Tag Archives: Pax Christi Haiti

HAITI: Retrofitting Haiti with community-building and social justice three years after the quake

Posted on January 20, 2013 | Comments Off

By Amy Watts and Manuel Padilla
Haiti Project Co-coordinators

“Beauty.” “What I like in the picture, which shows beauty, it is when I choose the most beautiful space to take the most beautiful picture, where everybody is happy, they are not murdering; that is why I chose to take this picture where everybody is united.” ~Jenifere’s photo and reflection. She was one of 16 SAKALA youth who participated in a photo project to take pictures of beauty and peace in her everyday life when Pax Christi USA coordinators visited Cite Soleil in Fall 2012.

The astonishing collapse of Port-au-Prince’s cityscape, three years ago, is often cited as an enduring witness to the bleeding of the definition of natural disaster into the definition of man-made disaster. Where does one begin and the other end? One of the lone structures that still stood, and that still stands from before the earthquake, near the airport is a hotel built during the time of Aristide. It was an example of a new set of standards for building codes implemented by the government. A building needs structural integrity to survive such a shock. But what we address in building codes we often neglect in our own relationships. Society needs standards too. Society needs structural integrity to survive and thrive.

Pax Christi Port-au-Prince is working to put in place the deep foundation and flexibility of community to newly address the instabilities in Haitian society, starting right where they grew up, in Cite Soleil. They are doing this at great personal cost and with real joy.

In this, the year of faith, we can learn a great deal from the staff and community in a place like Cite Soleil. Many characterize faith, and with it hope, as beliefs and expectations of things in the absence of the evidence, or even despite it. This is not only an unsatisfactory definition of these words but it puts them in the wrong category altogether. Faith and hope are not passive psychological responses to adversity where no alternatives exist for coping. They are the antithesis of that. Faith and hope do not simply function to shelter us from pain and difficulty. Instead, they cast a light. They help create the serene disposition, the very conditions for us to be able to think clearly, to navigate and engage with adversity, to see the reasons and the resources we have available to us to creatively, and with conviction, overcome. With faith and hope, we are given the space to pull ourselves together, to stop simply reacting out of fear of failure born of our own inadequacy. They are like the ‘first position’ in ballet from which all other movements derive, making the music, whether it be harmonic or dissonant, capable of being danced.

From this ‘first position’ of faith and hope, so much has been accomplished in the peace education and community building programs of Pax Christi Port-au-Prince. They are dancing. Many of you have been following our SAKALA collaboration with PCPAP and we are happy to report that our joint efforts will continue through this year. We at Pax Christi USA are grateful for foundation and membership support that has made another year possible to support our Haitian sister organization. Our main goals for the upcoming year will include 1) Implementing the peace education curriculum, specially designed to compliment their peace and soccer program, 2) Institutional capacity building, focusing on program creation and evaluation and grant writing skills, and 3) Continuing to build a sustaining network for Pax Christi Port-au-Prince’s long term relational and financial needs.

Thank you for your continued support for this important peacebuilding work. You may always contact us at awatts@paxchristiusa.org and mpadilla@paxchristiusa.org for more information or to find out ways you can support PCPAP and the collaborative goals with PCUSA. If you have not seen the short film documenting their work, please order your copy of Cite Soleil: Sun, Dust, and Hope today and share it with others who may be interested.

If you feel called to help sustain the collaboration this year, checks can be made out to Pax Christi USA with “SAKALA” in the memo line and mailed to 1225 Otis St NE, Washington, D.C. 20017.

For further reflections on Haiti and the work of Pax Christi Port-au-Prince, please read Lape in Cite Soleil by Pax Christi Michigan member Kim Redigan as well as the Pax Christi Florida report from their Haiti trip.

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Posted in Bread for the Journey, Haiti, Padilla, Peacemakers, Sakala, Watts

Tagged Amy Watts, Manuel Padilla, Pax Christi Haiti, Pax Christi Port-au-Prince, SAKALA

HAITI: Pax Christi Florida sends delegation to Haiti

Posted on January 19, 2013 | Comments Off

Three Pax Christi Florida Council members made a trip to visit Pax Christi Haiti in November. They spent 5 days in Cite Soleil to see firsthand how the Sakala Peace Program is making a difference in the lives of the children and families living in one of the poorest communities in the world. They returned filled with hope and inspiration from working with these bright, promising youth and resilient, innovative adults.

