Haitian minister calls for more aid from diaspora

Haitians living abroad are “vital” to reconstruction efforts in the country, the minister charged with maintaining contact with the Haitian diaspora told RFI this week. Speaking on a visit to Paris, Edwin Paraison said he hoped emigrants will continue to play a key role in the rebuilding process following the 12 January earthquake.

Reuters

Haiti’s government initially sought to rally international donors in the aftermath of the disaster but ministers are now turning their attention to the diaspora.

“For us, the diaspora’s participation in the reconstruction of Haiti is vital,” the Minister for Haitians Living Abroad said. “It’s vital in terms of human resources. There were more than 300,000 victims during the earthquake and around 20,000 were professionals.”

More than two million Haitians are living abroad, with the largest communities being based elsewhere in the Caribbean and in north American cities like Montreal and New York.

They contribute up to two billion dollars annually to Haiti in remittances but Paraison believes that even more commitment could be required in future. Before the earthquake, 83 per cent of Haitian professionals emigrated and he says that even more left immediately after the tragedy.

“Haiti has to draw once again from the diaspora to fill the gap left by this lack of professionals and brain drain. We have to encourage our friends in the diaspora to return and contribute to the reconstruction of Haiti.”

Paraison is touring Europe until 15 May, a trip that would have been made sooner had the ministry itself not been one of several government buildings that collapsed in the earthquake.

“Two people from the ministry died on the day of the earthquake,” he says. “They spent a lot of days under the rubble because unfortunately we didn’t have the equipment needed to remove their bodies.

“Out of a staff of 75, about 60 were directly affected. They lost their houses – everything – during the earthquake. A third victim died in her home.”

Paraison stresses that Haitians living abroad responded just as quickly as the non-Haitians. Expatriate doctors and engineers travelled to Port-au-Prince in the weeks following the earthquake, and he says the first funding arrived by wire transfer just a week after it hit.

“It’s difficult but the tragic situation that we lived through in Haiti created a passion among the diaspora to help the country. There’s a natural motivation in the face of the disaster that they saw on their TV screens. Haiti was the top news story in the world so everyone was talking about it.”

The challenge now is for Paraison’s ministry to co-ordinate that goodwill.

“We’re counting hugely on the passion and commitment of the diaspora to help our country,” he says.