Haitians in Boston organize aid and wait for word from home
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After a long night of unconnected phone calls, listening to community radio, and scanning the national news, employees at a Haitian community center in Boston鈥檚 Dorchester neighborhood trudged to work Wednesday, minds weary and hearts heavy.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no word to explain how we鈥檙e feeling right now,鈥 says Lydia Louise-Jean, mail coordinator at the Center for Community Health, Education, and Research. 鈥淲e have workers who came to work this morning like zombies. They鈥檝e been up all night, they haven鈥檛 slept, and they still can鈥檛 get through to [their families].鈥
For Haitians in the Boston area 鈥 one of the largest Haitian communities in the US 鈥 the emotional aftershocks of the earthquake that devastated the island nation are far from subsiding.
With very little communication with their friends and families abroad, Boston鈥檚 Haitians are living long periods of anxiety punctuated by intense moments of joy when a connection is made with a loved one.
Gathered around the TV for news
Rhode Milord LeBlanc, an English language educator at the Haitian American Public Health Initiative in Boston, says that her students, all recent adult immigrants, were largely cut off from information because of their weak grasp of English and lack of Internet connections. When four of her usual 13 students turned up for class Wednesday, she gathered them in her office to watch CNN, translating news updates as they flashed on the screen.
鈥淥ne of their daughters came in to the room and told us that one of their neighbors in Haiti discovered that [a female student鈥檚] son was dead,鈥 Ms. LeBlanc says.
The group then broke up, heading for home to wait for more calls.
At a community meeting in Boston Wednesday, roughly two-dozen Haitian community leaders from bankers to doctors to educators gathered to sort through how to provide aid. But even as much as the meeting aimed to set up the organizational infrastructure to support a relief effort, the conversation frequently returned to shoring up the community鈥檚 emotional needs, especially those of children.
Students worry about their parents
鈥淭his is a message we need to send to the schools: the students need help,鈥 says Edner Cayemite, an instructor at a Boston high school. The students 鈥渁re scared because they don鈥檛 have any information.鈥
Some expressed dismay, knowing that Haiti, the Western hemisphere鈥檚 poorest country, simply doesn鈥檛 have the necessary infrastructure 鈥 both political and physical 鈥 to get the answers so many in their community are seeking.
鈥淟ast year, one school collapsed and they couldn鈥檛 deal with it. How will they manage this?鈥 asked Julio Midy, deputy editor of , a clearinghouse for French-language news about the country.
But amid uncertainty, the discussion within the local Haitian leadership aimed to capitalize on another pervasive community feeling: a sense of responsibility to friends and family in duress. The group sought to bring a wide variety of efforts together, from locating space to serve as community gathering points to raising money and unifying churches, civic groups, and professionals into a concentrated effort.
鈥淲e have to know where we can play our role in the second wave,鈥 says Jean Bonner, a local physician. 鈥淲e can do something small about what is going on now. But after that, we need to rebuild our country.鈥
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