Letters from our artisans - Boss André shares his experience

We all know how the crisis in Haiti is affecting the population in general. Gang violence, gaz shortage, barely any tourism, people having to flee their homes, kidnappings and more. While these things are all over the news, there are thousands of individual stories that also deserve to be heard. We have taken the time to check-in with our artisan leaders to know how their team is holding on. We will be sharing some of their responses here on this journal to invite you in and give you a better idea of how our teams are doing.

Today we are sharing Boss André’s response on how the situation is affecting him and his team.

How has the current situation in Haiti affected your business? Are people still able to come to work daily? How have you had to change how you do business?

Most of our customers have left the Country, especially foreigners who were our biggest supporters. We do not have much demand. Some craftsmen and I live very far from the workshop. The main road we have to take to get there is under the control of gang leaders so we have to watch when there is a clear road (of course it depends on the bandits) to take advantage of going to the workshop. We are forced to separate into two groups: those who live around my house work in my house and those to whom the workshop is more accessible work in the workshop. In this case I always leave the workshop open in case I can't get there myself

We have almost reached our goal for the amount needed to keep offering shelter to some of our artisans. Every gesture counts in helping us move towards that goal. Thank you! Anpil lanmou pou nou!

Stories from the current crisis in Haiti: Words from Wideleine

The crisis in Haiti is still ongoing and we are not yet able to be able to see the light. While we remain hopeful that things cannot possibly stay this way, we cannot hide the hurt we feel each time someone from our HDC family is directly affected by these inhuman acts and by the general instability. We have reached out to many of you for support and the response has been so heartwarming that it gives us the strength to keep going. But the work is not over. We feel like it is important to put names and faces behind these stories. It always seems non-urgent until there is a face attached, for us this is extremely personal and terrifying. Read the words of Ismaella below. Today, we are sharing the words of Wideleine.

“Gangs came in at the church I attend. They came in to kill a cop. I had 3 kids with me, one of them still a baby of 9 months. No need to tell you how I felt. I started running and lost a friend I was with. My friend grabbed my 2 other kids while I kept the baby. They only killed the cop, however we were all left traumatized and afraid. My husband came shortly after when he heard the news. When we got home, my eldest said he did not want to stay in Port-au-Prince anymore. On July 27th, they killed 2 young men in our area. That was only 2 days after the church incident. That is when I asked for help to leave my area because my kids were not well. We went to the countryside and my eldest stayed and did not want to come back. I came back to PAP with my two youngest but could not get myself to go back to my area. It was never my plan to separate from my child. It grieves me so much to have to do this. Thanks to the home we have with HDC I am able to feel safer. My husband and I feel very scared and are living under constant stress. I don't know what to ask for. Whatever is possible for us to have somewhat of a normal life again is what we are craving.”

-Wideleine, jewelry artisan