Read their full report here: http://paxchristiflorida.org/take-action/report-of-our-trip-to-pax-christi-port-au-prince/

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Posted in Haiti, News, Regional News, Sakala

Tagged Haiti, Pax Christi Florida, Pax Christi Haiti, Pax Christi Port-au-Prince, SAKALA

ON THE LINE: June edition features PC members, groups in Newsday, NY Times, Washington Post, and more

Posted on June 7, 2012 | 1 Comment

Compiled by Johnny Zokovitch

Each month, “On The Line” features news items and announcements from around the nation featuring Pax Christi members, local groups, regions and partners. These are gleaned from articles in local newspapers, websites, magazines, and elsewhere.

PAX CHRISTI MICHIGAN COORDINATOR FEATURED IN YOUTUBE VIDEO: Joan Tirak, coordinator for Pax Christi Michigan, was a featured speaker at the 10^th anniversary celebration of the Lansing Peace Community. The event was videotaped and uploaded to YouTube. You can watch Joan’s speech here: http://youtu.be/x7tWykfP8DI?t=6m40s

PC Michigan Conference - Workshop on Racism

Floyd Cook leads a workshop on racism at the PC-Michigan State Conference in April.

PAX CHRISTI LONG ISLAND’S MEMORIAL DAY SERVICE FEATURED IN NEW YORK TIMES BLOG: Nancy Dwyer of PC-Long Island responded to the New York Times request for readers to share their Memorial Day rituals and traditions. Nancy wrote of PC-Long Island’s annual memorial at Jones Beach for the war dead, inviting people “to join us, even if only for a few minutes, for the solemn reading of the names of the war dead.” Nancy also wrote that Memorial Day “shouldn’t be a time to glorify war with an air show and a display of weapons to entice young people to enlist in more wars.” Read the entire letter here: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/28/readers-memorial-day-rituals/

PAX CHRISTI’S RECOGNITION OF U.S. NUNS FEATURED IN WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE: In an article by Mary Johnson of Religion News Service on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s report on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, she cited Pax Christi USA’s recognition of U.S. women religious at our national conference in 2010. “As Pax Christi noted when honoring the sisters in 2010, the LCWR is composed of ‘strong, prophetic, and compassionate women … always on the front lines where the weak and most vulnerable suffer at the hands of violent and unjust power.’” Read the entire article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/the-nuns-who-once-taught-the-bishops-arent-done-yet/2012/06/04/gJQAe2c4DV_story.html

PAX CHRISTI NEW MEXICO CO-COORDINATOR TO UNDERTAKE HUNGER STRIKE: This year New Mexico Pax Christi invites PCUSA members to join them in participating in Nuke Free Now, a weekend event Aug. 4-6th in Santa Fe and Los Alamos, N.M. We will transform the nuclear narrative in the public consciousness and inspire a life-affirming future. Alaric Balibrera, whose father was the film documentarian for Los Alamos Labs from 1967 to 1982, realized his exposure as a child to nuclear contamination and the terrible consequences of nuclear weapons. He will be hunger striking from July 16th to August 6th to increase the awareness to the mounting nuclear crisis that threatens all nations on this planet. Ellie Voutselas of Pax Christi New Mexico has pledged to join his hunger strike from July 16-22. Others are invited to join in this action. Please see http://www.nukefreenow.org for complete information.

PAX CHRISTI ILLINOIS HOLDS MASS ON THE GRASS PRIOR TO MARCH: On Sunday morning, May 20^th in Chicago, prior to the March for Justice and Reconciliation organized by the Iraq Veterans Against War (IVAW), nearly 100 members of Pax Christi USA, the Catholic Worker and 8^thDay Center for Justice gathered in Grant Park for a Eucharistic Liturgy. Presiding at the liturgy was Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ, a long-time Chicago peace activist. After Mass the group joined the IVAW rally and marched with the thousands from around the country who were saying “no” to NATO’s ever-expanding mission and ever-increasing costs that serve the strategic goals of the 1% while forcing austerity at home and destitution and death around the world. To see photos and read a full report, go here: http://paxchristiusa.org/2012/05/23/regional-event-catholics-gather-for-eucharist-prior-to-nato-summit-march-for-reconciliation-and-justice/

Members of Pax Christi Illinois share in the Eucharist prior to joining the March for Justice and Reconciliation at the NATO Summit in Chicago in May.

