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Hello Haiti Vox Readers,
Quick apologies for the break in postings to this web blog -- I shifted my daily focus on posting updates recently to work with colleagues in and outside Haiti last month to set up a new global solidarity initiative to help women and girls there: PotoFanm+Fi (Women and Girls Pillar) -- which was initially named PotoMitan: Rebuilding Haiti. Have a look at the blog in-process: www.potofanm.org.
Starting today, I'll resume regular postings to Haiti Vox again, and will be providing more personal reports and perspectives here, and longer investigative reports on key challenges of rebuilding Haiti for a forthcoming e-magazine.
NEW 4.4 TREMOR HITS HAITI MONDAY....
First the news on a NEW 4.4 tremor that hit Haiti this morning....
It occurred about 40 km west of the capital and struck a few hours after I left the island (news on the trip to come in future posts....) According to an AP report, people screamed and ran in panic from buildings, but little damage is reported, nor human casualties.
Here is the link to the USGS geological incident report:http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/last_event/world_haiti.html.
LIGHTNING at the hospital...
The newest aftershock tremor came hours after a major rainstorm Sunday night that was marked by ferocious thunder and lighting that struck the ground. I was meeting journalist friends at the Oloffson hotel when the lightning made a huge explosive sound that let us know it had struck something possibly nearby -- and caused those sitting on the patio of the hotel like me to dash inside. (A personal aside: I was struck by lighting when I was 13 - and remain hyper-sensitive to the risk of those living in tents in Haiti to this threat. It's terrifying and more powerful than one can imagine...).
I just now learned that a new colleague I met recently who was also in Haiti, Dr. Barth Green of Project Medishare, later informed reporters that a bolt of lightning struck the ground next to his project's 5000-tent hospital area by the airport, causing an electric fire to melt wires in an operating room and smoke to fill the tent hospital area. It led patients to evacuate a few of them - and caused additional stress to a population already coping with torrential rains that have started coming down thick as thick as ropes in the past week or so - the annual Rainy Season deluge. See brief report here.
Post-rain, the rubble that is so carefully piled up on the sides of streets was scattered everywhere again, making it hard to drive, and yet, by morning, residents had cleared the way for traffic to move again. As I've said before and will keep repeating: is there anyone as strong as a Haitian? Meaning, can you believe how strong, and determined to move forward the Haitian people show themselves to be, day in and day out. Go there if you want to be impressed.
Also: for those of you interested, here is the link to a summary report on an expert USGS team that completed their evaluation of the damage in February. Note that a few details related to the identification of buildings may be wrong in this initial report, which has been updated but not in this PDF:
http://www.eqclearinghouse.org/20100112-haiti/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/USGS_EERI_HAITI_V1.1.pdf
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JOIN US: Gender Advocates (incl. you men... invited!)
Regarding the above mentioned PotoFanm+Fi, please consider this a public, open invitation to Join The Cause -- including you gender-advocate men...you male feminists. We collectively need all voices to help support Haitian women and girls empowerment as a key to Haiti's future, especially in this critical period...
so don't be shy or rule yourself out if you're some dude in construction who is new to Haiti. Instead, and for all of you promoting new NGO and other rebuilding projects, take a second to ask yourselves:
-What am I (my org, my NGO, my dept. doing to help women in Haiti? Girls?
-How can I advocate for some gender equality or plain ole fairness in the sector I represent?
-Where are the jobs for women and girls in the rebuilding Haiti schema? In construction, green tech, reforestation, disaster preparedness, etc, etc.
-How can we create or expand a whole lot of new Cash-for-Work jobs that women are well poised to do, like childcare or teaching school in tent cities, like training women to be peer counselors to do grief counseling, help the newly disabled, etc.. again in camps, and of course, hire women to prepare food, or buy food from market women (note all you NGOs who aren't yet doing this...), or train women to become lay birth attendants to pregnant women, etc.
Point is: we need to expand the Cash-for-Work programs to allow women who really can't leave their children or remaining property unattended in the camps in order to try to clear streets or move heavy rubble.. we need jobs women can do and are really needed for - to help the displaced population living in the camps.
You get my drift. Do your part! Step Up. And if you're a Haitian man, especially! We need your participation and leadership all you foreign NGOs mesye qui vle sipote fanm ann Ayiti...)
Ta for now....
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
[Info Update] March 31 Haiti Intl Donor's Conf in NY
Below are details about the upcoming March 31 International Donors' Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti
The URL is: http://haiticonference.org/logistics.html
LOGISTICAL NOTE
Date and Time:
31 March, 2010
9:00 a.m – 5:30 p.m.
Venue:
The Trusteeship Council Chamber, United Nations Secretariat
Access Cards:
Due to the limited seating capacity, access to the Trusteeship Council Chamber will, in addition to a valid UN grounds pass, require a secondary access card issued by the Protocol and Liaison Service. Further information will be provided in the Journal of the United Nations.
Overflow Space:
The Economic and Social Council Chamber has been reserved as an overflow room to further accommodate delegates wishing to observe the proceedings of the conference. An access card is not required for access to the ECOSOC Chamber. In addition, the full proceedings will be broadcast live via UN Television.
Registration:
Invitees are requested to visit the Conference website and indicate their intent to participate by filling out the information under the ‘Register’ tab by the 24th of March.
Advance Notice of Pledge:
In order for the pledges to be highlighted at the event, you invitees are requested to re-visit the website starting the 24th of March, and provide the information under the ‘Pledge/Pledge Form’ tab.
Pledge Statements:
Given the number of delegations expected to attend the Conference and the limits of time, only those making new financial contributions (as distinct from in-kind) for long-term recovery and reconstruction (as distinct from the humanitarian assistance that so many countries have already generously provided) will be speaking. Pledging statements will need to be limited to less than 3 minutes. However, longer written statements may be shared during the Conference, or in advance. These written statements will be posted on the Conference website.
The URL is: http://haiticonference.org/logistics.html
LOGISTICAL NOTE
Date and Time:
31 March, 2010
9:00 a.m – 5:30 p.m.
Venue:
The Trusteeship Council Chamber, United Nations Secretariat
Access Cards:
Due to the limited seating capacity, access to the Trusteeship Council Chamber will, in addition to a valid UN grounds pass, require a secondary access card issued by the Protocol and Liaison Service. Further information will be provided in the Journal of the United Nations.
Overflow Space:
The Economic and Social Council Chamber has been reserved as an overflow room to further accommodate delegates wishing to observe the proceedings of the conference. An access card is not required for access to the ECOSOC Chamber. In addition, the full proceedings will be broadcast live via UN Television.
Registration:
Invitees are requested to visit the Conference website and indicate their intent to participate by filling out the information under the ‘Register’ tab by the 24th of March.
Advance Notice of Pledge:
In order for the pledges to be highlighted at the event, you invitees are requested to re-visit the website starting the 24th of March, and provide the information under the ‘Pledge/Pledge Form’ tab.
Pledge Statements:
Given the number of delegations expected to attend the Conference and the limits of time, only those making new financial contributions (as distinct from in-kind) for long-term recovery and reconstruction (as distinct from the humanitarian assistance that so many countries have already generously provided) will be speaking. Pledging statements will need to be limited to less than 3 minutes. However, longer written statements may be shared during the Conference, or in advance. These written statements will be posted on the Conference website.
Monday, March 22, 2010
[Repost Puello arrest] In case you missed it...
