You’ve Heard The Hype, Now Learn What C2C Is Really All About   The Quake Just after 5 p.m. on January 12, 2010, I came home from work to hear a 7.0 magnitude earthquake had broken my little country Haiti into pieces. For days my friends and I anxiously waited as news from home slowly trickled in.Thousands were without homes, food, clothing, medicine, clean water, trauma counseling and other basic necessities.     Through February, I watched helplessly as the news coverage grew dire. The pull on my heart to do something more, something of meaning, grew stronger. By May I had quit my job and created Community2Community (C2C), with a goal to build self-sufficient communities in Haiti.   Home for the First Time in 15 Years In August, I traveled to Petit Goâve, Haiti, my father’s hometown. I hadn’t been home in over 15 years. One week into the trip, after a long day of walking and interviewing locals, I stood crying in the shower for 20 minutes. I felt emotions I couldn’t explain. I cried old tears — tears I kept inside longing for the day I could return home. The next morning I pressed on.   My … read more

U.S. company proves successful NGO partnerships can happen   Imagine walking a rocky dirt path across the side of a mountain. You shift awkwardly and thick drops of cold water from a large bucket balancing on your head drip down your neck.     After 20 minutes, you’re home. You can finally shower off the dirt clinging to your skin, but instead of walking into a tiled shower stall, you walk into a room the size of an airplane bathroom — a room with cement walls and no roof. Instead of a faucet with running water, you wash with water from the bucket you just hauled. This is a reality many children in Haiti live with daily — but not for the children who are fortunate enough to live in Grace Village.   “ Teaching children how to shower with running water was one of the most gratifying moments in my life,” said Krista Carroll, co-founder of Print 4 Change, a print management company that helped fund Grace Village, a community built by Healing Haiti, a nonprofit agency focused on bettering Haiti. Carroll helped 40 children move from an orphanage last December to Grace Village, located in Titanyen, where children … read more

  Designer flies 12 lucky Haitians to Brooklyn for unique internship   In March, Kristin Hanson flew 12 Haitian women from Jacmel, a historic village in southern Haiti known for its vibrant art culture, to New York where they will get a Metro Card

When Ousner Benjamin, 24, heard a newscaster announce over the radio that Hurricane Isaac was headed toward Haiti he sent his family to a nearby hospital that was serving as a shelter and took to the streets to inform his community about the storm. His house survived the storm but not everybody was so lucky. The Haitian government reported a dozen houses were destroyed and another 269 damaged, according to the Huffington Post.     “There are a lot of organizations here that would rather us stay in the tents forever, because it’s better for them. More misery means more for the organization,” Benjamin told the Associated Press. But Benjamin still holds onto the hope that one day things will change. “The only way for the misery to subside is to do things for yourself. If you keep waiting for forces to help, you won’t get anywhere.”   Read more of this Associate Press story.

Nonprofit gives musicians record deals —if they promise to donate to their post-conflict or post-disaster homelands   It’s the summer of 2010 and Jeff Aresty has just launched an online “American Idol”-style competition for international artists.Aresty, a lawyer with a tech background and a vision of a more musical and peaceful world, had a hunch that music could empower conflictridden communities. With his company PeaceTones, he was banking on that idea. If he could bring opportunity and success to talented musicians in post-conflict and post-disaster countries, he would then watch the country swell with pride, and, hopefully, money.     Each morning during the summer of 2010, Aresty anxiously jumped on his computer to check Facebook. Were people checking out his artists? Were they voting? Were the communities, some hailing from underdeveloped countries, paying any attention? Was anyone paying any attention? Each time he refreshed his computer, the votes for each contestant grew. By November 2010, the number of votes for Wanito, an unknown 22-year-old singer from Haiti, had reached 10,000. (To note, Wanito is now working on his second album, was awarded “Star of the Year” by the Haitian Parliament and was named one of the “Top 12 Personalities … read more

Growing up in a wealthy Haitian family, the last thing the Destine family expected was to have their son, Jean-Leon, take up an interest in ritualistic Voodoo dances. While the religion was widely practiced in Haiti, many in the upper class embraced Christianity instead.But, for Jean-Leon Destine, the rhythmic beating of drums and dancing drew him in to the entrancing Voodoo dances.     “I was intrigued by the drumming, dancing and spirit of the Voodoo practitioners,’ Destine said at a dance showcase honoring his more than 50 years of contributions to Haitian folkloric dance. In July The Center for Traditional Music and Dance, and Ayiti Fasafas honored Destine’s life and career by presenting dance showcase Rasin Ginen: The African Roots at El Museo del Barrio in Harlem.   In St. Marc, a coastal port town in Haiti, Destine only heard stories about the ritualistic dances. However it wasn’t until Destine was introduced to his future mentor that his interest manifested into something more than just outside observance. ‘Blanchet’ as he affectionately called his mentor, gave him the stepping stone to a world that he not only loved, but excelled at.   Five dance companies performed at the showcase; Feet … read more

Marlena Wesh Age: 21 School: Clemson University Country: Haiti Event: 200-meter, 400-meter sprint Competition date: 200-meter, Aug. 3; 400-meter Aug. 4         Samyr Laine Age: 28 School: Harvard University (2006), University of Texas at Austin (2007), Georgetown University Law (2010) Event: Triple jump Competition date: Aug. 7, qualification; Aug. 9 finals     Jeffrey Julmis Age: 24 School: Kansas State University Event: 110 meters hurdles Competition date: Aug. 7 & Aug. 8       Moise Joseph Age: 30 Event:800 meters Competition date: Aug. 7, semifinals; Aug. 9, finals         Linouse Desravine Age: 21 Event: Judo Competition date: July 29 COMPLETED