Community Institutions

Churches and Religious Organizations
Both Catholic and non-Catholic churches are important institutions in Washington’s Haitian community. Haitians are among the parishioners in three Washington area churches: Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Sorrows, and Saint Camillus, where there are occasional masses in Creole or French. The principal non-Catholic church serving the Haitian community is in suburban Maryland.

Pere Andre has developed links with practically every Haitian organization in the metropolitan area, stretching from Washington to Baltimore.

The Catholic Churches and Father Pierre Andre
The Archdiocese of Washington has assigned a Haitian priest, Father Pierre Andre, to minister to the Haitian community in Washington and Maryland. (Northern Virginia is part of the Diocese of Richmond.) He arrived in Washington on Christmas 1997 on special mission from the archbishop of Port-au Prince. He was subsequently appointed as “the Director of the Haitian Apostolate in the Archdiocese of Washington.” He is currently completing a doctorate at the Catholic University of America in Washington. Pere Andre has developed links with practically every Haitian organization in the metropolitan area, stretching from Washington to Baltimore. On November 23, 2002 he received the “Distinguished Citizen Award” from the Haitian Institute, directed by Dr. Marc Christophe, in recognition of his devoted spiritual leadership and support of the community.

“I am here to serve you all without exception,“ states the Haitian priest. “At the dawn of this new millennium, a new era for humankind, Haiti is preparing for a new beginning in 2004. Wherever you are, like it or not, you are part of it. One essential and unique truth has guided my ministry: ‘God is love.’ Let us always love one another, appreciate each other and work together.”

Father Pierre Andre may not be a permanent member of the Washington Haitian community, but he believes he can make a lasting contribution to its well being by helping the community build its institutions and promote Haitian values, with an emphasis on children and youth of Haitian descent. He is aware of obstacles that Haitian workers are facing as they work to survive and support their families. He views within his ministry the task of finding resources to help members of the community both spiritually and intellectually, and to stimulate their integration in the North American society. His support of Haitian contributions to US is a part of a long tradition of Haitians helping America.

St. Camillus Prayer Group
The St. Camillus Prayer Group was created in 1990 by Mme. Olga Madiou, a Haitian who relocated from Africa to Washington to reunite with her children already living in the area. Working with Pere Andre, the group sponsors a variety of religious activities aimed to help maintain family and church tradition. Those activities include a celebration of the feast of St. Camillus, Our Lady of Haiti, on the last Thursday of June, and a celebration of Haitian Independence every January first at the Sacre Coeur church. Each August, the group organizes a traditional kermesse, with Haitian music, dance, and food, as a major fundraising event.

The Hored Seventh Day Adventist Church
Every Saturday morning a group of Washington area Haitians congregates in an elementary school in Silver Spring, Maryland where Pastor Arbentz A. Pierre-Antoine leads them in worship. Pierre-Antoine is the third pastor of the church, which was founded in July 1989 by a handful of Haitians who had been attending a francophone church in the area. By establishing their own place of worship, the Haitians achieved their goal of being able to attend church in Creole. Today, the church counts 180 adult members, all of which are Haitian or Haitian-American. Since 50% of the congregation members are youths, however, the total membership of the church is several hundred. Ninety percent of the church members reside in the Silver Spring area.

Most of the older members of the church came to the U.S. in the early 1980’s on visitor’s visas or as permanent US residents. Although some of them came to the Washington area via New York, most migrated directly to Washington from Haiti. A handful of newcomers who came to the community as refugees joined the congregation after 1991.

In addition to its Saturday service, the church sponsors an adult literacy program, a health education program, and the annual preparation of Thanksgiving food baskets for the Montgomery County, MD homeless shelter. The congregation is working toward their ultimate goal – to build their own church where they can also establish a full-time community health center. While working toward that goal in their new home, however, members of the church actively maintain links with Haiti, through sending remittances to family members and maintaining homes or businesses there. Some hope to return to Haiti following their retirement.

A Profile of Suburban Maryland Haitians
The membership profile of the Hored Seventh Day Adventist Church provides insight into the composition and upward mobility of the Haitian community living in Washington’s Maryland’s suburbs. Church leaders characterize most of their current adult member’s economic status as low and middle class. They estimate that 15 percent of their members, however, hold positions as professionals who have graduated from university or college and are working in their professional field. About two-thirds of the church’s youth members currently attend college, with the remaining one-third are “still in high school or about to graduate from high school and on their way to college,” according to one of youth member of the congregation.

