Nou Bouke: Haiti’s Past, Present and Future has won a regional Emmy. The film depicts the Haiti earthquake of 2010. It can be viewed at http://vimeo.com/21211925
Joe Cardona directed Nou Bouke (We’re Tired), which was narrated by Haitian author Edwidge Danticat. It was aired nationally on PBS. Jacqueline Charles, the Herald’s Haiti correspondent, was associate producer and el Nuevo Herald’s Jose Iglesias was director of photography.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/03/2530465/miami-herald-staff-wins-regional.html#ixzz1fctvakc0
Address at the World Association of Former United Nations Internes and Fellows (WAFUNIF) General Assembly, Monday 14 November 2011
David Stillman, PhD
Executive Director, Public-Private Alliance Foundation
When we think of international perspectives on sustainability, the United Nations and the members of the UN System of agencies and organizations have a prominent place. The UN is, of course, the premier international institution. Its members today represent 193 countries of the world. Thousands of non-governmental organizations are also associated with the UN.
One of the main purposes of the UN is “to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples.”
An important vehicle that focuses international and national action for this purpose is the Millennium Development Goals, which has the endorsement of all the UN Members States to try to achieve them by 2015.
The 7th of the 8 goals seeks to ensure environmental sustainability. Read more…
Take Me to the River is a series of environmentally-conscious events that take place across the United States.
At the invitation of Nicola Armacost of Arc Finance, which specializes in microfinance and renewable energy, who is also a Village Trustee in Hastings-on-Hudson, the Foundation presented the Ethanol Clean Cookstove Initiative for Haiti at the local Take Me to the River Fair. Board member George Garland and Associates Rosario Rodriguez and Imnet Yebio joined David Stillman as presenters.
We are happy to announce that over 3,200 hearing aids have been distributed without cost to needy persons in Madagascar. It is touching to see the faces of children who can suddenly hear! The Starkey Hearing Aid Foundation, the Madagascar Ministry of Public Health, three Madagascar Rotary Clubs (Doyen, Mahamasina and Ainga) and their associates, and several corporate sponsors combined efforts on the ground. The Ministry of Budget and Finance and the city governments of Antananarivo and Tamave facilitated the work.
Speaking into the mike is Bill Austin, CEO of Starkey Laboratories and Founder of the Starkey Hearing Foundation
The Public-Private Alliance Foundation, along with the Rotary Club of New York and the Madagascar Mission to the United Nations, got the ball rolling with the Starkey Foundation in 2010. The Madagascar Mission to the UN continued to stimulate and encourage the project and its achievement. Foundation board members Ambassador Zina Andrianarivelo and Scott Wright, along with Senior Fellow John German, and staff of the Madagascar Mission worked hard to make this come about.
Kids with Hearing Aids with Rotary and Starkey Volunteers
The project started in Madagascar in November 2010 with a visit by Starkey Foundation staff and organizational work by the Rotary Clubs to screen potential recipients. The Rotary Clubs continued screening in spring 2011 in advance of a ten-day visit by the Starkey team in October.
By George Garland
Climate Week NYC’s opening ceremony provided an example of public private alliance that defies belief. The Rethinking Resiliency, a panel on innovative solutions for climate adaptation, brought us an example of the insurance company Swiss Re bringing disaster insurance to the 39,000 microfinance clients of Fonkoze Financial Services in Haiti.
Ann Hastings, Fonkoze CEO, has seen disasters from weather and earthquake undo successes many times. Hurricanes, tropical storms, and earthquake have destroyed financial stability achieved through struggle to pay back micro loans. Ann has raised funds for loan forgiveness to restore such progress several times. Now, in a breathtaking example of public private partnership between an especially creative non-governmental organization Fonkoze and Swiss Re, Fonkoze offers disaster insurance to its clients. Swiss Re will pay out if certain levels of disaster are reached. Swiss Re simply pays Fonkoze which in turn pays insured disaster victims. With 41 offices in Haiti, Fonkoze can service claims and not rely on the kindness of strangers every time disaster strikes!
| Categories: Posted Under: Haiti |
The United Nations International Office of Migration has published a 72-page book of photographs and letters from Haitians displaced by the earthquake that deserves reading.
Voice of the Voiceless — Vwa Pou Sila Ki Pou Gen Vwa or Les Voix Des Sans Vois – is produced in English, French and Creole.