PAX CHRISTI METRO NEW YORK HONORS JEWISH PEACEMAKER: The Times Ledger of New York featured an article on Rabbi Michael Weisser, who was honored by Pax Christi Metro New York at an awards reception on June 3. You can read the article here, http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2012/22/weisserhonored_ne_2012_05_31_q.html. Also honored were Bud Courtney for his peacemaking on the lower east side of Manhattan, in Iraq, and at the Arizona/Mexico border; and Carla DeYcaza for her work for human rights, transitional justice, and nonviolent conflict resolution in Africa. Read more at http://paxchristiusa.org/2012/05/25/regional-event-pc-metro-new-york-honors-peacemakers/

PAX CHRISTI HAITI COLLEAGUE HONORED AS ARCHITECT OF THE FUTURE: Daniel Tillias, Program Director of Pax Christi in Haiti and a frequent speaker to Pax Christi local groups in the U.S., was honored recently as an “Architect of the Future.” Daniel was recognized as one of ten outstanding social entrepreneurs from around the world. Read more here: http://architectsofthefuture.net/portfolio/daniel-tillias/

PAX CHRISTI MANASOTA CHAPTER OBSERVES MEMORIAL DAY: On Memorial Day, the Manasota (FL) Chapter of Pax Christi, together with members of the Coalition for Concerned Patriots and the Southwest Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, gathered around the Peace Pole erected several years back at Island Park—in the Sarasota Bayfront area—to remember in song and prayer all who locally stood for peace and justice and had passed on before us. We remembered fifteen area peace activists, including Les Druckemiller who was responsible for erecting the Peace Pole. About twenty people gathered for the service and a picnic luncheon.

Upcoming Events:

June 16 – Rochester (MN) Pax Christi group with others will host Kathy Kelly on “Afghanistan: The Cost of Perpetual War.” For more information: http://www.paxchristimn.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/KathyKelly2.pdf
July 28 – Regional dialogue with PCUSA national leadership, local groups and members in St. Louis: http://paxchristiusa.org/programs/regional-dialogues-2012-13/
August 4-6 – New Mexico Pax Christi with other groups invites you to participate in Nuke Free Now, a weekend event Aug. 4-6^th in Santa Fe and Los Alamos , N.M. Please see www.nukefreenow.org for complete information.

Quicklinks:

Pax Christi Houston honors U.S. vets by calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan … Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore has posted an excellent prayer service on the use of drones by Art Laffin … Pax Christi Michigan conference inspires hope, action … Pax Christi Long Island board member and Pulitzer Prize winner Bob Keeler writes about his worst nightmare in Newsday … Pax Christi Baltimore’s Chuck Michaels is featured talking about liturgy in this article in the Herald Malaysia Online … Jim O’Callahan of Downtown Brooklyn Pax Christi wrote this review on the film Cite Soleil: Sun, Dust and Hope … Read the thoughts and opinions of Mike McCarthy of Blue Water (MI) on his blog … Pax Christi Maine hosted a state assembly titled “Resisting the Culture of Violence” in May … Pax Christi Long Island’s Memorial Day service was mentioned in a letter to the editor to Newsday … Read Pax Christi International’s June newsletter … JustFaith Ministries in collaboration with Pax Christi USA just released a special 12 session module for small groups on “Just Peacemaking.” There is a special discount for Pax Christi local groups wanting to purchase the module … PCUSA is seeking an Associate Director of Development and a Program Director …

Send your news items, announcements, photos and links to stories about Pax Christi groups or members to johnnypcusa@yahoo.com.

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Posted in Calendar, Local Group News, News, On The Line, Regional Events, Regional News

Tagged Architect of the Future, Art Laffin, Bob Keeler, Bud Courtney, Carla DeYcaza, CDF, Chuck Michaels, Daniel Tillias, Downtown Brooklyn Pax Christi, Ellie Voutselas, Floyd Cook, Fr. Bob Bossie, Hiroshima, Joan Tirak, JustFaith Ministries, Lansing Peace Community, LCWR, Mary Johnson, Memorial Day, Mike McCarthy, Nancy Dwyer, New York Times, Newsday, nuclear weapons, Pax Christi, Pax Christi Haiti, Pax Christi Houston, Pax Christi Illinois., Pax Christi International, Pax Christi Long Island, Pax Christi Maine, Pax Christi Manasota, Pax Christi Metro DC-Baltimore, Pax Christi Metro New York, Pax Christi Michigan, Pax Christi New Mexico, Pax Christi St. Louis, Rochester Pax Christi, Unity March for Justice and Reconciliation at the NATO Summit, Washington Post

HAITI: Report following SAKALA film event in Michigan in November

Posted on January 11, 2012 | Comments Off

by Amy Watts and Manuel Padilla, Haiti program coordinators

As part of the kick-off for promoting our new film on Haiti and the work of Pax Christi Port-au-Prince, Cite Soleil: Sun, Dust, and Hope, we were graciously invited by Pax Christi Michigan members Kim Redigan and Therese Terns for back to back days of presentations and showings of the film in November.