In case you missed it, US and Dominican authorities recently arrested Jorge Puello, [aka Jorge Torres, aka Yoram Migdal], an Interpol fugitive wanted on charges of sex trafficking in El Salvador and various charges (bank fraud, parole violation) in the United States. The Wall Street Journal story follows below.
Puello was arrested weeks after he first appeared in Haiti as the self-styled 'lawyer' named Jorge Torres for Laura Silsby, a US missionary from Idaho, who was jailed along with 9 other US Baptist missionaries on charges of possible child kidnapping in a case that has drawn global attention to the plight of Haitian orphans and vulnerable children. Puello, who is not a lawyer, maintains he is innocent of past criminal charges and that he did not know Silsby or her group prior to offering his services. He recently spoke to Haiti Vox and alleged that other Dominicans had been helping Silsby and her group to bring Haitian orphaned children across the border to a new orphanage she was establishing in the Dominican Republic. (see earlier posts in this blog).
For his part, Puello disappeared from sight after Salvadoran officials identified him as a man wanted on trafficking charges in El Salvador. He went underground and claimed to be in Panama, but he remained in open email and telephone contact with journalists (including Haiti Vox) looking into the Silsby case. Web sleuths like The Daily Bastardette tracked his internet IP address to the Dominican Republic. He continued to boldly flaunt his open fugitive status despite an Interpol warrant out for his immediate arrest. He even launched a website, Jorge-es-Innocente, to declare his innocence -- a true demonstration of his chutzpah.
Puello remained in contact with Haiti Vox via initial email and then telephone communication. He claimed he was changing phones and using phone cards to stay ahead of the law. But he also claimed his arrest was unlikely, given that he had cooperated with US law enforcement agents in the past and therefore "knew too much." His arrest suggests otherwise.
Puello's statements to Haiti Vox and his allegations about the involvement of other Dominicans in Silsby's case, among others, recently led Haitian Judge Bernard St. Vil to examine new allegations and further probe the Silsby case. The judge recently added a second charge to original charges against her for her group's attempt to pick up a group of 40 Haitian children on January 26 in Port-au-Prince and ferry them to the Dominican Republic -- three days before picking up another group of 33 children for which her group was arrested on January 29.
The Silsby group was stopped on Jan. 26 after a local resident in the Petion Ville neighborhood alerted a policeman, who detained the group and ordered the children to disembark. He then escorted Silsby to the office of the Dominican consul, to determine the validity of Silsby's claim that Dominican authorities had given her written permission to bring the children across. As Haiti Vox reported in several weeks ago, the Dominican consul told reporters he warned Silsby that she lacked necessary paperwork or permission to take the 40 Haitian children out of Haiti, and that she would be regarded as trafficking is she continued in her pursuit of that goal.
According to a timeline that is still not completly clear, a US pastor and self-declared 'advisor' to the Silsby 'New Life Children's Refuge' group named Jean Sainvil (no relation to Judge St. Vil) apparently met Silsby the next day (Jan. 27) in the border town of Ouanaminthe. He then personally helped her find the 33 children her group attempted to ferry across the border on January 29th. To date, te
Pastor Sainvil claims he had never previously met Silsby -- even though she had visted the orphanage he is affiliated with in December 2009 and had handed out presents to children there. Her prior contact with the orphanage was with another man, Pastor Daniel. Sainvil told reporters his nondenominational Haiti Sharing Jesus Ministry has 25 churches in the country. (But a website bearing the name Haiti Sharing Jesus Ministry posted a public notice that their group was not affiliated with Pastor Jean Sainvil.)
One scenario that Silsby-watchers have proposed is that Silsby had made earlier plans to pick up children from the Ounaminthe orphanage after the December visit. She arranged for help on the Haitian side from Pastor Daniel and possibly his US associate, Pastor Jean Sainvil, who initially told reporters he was a 'member' of the New Life Children's Refuge group, then changed it to 'advisor' before he fled Haiti in the wake of Silsby's arrest and has stayed mum and out of the media limelight ever since his return to Atlanta.
What's most likely is that these two knew each other or of each other and made contact after Silsby was stopped by the policeman mid-week. Sainvil boasted to reporters that had he been with Silsby during her attempt to cross, she would have succeeded, but he was ill and not with them. It's clear that Silsby had contacted other Dominicans to help her. Whether alleged trafficker Jorge Puello was one of them remains uncertain, despite Mr. Puello's denials. At this point, various statements made by the three parties -- Silsby and Puello and Jean Sainvil - appear to demonstrate what Judge St. Vil has delicately labeled 'certain discrepancies' in Silsby's account of what took place that fateful week in January.
Judge St. Vil is also looking into other allegations detailed in a Haiti Vox Special Report on this case, released her earlier (see blog archive).
Haiti Vox will continue to report on the Silsby case.
Stay tuned.
-----------
By JOSé DE CORDOBA And EVAN PEREZ
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti—Dominican police accompanied by U.S. agents arrested the former self-styled legal adviser to a group of U.S. missionaries whose detention on charges of abducting Haitian children after the earthquake caused an uproar.
The emergence in January of Jorge Puello, 32 years old, reignited pending charges against him in the U.S. and El Salvador.
Mr. Puello was arrested Thursday night in the capital of Santo Domingo. Agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were present, U.S. law-enforcement officials said.
Jorge Puello, seen in February, was detained in Santo Domingo.
These officials said they were acting on warrants from the U.S., where Mr. Puello is wanted in Vermont on charges of human trafficking and alien smuggling, and in Pennsylvania for parole violation on a bank-fraud conviction.
The U.S. plans to seek his extradition, the officials said.
In interviews last month conducted by telephone and email, Mr. Puello said he had also been known as Jorge Torres, the name on a 2003 Vermont indictment on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement human trafficking investigation.
That case went dormant but was revived when Mr. Puello stepped into public view carlier this year, according to a U.S. official.
Mr. Puello said he was also the person wanted in an El Salvador probe in connection with a sex-trafficking ring, broken up last year, in which women and girls from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere were lured into prostitution.
In the interviews, Mr. Puello said he was innocent of all charges. He couldn't be reached to comment Friday.
Soon after Haiti's Jan. 12 quake, Mr. Puello presented himself as the lawyer representing 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries arrested on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 as they tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country.
The missionaries said they were rescuing children, including orphans from the quake, and taking them to a facility in the Dominican Republic that was being remodeled into an orphanage.
The children turned out not to be orphans. They had been given up by their desperately poor families to the missionaries, who promised the children would be cared for. They have since been returned.
Mr. Puello later acknowledged that he wasn't a lawyer.
The missionaries spent weeks in detention in Haiti while a judge investigated charges of child abduction. All but their leader, Laura Silsby, have since been released. Ms. Silsby is in jail, awaiting the judge's decision on whether to press formal charges.
Haitian officials complained that the attention given to the case was frustrating efforts to deal with the disaster that killed more than 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.
Mr. Puello's relationship to the missionaries also jeopardized their defense when it came to light that the dual U.S.-Dominican national was wanted in El Salvador on charges of leading a prostitution ring.
The revelations cast a shadow over the missionaries, characterized by their defense lawyers as naive do-gooders seeking to help Haitian children. The judge investigating the case said he needed to deepen his inquiry to see whether Mr. Puello had known the missionaries prior to their arrest. Both Mr. Puello and the missionaries denied any relationship before the missionaries' arrest.
Since 2004, Mr. Puello had also represented himself as a Sephardic Jew in the Dominican Republic and in El Salvador who had discovered large communities of "lost" or "crypto" Jews—descendants of Jews forcibly converted to Christianity in Spain and Portugal during the 15th century. He obtained more than $5,000 from Kulanu, a U.S. Jewish foundation to support his work with "lost Jews."