An introduction by Leonard Doyle, Media and Communications Coordinator at IOM/Haiti, sets the stage:
“This book is testimony to the desire of Haiti’s new homeless to have their voices heard and to become part of their country’s national conversation. Ten examples have been chosen from among more than 2,500 received by IOM over a three month period. Once picked up the letters are read and responded to. The humanitarian community also analyses the letters to gauge the needs and concerns of the displaced as it plans an exit strategy from the camps. The letters in this book provide a glimpse into a harsh and precarious life being lived by an estimated third of the population of the capital Port-au-Prince. The writers cry out in desperation for jobs that pay a living wage saving them the indignity of depending on the charity of friends to survive each day.”
These are just some of the people whose lives have been devastated by the earthquake, and give face and voice “to the voiceless.”
| Categories: Posted Under: Haiti |
We have learned that the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission has posted a number of open positions, based in Haiti. They include:
To apply, send a cover letter with resume to resumes@cirh.ht indicating in the subject to which position you are applying. Only applications corresponding to openings listed above will be reviewed.
The general URL for the IHRC website is: http://en.cirh.ht/
| Categories: Posted Under: Haiti |
The Ethanol Cookstove Initiative for Haiti will soon start its pilot phase. Project Gaia has shipped 1,300 cookstoves, due to arrive in early August. Several hundred will be used in a pilot test to assess their acceptability and any recommendations for modification for the Haiti market. This will take place in displaced person camps, schools and with street vendors. Project Gaia has previously organized use- tests in Ethiopia, Madagascar, Nigeria and Brazil, and has placed over 4,000 stoves in Ethiopia.
The Initiative team, including SImACT, Inc., the Public-Private Alliance Foundation, Bio-Tek Solutions, Dometic Group, and several other partners, is organizing provision of ethanol, plans for marketing the stoves and plans for manufacture in Haiti. Recently the group met at SImACT headquarters in Brooklyn and with potential investors in Manhattan.
Scott Coulombe of SteelElements International, LLC (SEI) has been working tirelessly to build houses in Haiti for those who need them. He participated in the 2010 Jacmel conference organized by PPAF and SImACT for business and reconstruction in Haiti. PPAF continues to stay in touch with Mr. Coulombe and is happy to report successes by his firm.
SEI works with light gauge steel, a new technology in construction markets that has environmental, structural, and economic benefits. Structures built with light gauge steel are strong and flexible, increasing resistance to hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, and are light enough to reduce piling requirements in poor soils. In the past 12 months, SEI has shipped more than 5,100 wood and steel housing units to Haiti, and established local production facilities in Leogane.
Now, Haitians trained by seasoned professional engineers, manufacturing personnel and project managers are assembling 800 houses for installation in Leogane and Grand Goave. SEI’s 2.5 acre plant and warehousing facility is a major source of employment and economic assistance in the area, where 90% of homes were flattened in the earthquake. Working in collaboration with the Cooperative Housing Foundation and other major aid organizations, SteelElements has a highly successful track record in the construction of houses, shelters, and community centers in Haiti and developing countries around the world.
PPAF and SEI are exploring possible connections between SteelElements and the Ethanol Cookstoves Initiative for Haiti.
Scott Coulombe at Jacmel Conference, June 2010
On July 11, David Stillman, Executive Director, PPAF, attended the inauguration of Giorgio Balestrieri as the 2011-2012 president of the Rotary Club of New York. The event was held at the Harvard Club. The basic ethical principles upon which Rotary is founded and which Comandante Balestrieri emphasized in his inaugural address mirror the ethical underpinnings of public-private alliances. The four-way test of truth, fairness, goodwill, and mutual benefit, and the international focus of Rotary New York as Host Club of America, are principles stressed in the speech. Saying “our Code of Ethics is designed for those who are willing to dedicate themselves, their businesses, their professions, and their social positions, all that they are, to principles and practicalities,” Comandante Balestrieri set standards that resonate with the core values of PPAF.
This commitment to public-private alliances is not new. Together with Ambassadors and his fellow Rotarians, Comandante Balestrieri started the process of creating the United Nations Public-Private Alliance which was approved as an initiative of the UN Economic and Social Council in 2004. PPAF is an outgrowth of that initiative. He has expressed great interest in building further connections between the non-profit Public-Private Alliance Foundation and the Rotary Club of New York, especially its international service division. PPAF hopes to continue to work in concert with Rotary in the promotion of public-private alliances, especially in support of the Millennium Development Goals.
David Stillman and Giorgio Balestrieri at Comandante Balestrieri's inauguration
| Categories: Posted Under: Rotary |
