From Tallahassee to Haiti: It’s all about the children | Opinion

The space between dignity and respect for human rights, and indifference concerning acts of inhumanity can be indiscernible – sometimes a consequence of unwitting lack of awareness.

Recognizing that keeping up with what’s happening in our own communities can be difficult, we draw your attention to rampant, almost unimaginable gang-related carnage that’s occurring in Haiti, observe what we can do and why.

We’ll take this in reverse order.

Whether motivated by altruism or enlightened self-interest, Floridians have cause and opportunity to make a difference despite that an overall solution is elusive.

Notably, the Tallahassee community has engaged involving Haiti in meaningful ways over the years, from Florida A&M University, Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College to not-for-profits and businesses, and houses of worship.

The late Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles exemplified these sensibilities during the 1990s amid his innovative, multi-pronged and aggressive efforts to hold the federal government accountable for the implications of failing to adequately enforce US immigration law.

He launched an initiative to promote cooperation and facilitate technical assistance and exchanges between the people of Florida and Haiti.

He recognized immigration is often conflated with refugee protection and asylum but they’re different – the latter involving a global commitment most countries including the United States ratified to provide safe haven to people fleeing particular kinds of persecution.

A three-term US Senator before he and Buddy MacKay were sworn-in as governor and lieutenant governor, Chiles’ emphasis was ensuring Floridians weren’t disproportionately impacted -- not dehumanizing people who risked their lives to reach Florida in anything that would float.

Shock waves reverberated throughout Haiti last year after its president was assassinated, and again not long after during a 7.2 magnitude earthquake resulting in thousands of deaths.

Disruptive fuel shortages were exacerbated this year when gangs blocked access to the main oil depot coincident with a cholera outbreak. Haitian police stormed that depot to restore some level of fuel supplies.

BBC reports more than 1,100 kidnappings in 2022 through September, nearly 1,500 people killed, seriously injured or disappeared recently and that thousands were forced to flee internally including at least 700 unaccompanied children.

We write informed by personal experience.

One of us operates and co-founded HaitiChildren, a Colorado-based not-for-profit, and travels between Aspen and Haiti. The other resides in Tallahassee, traveled to Haiti numerous times, served within the US State Department during the George W. Bush administration after serving as a senior advisor within the Clinton White House, and previously as special counsel to Chiles.

HaitiChildren provides a home, medical support and schooling for 119 abandoned children in Haiti at present, and 300 children residing nearby – 3,000+ in the vicinity take advantage of HaitiChildren’s feeding programs.

However, people confronting gang blockades are subject to kidnapping and torture. Tragically, this understates the fate of many.

These illicit blockades isolate HaitiChildren from food, medicine, and other essential supplies.

Eight staffers were kidnapped on HaitiChildren’s bus riding to work. Remarkably, they were released since HaitiChildren’s medical facility treats some gang members’ children without charge.

The children living in HaitiChildren’s village are struggling to survive, but this isn’t an appeal for help for any one not-for-profit – it’s a larger call for action.

We confront injustices and inequities at home while shocking events around the country and the world periodically capture our attention, nevertheless Tallahasseeans can play an instrumental role by contacting their federal officials, and local and state officials to some extent also.

More specifically they can lend their voices to urge that immediate steps be taken in Haiti to respond to these gross inhumanities in cooperation with the government of Haiti and the international community.

If the wanton violence is unabated and human rights continue to be ignored yet another chapter in Haiti’s complex history of episodic maritime mass migration to Florida could soon be written.

Susie Krabacher is CEO and co-founder, HaitiChildren.

Mark Schlakman is senior program director, Florida State University Center for the Advancement of Human Rights.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: From Tallahassee to Haiti: It’s all about the children | Opinion