Since Mr. Puello's background came to light, Kulanu has issued a statement repudiating him.
Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com and Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com
Puello was arrested weeks after he first appeared in Haiti as the self-styled 'lawyer' named Jorge Torres for Laura Silsby, a US missionary from Idaho, who was jailed along with 9 other US Baptist missionaries on charges of possible child kidnapping in a case that has drawn global attention to the plight of Haitian orphans and vulnerable children. Puello, who is not a lawyer, maintains he is innocent of past criminal charges and that he did not know Silsby or her group prior to offering his services. He recently spoke to Haiti Vox and alleged that other Dominicans had been helping Silsby and her group to bring Haitian orphaned children across the border to a new orphanage she was establishing in the Dominican Republic. (see earlier posts in this blog).
For his part, Puello disappeared from sight after Salvadoran officials identified him as a man wanted on trafficking charges in El Salvador. He went underground and claimed to be in Panama, but he remained in open email and telephone contact with journalists (including Haiti Vox) looking into the Silsby case. Web sleuths like The Daily Bastardette tracked his internet IP address to the Dominican Republic. He continued to boldly flaunt his open fugitive status despite an Interpol warrant out for his immediate arrest. He even launched a website, Jorge-es-Innocente, to declare his innocence -- a true demonstration of his chutzpah.
Puello remained in contact with Haiti Vox via initial email and then telephone communication. He claimed he was changing phones and using phone cards to stay ahead of the law. But he also claimed his arrest was unlikely, given that he had cooperated with US law enforcement agents in the past and therefore "knew too much." His arrest suggests otherwise.
Puello's statements to Haiti Vox and his allegations about the involvement of other Dominicans in Silsby's case, among others, recently led Haitian Judge Bernard St. Vil to examine new allegations and further probe the Silsby case. The judge recently added a second charge to original charges against her for her group's attempt to pick up a group of 40 Haitian children on January 26 in Port-au-Prince and ferry them to the Dominican Republic -- three days before picking up another group of 33 children for which her group was arrested on January 29.
The Silsby group was stopped on Jan. 26 after a local resident in the Petion Ville neighborhood alerted a policeman, who detained the group and ordered the children to disembark. He then escorted Silsby to the office of the Dominican consul, to determine the validity of Silsby's claim that Dominican authorities had given her written permission to bring the children across. As Haiti Vox reported in several weeks ago, the Dominican consul told reporters he warned Silsby that she lacked necessary paperwork or permission to take the 40 Haitian children out of Haiti, and that she would be regarded as trafficking is she continued in her pursuit of that goal.
According to a timeline that is still not completly clear, a US pastor and self-declared 'advisor' to the Silsby 'New Life Children's Refuge' group named Jean Sainvil (no relation to Judge St. Vil) apparently met Silsby the next day (Jan. 27) in the border town of Ouanaminthe. He then personally helped her find the 33 children her group attempted to ferry across the border on January 29th. To date, te
Pastor Sainvil claims he had never previously met Silsby -- even though she had visted the orphanage he is affiliated with in December 2009 and had handed out presents to children there. Her prior contact with the orphanage was with another man, Pastor Daniel. Sainvil told reporters his nondenominational Haiti Sharing Jesus Ministry has 25 churches in the country. (But a website bearing the name Haiti Sharing Jesus Ministry posted a public notice that their group was not affiliated with Pastor Jean Sainvil.)
One scenario that Silsby-watchers have proposed is that Silsby had made earlier plans to pick up children from the Ounaminthe orphanage after the December visit. She arranged for help on the Haitian side from Pastor Daniel and possibly his US associate, Pastor Jean Sainvil, who initially told reporters he was a 'member' of the New Life Children's Refuge group, then changed it to 'advisor' before he fled Haiti in the wake of Silsby's arrest and has stayed mum and out of the media limelight ever since his return to Atlanta.
What's most likely is that these two knew each other or of each other and made contact after Silsby was stopped by the policeman mid-week. Sainvil boasted to reporters that had he been with Silsby during her attempt to cross, she would have succeeded, but he was ill and not with them. It's clear that Silsby had contacted other Dominicans to help her. Whether alleged trafficker Jorge Puello was one of them remains uncertain, despite Mr. Puello's denials. At this point, various statements made by the three parties -- Silsby and Puello and Jean Sainvil - appear to demonstrate what Judge St. Vil has delicately labeled 'certain discrepancies' in Silsby's account of what took place that fateful week in January.
Judge St. Vil is also looking into other allegations detailed in a Haiti Vox Special Report on this case, released her earlier (see blog archive).
Haiti Vox will continue to report on the Silsby case.
Stay tuned.
-----------
By JOSé DE CORDOBA And EVAN PEREZ
PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti—Dominican police accompanied by U.S. agents arrested the former self-styled legal adviser to a group of U.S. missionaries whose detention on charges of abducting Haitian children after the earthquake caused an uproar.
The emergence in January of Jorge Puello, 32 years old, reignited pending charges against him in the U.S. and El Salvador.
Mr. Puello was arrested Thursday night in the capital of Santo Domingo. Agents from the U.S. Marshals Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were present, U.S. law-enforcement officials said.
Jorge Puello, seen in February, was detained in Santo Domingo.
These officials said they were acting on warrants from the U.S., where Mr. Puello is wanted in Vermont on charges of human trafficking and alien smuggling, and in Pennsylvania for parole violation on a bank-fraud conviction.
The U.S. plans to seek his extradition, the officials said.
In interviews last month conducted by telephone and email, Mr. Puello said he had also been known as Jorge Torres, the name on a 2003 Vermont indictment on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement human trafficking investigation.
That case went dormant but was revived when Mr. Puello stepped into public view carlier this year, according to a U.S. official.
Mr. Puello said he was also the person wanted in an El Salvador probe in connection with a sex-trafficking ring, broken up last year, in which women and girls from the Dominican Republic and elsewhere were lured into prostitution.
In the interviews, Mr. Puello said he was innocent of all charges. He couldn't be reached to comment Friday.
Soon after Haiti's Jan. 12 quake, Mr. Puello presented himself as the lawyer representing 10 U.S. Baptist missionaries arrested on Haiti's border with the Dominican Republic on Jan. 29 as they tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country.
The missionaries said they were rescuing children, including orphans from the quake, and taking them to a facility in the Dominican Republic that was being remodeled into an orphanage.
The children turned out not to be orphans. They had been given up by their desperately poor families to the missionaries, who promised the children would be cared for. They have since been returned.
Mr. Puello later acknowledged that he wasn't a lawyer.
The missionaries spent weeks in detention in Haiti while a judge investigated charges of child abduction. All but their leader, Laura Silsby, have since been released. Ms. Silsby is in jail, awaiting the judge's decision on whether to press formal charges.
Haitian officials complained that the attention given to the case was frustrating efforts to deal with the disaster that killed more than 220,000 people and left 1.5 million homeless.
Mr. Puello's relationship to the missionaries also jeopardized their defense when it came to light that the dual U.S.-Dominican national was wanted in El Salvador on charges of leading a prostitution ring.
The revelations cast a shadow over the missionaries, characterized by their defense lawyers as naive do-gooders seeking to help Haitian children. The judge investigating the case said he needed to deepen his inquiry to see whether Mr. Puello had known the missionaries prior to their arrest. Both Mr. Puello and the missionaries denied any relationship before the missionaries' arrest.
