Plaine-du-Nord - Haiti Observer Blog

Ti Manman Cheri is a social welfare program that was launched on 27th May 2012 by the President of the Republic of Haiti. It is the first of its kind welfare program under which, the government will provide facilities to extremely poor families with children. The program will facilitate schooling and improve living conditions and the first beneficiaries targeted were Carrefour Feuilles, Cité Soleil, Fort National and Bel-Air. The government planned to use $13 million from PetroCaribe to fund this program.

According to Ti Manman Cheri, government proposed to send money through Tchocho mobile phone service of Digicel to every mother given the condition that their children enrolled and went to school regularly. 400, 600 or 800 gourdes would be given every month to mothers with 1, 2 or 3 child respectively. Initial registration was decided to be for 6 months with 10 allowed renewals totaling up to 5 years. The program aimed at reaching 100,000 beneficiary families.

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Tourism has been on a substantial descent over the last 20 years. But one series of events, the Fête champêtre, continues to give hope to a struggling industry as tourists, local, from the Diaspora, and international, flock Haiti to witness the countryside festival.

One of the main avenues for entertainment to the 18th century elite, a Fête champêtre (a country feast or pastoral festival) was a type of garden party much loved at court. With pretensions to simplicity, the Fête champêtre was patronized by the well dressed, entertained by musicians hidden in the trees, as they enjoyed the beauty of landscaped park.

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Haiti's Nord Department is in the northern most part of the country. It is where the small municipality of Plaine-du-Nord, often referred to as Plèn dinò in Creole, is located. It is considered an essential part of Haitian history and is one of the centres of the voodoo religion in the country.

Plaine-du-Nord is the historical site where the battle between Haiti's French colonizers and African slaves who worked in plantations began. This led to Haiti's independence from its colonizers and the freedom of slaves who became the very first official Haitians. The municipality is currently considered as the country's Pilgrimage Festival capital, which attracts thousands of worshippers and foreign visitors yearly. One of Plain-du-Nord's biggest, most important festivals is the Saint Jacques Fiesta, which is celebrated every 25th of July. It is then followed by the Saint Anne celebration a day after. Pilgrims usually stay for 15 days in the municipality during these festivities in order to offer food to the less fortunate, light candles, and donate money to the local churches.

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