundreds of NGOs seek sustainable ways to help local citizens.  Traditional banks, one of the few alternatives for small business owners in Haiti, are sometimes too strained to provide small business loans, and can charge much higher interest rates which some clients cannot repay—leading to a cycle of indebtedness.

Micro-credit institutions also cite their personal approach to poverty alleviation.  The biggest micro-credit institution in Haiti, Fonkoze, gained respect after the January 12 earthquake for being among the first on-the-ground institutions to organize emergency loans and aid for its members.

Fonkoze was hit hard by the quake: it lost 5 staff members and director Carine Roenen says as many as 18,000 of its clients lost either their homes or businesses—or both.

But overall, Fonkoze, an abbreviation for the Kréyol phrase “Fondasyon Kole Zepòl” or “Shoulder-to-Shoulder Foundation,” has grown enormously from its first location in 1995 to 41 branches just 15 years later.  The locations are spread throughout Haiti.

“Our mission is to bring financial services to people that don’t have them,” says Roenen.

Most micro-credit institutions have a multi-step process for their clients.  To gain approval for a first loan, clients sometimes have to participate in training or literacy classes, after which they receive a small amount for a first loan.  Mooney’s organization gave 5,000 gourdes for its first round of loans this spring, while Fonkoze’s smallest loan is approximately 9,300 gourdes (US $250).

As each successive loan is repaid, the amount of new loans gets larger as the clients’ small businesses expand and they attend training and educational sessions.  Micro-credit clients have small businesses selling everything from soft drinks to jewelry to shoes.  Almost all micro-credit clients are women, something Roenen says is standard practice because women often run the houshold and manage family expenses.

“They are the economic spill of the household,” she says.  “You have a more direct impact on the entire family.”

Though the amounts of the loans may seem small, they can be a lifeline for many women who receive more than just a loan: a support network, literacy and financial training; even healthcare, in the case of many of Fonkoze’s clients.

“We say we’re more than a loan, we want to walk with you, we want to grow with you,” says Obed Daphnis, who helps oversee micro-credit lending for the non-profit Hope International.

Fonkoze is also working on expanding its efforts beyond its main work of microloans.  With more than $8 million in funding from the American Red Cross since the earthquake, Fonkoze has distributed one-time cash grants to clients, expanded the amount of funds available for micro-loans, started a program, Zafen, to link up individuals abroad with potential micro-credit clients, and begun work on a debt-relief program. 

“They have the expertise in this area,” says Red Cross spokeswoman Julie Sell of Fonkoze’s work.  “It’s something we very much believe in—it’s about empowering the Haitians.”

Fonkoze is also planning a new catastrophic insurance program, something Roenen says is especially necessary after the devastating hurricanes of 2008 and the earthquake this year.

Micro-credit institutions in some countries have come under fire by critics who say that lending institutions take advantage of the poorest of the poor to earn profit on interest rates.

It’s a criticism that micro-credit workers like Mooney acknowledge but flatly reject.

“Some micro-credit organizations make millions off interest,” reflects Mooney, who runs Haiti Microcredit.  “Is that really moral, to be profiting off micro-credit when we started it to get people out of poverty?”

But she is quick to point out that her organization, like Fonkoze and many others, is non-profit, and trains and uses locals to take over day-to-day operations.  Money made from interest payments are used to pay for operations costs and to expand the lending program.  Both Haiti Microcredit and Fonkoze charge interest rates in the low single digits (6% and 5%, respectively), and both say they do not use coercive or intimidating tactics to force repayments, such as calling the police to a client’s home.

The Haitian government itself is supportive of micro-credit programs, saying in its March 2010 reconstruction report that 200,000 families and small businesses depend on micro-finance institutions.

“Creating and maintaining employment for a large part of the population depends on the dynamism of these institutions,” says the report, which also acknowledges the ability of micro-credit organizations to reach many individuals through their strong social networks.

Indeed, at the core of many micro-credit institutions’ principles is instilling a sense of accountability in their clients by establishing strong ties within communities.  Haiti Microcredit’s members, for example, are responsible for each other’s weekly payments and have to chip in to pay for anyone who is delinquent, fostering a sense of group trust and mutual dependability.

Mooney and others say that micro-credit brings opportunities to people who would otherwise struggle to meet basic needs.

“They have a sense of responsibility, a sense of dignity,” says Daphnis, from Hope International. 

“Handouts create a sense of dependency.  Food donations sometimes are not the best things,” he says.  “That’s the benefit of micro-loans: it empowers.”

Still, not all clients are success cases.

“Sometimes they’re not ready for that responsibility,” said Daphnis of some micro-loan recipients.

Roenen, the director of Fonkoze, also acknowledges that micro-loans aren’t always successful for everyone.

“Whereas it’s been proven that micro-credit is good for businesses, it hasn’t been scientifically proven that it gets people out of poverty,” says Roenen, who says that up to one-third of Fonkoze’s clients haven’t significantly improved their financial stability yet, something she says the organization is rigorously studying to try to understand why.