Since 2004, Mr. Puello had also represented himself as a Sephardic Jew in the Dominican Republic and in El Salvador who had discovered large communities of "lost" or "crypto" Jews—descendants of Jews forcibly converted to Christianity in Spain and Portugal during the 15th century. He obtained more than $5,000 from Kulanu, a U.S. Jewish foundation to support his work with "lost Jews."
Since Mr. Puello's background came to light, Kulanu has issued a statement repudiating him.
Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com and Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com
Friday, March 19, 2010
[Repost REPORT] Haiti PDNA English Draft Doc - HERE
Hi - Reposting this with a hotlink to document, per reader request... Apologies for any crossposting of this Haiti National Plan. - AC
Hi all,
I wanted to share the English language draft of Haiti's emerging National Rebuilding Action Plan - based on a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA). This is the document that will be reviewed in a series of pre-meetings this coming week leading up to the March 31 Donor's Meeting at UN Headquarters in NY.
I've set up a separate blog page for the big doc and will post the French version and all the different secteurs (sectors) there over the course of today. HERE IT IS:
http://haitivoxpdna.blogspot.com/2010/03/action-plan-for-reconstruction-and.html
Enjoy!
ps: Please note that I'm engaged with a group providing a gender and graassroots perspective of this document, to note any gaps but also opportunities to improve the participation of women, girls and grassroots community groups in Haiti. This collaborative effort will produce a Shadow Report with some of that analysis for the Donor's Meeting - and I'll post the link here then.
Hi all,
I wanted to share the English language draft of Haiti's emerging National Rebuilding Action Plan - based on a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA). This is the document that will be reviewed in a series of pre-meetings this coming week leading up to the March 31 Donor's Meeting at UN Headquarters in NY.
I've set up a separate blog page for the big doc and will post the French version and all the different secteurs (sectors) there over the course of today. HERE IT IS:
http://haitivoxpdna.blogspot.com/2010/03/action-plan-for-reconstruction-and.html
Enjoy!
ps: Please note that I'm engaged with a group providing a gender and graassroots perspective of this document, to note any gaps but also opportunities to improve the participation of women, girls and grassroots community groups in Haiti. This collaborative effort will produce a Shadow Report with some of that analysis for the Donor's Meeting - and I'll post the link here then.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Info, Calendar for Pre-NY Donor Conf mtgs; Gender Mainstreaming project
Hello all,
I've taken a short break from blogging here to focus on the upcoming Donor's Conference in NY (details below). I've also been working with the new Poto Mitan: Rebuilding Haiti global solidarity initiative to support women and girls.
Shadow Report: We're collaborating with colleagues from Madre, Equality Now and AMARC to provide input on a draft Shadow Report that provides a gender analysis of the forthcoming draft Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) document that will provide a national blueprint for rebuilding Haiti and be presented at the NY Int'l Donor's Conference.
Gender Mainstreaming: Our group is focused on helping to proactively identify both gaps and opportunities related to a needed gender mainstreaming of the entire reconstruction effort -- one that takes gender equity into consideration and applies this lens to all efforts at recovery and rebuilding.
We are working with very fast deadlines and invite expertise from Haiti, from experienced grassroots groups and our colleagues there and outside Haiti who have contributions to make toward gender mainstreaming and toward community and grassroots participation in different critical sectors of the national rebuilding.
If you are a reader who has expertise in gender and/or sector expertise (see list below), please contact me immediately to help provide input into the different PDNA sector documents. Email me TODAY at talktothefuture@gmail.com if you would like to lend your expertise with a read/review of documents or the draft Shadow report on diff sectors and can turn around your comments within a few days.
We are actively seeking additional gender analysis/input for these sectors:
energy
green technology
environment
national territory
production
risk reduction (incl disaster preparedness) - again related to proactively reviewing for gaps/opportunties to empower women/girls and meet their needs
Merci.
Now - below you'll find information and a calender of pre-meetings leading up to the upcoming Donor's Conference. I'll be there and look forward to meeting any Haiti Vox readers. Do introduce yourself! - Anne-christine
International Donors’ Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti on March 31, 2010 in New York at UN Headquarters
Delegations are encouraged to be represented at the ministerial level and will be invited to make brief statements summarizing their new pledges of recovery and reconstruction assistance. The Conference will be webcast live with select sessions open to other media.
Further details for delegations will be forthcoming in correspondence from the United Nations Office of Conference Services and will also be available through the UN Journal.
Participants will be asked to pre-register for the Conference through the Conference website.
Detailed information on how to register, along with technical details on pledge content and how to register pledges, will be forthcoming from UNDP.
For media inquiries, please contact: Carolyn Vadino, Deputy Spokeswoman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations 212-415-4301.
Please note that this event is an opportunity for UN member states to register national pledges of assistance to Haiti. Private sector donors and others will have alternative opportunities to register their offers of assistance. Unfortunately, capacity considerations must limit the opportunity to pledge assistance during the event on March 31 to UN member states, international organizations, and representatives selected to report from the outreach consultations. .
Calendar of Pre-Donor’s Conference Preparatory Meetings:
• March 15, in Haiti. : Haitian civil society (over the preceding weeks, organized by the United Nation’s Office of the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, MINUSTAH, NGO’s, and local community groups), the private sector (organized by the Inter-American Development Bank)
• March 15-17 in Santo Domingo, a closed Preparatory Technical Meeting: with non-governmental organizations (co-hosted by the Government of the Dominican Republic and Haiti)
• March 21-23, in Washington, D.C : with the Haitian Diaspora (organized by the Organization of American States),
• March 23, in Martinique : With Haitian state and local government (organized by the Government of France)
• March 23, in New York With stakeholders to MINUSTAH (organized by the Government of Brazil and the Government of Haiti),
• March 25, in New York, organized by the Office of the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, InterAction, and the European Commission). Follow up to Santo Domingo meeting
I've taken a short break from blogging here to focus on the upcoming Donor's Conference in NY (details below). I've also been working with the new Poto Mitan: Rebuilding Haiti global solidarity initiative to support women and girls.
Shadow Report: We're collaborating with colleagues from Madre, Equality Now and AMARC to provide input on a draft Shadow Report that provides a gender analysis of the forthcoming draft Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) document that will provide a national blueprint for rebuilding Haiti and be presented at the NY Int'l Donor's Conference.
Gender Mainstreaming: Our group is focused on helping to proactively identify both gaps and opportunities related to a needed gender mainstreaming of the entire reconstruction effort -- one that takes gender equity into consideration and applies this lens to all efforts at recovery and rebuilding.
We are working with very fast deadlines and invite expertise from Haiti, from experienced grassroots groups and our colleagues there and outside Haiti who have contributions to make toward gender mainstreaming and toward community and grassroots participation in different critical sectors of the national rebuilding.
If you are a reader who has expertise in gender and/or sector expertise (see list below), please contact me immediately to help provide input into the different PDNA sector documents. Email me TODAY at talktothefuture@gmail.com if you would like to lend your expertise with a read/review of documents or the draft Shadow report on diff sectors and can turn around your comments within a few days.
We are actively seeking additional gender analysis/input for these sectors:
energy
green technology
environment
national territory
production
risk reduction (incl disaster preparedness) - again related to proactively reviewing for gaps/opportunties to empower women/girls and meet their needs
Merci.
Now - below you'll find information and a calender of pre-meetings leading up to the upcoming Donor's Conference. I'll be there and look forward to meeting any Haiti Vox readers. Do introduce yourself! - Anne-christine
International Donors’ Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti on March 31, 2010 in New York at UN Headquarters
Delegations are encouraged to be represented at the ministerial level and will be invited to make brief statements summarizing their new pledges of recovery and reconstruction assistance. The Conference will be webcast live with select sessions open to other media.
