Skip to main content

Ile Cayemite: Simple Lives, Big Difference

Ile Cayemite, a small island of about 20,000 inhabitants and 500 households is just around two hours away by boat from the mainland of Corail. Even before setting foot on the island, one could not help but notice the desolation in the area - lambi shells scattered on the shore; makeshift houses; children left to fend for themselves; a mid-sized boat buying all the catch of the day and paying just enough for the islanders' subsistence.


It is futile to ask whether they have access to electricity much less basic health care or fresh drinking water. One school, one mini health clinic, one cistern to collect rain water - c'est tout. A priest tries to use all his means to help these people live through each day.


In spite of this simplicity and seeming lack of basic necessities, the people have this aura of contentment about them. It's the wonder of adaptation to one's environment. As we sailed around the island, the crystal clear waters, white sand patches and isolated coves caught my attention. This place is not too bad after all.


A small act of kindness would hopefully go a long way. MINUSTAH is financing the construction of three cisterns in 3 different locations in the island to augment the rain water collection capacity of the population. The people are very much appreciative of this project so much so that they have put in all their collective efforts to help build the cisterns, which are now almost completed even if the project is barely a month old.


Walking about, it has become obvious that it would certainly be worthwhile implementing other projects to ameliorate the lives of the Cayemiteans. Two things that instantly came into mind are solar-powered public lighting and the installation of a better basketball board to replace the makeshift one they now have. Off to work then. I hope to come back in a few weeks' time with more good news for Ile Cayemite.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MINUSTAH assists the fishermen of Gonaïves

Raboteau, a small fishing village in Gonaives (Haiti) used to be the Cité Soleil of this region. Past typhoons have ravaged the lives and livelihood of people in this area. Starting with a quick impact project to provide a small fishing motor boat to the population, the project has developed into a much larger one in view of community violence reduction. Don't give them the fish but help them to fish. Click to read on.
Post a Comment
Read more

How Aid in Cash, Not Goods, Averted A Famine In Somalia

“ Increasingly, it became clear that a new flow of international aid, cash, and not goods, worked to mitigate the risks of an immediate famine. For now, in spite of acute risks in some parts of the country, Somalia has successfully averted a food crisis,” How Aid in Cash, Not Goods, Averted A Famine In Somalia 08 September - Source: IPS News - 594 Words In February, when the government of Somalia sounded an alarm to the UN about risks of a famine in the country, the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), besides quickly shuffling a response team, was acting from a steep sense of history. The Office, instead of sending out massive aid packages, distributed cash vouchers to families who could spend it to buy goods according to their needs. The famine between the years 2010 and 2012, which killed more than a quarter of a million people in the country, offered important lessons to the aid community. This spring, when poor rainfall led to large scale crop failure...
Post a Comment
Read more

Uncovering Somalia's Forgotten Music of the 1970s

18 August- Source: Al Jazeera English- 2840 Words In 1331, famed Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta arrived in Mogadishu, on the Banaadiri coast, in what is today Somalia. Battuta came across the richest, most powerful port in East Africa, at the fore of the Indian Ocean trade system, then the centrepiece of the global economy. Anchored off the coast, he was greeted by "boatloads of young men … each carrying a covered platter of food to present to one of the merchants on board," writes Ross Dunn in The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century. Such renowned hospitality welcomed seafarers and merchants from across the Arabian peninsula, Persia, India, Southeast Asia, and even China. Mogadishu derives from "Maq'ad-i-Shah", Farsi - one of the lingua francas of Indian Ocean merchants and traders - for "Seat of the King". Its local name, Xamar, was given by Arab traders, after the Arabic word "ahmar" for the red soil al...
Post a Comment
Read more