{"id":54675,"date":"2015-03-09T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=54675"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:26:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:26:00","slug":"interview-mildred-aristide-former-first-lady-of-haiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/03\/interview-mildred-aristide-former-first-lady-of-haiti\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Mildred Aristide, Former First Lady of Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
March 3, 2015<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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Mildred Aristide is an attorney who as former First Lady of Haiti headed the country\u2019s National AIDS Commission and authored a book on the root causes of child domestic service.\u00a0 Since her family\u2019s return home from forced exile in 2011, Mrs. Aristide and her husband, former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (known throughout Haiti as Titide) have focused their efforts on developing the University of the Aristide Foundation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Mildred<\/a>
\n<\/strong>The work to build UNIFA, has taken place in the midst of growing repression within the country. Long overdue elections have not taken place. Police and UN troops using live ammunition, chemical agents and clubs have attacked demonstrators protesting against the Martelly government. President Aristide, Haiti\u2019s first democratically elected president, has been threatened repeatedly with arrest, with heavily armed police surrounding the Aristides\u2019 home.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet UNIFA has persevered.\u00a0 In this new interview, Mrs. Aristide details progress made by this groundbreaking university over the last few years. Forged in the fight for democracy and inclusion, UNIFA is a true example of popular education in action.<\/em><\/p>\n

Haiti Solidarity: First of all, thank you so much for your time. It is an honor for us at Haiti Solidarity to be conducting this interview. Looking back four years ago, to March 18, 2011, the date of your family\u2019s return from exile in South Africa, what do you remember about that moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: Without a doubt, our accompaniment home from the airport to the front door of the house \u2013 where we sat in the car for 15 minutes until a passage could be cleared through the crowd to get inside!\u00a0 It is a moment and a feeling that I\u2019ll never forget.\u00a0 The four of us like to refer to it as a “tsunami of love.”<\/p>\n

Q: Why was reopening UNIFA the central priority of President Aristide\u2019s work upon your return to Haiti? Why is UNIFA so essential to the movement for real democracy in Haiti?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: Let me start with some background.\u00a0 Titide<\/em> created the Aristide Foundation University (UNIFA) in 2001.\u00a0 It was an extension of the Haiti-Cuba cooperation in health care.\u00a0 Instead of sending Haitian students to med school in Cuba we would train more doctors and health professionals in the country.\u00a0 We broke ground on the campus in 2002.\u00a0 By 2003 the first phase of construction was completed; approximately 247 medical students began classes.\u00a0 Early February 2004, the university teaching hospital, Hopital Universitaire de la Paix<\/em>, opened.\u00a0 Then there was the coup d\u2019etat.\u00a0 While Titide and I were forced from our home and the country, UNIFA students were forced from the campus.\u00a0 University classrooms and dorm rooms were transformed into military barracks by soldiers of the multi-national force deployed to Haiti.\u00a0 Remarkably, most of the students made their way to Cuba and completed their training.\u00a0 When the earthquake struck on January 12, 2010, some of these young doctors staffed emergency clinics at the Foundation auditorium; two are part of our staff at UNIFA.<\/p>\n

In the month before we returned to Haiti, Titide<\/em> wrote: \u201cA year on [from the earthquake], young people and students look to the Foundation\u2019s University to return to its educational vocation and help fill the gaping national hole left on the day the earth shook in Haiti \u2026 I will return to Haiti to the field I know best and love: education.\u201d\u00a0 Education has always been at the center of his life work \u2013 as teacher\/priest, creating Lafanmi Selavi<\/em> (center for street children), his writings, social justice activism, tenure as Haiti\u2019s first democratically elected president, his scholarship in South Africa.\u00a0 And today, he brings all of that to UNIFA.<\/p>\n

Right now, in the moment that Haiti is living, the university is essential.\u00a0 Haiti vitally needs a safe space where young people can come together, think country and construct a future under very difficult circumstances.\u00a0 A place where they can learn from and interact with national and international professionals.\u00a0 An institution that will address national issues and seek viable solutions to national probleMrs.\u00a0 Dreams of working, prospering and changing Haiti \u2013 not chasing after a foreign visa or a job with a foreign NGO.\u00a0 This is UNIFA\u2019s commitment.<\/p>\n