Further details for delegations will be forthcoming in correspondence from the United Nations Office of Conference Services and will also be available through the UN Journal.
Participants will be asked to pre-register for the Conference through the Conference website.
Detailed information on how to register, along with technical details on pledge content and how to register pledges, will be forthcoming from UNDP.
For media inquiries, please contact: Carolyn Vadino, Deputy Spokeswoman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations 212-415-4301.
Please note that this event is an opportunity for UN member states to register national pledges of assistance to Haiti. Private sector donors and others will have alternative opportunities to register their offers of assistance. Unfortunately, capacity considerations must limit the opportunity to pledge assistance during the event on March 31 to UN member states, international organizations, and representatives selected to report from the outreach consultations. .
Calendar of Pre-Donor’s Conference Preparatory Meetings:
• March 15, in Haiti. : Haitian civil society (over the preceding weeks, organized by the United Nation’s Office of the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, MINUSTAH, NGO’s, and local community groups), the private sector (organized by the Inter-American Development Bank)
• March 15-17 in Santo Domingo, a closed Preparatory Technical Meeting: with non-governmental organizations (co-hosted by the Government of the Dominican Republic and Haiti)
• March 21-23, in Washington, D.C : with the Haitian Diaspora (organized by the Organization of American States),
• March 23, in Martinique : With Haitian state and local government (organized by the Government of France)
• March 23, in New York With stakeholders to MINUSTAH (organized by the Government of Brazil and the Government of Haiti),
• March 25, in New York, organized by the Office of the UN Special Envoy to Haiti, InterAction, and the European Commission). Follow up to Santo Domingo meeting
Friday, March 12, 2010
[Repost News] Preparing Haiti for New Disaster - Global Post story
Global Post
Home > The Americas
As rains arrive, Haitians brace for more disaster
A quake, rainy season and hurricanes, in rapid succession. How much more suffering will natural disasters bring to Haiti?
By Anne-christine d'Adesky — Special to GlobalPost
Published: March 11, 2010 06:49 ET
Residents of the Tapis Vert internally displaced persons camp navigate the mud and sewage after overnight rains soaked the tent village, Feb. 28, 2010. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Mudslides leveled villages and flood waters washed over cities when tropical storm Jeanne struck Haiti in 2004. There was nothing to hold the earth in place — deforestation had wiped out trees and roots across the country's mountains.
As torrential rains begin to fall on this earthquake-ravaged country, Jeanne serves as a not-so-distant reminder that Haiti could be in store for even more suffering this year.
Four days of heavy rains in late February triggered a mudslide that partly destroyed a primary school in Haiti’s second largest city Cap Haitien. Four children were killed and eight seriously injured. In the southwest port of Les Cayes, floodwaters caused 13 deaths, forcing people to take refuge on their roofs as the deluge flooded 60 percent of the city. Houses collapsed, while patients at hospitals had to be moved.
“We face an almost unique set of circumstances generated by a catastrophic quake, a rainy season, and a hurricane season, one after the other in rapid succession,” Ian Logan, head of operations for the International Federation of the Red Cross in Port-au-Prince, said in a press briefing.
The stakes are even higher with the mass displacement of people. An estimated 1.3 million people fled the capital Port-au-Prince after the quake, and many have sought shelter in the Artibonite Valley, the country’s breadbasket. While the flat region is considered seismically safer than Port-au-Prince, its low-lying plain is vulnerable to flooding.
Half of newly displaced Haitians haven't received tents, tarps or rolls of plastic sheeting to use as shelter. And none of that would serve as adequate protection from floods or mudslides — let alone high-velocity hurricane winds.
For now, it’s a race to build or deliver prefabricated earthquake- and hurricane-resistant transitional housing for such a large population.
Colorado State University hurricane forecaster Philip Klotzbach said it's impossible to know how many storms might hit Haiti. Klotzbach and his colleague William Gray predicted in November that there would be 11 to 16 named storms, six to eight hurricanes and three to five major hurricanes during the Atlantic basin's 2010 hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through November.
Jeanne was a lesson, said Klotzbach: "That storm did a lot of damage in Haiti,” he said. “It doesn’t even take a major hurricane.” The death toll topped 3,000 with almost 2,900 Haitians killed in mud-encrusted Gonaives, most from mudslides and flooding. In 2008, Haiti suffered four hurricanes in succession: Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, leaving an estimated 1 million homeless.
“There’s no question we’re facing a calamitous situation,” said Ian Rodgers, a specialist in disaster risk reduction and special adviser to the Save the Children agency. “We only have a few weeks to take critical steps that could reduce the risk of another catastrophe. We’re looking down the barrel of a gun with this hurricane situation.”
With so little time, Rodgers advocates merging two different phases of the disaster response: disaster preparedness activities that are done to prepare communities for a major disaster and the post-disaster emergency humanitarian relief response. Even as food is rushed in to feed the homeless as part of the post-disaster response, prepositioned supplies must also be put into storage for the day — possibly soon — when a major storm hits and local cities are cut off and forced to cope alone.
Rodgers suggests shifting 20 percent of the current relief effort to refocus on disaster risk reduction. Donors also need provide both types of funds now, not later. Such integration might call for more Cash for Work jobs clearing drains, or other activities designed to reduce the risk of floods and mudslides.
Shelter, however, remains a huge problem. It’s twice as costly to building earthquake-and-hurricane proof structures, he says. “It’s very, very expensive.”
In the small southern port city of Jacmel, the local Disaster Preparedness Committee helped residents who were cut off from outside help. The committee provided logistical support to rescue those trapped in collapsed buildings, ferry the injured to medical care and help the newly displaced reach safe areas. That response showed Rodgers that immediate training of local disaster teams, supported by agency specialists, could do a lot in a short time to prepare their communities.
“We are at a fork in the road,” Rodgers said. “The international community has a decision to make — immediately — or we are condemning Haiti to a catastrophic situation.” He added, “We can’t step about. We need to send the best of the best to Haiti to meet these challenges and ward off this disaster. And we have to start now.”
Home > The Americas
As rains arrive, Haitians brace for more disaster
A quake, rainy season and hurricanes, in rapid succession. How much more suffering will natural disasters bring to Haiti?
By Anne-christine d'Adesky — Special to GlobalPost
Published: March 11, 2010 06:49 ET
Residents of the Tapis Vert internally displaced persons camp navigate the mud and sewage after overnight rains soaked the tent village, Feb. 28, 2010. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Mudslides leveled villages and flood waters washed over cities when tropical storm Jeanne struck Haiti in 2004. There was nothing to hold the earth in place — deforestation had wiped out trees and roots across the country's mountains.
As torrential rains begin to fall on this earthquake-ravaged country, Jeanne serves as a not-so-distant reminder that Haiti could be in store for even more suffering this year.
Four days of heavy rains in late February triggered a mudslide that partly destroyed a primary school in Haiti’s second largest city Cap Haitien. Four children were killed and eight seriously injured. In the southwest port of Les Cayes, floodwaters caused 13 deaths, forcing people to take refuge on their roofs as the deluge flooded 60 percent of the city. Houses collapsed, while patients at hospitals had to be moved.
“We face an almost unique set of circumstances generated by a catastrophic quake, a rainy season, and a hurricane season, one after the other in rapid succession,” Ian Logan, head of operations for the International Federation of the Red Cross in Port-au-Prince, said in a press briefing.
