Haiti presidential candidate Jovenel Moise to make appearance in Miami
Miami’s Little Haiti Cultural Center will be hosting a meet and greet with Haiti presidential candidate Jovenel Moise on Mar. 10, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
“With the leaders of the Haitian community in Miami,” Moise posted on Facebook yesterday. The PHTK presidential pick was the leading candidate in the postponed elections with 32.8 percent of the votes. Following initial results, there were widespread voter fraud allegations and a call to protest the next round.
The runoff election is scheduled to take place on April 24.
Canada to takeover Haiti peacekeeping
(AFP) – Canada is planning to take over command of the UN stabilization mission in Haiti and replace the bulk of troops on the ground from Brazil with its own, according to a report Wednesday.
During a visit to Ottawa by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signaled his willingness to renew Canada’s engagement on the world stage, including increasing its participation in UN peacekeeping missions.
There are currently 36 Canadian soldiers deployed on UN peacekeeping missions in Haiti, Jerusalem, South Sudan, Cyprus, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Korea, down from a reported 3,000 at its peak in 1993.
Dominica lifts temporary ban on visas for Haitians
Dominica’s minister of justice, immigration and national security has confirmed that his ministry will resume issuing visas to Haitian nationals, after halting the program last year, TeleSur reported.
However, Rayburn Blackmoore told state media that the visa program for Haitians will be governed by strict rules. These include a 25 visas per month cap and intense oversight to thwart abuses of the system.
It was in 2015 that a temporary halt on the issuance of visas to Haitians was first announced. This week, Blackmoore defended the move.
“The decision to put a stay on the insurance of visas to Haitian nationals had to be taken in order to strengthen this instrument,” he said. “Consequently, a new structure has been put in place within the administrative section in the ministry for processing all visas.”
He also addressed the need for a cap on the number of visas that will be processed: “Not more than 25 visas per month, except in exceptional cases.”
Former CDC director to give keynote address at vaccine conference in Haiti
Julie Gerberding, M.D., MPH, executive vice president of Strategic Communications, Global Public Policy and Population Health at Merck & Co. and former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will give the keynote address at a scientific conference hosted by the Global Health Initiative at Henry Ford Health System and Haiti’s Ministry of Health.
Gerberding will discuss best practices for building partnerships for vaccines in Haiti, in which the country and health care system have yet to recover from the devastating earthquake in 2010.
Presentations will include the value, vision and strategies for global immunization, community-based vaccine research and social mobilization, and logistics and funding for vaccine implementation in Haiti.