Dear reader,

As we are at the start of a new year we would like to give you a brief update about a few recent changes within the Steering Committee of the Coordination Europe-Haiti. Also, we like to share the articles that have been published on our website (www.coeh.eu) during the past three months. We invite you to visit our website regularly, as articles are often covering current events in Haiti. We have also placed links to the websites of some of our member organisations that share news about Haiti.

Steering Committee

Starting with the changes within the Steering Committee, we are pleased to inform you that during the online General Assembly of September 30 we appointed a new coordinator: Claude Mormont is Belgian and before retiring in 2017 he worked at the NGO Entraide et Fraternité where he was in charge of partner relations in Haiti. We take this opportunity to sincerely thank Barbara Kuepper (Misereor) for all the work she did as coordinator during the past two years. Fortunately, Barbara will remain a member of the Steering Committee.

We are also pleased to welcome Estelle Miquel from the French NGO Secours Catholique as new Steering Committee member. More information about Estelle, as well as the other SC members, can be found on our website (About us).

Many of you will know Greet Schaumans, who has been our most active and committed member since the creation of the COEH in 2004. Greet suffered a stroke in November and it will be a long and hard route to recovery. She has recently been moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation centre. We hope Greet will fully recover and we wish her much courage and strength.

René Zaugg

We were shocked to receive the sad news of the death of René Zaugg on December 26, 2020, in Switzerland. Sixty years ago, René and his wife Claire-Lise arrived in Haiti and from that moment René and Claire-Lise have fought against impunity in defence of human rights. His death is a great loss, first of all for his wife and children, but also for the PFHS and the COEH. We will remember him and his family in our thoughts and prayers.

Haiti

With most of the world’s media attention drawn to the covid-19 virus and its implications it often seemed that Haiti was being forgotten. Information on the rapidly deteriorating situation was hard to be found outside the country itself, and the international community seemed to have turned away. As COEH we have joined the international campaign Stop Silence Haiti, which is calling for an end of silence and international complicity with the Haitian government. See also the two articles below.

Our representative in Haiti, Colette Lespinasse, wrote three articles which we like to share with you here. The first one sadly marks the tenth anniversary of the arrival of the cholera epidemic, brought to Haiti by UN soldiers from Nepal in 2010. The second article tells the successful story of waste management at schools in Kenskoff. The final article is a reflexion on the “reconstruction” of the country after the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

The year 2020 has been especially hard for the Haitian population, as gang violence and random kidnappings have increased without the authorities taking any action to protect the citizens. Parliament has been  dissolved and the president has been governing by decrees since more than a year. Human rights organisations in Haiti are more and more concerned as the government is taking actions that are more becoming a dictatorship than a democracy. The situation makes the lobby and advocacy activities of the COEH more important than ever. We will continue to stand by our Haitian partner organisations in 2021.

The steering committee of the COEH

11 years after the earthquake of January 12, 2010; Has Haiti left the rubble behind?

11 years after the earthquake of January 12, 2010; Has Haiti left the rubble behind?

Eleven years after the earthquake the destruction process of Haiti, and not of its Reconstruction, is continuing. It is as if the Haitian people are still living among the rubble, like the first day of the disaster. Will the country find the necessary internal energy and solidarity to win this bet? Colette Lespinasse is sharing her opinion on the current situation.

Read more.

Stop Silence Haiti

Stop Silence Haiti

The CoEH is one of 82 organisations (trade unions, NGOs, movements of farmers, feminists, citizens) from Haiti, France, Belgium, Canada, Spain, Germany and Benin that call for an end of silence and international complicity with the Haitian government.

Read more.

Stop the silence about Haiti

Stop the silence about Haiti

There does not seem to be an end to the political and socio-economic crisis in Haiti. President Jovenel Moïse, accused of corruption and fraud, governs by decree and without parliament. Due to gang violence and other circumstances, fair elections are impossible. 82 organizations in Haiti and abroad are denouncing impunity, corruption and above all the complicity of the international community with the current government. This article was written in a personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the COEH.

Read more.

Haiti Cholera Epidemic

Haiti Cholera Epidemic

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the introduction of cholera in Haiti, due to the neglect of United Nations troops belonging to the MINUSTAH (United Nations Mission for Stability in Haiti). To mark this occasion, various Haitian organisations conducted a popular tribunal to symbolically judge the United Nations, the Haitian State and the company Sanco SA for serious neglect causing the death of more than 8.000 people.

Read more.

WASTE MANAGEMENT AT SCHOOLS IN KENSKOFF

WASTE MANAGEMENT AT SCHOOLS IN KENSKOFF

The representative of the COEH in Haiti, Colette Lespinasse, participated at the presentation of a successful programme of GAFE (Groupe d’Action Francophone pour l’Environnement). GAFE adapted their strategies to implicate all actors involved in the production of garbage and in waste management: the street vendors who are selling next to the schools, parents, students, teachers as well as local authorities.

Read more.

  Our address                                                   Contact details

  B.P. 10 15 45                                           T  (+49 241 442 282)
  52015, Aachen, German                         E  Barbara.kuepper@misereor.de

 

---