Nevertheless, she says, “If you stay with Fonkoze for 5 years, we will make sure you have a sustainable business, you can put food on the table, you can put your kids in school.  We will give you training and grow your business.”

Even without a perfect record, micro-credit institutions are certain they’re making at least a small difference.

“You realize people are eating better, faces are fuller,” said Daphnis of seeing clients after they participate in the program. 

“It’s a joy.”

Read more: Haitian Times - Micro credit Provides a Life Line to Haitians

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Françoise Beaulieu-Thybulle remembers exactly how long the earthquake was (38 seconds) and how many aftershocks there were the first night (30). Thybulle, Director General of the National Library of Haiti, was on her way to a conference at FOKAL, the cultural organization, and was stuck downtown the entire night when the earthquake struck.

"All the dust-- it was like 9/11," she said referring to the attacks on America. "It was only in the morning that I saw how many bodies I had to cross."

Thybulle knows she was lucky - the National Library, located in the heart of downtown Port-au-Prince where some of the worst damage occurred, is still standing and none of her staff was hurt because the library happened to close early on January 12.

Still, inevitably, the librarian and her colleagues are dealing with the aftermath of the disaster nearly six months later: the National Library remains closed pending repairs to cracks in the walls and replacement of shelves and tables which were destroyed, and some municipal libraries were completely destroyed. Beyond the physical damage, Thybulle realizes there are also other obstacles to recovery.

"I knew the worst was the morale of my troops," Thybulle said of her employees at the National Library.

Now, the international community is rallying around Thybulle and the libraries of Haiti. Last week the president and president-elect of the International Federation of Library Associations, or IFLA, flew to Port-au-Prince to meet with Thybulle, tour library and cultural facilities and signed an agreement pledging support for at least two years, including funds to help establish an archives preservation and treatment center, among other projects.

The agreement, pledging at least $1.5 million in funding, was signed on last week by Haitian Minister of Culture and Communication Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassègue and IFLA President Ellen Tise, who represented the umbrella cultural heritage organization International Committee of the Blue Shield at the meeting.

Pointing out that the current infrastructure for archives and heritage materials in Haiti is inadequate, Lassègue called the situation critical and "a crisis of patrimony."

Tise, whom Thybulle referred to as "the pope of libraries," said she was impressed with the efforts being made to improve the situation.

"We wanted to come and show our support for what has happened in Haiti, and show our solidarity," said Tise. "We are committed to working with the archivists and the librarians."

Other international fundraising efforts are also underway, including one by the American Library Association, highlighting the importance of international cooperation after major disasters, said Thybulle.

"I've always been a member of all these international organizations; it was always a joy," said Thybulle. But after the earthquake, she said, she truly appreciated it for the first time.

"It was only then that I realized why: the solidarity," she said. "Right away, people wanted to know if we were okay, if the collection was okay. We have the sense of belonging to a corporation where everyone cared."

Among the first organizations to provide aid were UNESCO, which gave Thybulle $5,000 in emergency funds, and Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries Without Borders), who sent in the first volunteers with gloves, masks and boxes to help preserve the collection at the National Library.

Thybulle said she has not yet received any funding from the Haitian government.

She said the government also urgently needs to work on infrastructure around the library-- downtown Port-au-Prince still has no electricity and rubble from collapsed buildings is precariously balanced in the blocks around the National Library. There are now 20 municipal, government-run libraries in Haiti, but Thybulle envisions 130-- one for nearly every commune in the country. The municipal library in Arcahaie, a typical example of a public library, is a model for the kind of center Thybulle wants for each commune.

"One time they had a man's coffin here and the whole town came to pay tribute," said Thybulle. A library is "everything" for small communities, she said. Each municipal library currently has three employees, and Thybulle plans to add a fourth, specifically to manage internet and computer access.

Thybulle is also in the process of buying the land immediately adjacent to the National Library and wants to build a newer, bigger library to house important materials in a climate-controlled environment.

That would be welcome news to many library workers such as Brother Ernest Even, who, along with just one assistant, runs the Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Pères du St-Esprit across the street from the National Library. BHPSE is privately owned but collaborates with the National Library and has some of the best and oldest materials on Haitian history.

"The earthquake didn't destroy the library, but it suffered," said Even. The library has the most complete collection of the Haitian newspaper La Nouvelliste, for example, dating back decades-- but right now, most of the library's collection sits in cardboard boxes or on shelves without any protection from heat, humidity and dust.

Thybulle, who was awarded the title "Information Professional of the Year" by the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries just two weeks ago, remains confident that the collaboration between Haitian and international organizations will result in big things for Haitian libraries and archives.

"We're going to prevail," said Thybulle.

Read more: Haitian Times - Fighting to Protect Literacy in Haiti