Duke Haiti Lab Kreyòl (Creole) Blog

Please read the following report on conditions and distribution of aid in Port-au-Prince’s Cite Soleil shantytown after the January 12 earthquake. 

http://inured.org/docs/Voices%20from%20the%20Shanties_INURED2010.pdf

This grows out of the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development’s ongoing participatory research with young people from Cite Soleil, which I’ve been privileged to be affiliated with since 2008.

For a report on the preexisting problems with and effects of the January 12 earthquake on higher education in Haiti, please take a look at the following report by the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development (INURED) in Port-au-Prince, with which I have collaborated for two years: http://inured.org/docs/TheChallengeforHaitianHigherEd_INUREDMarch2010.pdf

There was also an article on Salon that drew on this report:

http://www.salon.com/news/haiti/index.html?story=/news/feature/2010/03/29/haiti_college_students

The traumatic origins of the Haitian nation are incontestable, as portrayed in our blog banner image, Edouard Duval-Carrié’s “Little Crippled Haiti.” Despite the victory over colonial rule and slavery represented by the Independence of 1804, the founding fathers who signed the Acte d’indépendance all had ancestral ties to the Middle Passage and slavery. This genesis of a new nation presents fundamental differences to that of Haiti’s neighbor and contemporary in the crafting of Independence, the U.S.. Scholars including Colin Dayan and Robert Fatton have made convincing cases for the instrumentality of traumatic origins in Haiti, without necessarily pinpointing strategies for remedial action; the discourse of mental health, or global health, remains uneasily aligned with discourses of history and politics.

In the wake of the sekous or quake of 2010, mental health and disaster paradigms align much more directly for proactive health initiatives–but tragically, the infrastructure for ongoing trauma healing is as shaken as the rest of the institutional structures of Haiti. The New York Times notes also that “mental health has never been a priority in Haiti,” as psychiatrists involved in the recovery are discovering. Part of the problem is that in a landscape of NGOs and short bursts of international interventions in humanitarian medical aid, the intensive communicative interface necessary to psychological or psychiatric consultations, and the sustained assessment necessary to successful pharmacological treatment, have often remained just out of reach.

Haitian psychologist Marie Geolnarol-Archer has been walking the streets and alleyways of the disaster zone, patting backs and rubbing shoulders as a prelude to discussion of passer-bys’ trauma symptoms. Her work indicates a new and singular openness to recognition of traumatic symptoms and the need for mental health assistance.

Global health needs around trauma arguably epitomize the inseparability of medical initiatives and linguistic and cultural education–plus staying power–for successful intervention.

This clip is from “B-World Connection”, a very popular television show diffused throughout the Francophone World. Guadeloupean host of the show, Brother Jimmy, travels to New York to meet with Haitian artist Wyclef-Jean.  What is very interesting about this interaction is that they are both speaking their own national Creoles, which are mutually inter-comprehensible.

http://guadeloupe.rfo.fr/programmes/b-world-connection/wyclef-jean_10157.html

Carlo Diy had established language learning by Skype prior to the earthquake. Interrupted by his return to Haiti, the classes will resume soon. Check out HaitiHub.

Skype promises to be a vital link in international educational efforts in the coming years.

http://www.globalhealth.duke.edu/news-events/general-announcements/duke-global-health-case-competition

2010 Global Health Case Competition

What is the Duke Global Health Case Competition?
Do you want to find a way to contribute to the discussion about the earthquake aftermath in Haiti?  Use your experience to generate innovative ideas that can translate into action on the ground through participating in the first annual Duke Global Health Case Competition.

This competition is a unique opportunity for Duke graduate and undergraduate students from multiple schools and disciplines to come together to promote awareness of and develop innovative solutions for 21st century global health issues. Common across U.S. business schools, a case competition features teams of four to six students working through a real-life case scenario with the goal of providing helpful strategic recommendations to move the case subject forward efficiently and effectively. The competition is centered on team presentations to judges, who then score student recommendations and award prizes.

Developed and driven by it the Duke Global Health Institute Student Council, the global health case competition focuses on a global health-related case that will require an interdisciplinary approach to formulate recommendations regarding the case that may involve issues such as health care policy, public health implementation and planning, business partnership/investment, medical research, logistics management, faith/cultural understanding, and international law.

Who can participate?
Students (graduate and undergraduate) from across Duke University are encouraged to participate in multidisciplinary, multi-school teams to ensure that interdisciplinary skills are represented on each team. Teams will be comprised of three to five studentsfrom three or more Duke schools. Students can sign up as individuals or in a team.  Students who register as individuals will be grouped together to form interdisciplinary teams.

Space is limited so sign up now!  Team Registration, Individual Registration