January 12th, 2011 will commemorate the year anniversary of the 7.0 earthquake that changed Haiti forever. Stories of devastation, delays in the delivery of pledges and donor aid, alleged corruption, the cholera outbreak, and political instability have become ubiquitous in the media coverage of the situation in Haiti "one year later." And while journalists and celebrity spokespeople profile these issues and make their pleas for pledges of support, very rarely are the voices of Haitian people included in the coverage. Unlike celebrity-led campaigns that may priviledge their own participation over the lives of those deeply affected, Stop Indifference. Show Love. places the stories of Haitian people at the center of the project. There are no endorsements nor ulterior motives involved.
"We strongly believe that the future of Haiti must be Haitian-led in order to achieve stability and sustainability. However, Haitians are rarely listened to," states Patrick Cherubin, Executive Director of MOSCTHA-HAITI. "The coverage of Haiti is very one-dimensional, and we wanted to address that."
This is the intention of MOSCTHA's latest project, Stop Indifference. Show love. Enter a dynamic and tireless team of activists and artists who have come together with MOSCTHA to address these issues and dig deeper into the real situation in Haiti. This innovative project, viewable online at stopindifferenceshowlove.com, takes to the camps, urban centers and coastal villages of Haiti to bring the stories of Haitian people to the rest of the world.
"MOSCTHA was working in Haiti prior to the earthquake and was one of the first organizations on the ground immediately after January 12th," says Joseph Cherubin, founder and Executive Director of MOSCTHA-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. "Stop Indifference. Show Love. takes our work further, across geographical bounds, by documenting the struggles, hopes, and solutions for a better Haiti and providing a platform for others to listen to these stories."
The entire team is volunteering their time and expertise to this project. The team includes award winning filmmaker Owen Streeter Cook from the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City-based professional photographer Aliya Naumoff and Creative Director Jane Borock, Haitian-born professional translator Alex Pradel and is co-directed by Canadian human rights activist Caitlin Padgett and MOSCTHA-USA's Director of Operations, Alison Désir.
The 7-person crew, of which MOSCTHA-USA's Executive Director Edison Suero is part, is literally embedded within the local MOSCTHA-HAITI team. The combined MOSCTHA team share 2 bedrooms in a house that is both office and home to some of the staff in Haiti, and spend day and night with the team out in the field, both in Port-Au-Prince and in other parts of the country.
"We'd heard so much about the proliferation of foreign humanitarian and aid workers here before our arrival. What has been so interesting about our experience is that we have been living and working in areas where foreigners do not seem to be. We're talking with people living their regular lives, and that offers insights not often found in more mainstream media," says Padgett.
"Our stories range from that of a young water vendor in Petion-Ville, to a married lawyer and engineer living in Delmas 33, to a woman who walked for days with her 4 young children to find her family a new home."
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Haiti missionary trip January 2011by soccergoalygrl4368 views
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