On Sunday, Nov. 20th, about 30 Pax Christi members and area peace and justice advocates gathered at St. Joseph’s Parish Center in Dearborn. We were very encouraged by the dedication of these workshop participants just days before Thanksgiving and occurring at the same time as the SOA events at Fort Benning. Bishop Gumbleton also surprised us with a visit and opened the gathering with a prayer for Haiti! We shared a bit about the background of Cite Soleil where Pax Christi’s work is being done and about how history, economy, stigma, and violence often work together to create seemingly impossible situations of intractable conflict and oppression. We then showed the 20 minute film to an audience for the first time and were excited to experience the enthusiasm it was received with. The peace education work PC Port-au-Prince is committed to inspired some of the audience to reflect on some of the parallels in inner city Detroit and how the program in Haiti could impact a response to local initiatives by the peace community there. At the end, we even received a few more invitations by other parishes in the area to plan future events for next year. This is exactly the kind of community building we were hoping for on our first in person outreach trip with the film! Afterwards, some of those at the event were kind enough to take us out to dinner and encouraged us and Pax Christi USA in our collaboration with Pax Christi Port-au-Prince. Thank you Pax Christi Michigan!

On Monday Nov. 21st, we spent the day at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School where Kim Redigan teaches. We served as guest speakers in 2 of her classes where we showed the film and took questions from the kids about the Haiti program and our experiences there. After school, the Just Peace club hosted us for their coffeehouse event. For two hours we spoke to the club about the intersection of sweatshop labor, human trafficking, economic systems, violence, and how these have, historically, found deep roots in Cite Soleil. This helped us to put into greater context, for the youth, the challenges of the PC Port-au-Prince peace education program. We sat and brainstormed ways for Just Peace in Detroit to connect with the kids in the SAKALA program. Several good ideas were generated and we will be following up with Just Peace to put these ideas into action! We saw, upon our arrival, that solidarity jerseys, matching those that the SAKALA soccer teams wear, had already been made by the Just Peace group and they wore them to this coffeehouse workshop for us.

We hope you have already gotten your copy of Cite Soleil: Sun, Dust, and Hope! If you are planning an event to show the film or would like to sponsor us to come show the film and speak to your group (parish, community, school, or other) please contact us at: Manuel@paxchristiusa.org or Amy@paxchristiusa.org.

Click here for more information on Sakala.

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Posted in Haiti

Tagged Amy Watts, Cite Soleil, Kim Redigan, Manuel Padilla, Pax Christi Haiti, Pax Christi Michigan, Pax Christi Port-au-Prince, SAKALA, Therese Terns

HAITI: Update on the Pax Christi USA-Port-au-Prince project, “Expanding Capacities for Peace in Cite Soleil”

Posted on April 29, 2011 | 1 Comment

By Amy Watts and Manuel Padilla

In mid-April, Pax Christi USA finished the production phase of a short promotional documentary on the SAKALA youth peace education program and has currently moved into post-production phase.

From April 2 to April 15, Pax Christi USA Program Associates Amy Watts and Manuel Padilla were in Port-au-Prince to carry out this initial phase of film production. Working with Elaine Briere, writer and director of “Bitter Paradise: The Sell-Out of East Timor,” they produced the footage. Elaine served as videographer and, as the experienced documentarian, provided insightful advice on all aspects of the production process. Manuel and Amy served as interviewers, sound technicians, and managed logistics and timelines in order to enact the PCUSA and PC Port-au-Prince vision for the project. The time of the Pax Christi Port-au-Prince staff and their interfacing between us and key contacts was irreplaceable.

