Jesuit Refugee Service | USA | Jesuit Refugee Service in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic: forced repatriation to Haiti
(Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) May 17, 2013 — Observers from the Jano Siksé Border Network reported a mass repatriation of 70 Haitian migrants from the Dominican Republic on Wednesday; among them were two women in advanced stages of pregnancy, seriously jeopardizing their health and the health of their unborn children.
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Dominican Republic: Seeking solutions to statelessness
(Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) February 15, 2013 — Jesuit Refugee Service/USA participated in a conference here entitled "The Right to a Nationality and the Rule of Law in the Dominican Republic: Perspectives and Challenges.” Academics, advocates, lawyers, affected people and government officials together discussed the many aspects of nationality here.
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Dominican Republic: Facing the reality of statelessness
(Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) February 7, 2013 — A meeting Wednesday with approximately 50 young people from a handful of bateys surrounding Bayaguana who have been affected by escalating policy changes that since 2007 deny access to documentation (in some cases retroactively) to Dominicans of Haitian descent put a stark face on the reality of statelessness.
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Haiti: prioritizing human rights for the displaced
(Bogotá, Rome, Washington, D.C., Port-au-Prince) January 11, 2013 – Three years after the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, approximately 400,000 displaced people continue to live in vulnerable situations and without protection in camps in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the surrounding areas. Jesuit Refugee Service expresses great concern, because the rights and appropriate guarantees for protection of displaced persons, as defined in the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, continue to be disrespected. Thus, displaced persons in Haiti are amongst the most vulnerable group and have a growing need for protection.
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Haitian migrants threatened by repatriation
(Bogotá) October 17, 2012 – Decisions by a number of governments throughout South America to resume or intensify the deportation of forced Haitian migrants risks making the Haitians even more vulnerable than they currently are. Life for forcibly displaced Haitian migrants is becoming increasingly precarious as government throughout the Americas tighten border and immigration policies.
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Brazil: JRS helps trafficked migrants from Haiti
(Tabatinga, Brazil) August 28, 2012 — From January to July this year, about 2,000 trafficked migrants from Haiti stranded in the Brazilian border town of Tabatinga received emergency humanitarian assistance, thanks to the solidarity of several organizations, religious congregations and Jesuit institutions both in Latin America and around the world.
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Dominican Republic: Police Crackdown on Peaceful Demonstrators
(Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) August 14, 2012 — Police in Monte Plata, Dominican Republic, yesterday cracked down on a group of young protestors peacefully demonstrating for their right to identity documents, their right to vote and their right to participate in the society of the land of their birth.
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Dominican Republic: Medical care for Haitian migrants
(Washington, D.C.) July 30, 2012 — A grant from the J. Homer Butler Foundation enabled Jesuit Refugee Service in the Dominican Republic to establish a wider health care network for Haitians living in new settlement areas. A beneficiary of the care shares her story: "Every day I feel more strength to live."
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Refugee Voice: Stateless Dominicans Seek Recognition
(Washington, D.C.) April 10, 2012 - Jesuit Refugee Service and our Jesuit affiliated partners in the Dominican Republic are committed to working together with stateless Dominicans, and with Haitian refugees and migrants, to challenge the racial discrimination preventing them from being recognized as a people with a voice of their own, and to overcome the wrongful policies that unjustly deny them their fundamental human rights.
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Three schools rise in rural Haiti
(Thiotte, Haiti) April 5, 2012 — Students in three communities in and around this small town in the mountains of Haiti have been able to move into new schools because of a partnership between Jesuit Refugee Service/USA and the Sacred Heart Parish of Thiotte.
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New school provides hope for future in Haiti
(Anse-à-Pitres, Haiti) January 13, 2012 — Two-hundred and forty students in this Haitian community have moved from a dilapidated building and outdoor desks protected only by tarps to a new campus. Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is covering the operational costs at the elementary school for the first year.
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School educates youth, lifts community in Haiti
(Fond Parisien, Haiti) March 29, 2012 - A two-year commitment and $225,000 from Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is enabling a new preschool here to provide education, and nutritious meals, to more than 195 students. Fond Parisien is located only about one and a half hours from the Haitian capital of Port au Prince, and saw an influx of displaced families from the capital following the January 2010 earthquake.