The stakes are even higher with the mass displacement of people. An estimated 1.3 million people fled the capital Port-au-Prince after the quake, and many have sought shelter in the Artibonite Valley, the country’s breadbasket. While the flat region is considered seismically safer than Port-au-Prince, its low-lying plain is vulnerable to flooding.
Half of newly displaced Haitians haven't received tents, tarps or rolls of plastic sheeting to use as shelter. And none of that would serve as adequate protection from floods or mudslides — let alone high-velocity hurricane winds.
For now, it’s a race to build or deliver prefabricated earthquake- and hurricane-resistant transitional housing for such a large population.
Colorado State University hurricane forecaster Philip Klotzbach said it's impossible to know how many storms might hit Haiti. Klotzbach and his colleague William Gray predicted in November that there would be 11 to 16 named storms, six to eight hurricanes and three to five major hurricanes during the Atlantic basin's 2010 hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through November.
Jeanne was a lesson, said Klotzbach: "That storm did a lot of damage in Haiti,” he said. “It doesn’t even take a major hurricane.” The death toll topped 3,000 with almost 2,900 Haitians killed in mud-encrusted Gonaives, most from mudslides and flooding. In 2008, Haiti suffered four hurricanes in succession: Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, leaving an estimated 1 million homeless.
“There’s no question we’re facing a calamitous situation,” said Ian Rodgers, a specialist in disaster risk reduction and special adviser to the Save the Children agency. “We only have a few weeks to take critical steps that could reduce the risk of another catastrophe. We’re looking down the barrel of a gun with this hurricane situation.”
With so little time, Rodgers advocates merging two different phases of the disaster response: disaster preparedness activities that are done to prepare communities for a major disaster and the post-disaster emergency humanitarian relief response. Even as food is rushed in to feed the homeless as part of the post-disaster response, prepositioned supplies must also be put into storage for the day — possibly soon — when a major storm hits and local cities are cut off and forced to cope alone.
Rodgers suggests shifting 20 percent of the current relief effort to refocus on disaster risk reduction. Donors also need provide both types of funds now, not later. Such integration might call for more Cash for Work jobs clearing drains, or other activities designed to reduce the risk of floods and mudslides.
Shelter, however, remains a huge problem. It’s twice as costly to building earthquake-and-hurricane proof structures, he says. “It’s very, very expensive.”
In the small southern port city of Jacmel, the local Disaster Preparedness Committee helped residents who were cut off from outside help. The committee provided logistical support to rescue those trapped in collapsed buildings, ferry the injured to medical care and help the newly displaced reach safe areas. That response showed Rodgers that immediate training of local disaster teams, supported by agency specialists, could do a lot in a short time to prepare their communities.
“We are at a fork in the road,” Rodgers said. “The international community has a decision to make — immediately — or we are condemning Haiti to a catastrophic situation.” He added, “We can’t step about. We need to send the best of the best to Haiti to meet these challenges and ward off this disaster. And we have to start now.”
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Silsby update: And then there was one... or even more
Several readers have contacted me to ask my thoughts about the latest developments in the ongoing saga involving jailed missionary Laura Silsby in Haiti. I posted my Special Report on this affair last week, which contained allegations that Silsby's team was being offered help by certain Dominicans and Haitian helpers to cross the Dominican border with children they planned to pick up, possibly in exchange for money. I have more to share about those allegations, and what I've been able to learn.
As Silsby-watchers know, Haitian Judge Bernard Saint-Vil is still detaining Silsby today, but released her best friend Charisa Coulter yesterday. He did that only after holding closed sessions to re-question Silsby and two Dominican real estate agents Jose Hidalgo and his partner Rob Chenvert, and another individual about their knowledge and version of events. When asked why he won't release Silsby, the judge told a reporter he has discovered 'discrepancies' in Silsby's accounts, and is reviewing certain documents. To even a casual reader, that means something isn't adding up.
Judge Sainvil was also reportedly looking more deeply into the possible role of a US-based Haitian pastor, Jean Sainvil and another man from the border town of Ouanaminthe. That is where Silsby visited an orphanage in December 2009 - a pre-planning trip of sorts where she gave out presents to children there.
As I wrote in my report, Pastor Sainvil claims he met Silsby for the first time on or around January 27, which, if that's true, was immediately after her Petion Ville run-in with the police and her Dominican consular warning. (In my earlier report, I note that New Lifers who were on the bus 24-7 with Silsby that week make no mention of a mid-week dash to the border and back. They do admit their group made stops at various orphanages and government buildings, where Laura, they thought, was picking up more documents for her project. So I have yet to confirm if Silsby really made that trip.)
My point here is simply to point out that the meeting with Pastor Sainvil was not a random event; he is affiliated with the Ouanaminthe orphanage and was likely introduced by Pastor Daniel or someone there. He may have known of Silsby's orphanage plans before the day they met in January since she was there in December and apparently got in touch with Sainvil in January.
Sainvil has told reporters he met Silsby and identified himself as an 'advisor' to the New Life Children's Refuge, implying he was or is a strong supporter of their mission. He claims he personally identified and went to find the 33 children from the rubble-filled Citron slum, and the mountain town of Calabas, just outside Port-au-Prince, that the Silsby group picked up. Sainvil claims he secured written permission from parents willing to turn over their chidren in hopes that they would have a better life, and many media reports have confirmed that at least some parents did do just that. Other parents were completely distraught after learning that Silsby's group might have been eyeing international adoptions in the future, and reportedly feel profoundly deceived.
Of all the statements made by different parties in L'affaire Silsby, the one statement I find easiest to believe is one made by Jean Sainvil to reporters, after he returned home to Atlanta. He hopped a med evac flight out, claiming illness, which might have been true, if you believe the following statement. Sainvil told reporters none of Silsby's trouble would have happened if only he'd still been with her at the border. He'd been too ill. He was on the phone trying to deal with the situation when his cell phone battery died. After that, the situation quickly fell apart. That's because Silsby didn't actually have documents to show border officials. She might have had a list of children and letters from parents saying she could take them -- it's not even clear she showed those -- but it wasn't the 'permission' from Dominican officials she told me she was getting when we met a week earlier.
The reason I'm inclined to believe Sainvil is because he's quite matter of fact about stating what many people in Haiti know is the greatest truth: money talks, especially in extremely poor Haiti. So do connections at the border. I spent many years working and reporting in Haiti in the late 1980s and 1990s, and covered military and police corrupton. I saw plenty of evidence of money trumping law. There isn't a Haitian I know who wouldn't just shrug and say, Mais oui. Or course it happens. People don't get paid enough. They're vulnerable to corruption.. Sainvil didn't think he would have any problem convincing a border official to let a bus with American Baptists and Haitian orphans across because, for a price, people are willing to look the other way.
For the record, I haven't spoken to either Pastor Sainvil or Pastor Daniel. But I hope to soon.
None of this dismisses the probability that Silsby, determined to carry out her mission, tried to work her connections on the Dominican Republic side. Whether there was any connection between the Haitian go-betweens and any Dominicans is another question mark.
More Denials, and More Clues...
I've done some additional sleuthing and recently contacted a woman lawyer who bears the same name as a former state district attorney that Puello alleges was helping Laura Silby to get 'permission' to bring children into Haiti. She lives in the Dominican Republic and is a well known member of a political party there. When I contacted her by phone to discuss Puello's allegations, she initially claimed no knowledge of an American or missionary jailed in Haiti named Laura Silsby. When I explained how I'd gotten her name, she drew a blank about Jorge Puello.
