GloucesterTimes.com, Gloucester, MA
Mobile Beta
Local News
Activist group heads to Haiti
Published: December 5, 2007
A few months ago, Arline Land picked up a trip brochure at The Bookstore on Main Street.
She'd been traveling around the world for years and was looking to go someplace new and different. This trip, she realized, would certainly offer that. And when she found out that she would be able to celebrate Carnival there, she was sold.
That's how the 73-year-old Gloucester resident decided to spend 10 days in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most dangerous in the world: Haiti.
Her decision to go in a group with a dozen others, mostly Cape Anners who boast an average age of 66, has been met with disbelief from nearly everyone she's told, she said.
Land, however, believes she is embarking on an important mission: to break down some of the stereotypes that Americans carry about Haiti and to join an effort to educate her community on the situation there after experiencing it firsthand.
"Until you see it, until you feel it, you don't understand it," said Ellen Gabin, a Rockport resident who's been on activism trips to Haiti and other Latin American countries.
Gabin's experience is more the norm for the trip, which is run by KONPAY, a nonprofit, nongovernment organization that focuses on Haitian solutions to environmental, social and economic problems within the country. (KONPAY stands for Konbit Pou Ayiti - Working Together for Haiti - in Haitian Creole.)
Land is one of two delegates in the group, whose members range in age from 40 to 82, that have never gone on a trip to a Third World country.
Demographically, this group is like nothing KONPAY has ever seen before, said Elise Hansen, KONPAY's U.S. coordinator. Typically, activists heading to Haiti for immersion or service trips are mostly young and professional, often working for social service or public agencies, or for politicians, Hansen said.
Many of the delegates have been involved with activism for years, and Hansen attributes the demographic shift to the time and money that older people often have to make a 10-day trip that costs $1,250.
The age, Hansen said, changes the dynamic. She remembers a high school group that KONPAY hosted last summer, many of whom she called disrespectful, saying that the combination of ignorance and entitlement led to a "nightmare trip."
She'd been traveling around the world for years and was looking to go someplace new and different. This trip, she realized, would certainly offer that. And when she found out that she would be able to celebrate Carnival there, she was sold.
That's how the 73-year-old Gloucester resident decided to spend 10 days in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most dangerous in the world: Haiti.
Her decision to go in a group with a dozen others, mostly Cape Anners who boast an average age of 66, has been met with disbelief from nearly everyone she's told, she said.
Land, however, believes she is embarking on an important mission: to break down some of the stereotypes that Americans carry about Haiti and to join an effort to educate her community on the situation there after experiencing it firsthand.
"Until you see it, until you feel it, you don't understand it," said Ellen Gabin, a Rockport resident who's been on activism trips to Haiti and other Latin American countries.
Gabin's experience is more the norm for the trip, which is run by KONPAY, a nonprofit, nongovernment organization that focuses on Haitian solutions to environmental, social and economic problems within the country. (KONPAY stands for Konbit Pou Ayiti - Working Together for Haiti - in Haitian Creole.)
Land is one of two delegates in the group, whose members range in age from 40 to 82, that have never gone on a trip to a Third World country.
Demographically, this group is like nothing KONPAY has ever seen before, said Elise Hansen, KONPAY's U.S. coordinator. Typically, activists heading to Haiti for immersion or service trips are mostly young and professional, often working for social service or public agencies, or for politicians, Hansen said.
Many of the delegates have been involved with activism for years, and Hansen attributes the demographic shift to the time and money that older people often have to make a 10-day trip that costs $1,250.
The age, Hansen said, changes the dynamic. She remembers a high school group that KONPAY hosted last summer, many of whom she called disrespectful, saying that the combination of ignorance and entitlement led to a "nightmare trip."
"In extreme contrast, this older group is asking questions instead of making statements," Hansen said. "It's a much wiser approach."
The trip will bring delegates to Jacmel, an artists' colony in southern Haiti, on the opposite coast from the nation's tumultuous capital, Port-au-Prince. They'll visit in February during Carnival, a family-oriented festival that incorporates art and music with the Haitians' hybrid Catholic-voodoo religious beliefs.
Delegates will meet artists, journalists, local officials and other activists, learning about the country and its problems through the people they meet.
Upon their return, the delegates will host a trip "report-back," open to the public, to begin spreading what they've learned to people who don't have the opportunity to see it themselves.
Already, many are well-versed in the issues facing Haiti thanks to research and reading that they're doing on their own to prepare for the trip. In a meeting last weekend, delegates Land, Gabin and Janice Severance spoke passionately about the policies the United States has imposed on Haiti and the Haitian habits that have led to economic and environmental crises.
To illustrate their points, Hansen, who has a vast knowledge of Haitian history, recounts the policy regarding the sale of U.S.-grown rice to Haiti at a cut-rate price. The policy, she said, diminishes local farmers' ability to sell their own grain and results in an undermining of the Haitian economy that so desperately needs bolstering. KONPAY focuses on changing situations like that through education and empowerment, according to Hansen.
The group hopes to come back to Cape Ann informed, and to petition local, state and national lawmakers to change their policies and attitudes regarding Haiti. At the top of their list is a national resolution to forgive Haiti's $1.4 billion debt, which advocates say will free money to help the poor nation rebuild its infrastructure and education system.
"It's really very simple for me," said Gabin. "For me, it's education - for people to learn what's happening and bring that message back."
Severance, Land and Gabin agreed that they would likely have little impact on people's day-to-day lives in 10-day trip to Haiti. More importantly, they said, was the information they would bring home with them and share with others.
Still, they face the trip well aware of the reputation Americans carry internationally, especially in countries such as Haiti.
"We are strange people walking around there, and we represent something," Gabin said.
Hansen said she's seen children scream when they see a white face, believing that they've witnessed a ghost. But the delegates said they hope to contribute to a change in Haitians' attitudes toward Americans, even if only in a small way.
"I like to think that whenever I leave a country, anyone I've spoken to has the attitude of, 'Gee, everyone isn't an ugly American,'" Land said.
The delegates will depart for Haiti on Jan. 30 and plan to return Feb. 9.
How You Can Help
While the delegates acknowledge that long-term solutions for Haiti are untouchable during a short trip, they hope to fill their suitcases with items they can leave in Haiti to help families with their immediate needs.
They're asking people willing to help to drop off over-the-counter drugs, first aid items, soap and other necessities at The Bookstore at 61 Main St. They're also looking for artists' items such as paintbrushes and acrylics, because Jacmel is loaded with artists' studios, or monetary donations.
For a wish list of items, visit http://konpay.org.
Delegates
Whitney Marshall, 44, Gloucester
Margaret Flanagan, 65, Medford
Peg Blum, 76, Cambridge
Klaus Kleinschmidt, 73, Lancaster
Carol.Kleinschmidt, 71, Lancaster
Elliot Kriegsman, 59, New York
Arline Land, 74, Gloucester
Myron Markell, 82, Gloucester
Barbara Markell, 77, Gloucester
Ellen Gabin, 70, Rockport
Janice Severence, 63, Gloucester
Fayette Severence, 63, Gloucester
Elise Hansen, 40, Gloucester
