REBUILDING HAITI: EARTHQUAKE-STRICKEN ARTISTS ARE COMMITTED

In Port-au-Prince, the Capital, the historical center was severely damaged. A seemingly endless refugees camp was set out amid the Presidential Palace and Cathedral rubble.

Port-au-Prince’s historical center was totally devastated

The city of Jacmel, famous for its carnival and cultural life, was also severely damaged

Jacmel, a town south of Port-au-Prince, was famous for its cultural life and its annual carnival. It had been attracting tourists from across the Caribbean island and all over the world. Sadly, the earthquake also severely hit the city.

Flo McGarrell, an american born artistic director of the art center and non-profit organization FOSAJ died. Half of the painters and craftsmen lost their home. Destruction of the hotels and impoverishment of large sections of the population have deprived the artists of their wages, income and arts promoting places.

In June 2010, large parts of Jacmel were still buried under the rubble of buildings. Six months after the disaster, some of the artists still lived in tents or in their house cracked. Nightmarish, the victims condition was made even more precarious with the rainy seasons and the hurricanes.

Get on with life despite the devastation

Here is my collapsed house under the rubble. After the earthquake, everybody took refuge to the main square in the upper part of the city because they feared a tsunami. ⌊In creole language⌉ Sea level will rise. Let’s escape lower town, let’s escape quickly, now. Then I ran and slept on the square. This was there I slept in the open air without bed sheet, without anything. It was a very challenging situation. Eventually, I came back to my house. My life is here. I am alive. My heart still beats and I feel the sun when it is warm. I prefer to live here. Truly I do not feel so comfortable. There is no more wall anymore. It is just a simple curtain. But by the way it is now, still it is a way of living.”

These are the words artist Sevenson Joseph uttered six months after the 12 January 2010 earthquake hit his house in Jacmel.

Stricken-Earthquake artists committed to alleviate sufferings of children

Despite the disaster that hit their country on 12 January 2010, the artists have not given up to develop their beautiful art, notably inspired from voodoo culture. They have been also much committed to alleviate sufferings of traumatized children of Jacmel through art-therapy and educational art activities.

Since that fateful day of January 12, 2010, many artists from Jacmel have striven to perpetuate the provision of support to their community.