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Haitian Creole Legal Language Specialist, storyteller, and community builder helping you communicate clearly, lead confidently, and create meaningful impact.

Tag: journalism

  • TRAUMA TRAINING FOR MEDIA SUPPORTS HAITIAN RECOVERY

    Haitian Media Leaders Meet with Global Experts in Post-Disaster Coverage

     Port au Prince, HAITI, 6 March 2010 – Specialists from Haiti, the United States and France convened by the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma offer lessons learned from media in other global disasters, as senior executives of leading media companies meet in Port au Prince and Jacmel to plan recovery coverage.  .

     “Journalists and media professionals face unique challenges covering traumatic events“, says Bruce Shapiro, Executive Director of the Dart Center,  “including the ethical treatment of victims and survivors, the impact of trauma coverage on news consumers and communities, complete and accurate reporting under stress, and the psychological hazards of traumatic events for the news professionals who cover them.”

    “We feel very fortunate to be able to gather with our colleagues to discuss best approaches”, said Roosevelt Jean-François, director of CECOSIDA.  “All of us have lost close ones, and in the midst of our own grief, we also collect stories of terror and triumph from the community.  We want to ensure that as media professionals, we are among the leaders rebuilding Haiti.  That as we rebuild the structures around us, we are also rebuilding the people around us, individually and as a community.”

     Recognizing the unique power of media to inform, connect people with life-saving services, and engage communities, participating broadcast executives agreed to develop and coordinate a series of concrete initiatives, including a regional public information campaign and journalism workshops and other skills-building programs, to build broadcast capacity to support Haiti’s recovery. 

     The workshops are supported with financial contributions from the Global Media AIDS Initiative, UNESCO, Alicia Patterson Foundation.

     # # #

     About CECOSIDA

    A Center for Communication on HIV/AIDS & Public Health, CECOSIDA was founded in 1999 as an association of journalists committed to improving health responses in Haiti.  CECOSIDA produces original programming under the well-known brand “AN’N VIV: Lanmou. Pwoteksyon. Respe”. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Dade Community Foundation are supporting partners of CECOSIDA, which is the Haitian implementer of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS, a regional initiative of the Global Media AIDS Initiative.

     About Dart Center for Trauma & Journalism

    The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, is dedicated to informed, innovative and ethical news reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy.  Whether the topic is street crime, family violence, natural disaster, war or human rights, effective news reporting on traumatic events demands knowledge, skill and support. The Dart Center provides journalists around the world with the resources necessary to meet this challenge, drawing on a global, interdisciplinary network of news professionals, mental health experts, educators and researchers.  For more information, visit: http://www.dartcenter.org.

     About the Global Media AIDS Initiative

    Launched in 2004 by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in coordination with the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS, the Global Media AIDS Initiative (GMAI) mobilizes leading media companies around the world to leverage their vast resources to address AIDS.  Through large-scale regional coalitions of media — a network that includes more than 300 media companies — the GMAI leverages the communication power of mass media to get out information about HIV and challenge stigma related to the disease.  As Secretariat of the GMAI since 2007, the Kaiser Family Foundation provides strategic and operational direction.  The GMAI receives support from the Ford Foundation and Elton John AIDS Foundation.  For more information, visit: www.thegmai.org.

    For further information contact:

    Roosevelt Jean-François, 954.604.0817 (U.S.)   

    Roosevelt.CECOSIDA@gmail.com

    Soeurette Policar (509)3438-2315(Haiti)

    soeurette.CECOSIDA@gmail.com

  • Conversation with Christianna Amanpour

    It was hot and very hot on the tarmac of the haitian Toussaint Louverture airport in Port-au-Prince. Military planes from the US, Canada, Venezuela landed and took off one after the other leaving and bringing  noise to kill your ear drum.

    At 5:10 pm local EST, I was told that my charter flight to Santo domingo previously scheduled to 3:30 pm will finally depart. I streched my legs and pulled my carry on to a bus to drive us to the plane.

    Next to me, a very familiar TV  face. I got closer and she smiled.

    “You lok someone I know”, I said.

    “Really”, she replied with a big smile . 

    “”Are Crhistianne Amanpoor”, I asked. She said yes… handind her right  hand  for a firm handshake.

    I told her my name and smiled.

    It was impossible to start a conversation. The noise from the  planes  reactors were against us.

    I stood by her and confirmed we’re on the same flight to Santo Domingo.

    We got on the bus. She sat behind me. My thinking was on the questions I would have for her and how to secure my seat on the plane next to her.

    I got off the bus and opened the door for her. She thanked me and fired her first question.

    “How long have you been here”, she asked .

    She also asked me about my family, wife, kids, father and mother.

    We were still on the tarmac  ready to board the Cessna Jet.

    She was with a CNN crew of 7 members.

    I made sure she boarded first and I got on the plane right after her. She sat by the window and put her briefcase on the place next to her.

    “Would you mind if I sit here and have a conversation with you Christianna”, I asked her.

    “No not at all”, she replied moving her briefcase to the floor and inviting me to sit.

    We had a casual conversation on what I do as a journalist and about CECOSIDA and relationship with Kaiser Family Foundation and the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership.

    She says she likes what CECOSIDA is doing with sms to provide emmergency information service and partnership with Thompson reuters Foundation.

    I told her about my project to do a training session for haitian journalists on Trauma.

    She asked question; then  paused, knocking her head up down, smiled and silenced. Her 3-4 seconds silencincing, her eyes on my eyes were the most empathic moments.

    Then, I asked her how long she has been with CNN> She said 26 and a half years. 

    I said 26 years… and she said and a half… laughing a loud… lol.

    We had a conversation a battons rompus in French and English. She told me she started at the bottom … doing everything… in the newsdesk …

    About Haiti, she told me, the worse is already done. now is the time to look for the better. And even after the cameras will go, the international community will remain engaged in the country.

    She questioned me about Haiti’s history, the soul of the people.

    She compared haiti to nowhere. “It’s not Africa and it’s not America”, she said this is a unique place, with unique people and unique history.

    Our plane left PaP.

    She checked her blackberry. I took time to send a quick post on Facebook telling my friends that I’m traveling by Christianne Amanpour.

    She took out  a book, a novel of marie-Claude Chauvet I read in French: Amour , Colere and Folie (love, wrath and madness).

    We spoke about litterature. Haitian writters, Us writters.

    She silenced a minute looking through the winddow the haitian landscape. She siad what a beautiful country showing me the pink rays of the sunset on the mountains.

    She gave me  her contact information and I gave her my card.

    “Plaese, if you come to New York, let’s continue our conversation”, she told me.

    We passed the immigration service in santo domingo leaving her with her team .