But upon further probing, she acknowledged that she had met an American woman with red hair "who might have been" Laura Silsby at the Dominican state agency last September where she worked. (She's since taken a leave to run for political office). That's where Silsby allegedly applied to register her orphanage and get permission. The state agency is located in San Cristobal - rather far from where Silsby was setting up her orphanage in Cabarete. The lawyer says the American woman was a single woman who was told by officials there that she would need permission from parents of any Haitian children who were not orphans if she wanted to bring them over. She claims she doesn't know if Silsby pursued her paperwork or its status.
When I asked this lawyer, point blank, if she had helped or been asked to help Laura Silsby secure permission to help her cross the Dominican border, she claimed no knowledge. When I asked her if she had ever been contacted by a man named Jorge Torres Puello, she denied it. (Puello claims he spoke with her on the telephone). When I asked if she'd told Mr. Puello in a telephone call to tell Silsby to just come to the border, and asked him if he had some 150,000 pesos ($12,000) that was being asked, she claimed no memory of the conversation. She did acknowledge reading the newpapers and knowing a bit about the Silsby news, like most Dominicans.
Nor did she have any knowledge or ideas about a 'general' who might have been helping Silsby - again, per allegations made by Puello. (Note: Silsby herself told me she was being helped by a Dominican 'minister' and had 'connections' in the DR, which is why I was interested in pursuing Puello's allegations. All along I've thought that others were helping Silsby, including other Americans who had stayed back at the ex-hotel and were readying it as an orphanage).
In my report, I revealed that a State Department report mentions a Dominican woman lawyer and former state district attorney who was fired from her office in 2007 when her subordinate was found guilty of trafficking - of helping people illegally cross the border. I did not discuss that report with the woman I interviewed last week. I first wanted to check back in with Mr. Puello to hear what he made of blank denials of his statements, and to make sure I had the right woman. It was already a rather delicate conversation. The State Department report does not allege this state district attorney was trafficking, but the connection did raise a red flag - at least to me. First Puello, now another lawyer with some past link to someone trafficking? How much murkier can this affair get?
For the record, Mr. Puello did not know then what I'd learned about the woman lawyer or her employment history. But his reaction was predictable. "She's not going to tell you the truth," he told me over the phone (and I'm paraphrasing). "It's my word or hers. What is my motivation for telling you about her? I have nothing to lose at this point. I'm telling you because it's true. These people were supposed to help Laura and then something happened. I know that Laura was supposed to get a document at the border."
He also noted that his source, the lady lawyer, hadn't completely denied meeting Silsby, and had, in fact, admitted likely contact. "Dig deeper," he said, while warning me, "But be careful. There's people who aren't going to be happy about the truth."
Indeed.
What about the 'general?'
In my report, I wrote that Puello claimed a general -- a Dominican military official - was allegedly helping Silsby with the border issue. She had told me personally that a Domincan 'minister' was helping her, and implied it was someone with some authority. I later wondered if her 'minister' was the US can-do Pastor Sainvil. Maybe what went wrong is really what Sainvil says -- that he got sick, leaving Silsby without her 'minister' to talk or negotiate their way across the border.
The easiest explanation in this still very oblique debacle is that, for God, or maybe for money to pay off debts, Laura Silsby was determined against sage advice to bring a lot of Haitian kids to stay at her Dominican Republic orphanage. She knew the Haitian governmen was cracking down on what had just been a more open border in the days after the earthquake, when other missionary types were grabbing orphans and flying them out to the US on private charter planes. They had connections, but not always complete paperwork either. She knew enough to know she didn't have the paperwork, and she knew it could take years for parents to adopt children from Haiti. She'd talked to one couple who had been waiting five years to bring their adoptive children home to the US. She didn't want to wait.
When I talked to her in Santo Domingo on the eve of her trip into Haiti, she planned to go into Haiti at the crack of dawn on Monday and be back across the border that same night with her busload of children. When I suggested she contact the proper authorities, she responded by saying that she'd never be given the children, because her orphan project was new -- they'd be given to more established orphanages. In other words, she knew the traditional legal route would be difficult and unlikely. So I'm inclined to think she did what many in Haiti do to avoid bureaucratic red tape and delays: they cut corners, they work personal connections.
The big question is still open -- the one Judge Saint-Vil has asked: Why did Silsby and her group continue on their quest, when she was warned before embarking, then warned away, then stopped by a policeman, then warned again by the Dominican consul? So she knew and in the face of rather high odds, she persisted. Why?
Others have wondered aloud if Sainvil didn't have more of a role to play in the overall project. Was he getting paid to help Silsby? If money - money paid to adopt children -- is the motive for this long, strange trip in Haiti, then a lot more of this story makes sense.
The odd connections to suspected traffickers - to seemingly random individuals like Jorge Puello who felt moved to help Silsby, he says, or this new woman lawyer who's also strangely tarred with a trafficking brush - it all seems too odd to be coincidence. But it certainly doesn't add up neatly. Who's not telling the full truth? Is it Puello or the lady lawyer? Is it Pastor Sainvil or the New Lifers who feel betrayed now by Silsby?
Somewhere, there's a story in which these things do make sense, because they occurred. Could it be the story that is the ugliest? The one that suggests Silsby got hooked up with traffickers, wittingly or unwittingly, because those are the people who know how to quietly move other people across borders? Because she, like others, was motivated by money?
I still want to hope not.
I do wonder what's been said in Judge Saint-Vil's closed chambers.
(30)
As Silsby-watchers know, Haitian Judge Bernard Saint-Vil is still detaining Silsby today, but released her best friend Charisa Coulter yesterday. He did that only after holding closed sessions to re-question Silsby and two Dominican real estate agents Jose Hidalgo and his partner Rob Chenvert, and another individual about their knowledge and version of events. When asked why he won't release Silsby, the judge told a reporter he has discovered 'discrepancies' in Silsby's accounts, and is reviewing certain documents. To even a casual reader, that means something isn't adding up.
Judge Sainvil was also reportedly looking more deeply into the possible role of a US-based Haitian pastor, Jean Sainvil and another man from the border town of Ouanaminthe. That is where Silsby visited an orphanage in December 2009 - a pre-planning trip of sorts where she gave out presents to children there.
As I wrote in my report, Pastor Sainvil claims he met Silsby for the first time on or around January 27, which, if that's true, was immediately after her Petion Ville run-in with the police and her Dominican consular warning. (In my earlier report, I note that New Lifers who were on the bus 24-7 with Silsby that week make no mention of a mid-week dash to the border and back. They do admit their group made stops at various orphanages and government buildings, where Laura, they thought, was picking up more documents for her project. So I have yet to confirm if Silsby really made that trip.)
My point here is simply to point out that the meeting with Pastor Sainvil was not a random event; he is affiliated with the Ouanaminthe orphanage and was likely introduced by Pastor Daniel or someone there. He may have known of Silsby's orphanage plans before the day they met in January since she was there in December and apparently got in touch with Sainvil in January.
Sainvil has told reporters he met Silsby and identified himself as an 'advisor' to the New Life Children's Refuge, implying he was or is a strong supporter of their mission. He claims he personally identified and went to find the 33 children from the rubble-filled Citron slum, and the mountain town of Calabas, just outside Port-au-Prince, that the Silsby group picked up. Sainvil claims he secured written permission from parents willing to turn over their chidren in hopes that they would have a better life, and many media reports have confirmed that at least some parents did do just that. Other parents were completely distraught after learning that Silsby's group might have been eyeing international adoptions in the future, and reportedly feel profoundly deceived.
