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| | In response to the earthquake devastation in Haiti, WACC assigned José Luis Soto, a Member of WACC-Caribe and director of WACC’s partner network Espacinsular, to cover the developing story and assess the situation on the ground, on behalf of WACC.
The following is a summary of his dispatches from Haiti... |
Dear WACC friends:
Warm greetings to all from the half island of the Dominican Republic, the other half of which we share with our dear Haiti.
On 12 January, our neighbor country of Haiti, which has significant presence of institutional and personal members of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC-Caribbean), was struck by a 7.2 earthquake, with preliminary casualties of 250,000 dead. More than 600,000 people are injured and more than one million affected residents are now living in close to 700 refuge camps in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Leogane, and other cities, while another estimated 700,000 to 800,000 people have migrated to other areas of the country. For this past month, we have been monitoring the situation unfolding in this nation and in particular the situation of the members of our regional WACC-Caribbean.
For that purpose, and with the support of WACC, between Tuesday, January 26th and Monday, February 1st we traveled for the second time to Haiti with the goal to verify the situation of some of our colleagues, whom we had remained unable to contact in any way during our first visit, and also to personally deliver a token of solidarity from the whole WACC Global family. Upon our arrival, we established contact first by telephone and then personally with the president of WACC Caribbean, Professor Ary Regis, to whom we extended our offer to provide any assistance possible within our means.
We reported to Professor Regis the decision of WACC to acquire two satellite phones for use during the country’s current emergency situation. We used one of these phones during our visit. Upon our departure from Haiti we left the phone we had been using in the hands of our colleague Colette Lespinasse for its subsequent delivery to Professor Regis, for the use of both phones in the country.
The six days of our visit were spent visiting the communications media and organizations with which WACC has maintained a mutual fraternal working relationship for the past several years.
Medialternatif Group
Our first contact took place on Wednesday, January 27th in the offices of the Medialternatif Group, where we interviewed Gotson Pierre, Executive Director of Alterpresse Online News Agency. Gotson Pierre explained to us the magnitude of the damages suffered by this organization, and we were able to see for ourselves the damages suffered in infrastructure, equipment such as computers, video editing rooms, the audio editing room, and the recording studio, as well as produced materials and all of the Agency’s archives including images, audio recordings and physical materials, none of which can be recovered. We also visually documented the situation of the Medialternatif Group through video and photographs.
An interview recorded on video provides a testimony of the reality of this partner communication organization. As of now, only the Alterpresse web site is operating, although in precarious conditions through use of a personal computer set up in any location in which Internet access can be achieved.
Finally, we also discussed with Gotson the current reality faced by the alternative communications media and the role they may play in the reconstruction process in Haiti. This role means that a quick recovery of these media outlets, including community radio stations, Alterpresse, the Bon Nouvel newspaper, SAKS, and others, is vital at this time, with the assistance in solidarity of colleague institutions. A report on the damages registered as of the date of our departure from Haiti was being prepared and will be delivered to the presidency of WACC Caribbean or directly to WACC General Secretariat on behalf of the colleagues of Medialternatif Group.
Visit to the Social Animation and Communication Society (SAKS)
The first contact with this institution was achieved with its administrator, Miss Edwige Desameau, in the offices of FIDE, institution which has provided provisional shelter to some of the employees of SAKS. We accompanied Miss Desameau to see and to document through video and photographs the conditions in which the SAKS offices were left by the earthquake. She informed us of the losses sustained, including among others to the recording studios, computers, office furniture, vehicles, and a large part of the infrastructure. The Society’s audio and data files were also lost.
We then held a working meeting with Sony Esteus, who reiterated the information detailing the material damages suffered by SAKS and the repercussions of these losses and the crisis suffered by SAKS for the community radio stations. It is important to recall that SAKS produces educational programs for community radio and provides technical assistance and production and administrative support for the popular radio programs. Sony Esteus reported that only two of the community radio stations were affected by the earthquake: Radio Zetwal in the community of Fondwa, Jacmel, which was completely destroyed, and another station whose transmitter was damaged.
Radio Zetwal, 93.3 FM, in the community of Fondwa, Jacmel
Fondwa is a small village in the Department of Jacmel in southwestern Haiti. Since 1993, it had its own radio station established through the organization of the population itself in the Campesino Association of Fondwa. The radio station was one of the few community instruments that brought the population together around a common project: to discuss, analyze, and find solutions to the community’s problems. With advisory from SAKS, the residents produced their own radio programs on health, the environment, and informal education topics. Agronomists and doctors also had community orientation programs transmitted through this community radio. The radio station now no longer exists. The earthquake eliminated it, abandoning a population of close to 8,000 inhabitants distributed throughout the village of Fondwa and its neighboring mountains. We visited what was left of the station.
We spoke with the Director of Radio Zetwal, Enel Beaul, and Zetwal’s administrator, Frang Inoolent. They say that they don’t know how they will recover the radio station. They lost everything in the earthquake, including the building constructed by the community itself, transmission and sound equipment, computers, everything. Now the population that brought the radio station to life, a station that spoke their own language, has lost its voice.