Haitain Media

Radio: Konbit Lakay, WPFW-FM
The unique Haitian radio in metropolitan area: Konbit Lakay, a weekly Saturday night program broadcast on WPFW-FM, 89.3, is the Washington area’s sole Haitian radio program. It has been on the air since 1984, hosted by its founder, Jean Yves Point-du Jour. The program mixes music, interviews news and phone calls from members of the community, switching easily back and forth from Creole to English. According to its founder, the program seeks to serve as an objective forum to educate, inform and empower the community.

Jean Yves Point-du-Jour
The founder of Washington’s only Haitian radio program, Konbit Lakay, Jean Yves Point-du-Jour migrated directly from Haiti to Baltimore in 1975 to study engineering at Morgan State University. In 1977, he became a member of Presse Haitienne in Washington DC, collaborating also with the Washington Office on Haiti, a church-sponsored organization advocating on behalf of Haitian migrant workers and, ultimately, justice issues in Haiti. Concurrently, to pay the bills, Point-du-Jour works as a Transportation Engineer with the State Highway Administration of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

The radio personality says that at the eve on the bicentennial of Haitian Independence, it is important that Haitians be honest and accountable particularly vis-à-vis their compatriots and the legacy of their forefathers. Stating that the best criticism is constructive, Point-du-Jour endeavors to maintain objective balance on his program and to help avoid social and political misinterpretations which can divide the community.

Television: Haiti a Suivre
The Haitian TV is alive in the Washington metro area due to the perseverance of a realtor: Jean Claude Vivens (jcvivens@mrs.com). Since establishing his cable-TV program in December 1990, Vivens, with his cameras, editing board, and monitors, has produced a one-hour weekly show broadcast every day on one of three different cable outlets in Washington. “Haiti a Suivre” is aimed at a growing Haitian community that has expressed a desire for a television show that meets the needs of the community. The program promotes Haitian culture in French and Creole. It contains special educational, entertainment and cultural segments, along with music, news, interviews and information on community events. Vivens hopes that his programs will reach a non-Haitian audience also, as he desires “to help American people see the real face of Haiti and understand the Haitian soul.”

Restaurants
Presently, there are no formal Haitian restaurants in the Washington metro area, although one entrepreneur, Lionel “Yon-Yon” Simeon and his wife Yannick, have established a successful catering and home dining business that they plan to expand into the area’s first Haitian eatery sometime in 2003.

Civic and Cultural Institutions

The National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians (NOAH)
During the political turmoil in Haiti following the 1991 coup d’etat, Washington DC was the stage for Haitians to speak out and be involved in the US and international political discourse on Haiti at a variety of levels. Dr. Joseph Baptiste, a Haitian American who immigrated to United States at 15 years old and, after retiring from the US Army where he served as a dental surgeon, established his private practice in Silver Spring, Maryland, responded by founding the National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians (NOAH). To read more about Dr. Joseph Baptiste, click here.

Click here to view a presentation by NOAH
HOW CAN THE HAITIAN DIASPORA IN THE UNITED STATES
HELP IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF HAITI?

NOAH, a non-profit organization for social policy and economic development, emerged as a coalition of Haitian and Haitian American organizations located throughout the US. Created with the goal to “Rebuild a Brighter Tomorrow,” it functions as an umbrella organization that serves as a national convener of groups and organizations, an information clearinghouse, and a facilitator for people of Haitian descent to more fully participate in US political discourse.

In this latter regard, NOAH’s main objective is to assist Haitians in the US understand the difference between public policy and politics, because, according to Dr. Baptiste, there is a tendency among Haitians not to make this distinction, but rather to lump everything into partisan politics. By achieving this objective, NOAH hopes to have a positive impact by deflating mistrust and rivalries between groups that only talk politics, and by inflating informed discussion of public policies.

Another goal of NOAH is to work with second and third generation Haitian youth, recognizing their achievements and helping them strengthen - or regain - a commitment toward Haiti. NOAH tries to achieve this goal by a program of conferences, an annual award gala, student scholarships, sponsored visits to Haiti, and other activities. Click here to read about NOAH’s 2002 Awards Gala and to see a picture of Dr. Baptiste.

During the past three years, NOAH has collaborated with the Trinity College Haiti Program in sponsoring symposia and meetings on issues related to economic development and investment in Haiti and on the emergence of the Haitian Diaspora in the US and its link to Haiti.Click here to read a report from a Trinity College – NOAH symposium.

NOAH’s educational outreach extends to communities beyond the Washington metropolitan area – communities, it suggests, that can play a powerful role in enhancing the well being of citizens both in the US and in Haiti. Click here to learn more about NOAH and its ideas.

