Home and family

Non-government agency, USAID, has been sponsoring the Multi-Year Assistance Program (MYAP) to hand out food to women, who are pregnant, and mothers of young children under two years of age. But it has run up against harsh criticism from agencies like Haiti Grassroots Watch (HGW). The program is administered by World Vision (WV), and it is being charged with the noteworthy rise in pregnancies in girls as young as 12 years.

The town being focused on, in particular, is Savanette, where townspeople, agricultural specialists, and the recipients themselves think MYAP has caused the rise in pregnancies. The increased pregnancy rate is linked to high rates of food insufficiency among the population. FEWSNET states Savanette qualifies as a chronically-stressed community, where malnourishment rises almost to the level of a famine state. It is no surprise young girls are conceiving children--one after the other--to get staple items to stave off hunger. The repercussions of higher birth rates are families can't provide necessities like healthcare and an education for their children.

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What a parallel!

You give me more food and I will produce more babies

It has been reported that a food distribution program in the town of Savanette is suspected to be the principal reason for an increase in pregnancy among girls and women in the area.

A USAID-funded World Vision food assistance program that started in 2008 until September 2013 in several communities around the town of Savanette has been distributing food to pregnant women and mothers of children from six to 23 months old.

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Haiti, the first black-led republic in the world, gained independence in 1804 as part of a successful slave revolution. The slaves in Saint-Domingue revolted and fought against one of the most sophisticated army at the time because they believe that all man are equal and that slavery should be abolished.

Now how can you understand this today. An Australian Foundation came up with a report recently listing Haiti as the second country with the highest per capita globally engaging in modern day slavery after India.

According to the report, about two percent of the Haitian population are living as forced child labor known as "restavec"

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Haiti, known for its French colonial houses, has been harboring an unusual architectural treasure, Gingerbread houses. A fusion of styles, derived from homes built in the American South and modified for climate conditions in Haiti, they have resisted hurricanes and tremblers. In 2010, Haiti's earthquake turned buildings in Port-au-Prince into masses of rubble. But a 125-year old Gingerbread house in the capital survived the quake virtually unharmed. Spearheading a project to restore Gingerbread houses, and make them into retail establishments, is the partnership of the French Institute in Haiti and the Knowledge and Freedom Foundation (FOKAL).

The Bois-Verna neighborhood in Port-au-Prince holds 200 Gingerbread houses. They are called such due to ornate latticework, winding around the circumference of the structures' features. Gingerbread houses can endure Haiti's torrid weather. Tall ceilings and turrets direct stagnant hot air upwards, and windows surrounding the house produce a cooling breeze.

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After watching this video, you need to answer this basic question: who is right?

Is it OK for someone to marry to more than one person at one time?

Please share your opinion

This gentleman obviously is defending himself. He does not call the second wedding as marriage but "Placage Onet"

Do you think he makes any sense?

You need to put into consideration the fact that he is a driver who travels a lot

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It's a wedding day in Haiti. Be it the Haiti on Hispaniola or the one in the hearts across the Diaspora, a Haitian wedding tradition permeates through geographical and economic boundaries. The customs set out to usher a new couple into their married life are simple, poignant traditions that are quickly being adopted by people outside the Haitian sphere, while being simultaneously forgotten by those within it.

No one is formally invited to a Haitian wedding. This is perhaps one of the first differences between other wedding traditions. It is also one of the reasons why the customs are currently mostly practiced within the rural areas, where word of mouth gives an individual access to a wedding celebration.

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Me Lucmane Delille would like a return to the good old days, a time when youth were respectful to others and conscious of how the way they dressed and their general deportment reflected on the country, and he is not afraid to dictate the terms of this repatriation to morality in Haiti.

The Government Commissioner recently let it be known he intended to fight the current trend towards youthful immorality as chronicled in the dress, behavior and patterns of young people. High on his list are tight clothing on young women, ratty shoes and socks and the prison-house style of wearing the pants below the buttocks. With apprehension threatened for behavior viewed as indecent, and with the list of possible offences extending to copious noise issuing from churches, night clubs, homes, and public transit vehicles etc. Commissioner Delille has set himself up for a fight by human rights groups across the country and the Diaspora.

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In a small but important initiative, TFO Canada, Brandaid Project and Minister of International Cooperation, Julian Fantino will together launch Brandaid Haiti Collection of Home Décor Designs in Canadian Market by the fall of 2013. These home décor designs will be manufactured exclusively in Haiti by the artisan microenterprises. The aim of this project is to develop a sustainable income source for the impoverished Haitians and to promote small businesses and art in Haiti. The private sector partnership will aim towards pushing Haiti towards a sustainable economic growth by giving a push to the untapped resources and skills of the Haitian people.

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The government of Haiti (GOH) and Haitian culture does not support the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transsexual (LGBT) movement. In fact they openly oppose LGBT rights, having expressed their disapproval as far back as 1986.

The Roman Catholic Church and its affiliated groups have also condemned existence and practice of same-sex relationships. But one faith does show acceptance of LGBT people, Voodoo believers. LGBT persons are welcomed to participate in ritualistic rites, and are allowed to ascend the hierarchy as long as they prove themselves worthy.

The Diaspora, in New York City, in 2007 founded social service agency, Haitian Lesbian and Gay Alliance, (HLGA) to support the LGBT community and raise awareness in Haiti. Encouraged by the HLGA's public endorsement, a sprinkling of Haitian gays participated in a gay civil-rights march in 2008, the first of its kind in Haiti.

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Haiti, which suffered a crushing and debilitating earthquake in 2010, needs health-care workers, particularly in maternal and neo-natal care. Statistics reveal mothers during child-birth and neonates suffer 50 times the rate of child-birth mortalities than women in the U.S. Haitian women experience difficult pregnancies with dangerous blood-pressure levels, anemia, and sometimes cholera.

U.S mid-wives have arrived on a mission to bring down the death toll. And what they have found is distressing. The ratio of mid-wives to maternity patients is two for every 33 in labor. Mid-wives often work 24-hour shifts, sometimes for a week. Exhausted, they fall asleep, abandoning their charges. Women, who have already delivered, die from hemorrhaging that does not receive attention because of mid-wives' sleep deprivation. And during early hours of the morning they fear for their security, vulnerable to rapists. As a result they leave their patients alone.

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