Q: Could you describe the growth of UNIFA over the past four years, and the impact it has made in Haiti in this period?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: UNIFA\u2019s first admissions exam in 2011 drew over 1,000 applicants \u2013 when we could only accept 126 students for that first class!\u00a0 One hundred and twenty six is a tiny fraction of the approximately 50,000 students who complete high school every year in Haiti; it speaks to the urgent need for access to quality university education in Haiti.\u00a0 Last year it was reported that there are about 30,000 Haitians attending university in the Dominican Republic at a cost of 80-90 million dollars a year.\u00a0 So an immediate \u2013 albeit limited \u2013 impact that UNIFA has had is to offer Haitian parents more options in the education of their daughters and sons.<\/p>\n

Every year, we work to expand those options.\u00a0 Since beginning with the medical school, we have added a school of nursing, law and this past September, in partnership with Stony Brook University in NY, Haiti\u2019s first school of physical therapy.\u00a0 Our student population stands at approximately 1,200.\u00a0 We grew from a handful of instructors to over 65 instructors across the 4 different schools.\u00a0 Our Haitian instructors are complemented by a visiting instructors\u2019 program.\u00a0 American and Haitian-American professionals who spend up to a week teaching on campus.\u00a0 Last year we had the privilege of welcoming Jeffrey Brand, former dean of the University of San Francisco Law School.\u00a0 As well as Dr. Henri Ford, Haitian-American chief of pediatric orthopedics at LA Children\u2019s Hospital.\u00a0 Our 3rd and 4th year medical students are enrolled in clinical training at area hospitals, plus the Mirbalais Hospital established by Partners in Health.\u00a0 Third year nursing students as well.<\/p>\n

In terms of student services, we now have a fully functioning cafeteria for students and staff, we have increased our broadband width \u2013 although it\u2019s still not enough \u2013 and are actively working with our partners at Rosalind Franklin University of Medical Sciences (Illinois) to have access to their online library and human anatomy program.\u00a0 The partial renovation of the residential campus has meant that we have been able to lodge visiting instructors.\u00a0 And this year 10 students are residing on campus.<\/p>\n

Q: Can you discuss the health care issues facing Haiti right now \u2013 and UNIFA\u2019s role in helping to meet those challenges?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: Of course cholera remains a very serious public health crisis.\u00a0 At the end of 2014, several reports indicated spikes in the number of infections and deaths attributable to cholera across different parts of the country.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if we passed 9,000 deaths already.\u00a0 That, added to chronic infectious diseases like AIDS and TB, makes for a very difficult health outlook.\u00a0 All this against the backdrop of a hugely insufficient number of physicians for the population.\u00a0 Existing and new hospitals built since the earthquake function well below 100% levels because of staff shortage.\u00a0 The clinical support that responded to the earthquake has left.\u00a0 Haiti counts only a handful of trained physical therapists, when the need for therapy skyrocketed after the earthquake.\u00a0 The capital\u2019s General Hospital does not have a properly functioning morgue.\u00a0 There is an urgent need for Haitian trained health care providers, nurses, technicians, pharmacists, and administrators \u2013 at every level.\u00a0 Education and training in the health sciences must be a priority in any viable national health plan.<\/p>\n

Q: In Haiti, university education has traditionally been the province of the elite. How has UNIFA begun to break this mold?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: When UNIFA opened in 2001, government support allowed us to be tuition free.\u00a0 When we reopened in September 2011 (without government financial support) it was clear that we would not be able to survive without tuition.\u00a0 The current tuition at UNIFA\u00a0 (less than 1,500 USD a year) is less then what other private universities charge.\u00a0 So that is already broadening access.\u00a0\u00a0 Still we know that for Haiti, in these most difficult economic times, that tuition is still a lot.\u00a0 And the solution may be making more need-based scholarships available; to do that we have to raise more money.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Beyond the economic factor, there is a psychological and social barrier that UNIFA is committed to overcoming: The notion that only some people can be doctors or can go to university.\u00a0 And in fact the student body at UNIFA is representative of a broader spectrum of Haitian society than you might see at other Haitian Universities.\u00a0\u00a0 Students and their families know that UNIFA\u2019s doors are open to all.\u00a0\u00a0 Both the Foundation and UNIFA are built on this guiding principle: \u201cTout moun se moun.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Every person is a human being.\u00a0 Every young person should be able to go to university, every person has the right to health care.\u00a0 #BlackLivesMatter.<\/p>\n