SOMORA
The Societe de Modernization de l’Archaie (SOMORA) was created in April 1986 by Yvon Aristide, a native of Archaie who has lived in Washington for 31 years. Aristide, now a member of the organization’s board, said he and SOMORA’s members felt the necessity to get together to do something about their shared needs and hope. The network of SOMORA members have family ties to the regions of Archaie, Merotte, Corail, and Courjol in Haiti. The organization’s members are active in a diversity of fields, including education, health care, social services, government, business, and economic development. With a view in mind of promoting development and social transformation back home, they sponsor fundraising activities to provide financial support to their projects and members. Among them, SOMORA’s members practice “Main” or “Solde” a traditional Haitian financial saving system.

SOMORA’s objectives are to:

1- Resolve poverty, injustice and gender inequality and abuse. The organization is assisting several schools in Arcahaie, particularly through sending computers to them;

2- Create bonds amongst individuals and organizations for social justice in the Haitian towns where the organization has projects;

3- Improve public health conditions in the towns where SOMORA has projects. In collaboration with other NGOs and professional associations, the organization is working to establish a trauma center in Arcahaie.

Dr. Berthie Labissiere, a podiatrist who is a member of SOMORA and a graduate of Trinity College explained that “SOMORA has played an important catalytic and bridging role among different actors concerned about the impact of poverty on ability of public health systems to meet the health needs of the poor in Arcahaie and its vicinity.”

The Toussaint Louverture Historical Society (TLHS)
The TLHS was created in 2000 by a group of Haitians led by Dr. Paultre Derosier with the goal of disseminating information in the Washington metro area, particularly among Haitians, about Toussaint as “the Man of the Millennium.” Derosier, President of the organization, is a medical doctor and anthropologist who moved from Boston to the Washington DC area in 1995. He is one of the few Haitians in the area who resides in Northern Virginia.

Stating that “2004 is already here,” Derosier believes “it is important to reach out to all sectors of the Haitian community here to help them understand and be proud of Toussaint’s accomplishments. This community is very interesting as a microcosm of Haitian society. Here, you will find all the sectors of socio-cultural society in Haiti. Yet,” he concludes, “this is also a very rich community and has all kinds of resources within it. Our challenge is to unite and forget about what should be ‘non-existing barriers’.”

Since its creation, the TLHS has sponsored several functions, including two seminars at Trinity College, each attended by more than 100 members of the Haitian community, and at the Library of Congress.

Fondation Memoire
The Fondation Memoire, founded in 1996 with the aim of propagating Haitian culture, has chapters in the US, Canada, Europe and Haiti. Anne Adeline Francois directs the Washington bureau. She and her associates have organized a number of cultural events in Washington. Among them have been presentations by Haitian story tellers Mimi Barthelmy, who lives in France, and Emile Olivier, who resides in Canada. The foundation also sponsors fund-raising events.

The organization’s goal, according to Mme Francois, is to give an opportunity to the Haitian Diaspora, particularly its youth, to know and appreciate the culture and tradition of Haiti, and to help those who love Haiti share this rich cultural heritage. She stresses that the foundation is working with a variety of organizations, including UNESCO. With the UN organization, the Fondation Memoire is conducting a survey on the meaning of 2004 - the bicentennial of Haiti’s independence.

Lists and Links
The list below includes a wide variety of groups – large and small, exclusively local and local chapters of national or international organizations. Some have their own web-sites, while others have been featured on the Washington area’s premiere website for news about the metropolitan area’s Haitian community: Echo d’Haiti.

Organizations with their own websites
• Association des Ingénieurs Haïtiens et Américains (ADIHA)
• Association des Médecins Haïtiens à l’Étranger (AMHE), Baltimore–Washington Chapter
• The Embassy of Haiti
• Haitian Holiday Festival, Baltimore

Organizations featured on Echo d' Haiti
• Haitian Institute
• Radio Konbit Lakay, WPFW-FM, Washington
• TV Haiti A Suivre

Other Organizations
• Association Arrondissement de Jacmel (AAJ)
• Socio Cultural Committee of AMHE, Baltimore–Washington Chapter
• Club Créole
• CODESSCA
• Ellecram Productions of Quebec, Washington Office
• Haitian Americans United (HAU) for Mother Lange, Baltimore
• Heritage Lakay
• Konbit Sassier
• Le Club du Livre, a literary group based in
• National Organizations for the Advancement of Haitians
• Nord-Ouest Réuni, Washington metropolitan area chapter
• Saint Gabriel Foundation
• Society for the Modernization of Archaie (SOMORA)
• Theatre Lakay, a cultural group promoting Haitian music and dance
• Toussaint Louverture Historical Society (TLHS)
• Trait d’Union Magazine, published three times annually
• WATTCH
• Web Echo d’Haïti
• Zanmi Beauséjour (ZAMBO), an organization of Haitians from the Beausejour area in Haiti.