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Written by Wojtek (Voytec) Wacowski
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Friday, 12 March 2010 |
Santo Domingo.- A groundbreaking event took place in the Dominican Republic (DR) which ended officially yesterday. Amistad America, Inc.; the Cross Cultural Center of Santo Domingo and IERCEF with the support of the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic, hosted six Haitian and two Dominican students to participate in a team building, international relations program.
This was the kick-off of our Haitian Student Resettlement campaign, a program to get as many as possible Haitian students back in school so that they can attain their respective degrees and return eventually to Haiti, better equipped to participate in its development at a high level. It was a success.
Eight Haitian students participated in a two-day sail which gave them the opportunity to bond and communicate, in a neutral environment, with each other and the crew of the Freedom Schooner Amistad.
This was a never-before-experienced opportunity for them all and was described as empowering in many ways. After the sail, the Cross Cultural Center hosted a Roundtable to discuss the impact and import of working together and the student's feelings as to what a future Haiti needs.
Etienne Jean Chavenet, 23, from Roseau said if he had the chance, he would do it all again. "All I want is to go back to school; we need school". Melissa Jean Francois, 21, from Carrefour was in her last year of a nursing program when the earthquake took her parents, destroyed her transcripts and interrupted indefinitely her academic career.
"Sailing on the Amistad was an experience I will never forget and I did not know there are people who cared like this". She is, as they all are, willing to start over again: they just want the chance. The mission of the program is, to prepare these Haitian students to pass rigorous credit assessment exams and be admitted to schools of higher education outside of Haiti.
What we envision is a Haitian student resettlement program offering a complete U.S., D.R., and Canadian college/university preparatory program that would, under one roof, provide everything from counseling services like bereavement to English, Spanish (reading, writing, math) to team/esteem building programs. Also it would include sessions devoted to cultural acclamation too.
We all know that thriving in America requires more than knowing English. The program will also help market these students to benefactors, international scholarship funds and admissions officers thus when scholarships are in-place and they have been excepted by a school, these students will be prepared to truly hit the ground running.
"It was personally moving and I am proud of the role IERCEF played, albeit small, paying for the Haitian students lodging while in Santo Domingo, (Steven W. Jones, president and CEO of IERCEF).
Our business is study abroad and people will ask what does this all have to do with study abroad? I say a lot. IERCEF is about study abroad and global engagement; it is precisely these types of experiences we want U.S. students to be engaged with when participating in whether they be service learning, youth-in-governance and/or foreign service career-building internships.
U.S. student involvement in programs like our Haitian student resettlement initiative greatly enhances the experience for everyone and underscores the discipline of global engagement and international relations.
With the gracious support of proven leaders like President Fernandez and his administration, the State Department and their Embassy in the DR and OAS, our Haitian student resettlement initiative, will be that "ray of hope" for thousands of students; Haiti's next generation of leaders. Meanwhile, Haitian students pray for the miracle of continuing their education.
Read the original article published in Dominican Today on March 12th, 2010
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 13 March 2010 )
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Written by Sayzie Koldys
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Wednesday, 10 March 2010 |
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Last Sunday night, after Santo Domingo’s Carnivál celebration, Christelle Saint-Natus, one of the Haitian students who recently participated in a cross-cultural two-night sail with Amistad, crew member Sam Yokie, from Sierra Leone, and I, from the United States, sat on the deck of the ship, talking about our respective countries. Christelle was on and off her phone, trying to get in touch with another crew member as Sam told stories of those Africans who die inexplicably at the hands of those who curse them.
Christelle offered similar stories of Haiti. At one point, she looked up from texting and said, “The first time I saw a zombie—well, really it was the only time—I was on my way to school…He was wearing a red dress and his eyes were vacant.” I must have looked incredulous because she assured me, “It’s true, he was totally vacant!” I have no doubt that he was, I don’t make habit of discounting what I cannot know, and I have my own possible explanations for these things. It wasn’t the details of the stories that gave me pause, rather it was the juxtaposition of zombies and Blackberries, curses and iPhones, this vibrant young girl with a brilliant future and the devastation of her country that I’ve thus far seen only in pictures. The seemingly incongruous, I’ve been assured by those who have lived here, is par for the Third World course.