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Water project highlights recovery efforts in Haiti
(Los Cacaos, Haiti) January 12, 2012 — Two years after an earthquake struck Haiti the community of Los Cacaos has demonstrated what happens when neighbors work together to solve a problem. Fresh, clean water is now available to 700 families thanks to the community’s commitment to build a positive foundation for long-term improvements.
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Dominican Republic: Human Rights Day forum
(Jimani, Dominican Republic) December 21, 2011 — In recognition of the International Day of Human Rights on December 10, Jesuit Refugee Service Dominican Republic organized an open conversation among concerned parties here to discuss the situation of human rights violations in the area.
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Recent stories

Pre-school nutrition program benefits young Haitians
(Washington, D.C.) October 17, 2011 — Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is funding an early childhood development program in the community of Fond Parisien, Haiti, and pre-school nutrition is an important component of the program.
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Nuns build road to clean water in Haiti
(Los Cacaos, Haiti) August 10, 2011 — A new project spearheaded by Catholic nuns and sponsored by Jesuit Refugee Service aims to bring healthy water and reliable irrigation to this mountain village in central Haiti. After the 2010 earthquake the population of the area doubled to more than 16,000 people.
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JRS expands early childhood education program
(Fond Parisien, Haiti) May 10, 2011 — Jesuit Refugee Service is seeking to provide a head start to students in this small town near the Haitian border with the Dominican Republic. While bolstering the ability of children to succeed in future educational pursuits, the early childhood education program also acts as a protection mechanism for these young Haitians.
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JRS scholarship plan will aid Haitian students
(Anse-à-Pitres, Haiti) May 11, 2011 — To cover the operational costs of a new school, the JRS scholarship will provide $100 directly to the school for each displaced child enrolled, and also about $150 directly to the student for shoes, uniforms and school supplies so the child is able to attend school.
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Haiti Chérie, Dear Haiti, Ayiti Cher
Long before the crippling earthquake of January 12, 2010, Jesuit Refugee Service had a grassroots presence in Haiti, providing humanitarian assistance to displaced Haitians both in the town of Ouanaminthe on the northeastern border with the Dominican Republic, and in the Dominican Republic itself.
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School offers hope for children of Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic
(Pedernales, Dominican Republic) May 4, 2011 — A new project sponsored by Jesuit Refugee Service outside this small town on the southern coast is providing basic education to Haitian migrant families. Two migrant worker villages in the area are home to Haitians and Dominican-born people of Haitian descent.
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Video: JRS on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Port au Prince, Haiti — Jesuit Refugee Service has accompanied the people of Ouanaminthe, a town of 100,000 inhabitants, through a series of challenges by offering schooling for children, helping to organize sustainable farming cooperatives, organizing well-digging projects and engaging in human rights monitoring.
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Video: Faith and Joy in Haiti
(Port au Prince) May 1, 2010 — Fr. Dorino Gabriel, S.J. talks about the work of Faith and Joy in helping to rebuild and revitalize Haiti. Through the Jesuit Fe y Alegria school system Haitian Jesuits are working to promote universal education in Haiti, a key necessity in helping to build a resilient and sustainable Haitian-led recovery.
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Video: Building a future in Haiti
(Port au Prince) May 1, 2010 — Ray Arana is a general contractor from Salem, Oregon. In the U.S., his company specializes in structural repair and framing. When the earthquake struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, Arana was moved to act. Arana immediately put his skills to work, effecting repairs to the Jesuit novitiate and a neighboring residence for nuns in Port-au-Prince.
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JRS working to improve camps, provide education in Haiti
(Washington, D.C.) April 20, 2010 — Two of the leading Jesuits involved in Haitian earthquake relief efforts visited Washington last week to meet with members of non-governmental organizations, Congressional staff and State Department personnel.
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Haitian Jesuits plan for future, urge that local voices be heard
(Washington, D.C) March 2, 2010 — Jesuits here have organized a Reflection and Action Unit to help plan for the long-term rebuilding of Haiti while ensuring that the voices of the Haitian people are involved in that planning.
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