Rezo Fanm Radyo Kominote Ayisyen (REFRAKA)
Of all my visits and contacts with our WACC Caribbean contacts in Haiti, the most moving experience was having visited the offices of REFRAKA before and now after the earthquake. Said offices were located on the first floor of a building –if my memory is correct, it was six floors high— situated very close to the offices of SAKS. The building completely collapsed, and dozens of people inside were killed. But most dramatically, our colleague Marie Guyrleine Justin, who works in the training department of this WACC-affiliated institution, was in the REFRAKA office at the time. By a miracle, Marie’s life was somehow spared. As she herself describes in my report for WACC, “I am alive thanks to a miracle of God. He has something important for me to do. That is the only way I can explain the fact that I am alive today and speaking with you and through you to all the WACC members.”
This organization works in the production of radio programs directed to women for community radio stations, relating their day-to-day experiences of the life of the Haitian people, telling the stories of the rural and urban women of this country in radio capsules dedicated to health, the environment, and other issues. The earthquake left absolutely nothing of the REFRAKA production center. Its employees have been left in the air as have been so many other journalists, products, and other workers from the alternative and community communications media in Haiti today.
We then traveled to GranGoave, in southwestern Haiti, some 60 kilometers from the Haitian capital, to check on the condition of Marie Guyrleine Justin, who participated in the last WACC Caribbean Assembly in representation of REFRAKA. We were very relieved to know that she was alive and in good enough spirits to tell us the story of how she survived the earthquake. We have already related her story in a report now published in Spanish on WACC’s website. Her personal situation is very difficult. As we have reported and illustrated in photographs, she and her family are living along the side of a road in a small shelter improvised from tin and cardboard, since the earthquake destroyed their home along with those of thousands of her fellow Haitians.
Accompanied by Marie, we visited an important community radio station in the GranGoave community. It suffered only minor damages considering that it lost only its transmitter, and its antenna, console and physical infrastructure will require only minimal investment to repair, after which they assure us they will be able to resume broadcasts.
We were unable to visit other local media outlets but we did gather first-hand reports that the following suffered serious damages: Radio Sel, the newspaper Bon Nouvel, and the State University of Haiti, among others.
In general, we may report that we found the WACC Caribbean membership in Haiti in relatively satisfactory condition. While in material terms they lost their homes, and some lost a few family members, they themselves are OK.
We were able to personally contact and interview the following individuals regarding their specific situations: Gotson Pierre, Ronald Corbet, Colette Lespinasse, Sony Esteus, Vario Serant, and Ary Regis, president of WACC Caribbean, as well as Professor Herold Toussaint.
In addition, during our stay we also attended a work meeting called by a delegation of AMARC to evaluate the situation of the communications media. The meeting was also attended by other WACC Caribbean members including Sony Esteus, Ary Regis, Gotson Pierre, and others. Several concerns were aired in the meeting regarding the emergency situation left by the earthquake, the particular situation of the communications media, and the impact felt by the population from the lack of these communications services. Short, medium and long-term reconstruction plans were addressed. Several proposals are being debated, including the possible formation of a consortium to allow these media outlets to share facilities rented on an emergency basis, and in the medium to long term to build and share facilities that could house between 5 and 7 communications and human rights institutions on a plot of land donated by the township of Delmas. More details on these efforts may be obtained from Professor Regis who has been participating in and following up on these discussions.
In conclusion
We conclude that the current critical situation of the alternative communications media and institutions in Haiti merits special monitoring by WACC-Caribbean and WACC Global.
Viable communications networks that facilitate a greater flow of information than that currently existing in Haiti are highly needed. The island’s alternative media need to be reinforced to reduce their vulnerability to natural catastrophes (earthquakes, hurricanes, and others) so that they can provide early response to such situations, in which the need for communication is particularly vital.
Finally, we also feel that greater contact is needed among the members and institutions of WACC Caribbean, reinforcing their relationships of solidarity, friendship and collaboration.
1- NOTE: These are personal perceptions from our visit to Haiti carried out thanks to the support of WACC, with the hope that they may contribute to strengthen our association in the Caribbean.
2- NOTE: As part of this trip to Haiti, several reports were submitted to WACC. These include video interviews with the actors with whom we were in contact, and photographs that provide further testimony to the gravity of what has happened in Haiti and in the context of the alternative and communications media.
* See photos here...
José Luis Soto (Espacio Insular)
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
9 February 2010
Summary:
1- Visit to Radio Zetwal in the community of Fondwa, Jacmel.
2- Visit to the Social Animation and Communication Society (Société d’Animation et de Communication Sociale - SAKS)
3- Visit to Medialternatif Group (Groupe Medialternatif)
4- Visit to Rezo Fanm Radyo Kominote Ayisyen (REFRAKA)
Interviews:
1. Gotson Pierre, Executive Director of Alterpresse, part of Medialternatif Group
2. Sony Esteus of SAKS
3. Marie Guyrleine Justin of REFRAKA
4. Work meeting with Ary Regis, president of WACC Caribbean.
5. Participation in a work meeting with community / alternative media affected by the earthquake.
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Following the devastation, WACC launched an appeal to raise funds eventually to rebuild community communications in those areas of Haiti most severely affected by the earthquake. Donations will be used to replace damaged communication structures, to purchase new broadcasting equipment, and to train new journalists. For many years WACC has supported communication initiatives in Haiti. See details of the appeal here...
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