Of all the statements made by different parties in L'affaire Silsby, the one statement I find easiest to believe is one made by Jean Sainvil to reporters, after he returned home to Atlanta. He hopped a med evac flight out, claiming illness, which might have been true, if you believe the following statement. Sainvil told reporters none of Silsby's trouble would have happened if only he'd still been with her at the border. He'd been too ill. He was on the phone trying to deal with the situation when his cell phone battery died. After that, the situation quickly fell apart. That's because Silsby didn't actually have documents to show border officials. She might have had a list of children and letters from parents saying she could take them -- it's not even clear she showed those -- but it wasn't the 'permission' from Dominican officials she told me she was getting when we met a week earlier.
The reason I'm inclined to believe Sainvil is because he's quite matter of fact about stating what many people in Haiti know is the greatest truth: money talks, especially in extremely poor Haiti. So do connections at the border. I spent many years working and reporting in Haiti in the late 1980s and 1990s, and covered military and police corrupton. I saw plenty of evidence of money trumping law. There isn't a Haitian I know who wouldn't just shrug and say, Mais oui. Or course it happens. People don't get paid enough. They're vulnerable to corruption.. Sainvil didn't think he would have any problem convincing a border official to let a bus with American Baptists and Haitian orphans across because, for a price, people are willing to look the other way.
For the record, I haven't spoken to either Pastor Sainvil or Pastor Daniel. But I hope to soon.
None of this dismisses the probability that Silsby, determined to carry out her mission, tried to work her connections on the Dominican Republic side. Whether there was any connection between the Haitian go-betweens and any Dominicans is another question mark.
More Denials, and More Clues...
I've done some additional sleuthing and recently contacted a woman lawyer who bears the same name as a former state district attorney that Puello alleges was helping Laura Silby to get 'permission' to bring children into Haiti. She lives in the Dominican Republic and is a well known member of a political party there. When I contacted her by phone to discuss Puello's allegations, she initially claimed no knowledge of an American or missionary jailed in Haiti named Laura Silsby. When I explained how I'd gotten her name, she drew a blank about Jorge Puello.
But upon further probing, she acknowledged that she had met an American woman with red hair "who might have been" Laura Silsby at the Dominican state agency last September where she worked. (She's since taken a leave to run for political office). That's where Silsby allegedly applied to register her orphanage and get permission. The state agency is located in San Cristobal - rather far from where Silsby was setting up her orphanage in Cabarete. The lawyer says the American woman was a single woman who was told by officials there that she would need permission from parents of any Haitian children who were not orphans if she wanted to bring them over. She claims she doesn't know if Silsby pursued her paperwork or its status.
When I asked this lawyer, point blank, if she had helped or been asked to help Laura Silsby secure permission to help her cross the Dominican border, she claimed no knowledge. When I asked her if she had ever been contacted by a man named Jorge Torres Puello, she denied it. (Puello claims he spoke with her on the telephone). When I asked if she'd told Mr. Puello in a telephone call to tell Silsby to just come to the border, and asked him if he had some 150,000 pesos ($12,000) that was being asked, she claimed no memory of the conversation. She did acknowledge reading the newpapers and knowing a bit about the Silsby news, like most Dominicans.
Nor did she have any knowledge or ideas about a 'general' who might have been helping Silsby - again, per allegations made by Puello. (Note: Silsby herself told me she was being helped by a Dominican 'minister' and had 'connections' in the DR, which is why I was interested in pursuing Puello's allegations. All along I've thought that others were helping Silsby, including other Americans who had stayed back at the ex-hotel and were readying it as an orphanage).
In my report, I revealed that a State Department report mentions a Dominican woman lawyer and former state district attorney who was fired from her office in 2007 when her subordinate was found guilty of trafficking - of helping people illegally cross the border. I did not discuss that report with the woman I interviewed last week. I first wanted to check back in with Mr. Puello to hear what he made of blank denials of his statements, and to make sure I had the right woman. It was already a rather delicate conversation. The State Department report does not allege this state district attorney was trafficking, but the connection did raise a red flag - at least to me. First Puello, now another lawyer with some past link to someone trafficking? How much murkier can this affair get?
For the record, Mr. Puello did not know then what I'd learned about the woman lawyer or her employment history. But his reaction was predictable. "She's not going to tell you the truth," he told me over the phone (and I'm paraphrasing). "It's my word or hers. What is my motivation for telling you about her? I have nothing to lose at this point. I'm telling you because it's true. These people were supposed to help Laura and then something happened. I know that Laura was supposed to get a document at the border."
He also noted that his source, the lady lawyer, hadn't completely denied meeting Silsby, and had, in fact, admitted likely contact. "Dig deeper," he said, while warning me, "But be careful. There's people who aren't going to be happy about the truth."
Indeed.
What about the 'general?'
In my report, I wrote that Puello claimed a general -- a Dominican military official - was allegedly helping Silsby with the border issue. She had told me personally that a Domincan 'minister' was helping her, and implied it was someone with some authority. I later wondered if her 'minister' was the US can-do Pastor Sainvil. Maybe what went wrong is really what Sainvil says -- that he got sick, leaving Silsby without her 'minister' to talk or negotiate their way across the border.
The easiest explanation in this still very oblique debacle is that, for God, or maybe for money to pay off debts, Laura Silsby was determined against sage advice to bring a lot of Haitian kids to stay at her Dominican Republic orphanage. She knew the Haitian governmen was cracking down on what had just been a more open border in the days after the earthquake, when other missionary types were grabbing orphans and flying them out to the US on private charter planes. They had connections, but not always complete paperwork either. She knew enough to know she didn't have the paperwork, and she knew it could take years for parents to adopt children from Haiti. She'd talked to one couple who had been waiting five years to bring their adoptive children home to the US. She didn't want to wait.
When I talked to her in Santo Domingo on the eve of her trip into Haiti, she planned to go into Haiti at the crack of dawn on Monday and be back across the border that same night with her busload of children. When I suggested she contact the proper authorities, she responded by saying that she'd never be given the children, because her orphan project was new -- they'd be given to more established orphanages. In other words, she knew the traditional legal route would be difficult and unlikely. So I'm inclined to think she did what many in Haiti do to avoid bureaucratic red tape and delays: they cut corners, they work personal connections.
The big question is still open -- the one Judge Saint-Vil has asked: Why did Silsby and her group continue on their quest, when she was warned before embarking, then warned away, then stopped by a policeman, then warned again by the Dominican consul? So she knew and in the face of rather high odds, she persisted. Why?
Others have wondered aloud if Sainvil didn't have more of a role to play in the overall project. Was he getting paid to help Silsby? If money - money paid to adopt children -- is the motive for this long, strange trip in Haiti, then a lot more of this story makes sense.
The odd connections to suspected traffickers - to seemingly random individuals like Jorge Puello who felt moved to help Silsby, he says, or this new woman lawyer who's also strangely tarred with a trafficking brush - it all seems too odd to be coincidence. But it certainly doesn't add up neatly. Who's not telling the full truth? Is it Puello or the lady lawyer? Is it Pastor Sainvil or the New Lifers who feel betrayed now by Silsby?
Somewhere, there's a story in which these things do make sense, because they occurred. Could it be the story that is the ugliest? The one that suggests Silsby got hooked up with traffickers, wittingly or unwittingly, because those are the people who know how to quietly move other people across borders? Because she, like others, was motivated by money?
I still want to hope not.
I do wonder what's been said in Judge Saint-Vil's closed chambers.
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