Laura Ekholm
Translated by Linus Atarah
The reconstruction of Haiti has to be based on the creation of proper jobs, according to international trade union movement.
From the air Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti appears like there are swimming pools in big clusters in parks, along the streets and in the court yards of houses. Later on it becomes clear that the deep blue square metres of space are tents of US aid organization USAID and large plastic covers which are littered all over the city see as far as the eye can see.
The January earthquake in Haiti destroyed nearly half of the city left in its trail a million homeless. The city has become a maze of village tents where women are cooking food in coal pots and laundries are hovering on strings tied in between trees.
“The January earthquake was not only an unavoidable natural phenomenon but also a human catastrophe which is a consequence of a systematic negligence of decision-makers”, says a Haitian non-governmental organization activist and film director Arnold Antonin.
“On the one hand the earthquake and the consequent show of international solidarity provides a unique possibility to build the city from the start on a different foundation. We need more social justice, respect towards the environment and a stronger emphasis on education.”
Co-ordinator dug out from the rubble
Since 2005 SASK has assisted Renafanm, (Rezo Nasyonal Fanm) a project of women's network providing support for women’s literacy and vocational training.
The earthquake caused an immediate freeze of the operations of the project when the central office of Renafanm as well as the teaching spaces of all the areas included in the literacy campaign collapsed. Computers and used equipment such as sewing machines in the vocational training were buried in the rubbles of the office.
“The worst blow was the death of one of the teachers. A one-and-half year old boy was the sole survivor in his family. All the other teachers have also lost relatives and over half of them are still living in tents in a camp”, says Renafanm’s chairperson and the project’s co-ordinator, Gina Georges.
She was in the office of Renafanm when the earth struck and caught trapped under the collapsed building.
“The rescue of Gina was like a miracle. Several hours after the earthquake passers-by on the street heard knocking under the concrete slabs and succeeded in digging Gina out of the rubble”.
In the coming months the most important thing from the perspective of the project is to revive the working environment. Returning to daily rhythm helps people to recover from the trauma of the earthquake.
“In this situation it is extremely important to sustain people’s view of the future and belief in themselves and their own possibilities”, says Antonin.
The fact that teachers continue to receive salaries has been a lifeline in a situation where families’ means of livelihood and support networks have been shaken. It is planned that the teaching activities would resume at the latest, in June, if suitable facilities can be organised. The vocational training will continue temporarily without sewing machines, practicing by cutting pieces of cloth and sewing them by hand.
Earthquake took away half the jobs
Before the earthquake 35 per cent of the working population of Haiti was unemployed and estimated 65 per cent of those working were in the informal sector. A major part of them worked as street vendors and in small firms.
Now the city’s streets are full of vendors right from dawn. Hundreds of corpses are still buried in the rubbles of the collapsed houses and next to them people are selling used cloths, cobs of corn and travel television sets.
“In the long run the threat is for the tent dwellings to remain as permanent element and for the jobs in the informal sector to increase. This makes it impossible to develop societal structures from tax revenues”, says Arnold Antonin. Tax revenues have reduced by 80 per cent in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake.
Building the labour system will have to start all over afresh. The population structure of Haiti has changed sharply after the earthquake. The capacity of the disabled and the seriously mentally ill to participate in working life and in the reconstruction of the country is not self-evident. The earthquake left behind 10 000 widows who have to be given wage sufficient to make a living so that the family can get by.
The government has tried to create jobs after the quake by hiring Haitians to participate in clearing the rubbles and clearing the streets for two dollars a day. This cash for work is an artificial respiration with which to patch up the lack of proper jobs.
Reconstructing a collapsed society
Members of the United Nations pledged a total sum of 7 billion dollars assistance package for Haiti in a UN conference on Haiti at the end of March. The fact that the main responsibility for the reconstruction effort will be left to the weak government of Haiti is problematic, according to Antonin.
A quick and cheap reconstruction, in the worse case, could mean that Port-au-Prince becomes one big slum which would still remain as vulnerable in the face of future natural catastrophes as the previous weak building structures.
From the perspectives of the international trade movement, the cornerstone of Haiti’s reconstruction should be the creation of proper jobs. A conference of the international trade union congress, ITUC held in April 2010 gathered over 120 participants from different parts of the world.
The result of the meeting was several pages of documents outlining a work plan where emphasis is placed on the creation of a national employment policy, strengthening equality between male and female in workplaces as well as developing social dialogue. ITUC and its member organisations have made a commitment to support the reconstruction. The supporting force of the process however, are the workers of Haiti, employers and the government.
Literacy is hope for the future
The long-term wish of Renafanm during the entire journey of the five-year project has been to acquire its own office on its own piece land for the network. Up to this point rent payment for the office and for the land has consumed the biggest chunk of the organisation’s money received from members.
Money gathered by Finnish trade unions for the reconstruction of Haiti could fulfill that dream. Gina Georges is sincerely happy over the new possibility offered to the network.
“From the perspective of employing women literacy as well as getting a vocational training are the key factors. A new office would be like a new beginning for all of us.”
The writer visited Haiti in April.
