Prayer Vigil in Remembrance of Haiti’s Earthquake Victims and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony To Officially Recognize the “Father Gerard Jean-Juste Boulevard”
January 12th, 2012, Starting time 5:30 pm
Outdoor
Starting on 54 street and North Miami Avenue to the Toussaint L’ouverture Statue on 62nd Street.
www.fanm.org

The Haitian-American community of South Florida, elected officials, faith and human rights leaders remember earthquake victims!

Partial list of groups supporting this march of remembrance: FANM, Veye Yo, NAACP, New Birth Baptist Church, Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, Haiti Solidarity, Pulse, Sant La, Partners in Health, University of Miami Human Rights Clinic, Americans for Immigrant Justice, HAPC, Haitian Lawyers Association

The January 12, 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti. More than 250,000 died and over 300,000 were injured. Port-au-Prince was quasi destroyed, surrounding cities suffered serious damage. Half a million people are still living under makeshift tents. Cholera, an imported preventable disease is spreading. Five thousand people have already died with thousands more infected. Over 1.6 billion was reportedly given in relief aid, and 2 billion in recovery aid. Yet, two years later, conditions there have worsened. Additionally, the Obama administration resumed deportation to Haiti last year despite the death of deportee Wildrick Guerrier from cholera-like symptoms. His administration has refused to approve the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program despite bi-partisan support for it and regardless of approving the Cuban Family Reunification Program two years in a row. “On the two year anniversary of Haiti’s earthquake, Haiti remains in crisis penned Carrie Bettinger-Lopez of UM Human

Rights Clinic: It is the international community’s responsibility to lend a helping hand and to do so now.” Added Jean Robert Lafortune of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition:” January 12, 2010 world leaders and the media saluted the resiliency of Haitians coming out of their Armageddon. Two years later, the nation is still in twilight between nightmare and hope”.

Let’s come together to remember those who perished in the earthquake and reiterate calls for accountability in Haiti, fairness and equal treatment for Haitians in the U.S. Said Marleine Bastien, “On the second anniversary of the earthquake, we ask President Obama to instruct Secretary Napolitano to create the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program. Haitian beneficiaries are dying of cholera and poor in-country conditions. It is high time for the President to do the right thing. If not now, when?”