Beautiful Voices--Devastated Landscape

Hello everyone,
For the newsletter, Hillary Prag gave me some amazing photos taken by teenagers in Haiti this summer. I don't think that I will be able to include all of them (and their accompanying testimonies), so I am posting them here. I'm sure that Hillary would be happy to answer any questions you have about these photos, the artists who took them, and the ongoing socioeconomic and political struggles in Haiti--exacerbated by the extreme devastation resulting from this season's tropical storms and hurricanes. Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Hillary.

The first photo concerns reforestation. If all of Haiti was covered in trees like this it would make a huge difference, and it’s obviously more beautiful. That’s why I took the photo, because I don’t want people to cut down more trees.
The third photo talks about the environment. It shows that there are people who ignore the law and just throw garbage wherever they feel like which is a true problem in Haiti.
--Jacques Antoine

--Jacques Antoine

--James Milhomme

--Jean Guito Cadet

In Haiti when the rain falls the water engulfs the streets because there is no storm drain system. This keeps cars from driving – not just the water but the garbage too. I wish they would build storm drains, and I wish the state would keep people from littering.

I took this picture to show how ugly it is when people throw garbage in the ravine. When the rain falls all the garbage goes into the ocean and shows up in other countries. Then the people in those countries badmouth Haiti.

--Julio Laguerre

I took this picture because I can’t stand to see garbage and I want to see this situation change. We are not the ones who are supposed to take care of this kind of thing; the state authorities are the ones who need to do their job and fix it. This is why I want you to know how I feel when I see garbage on the street.

When someone looks me in the eye I would rather they not see the bad things only, but that they would try to see my dreams for people who live on the streets and the children who are suffering there. I took some photos which explained some things about the country and the environment and more developed countries who help us.

--Mackenzy Paul

I wanted to show in my photos how there are gardens and forests in Haiti along with places to play soccer. I took them in gardens mostly to show how well plants grow in this country. I took lots of pictures to show how women collaborate when they’re washing clothes in the river. Also, I wanted to show how these women don’t have a public water tap anywhere near their homes, so they have to come here to wash which is dangerous because of all the rocks above them that could fall down.
-Franncy Decimis

When you think about it, we owe everything beautiful in this country to trees.
-Andreson Bayard