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"For ACFFC, art is a necessity. The group decided to paint the exterior walls of our building.
Beautiful - and amazing, considering the rubble around them."
Here is an update from Judy Hoffman, founder of Art Creation Foundation for Children in Jacmel, Haiti
May 21 2010 I spoke with everyone yesterday ... they are doing well but are traumatized by the earthquake - our logic is that if a building is standing now, it is fine - those who lived through the earthquake see it otherwise; can be another earthquake and the building can come down.
As I mentioned previously, nothing is changed, but for rubble being cleaned up. Despite the fact that many government agencies are pulling out of Haiti, declaring the emergency over, it is far from over. Rainy season is upon us. Shipments are getting held up in customs which makes relief supplies that much more difficult to send/obtain.
And the need becomes all the more great. We are fortunate that our children are back in school, eating and all are sleeping in tents, rather than under woven banana leaves and bedsheets. However their extended families and neighbors are not and this troubles them, and us. (Thanks to friends, we have 20 more tents headed down to Jacmel in the next week or so.) They are distracted and absolutely terrified at the idea of sleeping indoors. The cost of food is skyrocketing. Cases of typhoid, diphtheria, and malaria are being reported. And tension is building.
So please do not forget our children, and do not forget their reality. Help them to be the hope for Haiti that they are. They are trying so very hard."
Today is Flag Day for all of Haiti. The holiday was created in 1930 by (then) President Estime to annually commemorate the original day the Haitian flag was created in the very early 1800's. In case you didn't know, the people of Haiti, in 1803, were the only group of human beings on planet earth to ever liberate themselves from slavery!!
Forced to live under French colonial rule, plantation-based slavery on the western 1/3 of this Caribbean island was some of the most brutal on the planet. San-Domingue (as Haiti used to be known before the revolt) produced 40% of the world's sugar and was the most profitable territory for France in the late 1700's. But the astonishingly tenacious people who had been brutally forced to leave Africa and work in the sugarcane fields on the island Columbus "discovered" joined with free people of African descent and threw off colonial rule to become the world's first Black republic!
Traditionally, this holiday is celebrated with parades, cultural events, and of course, the flying of the flag. Haiti's "revolutionary congress adopted the flag in 1803 by taking the French tricolor and ripping out the white part. Red and blue banners declaring 'Together we will remake Haiti' were hung along the road from the capital Tuesday." (reported 5/17/10 by the A.P.)
Today is the first flag day after the horrible earthquakes of January 2010. There were celebrations in Haiti today along with protesters calling for the current president (Preval) to step down. In a public speech he agreed to do so next year. Many Haitians want the President-in-Exile Aristide to return to power. Post-earthquake conditions may spell real difficulty for holding an election on time in Haiti this November.
"For ACFFC, art is a necessity. The group decided to paint the exterior walls of our building.
