C2CHaiti Founder, Marie Eusebe featured in HU Alumni!!

Marie-Yolaine Eusebe '91

Humanitarian, speaker and actor, are just some of the words one could use to describe Howard graduate Marie-Yolaine Eusebe (B.S. ’91), who saw a calling and an opportunity in the wake of utter devastation. 

In May 2010, with her father’s legacy of duty to country instilled in her heart, Marie-Yolaine, a Haitian-American took action. The January 12th, earthquake that struck Haïti, killing over 300,000 people, some in her own family, compelled her to move. She resigned from her marketing position at American Express and with the experience she had gained with her Howard degree in communications and business management created Community2Community (C2C) to help rebuild her father’s hometown of Petite Goâve. Her goal: to replicate the pilot project throughout Haïti, offering Haitians across the Diaspora and those with a heart for Haïti an opportunity to be a part of something greater then themselves. 

 Community2Community, www.community2community.info, is a non-profit service organization dedicated to building self-sufficient communities by working with the community. C2C recently launched the Haïti Restoration and Transformation Pilot Project in Petit Goâve in April 2011. Their first fundraiser to fuel the project was held at the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, NY, in January 12, 2011, the one year anniversary of the earthquake; celebrating Haïti's resiliency and culture. They raised over  $40,000.  In less than one year, C2C, working with local residents, broke ground for a new water distribution system. C2C is also working to restore the road, promote the community’s reforestation efforts already in progress along with plans to build a community school to house 350-400 students. With the support of Brooklyn Borough President, Marty Markowitz, the 2012 “Hope and A Future” Benefit Concert for Haïti moves to Brooklyn.  Sponsored by the New York Daily News, in partnership with WBLS FM/WLIB AM, and Christian Cultural Center, the concert will feature special performances by Oleta Adams and Haitian Kompa sensation Carimi to raise awareness and much needed funding for the project. 

Marie, also a sought after motivational speaker, was selected to kick-off the 2011 Princeton TEDx event.  As an actor, she most recently starred in the female lead role in Lorey Hayes’ drama, “Haïti’s Children of God,” which ran at Harlem’s Dwyer Culture Center and has also appeared at the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, DC at Shakespeare on the Green.  

With the foundation of a quality education enhanced with diverse, global perspectives solidly planted from her years at Howard University, Marie is a social entrepreneur who continues to dedicate her life and her numerous talents to serving others. 

HAAF2012 Benefit Concert Promo

C2C Water Initiative

HAITI: Seven Places Where Earthquake Money Did and Did Not Go

Haiti, a close neighbor of the US with over nine million people, was devastated by earthquake on January 12, 2010. Hundreds of thousands were killed and many more wounded.
The UN estimated international donors gave Haiti over $1.6 billion in relief aid since the earthquake (about $155 per Haitian) and over $2 billion in recovery aid (about $173 per Haitian) over the last two years.
Yet Haiti looks like the earthquake happened two months ago, not two years. Over half a million people remain homeless in hundreds of informal camps, most of the tons of debris from destroyed buildings still lays where it fell, and cholera, a preventable disease, was introduced into the country and is now an epidemic killing thousands and sickening hundreds of thousands more.
It turns out that almost none of the money that the general public thought was going to Haiti actually went directly to Haiti. The international community chose to bypass the Haitian people, Haitian non-governmental organizations and the government of Haiti. Funds were instead diverted to other governments, international NGOs, and private companies.
Despite this near total lack of control of the money by Haitians, if history is an indication, it is quite likely that the failures will ultimately be blamed on the Haitians themselves in a “blame the victim” reaction.
Haitians ask the same question as many around the world “Where did the money go?”
Here are seven places where the earthquake money did and did not go.
One. The largest single recipient of US earthquake money was the US government. The same holds true for donations by other countries.

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C2C Presents Project at NYU Haitian American Student Association Event

I speak in front of people all the time, but for some reason I was a little nervous tonight. The first speaker was a young professional Haitian-American by the name of Jean Pierre-Louis. His organization  Capracare Haiti is fairly new, less than two years old. His work is familiar but not taken for granted.  He is rebuilding and changing Haiti, one step at a time. Jean’s vision is written powerfully at the bottom of his business card, mete men nou ansanm pou nou viv an santé ( promoting health change through individual acts of courage).

Then it was my turn. I had been up since five in the morning, worked a full load teaching and debating with  7^th graders about whether Christopher Columbus should receive credit or acknowledgement for discovering America, when in actuality he thought he was in Asia. Furthermore, my principal decided that we are going to have professional development on Fridays; afterschool.  After a less than inspiring P.D. session, I grabbed my materials hustled out of the building, ran across the street to the local bodega, grabbed a Nutriment and hopped on the 4 train.  I was tired from a long day and a longer week. But the idea of being able to talk about two of my passions for a few minutes in front of an intimate audience at NYU gave me the surge that I needed. What an incredible way to end the work week!