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INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION
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NHAHA will bring health information and news from Haitian communities in Haiti, Canada and Dominican Republic and other Haitian communities of the Diaspora.
Haiti:
- Haiti History
- Health in Haiti
- Interventions and current efforts
- News and Current Events
State of Health in Haiti
Organizations working in Haiti
Dominican Republic:
History of Haitian Immigration in the DR
Modern Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic dates from the late nineteenth century, when increasing North American capital boosted sugar production. Dominicans have never welcomed these immigrants. Their presence resulted from economic necessity borne of the reluctance of Dominicans to perform the menial task of cane cutting. The 1920 census listed slightly under 28,000 Haitian nationals in the Dominican Republic. Successive governments attempted to control the numbers of Haitians entering the country; the border was periodically closed in the 1910s and the 1920s. By 1935, however, the number had increased to more than 50,000. Trujillo ordered a general roundup of Haitians along the border in 1937, during which an estimated 20,000 Haitians were killed.
Since the 1950s, a series of bilateral agreements has regulated legal Haitian immigration. In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the government contracted for 10,000 to 20,000 temporary Haitian workers annually for the sugarcane harvest. Observers believed that an equal number of Haitians entered illegally. The 1960 census enumerated slightly under 30,000 Haitians. By 1980 estimates suggested the total number of Haitians residing permanently or semipermanently was on the order of 200,000, of whom 70,000 were workers.
(Excerpt from: http://countrystudies.us/dominican-republic/)
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Haitian Health in the Bateys
According to the Batey Relief Alliance & BRA Dominicana, a humanitarian aid organization based New York, today [More than 200,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian origin languish in the bateyes in precarious conditions with very limited access to adequate shelter, nutrition, sanitation facilities, education or medical care. Generations of children born in the Dominican Republic of an undocumented Haitian parent are prohibited from obtaining a birth certificate making it extremely difficult for them to attend schools, obtain health care or a bank account. The batey population is marginalized, generally invisible under the radar of social service programs, and plagued by high rates of HIV/AIDS/STIs, Tuberculosis, diarrhea, blindness, Diabetes, infant mortality, illiteracy, unemployment, etc. While medical facilities inside the bateyes are extremely inadequate and scarce, many batey residents often have serious difficulties to access outside medical services due to extreme poverty, racial discrimination or fear of deportation. Another impediment to health care for the population is the lack of interest in or willingness by local career medical professionals to work inside the bateyes.]
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Interventions
In response to health crisis in the Bateys, the Batey Relief Alliance has brought the following services to Haitians living in the bateys: HIV/AIDS/STIs prevention and treatment, Condom Distribution Domestic Violence/HIV/AIDS Prevention, Tuberculosis prevention and treatment, Blindness Prevention, Primary care, Forms of health care intervention, Training/education of community health promoters, and Clean water distribution. See the attached document for more information on the work of BRA
Contact information
Batey Relief Alliance, Inc.
P.O. Box 300565, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11230
917.627.5026, bra@bateyrelief.org
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Canada:
- History of Haitian Immigration in Canada
- Health status of Haitians living in Canada
- Interventions and current efforts
- News and Current Events
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Other Regions:
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