Helping Haiti is a peace-building alliance fuelled by the dedication of incredibly inspirational leaders from Cité Soleil and Kingston. It seeks to build stability, healthy relationships between community members, and increase community members' participation in the distribution of life saving services, such as water and health care in one of the most impoverished and conflict ridden areas of th
e world: Cité Soleil Haiti, through grassroots, capacity-building projects and programs. Where most people would turn their eye – leaving such important, and seemingly unsurmountable issues for others to sort out – Tammy, together with Robinson Remedor, the director of Helping Haiti in Cité Soleil, march forward, entirely committed to building peace in Cité Soleil by working with all groups, even those usually targeted as a "source" of instability: gang members. For example, First Aid for Peace, a Helping Haiti initiative, brings together members from different gangs (including gang leaders) over the course of one month and teaches them first-respondent techniques for dressing bullet and knife wounds, stitches, etc. Not only has this provided members with practical knowledge in an area where health care is virtually inexistent, and allowed them to provide support to their friends and family, but it has also provided a first step in bringing the community together. An alumni of the program is currently training another group in First Aid for Peace highlighting Helping Haiti’s concern for sustainability and for ensuring that change comes from within the community, as opposed to being forced upon them from external actors. The peace building initiatives do not end here, Helping Haiti has also provided great support to women and their families by encouraging their empowerment through self-defence and Hygiene and Infant CPR training. Helping Haiti is currently in the process of building a community centre in Cité Soleil that will serve as the permanent home of the various programs and upcoming initiatives, all of which are developed in partnership with the Haitian community and, in large part, implemented by them. On campus, the mandate of Queen’s Helping Haiti, a chapter of the pre-existent Kingston-based foundation, is to raise awareness about the situation in Haiti and to fundraise in order to support the organization’s initiatives. Our fundraising and awareness events on campus are a small, but important, step in helping the community in Cité Soleil implement the projects and programs that they believe help to bring peace, stability, and health to their Cité Soleil. In 2015, QHH worked to reinforce the already great partnership between Cité Soleil and the Kingston and Queen's community by creating an additional component to Queen's Helping Haiti. This new component seeks to involve life science, nursing and medical students in the creation of health-related educational material that will complement the classes taught in Cité Soleil. We are always looking for new people to get involved, and partnerships with other organizations and groups on campus.
