Hinche - Haiti Observer Blog

According to Valery Numa of Radio Vision 2000, the Deputy of Delmas, Gary Bodeau said that all the Deputies in the Alliance Parliamentary bloc for Haiti have agreed to donate their salaries to help the victims of the recent gas station in Hinche. That includes salaries for two months(March and April) that will be donated to the hospital in Hinche

I would like to have some type of progress report on this

What do you think?

Depite Gary Bodeau ak alye di li ape fè don Mas ak Avril salè yo pou lopital nan Hinche

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On Thursday, March 17, 2016, at least 7 people were killed and 30 others were injured when a truck carrying fuel for Total Oil Company caught fire and exploded in the town of Hinche, located some 110 kilometers (65 miles) northeast of the capital Port-au-Prince. As per eyewitness reports, around 2:00 pm in the afternoon, the truck hit a wall and spilled fuel as it was going to unload oil to a Total Service fuel station. As some spilt oil came into the contact with the cooking food on a vendor's outdoor grill, an instant, ignited spark came back to the fuel loaded tank, and exploded. The burnt victims were taken to the area hospitals and to Port-au-Prince for treatment. About 30 people were burnt to varying degrees, including 6 seriously burnt and 7 people lost their lives in the flame. The gas station is located near the bridge Vincent on the National #1. An initial assessment suggests that 4 houses close to the gas station were burnt including several vehicles, one tank truck and more than twenty motorcycles.

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On Monday 6/17/13, Haitian President Michel Martelly, along with government officials, David Bazile, Philippe Cinéas, and Georges Garnier, attended the opening ceremony of the Socio-Cultural Center and Administrative Complex Center (SCCAC). The modern architectural design rises three stories and complies with green standards. The SCCAC will house all government administrative offices.

The Inter-American Development (IADB) funded the project at a cost of $2,670,000 dollars. The SCCAC is only one of dozen of projects the IADB has signed on to, since the 2010 earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince and outlying regions.

President Martelly, pleased with how the project turned out, expressed his gratitude to IADB. When the 2010 earthquake hit, it demolished much of the government of Haiti administrative offices, so Martelly is especially thankful.

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Charlemagne Masséna Peralte was one of the greatest heroes of Haiti. Born in 1886, Peralte was a popular Haitian Nationalist leader who strictly opposed the invasion of Haiti in 1915 by United States. He led the guerrilla fighters called Cacos and presented a tremendous challenge to the invading US forces. Because of this retaliation, US had to severely upgrade its presence in Haiti.

Charlemagne Masséna Peralte was born in a city called Hinche. He was born to a family which had previously migrated from an area which currently falls within the borders of Dominican Republic. Peralte is respected both in Haiti and Dominican Republic. On his birth certificate, his name is registered as François Borgia Charlemagne Peralte.

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With their belief that the Gospel cannot exist in tandem with misery CPFSI, and its founder Brother Franklin Armand, began a program that has turned life around for the inhabitants of one village in the Haitian city of Hinche.

With the entire country facing economic difficulties, exacerbated by the vicious cycle of agricultural deforestation, residents of Pandiassou, a small settlement in Haiti's Central Plateau, have benefited from the efforts of the missionary and their campaign to turn around the ability of the peasantry to sustain themselves in today's socio-economic climate.

Started over 25 years before, the Congregation of Little Brothers and Sisters of the Incarnate (CPFSI) first began by aiding the peasantry to feed itself. Once the immediate needs were met they set about making this abundance self-sustainable and stamping out the crippling dependency on food aid. What they established was a Konbit-like system of community farming that maximized the efficiency of the community's production. Unlike a traditional Konbit, the peasants are instrumental in the planning stages, which manifests in a more successfully cooperative undertaking.

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Bassin Zim, little-known treasure of Haiti, sits along Central Plateau, eight kilometers away from Hinche. It contains waterfalls, coves, and caves. The falls tumble down in white-clouded streams to four azure coves below: Candelabra, Arc-en-ciel, Bassin Zim, and Wells. Implanted within each cove are colonies of caves lined with mineral rocks. Some contain artwork by indigenous Taino Indians before immigration and colonization began.

Considered a spiritual oasis for seekers of nirvana, it is rumored healing here manifests later in positive events in believers' lives. Those who can weather the daunting trek to Bassin Zim are rewarded by an almost unearthly scene of beauty.

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Haitian radio is the chief means of media communication on the island. Few have income to buy a TV, and those who have sets are subject to unreliable electricity service. Going online to access news coverage is impossible for all but the rich. Not only is newspaper distribution minimal, but 80% of the population are illiterate. The only information source available to everyone is the radio and radio stations are plentiful in Haiti. Reception is widely accessible in virtually every village on the island. Radios cost little to own and run on batteries.

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Monsignor Louis Kebreau is not satisfied of the socio-economic and political situation in Haiti and has observed a degradation lately.

The Archbishop of Cap-Haitian, said that President Michel Martelly is not on the right track. According to Monsignor Louis Kebreau, this degradation reached such a level, so that the country is like a patient who needs both a good psychoanalyst and a good therapist to help him find his inner balance in order to achieve a new vision for it out of this straitjacket in which it is completely immersed.

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Haiti's National Institute of Music (NIM) is initiating a new program, the System of Orchestras and Choirs Juvenile and Infantile (SOCJI). Recently President Michel Martelly signed a contract with the Venezuelan government to begin designing and implementing SOCJI. Attending the signing were Haiti's Minister of Culture, Josette Darguste, and Venezuelan Ambassador Pedro Canino.

A comprehensive project, SOCJI will supplement basic-education skills with a cultural- arts program. The idea began after President Martelly's attendance at an international summit in Venezuela in 2011. Delegates were invited to a concert where a gathering of 600 music students from across Venezuela performed. The students are part of Venezuela's El Sistema, a program created to develop student orchestras and choirs. The program is targeted at impoverished children and teens, who receive very little formal education. Martelly saw that it was a program that could be duplicated in Haiti, a country with many of the same challenges in building an education infrastructure as Venezuela.

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Hinche, capital city of Centre division, has 50,000 residents, most of whom are African from the Republic of Congo. Hinche has established Catholicism as its designated religion, but people are free to worship as they choose. As elsewhere in Haiti, a small segment of the population are Voodoo believers.

Hinche residents enjoy French-Creole food, standard items like jerked beef and lobster, fare that is on Caribbean plates everywhere. Hinche's variable climates yield a bounty of tropical fruits and vegetables. A full-flavored and sweet coffee indigenous to Hinche is paired with the region's Barbancourt rum.

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