Resilience In Haiti

On January twelfth 2010, a deadly earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit the coast of Port au prince, Haiti for 35 seconds, killing around 200,000 and leaving approximately to 1.5 million of the population homeless including kids who became orphans and vice versa in a matter of less than a minute. Before the earthquake, the way of life was not as bad as portrayed back at home, most of the news broadcasted in the mainstream media were exaggerated news, negative light and unfair tales to make Haiti look inferior.

Haiti Now was founded in 2010 by Alex Lizzappi. A successful Miami businessman today, Alex’s childhood was a very different story. His desire to help the Restavek children of Haiti is a reflection of his own life experiences and his understanding of how a child without a social network and social net worth can be left behind, regardless of their intelligence or potential.

On January 12, 2010 on of the world’s deadliest earthquakes struck Haiti. In his book, Humanitarian Aftershocks in Haiti, Mark Schuller analyzes the presence of humanitarian aid agencies following the disaster. He discusses the impacts the aid had on the environment, development and globalization of Haiti.

In 2010, a devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Desiree LaFave was one of four oregon midwives to respond. She was on the first plane into Haiti, alongside doctors and other midwives. Desiree LaFave should be recognised as a hero for her bravery, passion, and determination.

It can be easy to distinguish the difference between a hero, survivor, and a victim. In the article Haiti after the earthquake by Paul Farmer, it clearly shows who the main hero is in the article which is Farmer himself. Without his going out of his way to help every patient he could then many of the patients at the General Hospital wouldn’t have been able to survive. Although Farmer is the main person discussed helping people in the article, he wouldn’t be able to help as many people if he didn’t have the resources provided by the hospital or other people. There are many survivors of the earthquake, such as many residents. Although they were injured by the earthquake, they were not going to let that stop them from continuing to try to stay

In 2010, Haiti; a Caribbean country located on the island of Hispaniola, suffered a 7.0 magnitude earthquake which left the normally joyous people devastated, and the land, destroyed. Only six years after the paralyzing natural disaster, Hurricane Matthew struck the vulnerable nation plagued by poverty, leaving hundreds dead and “12.9% of the country’s population in need of humanitarian assistance”. Humanitarian assistance. As humans; ready, willing and able to help Haitians in need, public school systems fortunate enough to teach students who think of those less fortunate in the world, should not repress their desire to meet, help and experience the beautiful Haitian culture. The group of students at Wachusett Regional High School interested

The French and their slaves populated the island of Haiti during the 18th century. In the late 1700’s, the slaves revolted against the French and began a thirteen-year war for their freedom. This war began the significant problems for Haiti. Today, Haiti suffers from malnutrition, low standards of living, and poor literacy, which Haiti still faces today.

The primary response to the Haiti earthquake disaster would involve the issuance of the mandatory briefing, proper gear, and shots before taking off to Haiti. For Haiti nationals, immunization against outbreaks of measles, Hepatitis, and other communicable diseases would come in handy. Education in how to prevent, reduce and avoid spread of commun diseases during this type of event, will be essesntial. On the other hand, the secondary intervention would involve the evaluation of the damage, screening for injuries and diseases, such as infectious and communicable diseases. Finally, the tertiary intervention for the Haiti disaster would involve follow up care and post-traumatic stress educational forums for all the affected individuals (Katz,

There are numerous points of view on resiliency, as non‑governmental associations (NGOs) perceive that individuals ' capacity to better withstand and recuperate from calamities is basic to maintaining improvement. NGOs, contributors and worldwide reaction groups are attempting to characterize resiliency in their terms. CRS characterizes resiliency as "the capacity of people, communities and institutions to advance integral human development in the face of shocks, cycles and trends" (2014, p.2). The vulnerable individuals themselves best characterize strength and resiliency. What vulnerable individuals accept helps most to their versatility limit is discriminating to current dialogs on resiliency. Contributors and NGOs may have their own meaning of the term; however, an understanding of what it really means to individuals looking to make their community resilient is crucial to outlining successful Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and recovery activities in development, risk reaction and catastrophe recuperation programs (CRS, 2014). The danger of not utilizing the

Haiti is usually depicted as a place of disorganization, chaos or unrest. With the various issues facing Haiti, we can categorize them into the different social science disciplines. Some of the social science disciplines that I would use to try and figure out main issues facing Haiti are: the history, the economics and the political science.

Unlike most of Latin America, Haiti’s main colonizing power was France, not Spain or Portugal, after France was given one-third of Hispaniola. To this day you can see the lasting effects of colonialism in Haiti especially in comparison to the Dominican Republic which shares the same island. While Haiti, formerly Saint Domingue under French control, was at one time the world’s wealthiest sugar and coffee producer, the tides have changed in terms of Haiti’s economy and it is now one of the worst off in terms of measurement of GDP per capita and income inequality. This change largely took place after the Haitian revolution, which transformed Haiti’s economy to a rural subsistence economy, instead of the capital-intensive plantation economy it had been. As other states, including neighboring DR, developed competitive commodity industries, Haiti never jumped on that export-led growth path and there was overall less investment making its way to Haiti in comparison to other states in the region. Also, Haiti was not a part of the “Golden Age” period of Latin America from 1950-1973. With a brief understanding of Haiti’s background, a more solid understanding of their economic performance, challenges, assets and current conditions can be developed further.

THIS PAPER IS PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR THE REQUIREMENT OF THE COURSE “OTHER WORLD CIVILIZATIONS”

Yasmine Shamsie, the author of “Haiti’s Post-Earthquake Transformation: What of Agriculture and Rural Development?” writes:

I chose this specific culture because the fall semester of my freshmen year of college, I met someone who became very close to me and she happened to be a Seventh Day Adventist from Haiti. She was one of my first friends and once we started talking about things I realized we were brought up differently, and had a wide range of different experiences that brightened our views of the world when we shared with each other. I have never been out of the country and her being from Haiti and also having a higher traveling experience than me made me want to explore my options of traveling outside my comfort zone more.

Also experiencing corruption, criminal violence, and a weak political system, what Haiti lacks more is a functioning economy (Carment & Samy, 2014). Haiti has very few natural resources, lacks the stability and development to encourage foreign investments, and struggles with extreme inequality amongst its citizens (de Blij, et al., 2014). Haiti’s GDP has had little if any growth or development in the last ten years (Carment & Samy, 2014), and according to the World Bank (2018), Haiti is still the poorest state in the Western Hemisphere. To make matters worse Haiti has experienced a number of environmental disasters which would upset a developed country, no less a country that already lacks security and development. Within two years Haiti experienced 4 cyclones, along with a devastating earthquake which killed over 300 000, and displaced well over a million residents. Again in 2016, Haiti was hit with another devastating hurricane. Although, Haiti suffers from a weak government and corruption, the Haitian economy is even more unstable. A very different picture than the political warfare that Somalia has experienced for the last 25 years. These two modern day examples demonstrate how unclear a single definition is in helping outsiders to understand individual state