The purpose of the cross-cultural sail was, as Joaquin Mendez of the Cross Cultural Center of Santo Domingo explained, to facilitate the equivalent of the early student exchanges between Israeli and Palestinian students. Because of the strained relations between the two nations of Hispaniola, Mendez worked with the six Haitian and two Dominican students just prior to the sail to explore the notion of “minority” (a concept foreign to what has been, for so long, a divided island), and he charged each student with care for the other and respect for their cultural differences. But this type of exchange was not limited to Dominicans and Haitians. Furling sails out on the bowsprit together were also crew members from ten of the United States, from Belize, and from Sierra Leone. Through the long, cold months in Norfolk, and again during the weeks of gale- and hurricane-force winds in Bermuda, the crew heard much about the Amistad mission, about the goals of the organization, about the positive and emotional impact we could have on the lives of those we would encounter. We took inspiration from this potential, we held on to it as we would the uppermost shrouds in a rolling sea, but as we’d spent so much time focusing on operational details and had yet to see the fruits of the bigger picture, we were truly acting on faith. For many of us, I think, that faith was rewarded here in the Dominican Republic when we set sail last Friday night and through the exchanges we’ve had with our new friends from both Haiti and the DR.
Just as we had our own struggles in getting Amistad to the Caribbean, bringing the students together was a challenge for organizers on this end as well. Kirsys Yohanna Feliz and Carolin Arias agreed to represent the Dominican Republic and already live here in Santo Domingo. Three of the Haitian students, Gacques Gosue, Sandra Logiste, and Christelle Saint-Natus, are Haitians who are also studying in the city; the other three, Melissa Jean Francois, Garry Pyram, and Etienne Jean Chavenet, were living in Haiti when the earthquake struck in January and will return to Haiti this week. Christelle and her mother, Michaelle Saint-Natus, who lives in Port-au-Prince, were charged with finding those Haitians who were not only in need but who also had passports and were able to travel. Garry works at the sugar cane museum operated by Saint-Natus, and Sandra was responsible for connecting with Melissa. Christelle flew home to Haiti last week, and she and her mother traveled to the rural villages in the mountains in an attempt to fill the last open bunk but were unable to locate anyone with a passport. Finally, just a few days before Amistad was to sail with the students out of Santo Domingo, Michaelle met with Chavenet, who’d lost his passport in the earthquake but still had some of the necessary papers. The Director of Archives for Haiti heard about Chavenet’s plight and agreed to search the state files to locate the necessary documents for Chavenet to travel. With much luck and much help from high-level Haitian officials, Chavenet secured his passport and a visa at 2 pm on Thursday, December 4, flew immediately to Santo Domingo, and came straight from the airport to the dock, arriving just ten minutes late for the Amistad welcoming celebration.
Once ship, crew, and students were all in place, the crew faced the challenge of communicating complicated sail-handling procedures with the assistance of only one person able to translate English to French. And although there are several Spanish speakers among the crew, sail terminology is in itself another vocabulary. After a confused and rushed departure (owing to logistical concerns with port authorities), three of the students became seasick and several others were nauseous and tired. By the time we dropped anchor at sunset on the first night, I for one questioned how much good we could do in 48 hours under such conditions. The nature of shipboard life, however, mandates that a crew come together to overcome our differences and to complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and despite the cultural and language barriers between us, the determination of the students to overcome these barriers, and indeed to care for one another, became readily apparent.
Within the first hour, Gacques Gosue jumped into the fray, pulling on lines and helping to secure the gangway tower on deck. And although she wasn’t feeling well, Christelle, our trilingual translator, asked multiple questions and tried to pass along as much information as possible to the other students. By the following morning, the seasickness had passed, and by lunch, Haitians, Dominicans, and the crew were working side by side to tack the ship as we took her up and down the coast. By the time we dropped anchor that afternoon, even those who could not swim donned life jackets and trusted their lives to the rest of us. That night, Rueben, one of our deckhands, celebrated his birthday, and the students and crew sang together in Creole, Spanish, French, and English. On Sunday, the students returned to the ship for a ceremony with visitors from the American Embassy, and Christelle has stopped by to volunteer and to chat with crew members each day since.
Many times I’ve heard the word “hopeless” in conjunction with Haiti. It has no infrastructure, no stable government, no organization, its forests were razed long ago, HIV/AIDS plagues the population in epic proportion, there are few jobs, little opportunity, and great poverty for approximately 90% of the population. It is easy, I think, to become overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problems. But just as we emphasize the humanity of the heroes of the Amistad story by reciting their names and remembering their faces, here too I believe it’s important to focus on these students as individuals. Each of them has a story, and each of them has committed, in his or her way, to bridging the divide between nations. It is impossible, in fact, to look Gacques or Christelle or Sandra or Chavenet or Garry or Melissa in the eye and say the word “hopeless.” If they and Kirsys and Carolin are at all representative of the youth of their nations, then I have little doubt that not only will there be healing in Hispaniola but that there is, even now, great hope for Haiti. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 March 2010 )
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Written by AAI
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Friday, 05 March 2010 |
Vista de la Goleta Amistad en el Puerto Santo Domingo
Durante su estadía en Santo Domingo estará abierta al público general el siete de marzo y para los estudiantes los días 8 y 9; también, se proyectará la película “Amistad” de Steve Spielberg, rodada en 1997 sobre las el buque y su historia.
