Lisle Park District Playground Donated to Children of Haiti

Last April, the playground at Valley Forge Park in Lisle was scheduled for replacement. The vendor that won the bid to replace the playground suggested the Lisle Park District contact Kids Around the World, a nonprofit organization that “builds playgrounds and hope for the children of the world.” Kids Around the World works with municipalities that are replacing or removing playgrounds by helping disassemble older playgrounds and then refurbish, repair and repaint as necessary. Then the playgrounds are inspected for safety and installed in communities around the world “devastated by war, natural disaster and economic stress.” The Lisle Park District Board of Commissioners and staff agreed to recycle the old playground and give it to such a positive and green cause. The Lisle Park District maintenance employees went to work carefully disassembling the old playground and volunteers from Kids Around the World took the pieces to their Rockford facility to be refurbished, inventoried, crated and stored while waiting to be shipped to a community in need.
Kids Around the World determined that the playground was most needed in a tent village in Haiti called “Vilage Mirak," or Miracle Village, located outside of Fond Parisien which is about 20 miles east of Port-au-Prince. In its master plan, Miracle Village will build 500 homes, with public buildings, roads and a market. The Kids Around the World volunteers broke ground for the former Lisle Park District playground on January 12, 2011, one year after the devastating earthquake that destroyed Haiti. After five days of digging in the rocky soil, pouring cement, reassembling framework, setting up slides and ladders, and passing inspection by the certified playground safety inspectors, the playground was complete. On January 16, 2011 the volunteers decorated the newly built playground with balloons and held a dedication ceremony in the village. As the ribbon was cut, the children rushed to the playground with smiles and laughter. Kids Around the World is looking for volunteers and partners that may know of any playgrounds available for recycling. Please visit: www.KidsAroundTheWorld.com for more information.

By The Lisle Park District
Yesterday at 9:18 a.m.

Mirebalais n'aime pas Manigat

Des tirs d’armes à feu ont interrompu un meeting de la candidate à la présidence, Mirlande Manigat, à Mirebalais, commune d’Haïti situé à 57 km au nord de Port-au-Prince, la capitale.
La campagne de la candidate du RDNP à Mirebalais a été troublée par un groupe d’individus, a-t-on appris. Ces derniers se réclamant de Michel Martelly ont interrompu le meeting de Mirlande Manigat par des tirs d’armes à feu.
   Les supporteurs de Mme Manigat qui se trouvaient sur le stand de la candidate ont essuyé des jets de pierres des individus brandissant des posters du candidat de Repons Peyizan.
  Des agents de sécurité de Manigat sont intervenus et ont matraqué les fauteurs de trouble, ce qui a causé plusieurs blessés. Des arrestations ont aussi été  enregistrées dans les deux camps.

Grange reports to the house on Haiti's withdrawal from football .

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Hon. Olivia Grange has sought to clarify the issues surrounding the Haitian team’s withdrawal from the recently concluded CONCACAF under 17 football championship staged in Montego Bay, St. James.

Speaking in the House of Representatives at Gordon House, yesterday (March 1), the Minister said that the news of Haiti’s withdrawal from the tournament has been the subject of controversy, especially in Port-au-Prince, where there were street protests based on misrepresentations and misinformation. 

“The Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture has been involved in the dialogue as both Governments moved to end the protests and to preserve and strengthen the centuries old bonds of friendship between both countries,” Minister Grange said.

She said the Government regretted the circumstances that necessitated the withdrawal of the Haitian team from the CONCACAF tournament.  “I understand the pain felt by the Haitian delegation and the people of Haiti, particularly the young players,” Miss Grange said.

The Haitian team had to withdraw from the tournament after health officials confirmed three players were ailing from malaria.

In correcting some inaccuracies that have been reported about the treatment of the Haitian delegation, especially over the 72-hour period beginning February 14, Minister Grange noted that Jamaica did not single out the Haitian delegation for screenings at the airport. 

“As a routine, passengers from Latin America, South-East Asia, Africa, Republic of Haiti and the Dominican Republic are asked to fill out questionnaires and report about any abnormal symptoms on their arrival in Jamaica,” she explained.

Miss Grange further noted that there were no armed guards or armed thugs intimidating or restraining any member of the Haitian football contingent. 

“Two women police officers - a Senior Superintendent and an assistant - were present at the hotel for a maximum of 45 minutes on Tuesday, February 15, 2011.  They wore civilian attire.  They were not armed and at no time did they interact with any of the players.  No one was ever handcuffed,” the Minister assured.

She further informed that it was not a restrictive quarantine and that each member of the delegation was provided with food and had access to medicine, both at the hospital and in the hotel where most of the affected members of the delegation remained.

“The Government of Jamaica did not expel the Haitian football team.  The decision for the Haitian football team to withdraw was taken by the President of the Haitian Football Federation in consultation with CONCACAF,” she pointed out.

Following these events, Minister Grange noted that the Government of Haiti sent a special delegation to Jamaica on a fact-finding mission, between the 21st and  23rd of February.  The delegation had meetings in Kingston and Montego Bay with Government officials and other dignitaries.

