Boston: Catholic Charities Vs. Haitian Community

By:  Karrie Ann Jean, 10/10/04, karrie@mattapanonline.org 

Last Friday, two employees of Boston Catholic Charities, Pierre Imbert, the executive director of the Dorchester Haitian Multi-Service Center, and Delva Pierre Toussaint, best known as a propagandist for the US-backed de-facto government of Haiti, and self-proclaimed spokesperson for Catholic Charities, visited the studio of WNTN 1550 AM, in Newton to pressure the owner to shut down all Haitian educative, cultural and commercial programs aired on the station. Jean-Claude Sanon, co-owner of Radio Concord, a pirate AM radio station in Mattapan and a program manager at another non-profit agency HAPHI, the Haitian American Health Initiative has also engaged efforts aimed at censoring free speech in the Haitian community of Boston.

Catholic Charities/ HMSC, in a desperate attempt to avoid another disastrous scandal in the mainstream media, has threatened to bring 4 Haitian radio announcers to court, including Serge Claude Valme, director of the Haitian radio Programming; Beausejour Antoine, news broadcaster; Jacques Dady Jean, commercial programming and Lecalere, religious commentator representing more than 15 protestant churches.

A few years ago, several leaders of Boston’s Haitian non-profit agencies created a Haitian Media Association, as a means to keep their thumb on public opinion and cover up their swindling of public funds by bribing a few corrupted media personalities with small paychecks or unjustified part-time or temp jobs.  Thank God ! a new, more responsible media has emerged in the Haitian community, which has won a large amount of support among the 80,000 Creole radio listeners in the Metro Boston area. Suddenly, the members of the Haitian Media Association and leaders of the non-profit agencies are shocked by the new group’s popularity.

During the past year a chain of deceptive and unfortunate events culminating at the Catholic Charities/ HMSC that has triggered the attention of the French/ Haitian Creole media. This has caused concerned citizens to begin questioning the legitimacy of the three major private non-profit agencies that benefit from millions of our tax dollars allocated to the Haitian community by state and federal government programs and funds from other generous individuals and corporate donors.

While CCHER (the Center for Community Health, Education and Research) and HAPHI can benefit from a slight credit among Haitians in Boston, the Haitian Multi-Center has been reduced to rubble; the institution is a wastebasket.  Although an audit will prove the competency of HAPHI and CCHER staff does not meet the credentials required to provide the services that they are called to offer, HAPHI specifically has given a kind of contribution by making condoms and other types of AIDS prevention available in Mattapan Square that can spare the lives of many sexually active teenagers and HAPHI’s former after school program used to be an asset to some elementary school kids.

Eustache Jean-Louis, the director of CCHER, once justified the lack of qualified employees as the consequence of his agency’s insufficient funding to offer a competitive salary and benefits that will attract a more qualified work force.

Still, the Haitian media and every citizen has the right to question the legitimacy and the actions of these community agencies and the importance of their projects compared to the price that the taxpayers of America are paying for. Erroneously, the leaders of these agencies, instead of providing necessary information and documentation to the community, have chosen to challenge the good faith of the radio personalities to inform the community, by attempting to use our tax money to challenge their constitutional rights.

The media does not really focus on HAPHI and CCHER’s minor mistakes and their efforts to control the Haitian media. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that they choose to side with Catholic Charities/ HMSC and against the community.

During summer 2002, Pierre Imbert, the executive director of Catholic Charities/ HMSC launched the idea of raising funds to build a modern Haitian Community Center in Dorchester that would represent the pride and the accomplishment of a striving Haitian community. The members of the Haitian community, including Haitian TV and radio personalities, artists, business and religious leaders and other professionals embraced the project and contributed heavily to raise funds through selling bricks, fundraising dinners, holding raffles, etc.

Later, the Haitian community learned from a Catholic newspaper that Mayor Menino, State Representative Marie St. Fleur (notorious for bending to please Boston’s big wigs) and Catholic Charities had concluded to put the Haitian community aside and name the new building after the Yawkey Foundation.

What about the bricks that were sold and purchased by members of the Haitian community as their expressions of pride to their community efforts, what about the  $200 per couple dinners at Lantana’s in Randolph to raise funds for this project, what about thousands of dollars raised within the community by selling raffle tickets for this new building?

For many Haitians $200 represents 80 to 85% of their weekly wage, for them donating $200 to participate in a fundraising event is a generous and spirited gesture. To see the dream, the pride and the generous contribution of this dedicated community vanish, at the hands of powerful corporate and political leaders, is outrageous.

The controversy surrounding this project and Imbert’s mishandling of the funds donated for the new building resulted in the resignation of all the board members and senior employees of the Catholic Chatities/ HMSC, including Jackson Compere, the business manager; Marise Simon, head of the elderly program, and Julio Midi, ESL specialist and coordinator of the Mattapan ELS program; more recently Imbert’s assistant known only as Maria has resigned.

Imbert’s incompetence and his lack of credibility have ruined the trustworthiness of Catholic Charities/ HMSC to the point that former employees and board members have created a new Haitian Multi-Service Center in Dorchester. This division may have been avoided if Catholic Charities was not reluctant to discuss the project with the Haitian community and if State Representative Marie St. Fleur renounced to her tribe mentality and put her leadership to the best interest of the community.

A web site named seedhaiti.org indicates that Pierre Imbert is involved in raising nearly 3 million dollars for the MPP, an organization linked to terror in Haiti. The Haitian community wishes that Catholic Charities relocated Pierre Imbert to another position so peace can come back within the Haitian community.