Q: One of the impressive features of the University is its gender balance.\u00a0 Each of the schools \u2013 law, medical, nursing and physical therapy \u2013 has at least 50% women students. Could you discuss the significance of this for Haiti and how this has been achieved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: Another social barrier to tear down: That the university is the domain of men.\u00a0 We start the year with a 50-50-gender balance (except in nursing where the pool of applicants is overwhelming feminine) and we have no difficulty finding qualified female candidates.\u00a0\u00a0 One thing we have seen though is that there is a certain amount of attrition along the way, and attrition among female students is slightly higher, which means that the balance is not always maintained.\u00a0 So here is something we are looking at, asking what additional barriers to completing their studies do female students face?\u00a0 How can we as a University address that?\u00a0\u00a0 Our commitment is always for gender parity.<\/p>\n

Q: In the past period, there has been a growth in repressive measures against political expression in Haiti, including threats to arrest President Aristide. How has this impacted you and your family? How has it impacted UNIFA?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: Unsettling, but not surprising.\u00a0 Sadly, the absence of the rule of law means that anything is possible; anything can be said.\u00a0 Human rights are routinely violated, like what happened to Titide<\/em>.\u00a0 There is a Creole expression: The dogs bark, the caravan rolls by.\u00a0 In August, as the political machine spewed its lies, here is what he was doing: Preparing for a 4th year at UNIFA; registering students; overseeing construction of the school of physical therapy (which is now 95% complete); working with the new dean of the medical school; assessing completion of the second 3-week international social medicine summer class.\u00a0 Committed as he has been all his life to working with the people of Haiti.<\/p>\n

There are people that are visibly surprised when they visit our campus.\u00a0 They see students in white lab coats bustling to and from class.\u00a0 They stare at these young women and men sitting on benches, studying, eating lunch, hanging out, checking their email.\u00a0 An eyebrow is raised when they see a well-known practicing physician or lawyer step into class.\u00a0 Normal, everyday events for us, yet UNIFA has to push back against false perceptions.\u00a0 The wheel is turning.\u00a0 I like to tell visitors that they are standing on sacred ground.\u00a0 This is not hyperbole.\u00a0 The stakes and the country\u2019s needs are too high.\u00a0 UNIFA cannot be a pawn in political fighting.\u00a0 There should be no attempt to use or manipulate our students to serve political ends. UNIFA is a national project that is slowly revealing itself to be a national institution in the service of the country.<\/p>\n

We have 3 goals: (1) to prepare doctors to care for the poorest of the poor (2) to increase the number of doctors practicing in rural areas and (3) to break down long tradition of exclusion of the poor majority in Haiti from access to higher education.<\/p>\n

Q: What are some of UNIFA\u2019s goals for the next few years? How would you like to see the University\u2019s reach expand?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: There are no lesser priorities, but in my book, these are five top priorities:\u00a0 First, UNIFA\u2019s own teaching hospital. Second, a sizeable endowment that can allow us to lower or better yet eliminate tuition.\u00a0 Third, a school of science (biology, chemistry, math and engineering).\u00a0 Fourth, complete renovation of the residential campus so that we can accommodate students from all across the country.\u00a0 And fifth, a stand-alone library.<\/p>\n

Q: We know that UNIFA has done all of this work with such limited resources. What are the ways in which people and organizations outside of Haiti can help further UNIFA\u2019s work? How can people with ties to universities and medical institutions help? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mrs. Aristide<\/strong>: Well, the most straightforward cooperation is financial.\u00a0 While a portion of the budget comes from student tuition, we depend on international and national support for the rest.\u00a0 We also encourage donations\/contributions of teaching material, like anatomical models and charts, laboratory equipment, etc.\u00a0 I recently came across an article online titled \u201cLearning surgery in Haiti\u201d.\u00a0 A group of surgeons and 2 American med students came \u201cto Haiti\u201d (no hospital or medical school is mentioned) for 5 days and performed 46 surgeries.\u00a0 This was a wonderful and most likely life-saving event for the 46 patients treated.\u00a0 According to the article, the students had \u201copportunities unavailable to them back home.\u201d\u00a0 To perform the surgeries, \u201cthe team shipped 18, 50-pound boxes of instruments and materials.\u201d\u00a0 Now, imagine if that group had gone one step further and partnered with a Haitian medical school to train Haitian students too. That is the kind of engaged cooperation and support that UNIFA seeks to strengthen.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Go to Original \u2013 haitisolidarity.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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