Miembros de la tripulación de la Goleta Amistad.
Santo Domingo.- La Goleta Amistad, símbolo de la abolición de la esclavitud en América, arribó a puerto dominicano como parte de su gira educativa y cultural por la región del Caribe, en la que da a conocer un relevante episodio de su historia ligado a los esclavos africanos de la isla y su lucha por los derechos humanos.
Luis Simó, viceministro de Turismo para Asuntos Internacionales, al tomar la palabra durante el recibimiento de la Goleta Amistad
Esta embarcación, que en 1839 trasladaba esclavos africanos con destino a Cuba, fue tomada por los cautivos quienes se sublevaron y dejaron con vida a parte de la tripulación para que estos le retornaran a África; sin embargo, los tripulantes dirigieron la embarcación a los Estados Unidos donde fueron apresados.
William Pinkney, Joaquin Méndez y Robin Busse.
El movimiento abolicionista de New York siguió el caso de cerca y consiguió, en 1840, que una corte federal se pronunciara a favor de los africanos y fueran devuelto a su lugar de origen, ya que en los Estados Unidos solo eran reconocido como esclavo los nacidos de padres esclavo y la importación de estos había sido prohibida en 1808.
La Goleta Amistad fue recibida por una comitiva del Ministerio de Turismo encabezada por el viceministro, Luis Simó, quien narró la historia del velero; Robín Busse, agregado cultural de la embajada de los Estados Unidos; y Joaquín Méndez, de Cross Culture Center, institución que anteriormente manejó la embarcación.
Durante su estadía en Santo Domingo, la embarcación estará abierta al público general el día 7 de marzo, mientras que los estudiantes podrán disfrutar de la historia de este barco los días 8 y 9. También se proyectará la película “Amistad” de Steve Spielberg, rodada en 1997 teniendo como protagonista la histórica embarcación. |
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Written by Wojtek (Voytec) Wacowski
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Wednesday, 24 February 2010 |
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"We apologize." With those words, Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly announced on Wednesday morning, February 24th, 2010, a $3-million settlement between former Africville residents and the city.
 Freedom Schooner Amistad, a frequent visitor to Halifax , has visited Africville Reunion Festivals several times. Since summer 2006 when Amistad anchored off Africville for the first time, we made many friends there. The main musical theme of the Amistad - "We are connected" is composed and performed by a "daughter" of Africville - Shelley Hamilton.
CONGRATULATIONS on behalf of AMISTAD America, the schooner Amistad and her crew!
» Click here to read the apology from HRM
» A history of Africville (via Africville Genealogy Society)
» Check out this online exhibit from the Nova Scotia Archives
"You lost your homes, your church, all of the places where you gathered with family and friends to mark the milestones of your lives," Kelly told a full house at the gym at the Community YMCA on Gottingen Street.
"For all of that, we apologize."
Read the full story published in Chronicle Herald
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 March 2010 )
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Written by AAI
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Wednesday, 24 February 2010 |
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 Amistad's best Friend and Supporters from Nova Scotia had organized a wonderful benefit concert, called Songs of Hope and Freedom for Amistad Youth Programs and Haiti.
This is taking place next Saturday evening, February 27, at 7:00 pm, at All Saints Cathedral on Martello St. (Tower Rd.) in Halifax.
The concert will be hosted by Charla Williams and will feature Shauntay Grant, Afro-Musica, The Nova Scotia Mass Choir, The Sanctified Boys (formerly the Deep River Boys), Dr. Henry Bishop, Chelsea Nisbett, and Dave Stone.
EastLink is the Presenting Sponsor.
Tickets are $30 and are available on-line at www.ticketatlantic.com or at the Ticket Atlantic Box Office, and at participating Atlantic Superstores. Tickets can also be charged by phoning 902-451-1221.
You can help by forwarding this e-mail to your friends and family, It would also be a wonderful help if you printed the attached poster and tacked it up where you work or play or even posted it on Facebook.
Bottom line is though, I hope you can make it to this wonderful evening of music in support of a couple of very worthy causes.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 24 February 2010 )
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