Haiti
The Contraflow Project is supporting Maryse Dejean and the New Haiti Project
On 11.25.05, I first met WWOZ’s then Operations Manager Maryse Dejean when I visited their exiled studios in Baton Rouge at the offices of the Louisiana Public Broadcasting Corporation. The community jazz station’s Congo Square at Armstrong Park location suffered major damage during Hurricane Katrina. I told I was documenting the repopulation of New Orleans. Maryse, a Haitian national who had lived in New Orleans for over a decade, was very interested in my work. She took a lunch break to make a personal run. I accompanied her and started video taping…
On 1.11.10, I received a text message from Maryse Dejean, saying that she wanted to bend my ear on her experiences in Haiti during the first week of 2010. She enjoyed spending time with her 81-year old mother and the rest of her family has they celebrated Haitian Independence Day in the Port-au-Prince suburb of Canape-vert. She had fond memories of walking through her mother and aunts garden where she took a picture with her phone. Her mothers told her that if she stayed another week or two she could see the other flowers in the garden bloom. But, what was weighing heavy on her mind was the conditions of surrounding areas, specifically the state of sanitation. She asked me if I knew of any experts in the field of sanitation that could advise her. Maryse’s goal was to return to Haiti on a mission to address this major quality of life issue. When then talked about the issue of Haitian child labor abuses on sugar plantations in the Dominican Republic, and the good work that was done by filmmaker Amy Serrano. We ended the conversation with a plan to return to Haiti later this year and document the conditions ourselves for a book and film project, to help shed light on the horrendous environmental living conditions and deforestation in Haiti. Maryse returned to New Orleans on 1.8.10 with a heavy heart…
On 1.12.10, the Haitian earth shook and the structures crumbled. All the issues Maryse and I discussed the night before had become minor footnotes. The mission now was to locate her family…
On 1.14.10, Maryse got word that her mother and most her family had survived the earthquake. She has now turned to the relief effort. On MLK Day, 1.18.10, Maryse founded the New Haiti Project for the primary purpose of bring relief to her Canape-vert neighborhood.
The Contraflow Project is forever grateful for the support provided my Maryse Dejean. Now it’s our turn to help her help her family, neighborhood and homeland of Haiti. We are providing her with the following support:
- their sponsor organization which grants access to our 501c3
- website and social media site development
- nonprofit business plan development
- 501c3 application consultation
- back office support
- strategic planning
Maryse has the unique experience of going through both Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti Earthquake aftermaths, and knows that all disasters are local. If you are looking for a Haitian relief effort to support where you can follow the progress at a local neighborhood level, then we encourage you to support Maryse Dejean, the New Haiti Project and the rebirth of the Canape-vert suburb of Port-au-Prince. Nous prions pour le peuple Haiten. Le monde entier doit reagir…
