Cambridge's Haitians Look to Help Those Left at Home

While budget battles rage throughout the city and state, one segment of the local population is looking beyond regional borders to the small island-nation of Haiti.

With the recent birth of democracy in that country, members and friends of Cambridge's 5000-strong Haitian community have of late been increasing efforts to help their homeland in its efforts to establish a freer government.

"Americans characterize Haiti as voodoo, the [dictatorial regime the] Duvaliers and extreme poverty, [but] we found extraordinary hope in the majority of the people," says Vice Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72, who recently embarked on a tour of the country.

Reeves says he spearheaded the 10-member "goodwill delegation," which traveled to Haiti for a week in mid-March, to "support the first democratic elections since 1957" and to choose a sister city for Cambridge. The delegation narrowed the final list down to Cathitia and Gonaiue, Reeves says.

"The delegation found that a revolution has occurred in the people's hearts and minds," says Reeves. "We found a need for medical supplies and a motivated people willing to undergo the growing pains of democracy."

"President Aristide's politics are oriented to the needs of the majority of the Haitian population," the councillor says.

On May 5, the delegation is sponsoring a program focusing on the country, its political situation and its president. Speaking will be Evans Paul, the mayor of Porte-au-Prince, whom Reeves described as "an activist on the behalf of democracy and change in Haiti,"

Cleansing Flood

In December, Haiti, whose government has been historically dominated by dictatorships and military coups, held its first democratic elections. Its new president, Jean Bertand Aristide, inaugurated in February, has led a movement called "Se Lavalas," a French Creole term meaning "cleansing flood".

The Haitian people are in support of the new president and his efforts to promote freedom and prosperity, say two members of the Haitian community in Cambridge.

"They put him in power, they trust him, they believe in him. He wants to educate the people. That's his priority," says Macsedoine Montlouis.

And Rev. Gephet Roseme adds that the people of Haiti "have supported the government 100 percent.

However, previous dictators have emptied the government's coffers and the nation is in desperate need of aid in the form of "money, clothes, food or medicine," says Montlouis.

"They don't have any money left in the government," he says. "We are not even at square one."

Last Friday, Haitian supporters met to plan a new Massachusetts organization called "Vohm." Roughly translated, the term means "send Haiti up." the committee would act as an umbrella group to organize efforts to aid Haiti, says Montlouis. Headquartered in Haiti, the Boston-based branch would coordinate efforts of other organizations in the Boston area, says Roseme.

One such local organization, "Patriotic Conubite," which was founded in Cambridge 1987 but has since spread throughout the entire Boston area, is trying to raise money for the country from private and public sector sources, says Gerdes Fleurant, a Cambridge resident from Haiti.

"Our end is to support the democratic process in Haiti," he says, adding that the organization is doing everything it can to "ameliorate the situation."

On May 26, at the Sheraton Inn in Boston, Patriotic Conubite will hold a