Joe Alfred (left) with Penal Presmy of Galaxy Multi Services

Mr. Joe Alfred
Joe Alfred was born in the northeastern Haitian town of Ounaminthe and came to the US in 1984. He received a Bachelors of Arts in French from the University of South Florida and a Masters in Foreign Language Education at Georgia State University.

Currently, he is the Department Chair for World Languages as well as Varsity Soccer coach at Avondale High School, in Smyrna, Georgia. He is the founder of the Haitian Community Relations (HCR) in Atlanta and of haiti2004 – an online discussion group.

Mr. & Mrs. Declama
Serge and Marie Chantale Declama arrived in the metro region in 1991 and the community was still relatively small. After a few years of living in the area, they began AHAD, with aspirations not only to serve the Atlanta community, but also to reach out to persons interested in Haiti from throughout the world. AHAD in large part succeeded in projecting itself to people from far off places, primarily through subscriptions to Creole Connection.

Serge and Marie Chantale Declama

Serge, who ran the entire organization and Marie Chantale, who was responsible for the publication of Creole Connection, put a great deal of personal time and effort into building AHAD. While this hard work aid off in terms of notoriety for the organization, after seven years of non-stop activities, in 2000, they decided to take a break to catch their breath.

They love the Atlanta region because of its quality of life and are impressed with the sudden growth of the community over the last ten years. With increased demand from the large population and the prominence of the 2004 celebration on the horizon, they decided to restart their AHAD activities in the Fall of 2002. Hopefully, they will be able to sustain this great effort many years to come.