Businessman Heads Haiti Jobs Drive

S. Florida Urged To Help Build Economy

April 3, 2004|By Alva James-Johnson Staff Writer

As a Haitian businessman, Jean Milleret sees jobs as the future for his country.

So these days he's in South Florida drumming up support for a Chamber of Commerce in Port-de-Paix, a city on Haiti's northwestern coast.

Milleret is not alone. He's part of a new coalition between South Florida organizations and Haitian businesses to rebuild that region of the country. They will meet today to hear Milleret make his case.

"Most of South Florida Haitians are from the northwestern part of Haiti, and they're the ones actually sending money" to their families, he said. "If they get involved in developing businesses in Port-de-Paix, they won't have to send money every month because the people would be able to work on their own."

A native of Port-de-Paix, Milleret runs two businesses there. The first is a cement-block manufacturing company, which employs about 25 people. The second is a water plant, which employs about 15.

He said northwest Haiti exported coffee, banana, tobacco and cocoa until the late 1950s. But dire poverty caused people to chop down trees for fuel, sparking erosion. With few trees to anchor the topsoil in heavy rains, it has washed into the sea.

Milleret said Port-de-Paix is home to more than 60,000 people. There are about 250 businesses in the area, he said, but they don't create enough jobs to employ most residents.

Today the inhabitants rely on the United States, the Dominican Republic and Bahamas for all their food and basic items, which they buy with money sent from abroad, mostly the United States.

"In the northwest everybody has somebody in the U.S. or Bahamas, and they're either waiting for a check or making sure they can get to the U.S.," Milleret said. He said jobs are scarce, and Haiti's recent political crisis devastated the region even further. He and other business owners had to close because armed gangs took over the area and demanded money and goods.

Milleret said the situation is beginning to stabilize now that the country has a new transitional government. He said the police department is not at full force, but officers scared off by the gangs are slowly coming back to work.

"The bank just opened last week," he said. "We're starting to work timidly, but not to the point of big production yet."

About six organizations form the South Florida coalition to spark economic development in Port-de-Paix. One group, Northwest Environmental Protection Organization, is located in Miami. It formed 2 1/2 years ago to address such environmental problems in Port-de-Paix as trash management, contaminated water and tree replacement.

Cleomie Lambert, a Haitian-born Broward County refugee services case manager, said she runs a mission in Port-de-Paix. El Bethel Missionary is also part of the new coalition.

Lambert said she uses her monthly Broward paycheck to pay her nine employees, including teachers, administrators and maintenance staff. She also provides food, clothes and school materials annually.

"It's very hard to get two or three Haitian organizations together, but things are improving," she said. "If we get together as a group to do something that should make things better."

Milleret agreed. He lived in the United States for 30 years before returning to Haiti in 1995. He opened the water plant in 1997 because people had to buy clean water at exorbitant prices.

He said the opportunities for economic development in Port-de-Paix are endless. He could see anything from a medical supply company to a pasta-making business thriving there.

"People buy pasta in Santo Domingo. Why can't they make it in Port-de-Paix?" he said. "That's the way you stimulate an economy. You have to employ people."



What: Northwest Haiti Economic Development Meeting

Where: Jean Jacques Dessalines Center, 8325 NE 2nd Ave, Little Haiti, Miami.

When: Today, 4 p.m.

Admission: Free

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