“The delegation was given access to the Cornwall Regional Hospital to view the facilities and interview staff; and also viewed the facilities at the hotel where the football contingent resided and met with the manager of the property,” Miss Grange said.

Through those meetings and inspections, the delegation was able to get a full understanding of the events as they really happened, Minister Grange informed.

She said that based on the report of this special delegation, Haiti’s President Rene Preval, gave Prime Minister Bruce Golding the assurance at the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Grenada, that the matter was now closed.

“We are pleased that the misunderstandings have been clarified and the matter resolved,” she said.

She said that the Government was moving to arrange football matches between both countries “as we continue efforts to preserve and strengthen our relationship,” noting that she  would give more details as soon as the arrangements have been finalised.

In the meantime, the Minister congratulated the Jamaican team which advanced to the FIFA Under 17 World Cup Finals in Mexico later this year by finishing as one of the top four teams in the CONCACAF tournament.

“I offer congratulations to the other teams that qualified for the World Cup Finals from this tournament - United States, Canada and Panama,” she said.

She noted that the Government of Jamaica was also in full support of the Haitian Government’s proposal to FIFA and CONCACAF to give special consideration to the Haitian team to compete at the Under 17 World Cup Finals.

 CONTACT: ALECIA SMITH

Haiti cholera 'far worse than expected', experts fear

The cholera epidemic affecting Haiti looks set to be far worse than officials had thought, experts fear.
Rather than affecting a predicted 400,000 people, the diarrhoeal disease could strike nearly twice as many as this, latest estimates suggest.
Aid efforts will need ramping up, US researchers told The Lancet journal.
The World Health Organization says everything possible is being done to contain the disease and warns that modelling estimates can be inaccurate.
Before last year's devastating earthquake on the Caribbean island, no cases of cholera had been seen on Haiti for more than a century.
The bacterial disease is spread from person-to-person through contaminated food and water.
It causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting, and patients, particularly children and the elderly, are vulnerable to dangerous dehydration as a result.
Gross underestimateIn the three months between October and December 2010, about 150,000 people in Haiti contracted cholera and about 3,500 died.
Around this time, the United Nations projected that the total number infected would likely rise to 400,000.
But researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, say this is a gross underestimate.
They believe the toll could reach 779,000, with 11,100 deaths by the end of November 2011.
Dr Sanjay Basu and colleagues reached their figures using data from Haiti's ministry of health.
They say the UN estimates were "crude" and based on "a simple assumption" that the disease would infect a set portion (2-4%) of Haiti's 10 million population.
Dr Basu's calculations take into account factors like which water supplies have been contaminated and how much immunity the population has to the disease.
They predict the number of cholera cases will be substantially higher than official estimates.
"The epidemic is not likely to be short-term," said Dr Basu. "It is going to be larger than predicted in terms of sheer numbers and will last far longer than the initial projections."
But the researchers say thousands of lives could be saved by provision of clean water, vaccination and expanded access to antibiotics.
A spokesman for the World Health Organization said: "We have to be cautious because modelling does not necessarily reflect what's seen on the ground.
"Latest figures show there have been 252,640 cases and 4,672 deaths as of 10 March 2011.
"We really need to reconstruct water and sanitation systems for the cholera epidemic to go away completely.
"It's a long-term process and cholera is going to be around for a number of years yet."

By Michelle RobertsHealth reporter, BBC News

Haiti: Candidates dismiss fears over Aristide

Wednesday, 16 March 2011
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Haiti's two presidential candidates have dismissed concerns that the apparently imminent return of the exiled former president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, would disrupt the election, despite a warning from the US State Department that he could be a destabilising presence.
Michel Martelly, a pop singer known as "Sweet Micky", told reporters that he did not think Mr Aristide would influence the vote, although he would prefer that the former president wait "two or three days" and postpone his arrival until after the election.
"He is welcome to come back like Jean-Claude Duvalier did," said Mr Martelly, referring to the former dictator who made a surprise reappearance in Haiti in January. "I hope his return doesn't create instability for the elections."
Mirlande Manigat, a university administrator and former first lady, expressed no misgivings about the return of Mr Aristide, who has repeatedly said during his exile in South Africa that he wants to return home as a private citizen and work as an educator. Ms Manigat seemed even to encourage him.
"President Aristide is welcome to come back and help me with education," she said.
Both candidates have been Aristide opponents in the past. Now, both stress his right to return as a Haitian citizen under the constitution.

ROCK BAND ARCADE FIRE PLAN TRIP TO HAITI

Grammy Award-winning Canadian rockers Arcade Fire are planning a trip to earthquake-ravaged Haiti to jam with local musicians for an upcoming DVD release.
The group has teamed up with British photographer Leah Gordon, who published a book of pictures from Haiti in 2008, and will head to Haiti later this year.
Arcade Fire have pledged to contribute over $1 million to ongoing relief funds in Haiti, where band member Regine Chassagne's parents hail from.