In collaboration with the staff of Pax Christi Port-au-Prince, the whole team brainstormed and decided upon the key footage of the program to capture and the key interviews to conduct. Coordinating and managing schedules and transportation were major logistical tasks in order to maximize the two weeks of filming. All in all, about 14 hours of footage was captured. Filmed interviews were conducted with 15 people who were either directly involved with the program or were able to contextualize the work happening in Cite Soleil by their experience or analysis. Many activities of the youth involved with the project were also captured: practicing soccer, gardening, interacting with the tent camp across the street, playing during “Anti-Stress Sunday”, and the U17 boys’ soccer team receiving their new peace-messaged uniforms and playing the Haitian National Team. Other general footage of the neighborhood of Cite Soleil and Port-au-Prince was also captured to give a sense of the setting within which this important work is taking place.

The production process was very inspiring and makes us enthusiastic to move to the editing phase toward the goal of completing the 20 minute promotional video. The goal is for this footage to highlight and promote Pax Christi Port-au-Prince’s peacemaking efforts in the highly unstable environments of Port-au-Prince, and Cite Soleil in specific. We believe that quality visual promotion of the program will increase its profile and help attract interest and investment as well as challenge long-held stereotypes and misunderstandings of the district. After completing the filming phase, we are quite confident the activities and messages of the SAKALA program will inspire all who encounter them through this media outreach.

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Posted in Haiti

Tagged Pax Christi Haiti, Pax Christi Port-au-Prince, SAKALA, soccer

HAITI: Observations on Cite Soleil, soccer, and nonviolence

Posted on April 6, 2011 | 1 Comment

By Manuel Padilla and Amy Watts, Program Associates

As a result of the exciting, recently-developed collaborative projects with Pax Christi Port-au-Prince, Pax Christi USA is currently engaged in the production phase of a short promotional documentary on the SAKALA youth peace education and soccer program. Starting on April 2^nd and ending on April 15^th, Pax Christi interns Amy Watts and Manuel Padilla are in Port-au-Prince working with Elaine Briere, writer and director of “Bitter Paradise: The Sell-Out of East Timor,” crafting footage to help us better relate to and understand the lives of the SAKALA youth of Cite Soleil. We hope this film will educate us and inspire us to challenge stereotypes and reflect deeper on the day-to-day hopes, joys, and obstacles of our brother and sister peacemakers in Port-au-Prince.

First Report, April 6

Cite Soleil has a unique history and culture within Haiti and Port-au-Prince. This also gives rise to its special vulnerabilities, struggles, and successes. Among dignified people, we find an impoverishment within a politically and economically-manipulated country. This is condensed and centralized, by design, in Port-au-Prince and epitomized by Cite Soleil. The Earthquake of 2010 did not bring about this but only greatly exacerbated it. Yet can we even tell now, one year later, what devastation was caused by the earthquake, what by neglect, what by foreign and domestic economic polices, what by MINUSTAH occupation, what by dictatorships, what by preceding natural disasters, what by political and social upheaval, what by NGO colonization, and what by a sense of defeat?

We see life has continued in the face of this tragedy where it is unknown how much hope resides in the average heart. We see the earthquake ‘opportunized’ in both positive and negative ways. We see the results of a highly questionable elections process amidst a seemingly intractable paralyzation of systems creation, planning and decision-making, and action to address the historical and contemporary dilemmas facing the country. Lack of water, lack of shelter, lack of economy, lack of tools, lack of political stability, lack of security, lack of respect from others ‘outside’ and ‘inside’. We see Cite Soleil. We find no disingenuousness. No veil of ignorance. No barrier of communication. We are confronted with raw trauma and fragile recovery. Here, too, there exists a slow realization that old methods and old relationships are no longer relevant or effective, if they ever were to begin with. Old threats are new friends. Community means playing together with a seriousness and urgency unknown to those whose lives do not vitally depend on the interconnected realities that bring such seemingly disparate things as recreation and survival together.

In light of where Haiti finds itself now, we are compelled to notice the Pax Christi Ayiti SAKALA youth peace and sports program on the edge of Haitian society; their garden, their self education, their play, their organization, their practice and practicality, their silence in uncertainty and despair, their voice, their smallness and their struggle, their successes, their thriving. We hope to show how sports and peace has gripped their lives, and the lives of those around them, in new and intimate ways that have provided hope for sustainability and dignity, not just simple survival. We hope to show how an alternative assessment of their reality has prompted them to a radical reevaluation of their community of Cite Soleil and their critical role in the future of Haiti. By braving the beautiful risk inherent in the philosophy of non-violence and peace with justice, carved out by icons like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Oscar Romero, they wish to image a culture of the peace of Christ and embody the invitation to ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’.

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Posted in Haiti

Tagged Amy Watts, Manuel Padilla, Pax Christi Haiti, SAKALA