Developing Haiti's Bel Air
Source: Norwegian Church Aid - Norway
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40 wells providing water for 70,000 residents, tree planting, women's health activities, HIV and AIDS projects and more – Norwegian Church Aid is embarking upon a broad development
project in Haiti.
Norwegian Church Aid has received a large grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out a comprehensive and integrated development project in Bel Air, a poor area in the centre of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. A total of ten million Norwegian Crowns (nearly USD 1.7 million) will fund the first ten months of the project.
Work will be carried out in cooperation with Norwegian Church Aid's Brazilian partner organisation Viva Rio, the Soros Foundation and local Haitian organisations. Norwegian Church Aid has worked together with and supported Viva Rio's projects in Brazil since 1999, notably on an integrated development project in six districts in Rio de Janeiro that promoted culture, health and education.
Reducing violence
Viva Rio's main purpose is to reduce the occurrence of violence in Brazil through information campaigns, fundraising, small arms destruction and work to change police attitudes. Viva Rio is also a specialist in advocacy activities towards local and national authorities to reduce handgun proliferation.
"This project is a constructive initiative that will hopefully kick-start local development in the district of Bel Air, an area that is marred by poverty and violence. It is most exciting to be able to draw on Viva Rio's experiences and knowledge base in Haiti. This south-south approach is relatively new to Norwegian development strategy," says Johan Hindahl, Norwegian Church Aid's programme coordinator for Haiti and the Domincan Republic.
"We aim to mobilise women in local networks, promote local development, reduce violence and weapons use and use this project as an example that the rest of Haiti may draw experience from," says Hindahl.
Stadium renovation
The first phase of the project has been divided into four modules and aims to renovate a football stadium and build 40 wells to ensure access to clean water for the district's 70,000 residents. Two of Norwegian Church Aid's water engineers travelled to Port-au-Prince Monday 16th April to carry out an initial assessment and decide upon how best to provide the water solutions. The Brazilian battalion of the UN peacekeeping forces in Haiti, MINUSTAH, will provide their technical expertise and manpower to assist with some of the drilling.
Hindahl notes that some scepticism remains towards the initiative – from countries such as the USA, France and Canada, and stemming from these countries' involvement in Haitian politics during the 19th and 20th centuries.
"This scepticism is not found towards countries such as Brazil, although the Brazilian-led MINUSTAH forces present in Haiti are a subject for debate," says Hindahl.
For more information, contact:
Norwegian Church Aid has received a large grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to carry out a comprehensive and integrated development project in Bel Air, a poor area in the centre of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince. A total of ten million Norwegian Crowns (nearly USD 1.7 million) will fund the first ten months of the project.
Work will be carried out in cooperation with Norwegian Church Aid's Brazilian partner organisation Viva Rio, the Soros Foundation and local Haitian organisations. Norwegian Church Aid has worked together with and supported Viva Rio's projects in Brazil since 1999, notably on an integrated development project in six districts in Rio de Janeiro that promoted culture, health and education.
Reducing violence
Viva Rio's main purpose is to reduce the occurrence of violence in Brazil through information campaigns, fundraising, small arms destruction and work to change police attitudes. Viva Rio is also a specialist in advocacy activities towards local and national authorities to reduce handgun proliferation.
"This project is a constructive initiative that will hopefully kick-start local development in the district of Bel Air, an area that is marred by poverty and violence. It is most exciting to be able to draw on Viva Rio's experiences and knowledge base in Haiti. This south-south approach is relatively new to Norwegian development strategy," says Johan Hindahl, Norwegian Church Aid's programme coordinator for Haiti and the Domincan Republic.
"We aim to mobilise women in local networks, promote local development, reduce violence and weapons use and use this project as an example that the rest of Haiti may draw experience from," says Hindahl.
Stadium renovation
The first phase of the project has been divided into four modules and aims to renovate a football stadium and build 40 wells to ensure access to clean water for the district's 70,000 residents. Two of Norwegian Church Aid's water engineers travelled to Port-au-Prince Monday 16th April to carry out an initial assessment and decide upon how best to provide the water solutions. The Brazilian battalion of the UN peacekeeping forces in Haiti, MINUSTAH, will provide their technical expertise and manpower to assist with some of the drilling.
Hindahl notes that some scepticism remains towards the initiative – from countries such as the USA, France and Canada, and stemming from these countries' involvement in Haitian politics during the 19th and 20th centuries.
"This scepticism is not found towards countries such as Brazil, although the Brazilian-led MINUSTAH forces present in Haiti are a subject for debate," says Hindahl.
For more information, contact:
- Johan Hindahl, programme coordiator, Haiti/Dominican Republic, tel: (+47) 932 42 462, e-mail:
- jhi@nca.no
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
