For our final fieldwork, we reached out to another non-profit organization called Hope for Haiti. Their main goal is to improve the quality of life for specifically Haitian women and children. On February 21, 2025, we had the opportunity to interview Hope for Haiti’s director of philanthropy, Briana Beauvoir.

She grew up very interested in Haiti as her dad’s side of the family is from there. Briana told us about the time that she visited Haiti. She described nature, food, beaches, and told us how beautiful Haiti truly is. There was a time when kids were playing on a beach that was filled with trash due to the lack of garbage trucks. The kids were still joyful and grateful to play on the beach. Briana talked about how the people of Haiti are so pure and filled with kindness.

In the interview, we asked her if she thought that Haiti gets enough coverage in the U.S. media. She told us that Haiti was a big country and that Port-Au Prince was a very small part of Haiti. The U.S. only focuses on the violence that is going on in Port-Au Prince. There is so much more to Haiti than all the cruelty that is happening in one place. She said that the U.S. specifically covers Port-Au Prince because they like to use big headlines such as all the massacres going on.

I think that it is truly sad how people depict Haitian people and group them all together as violent people just because of gang violence. As Briana said, Haitian people are very nice and the U.S. media needs to cover things outside of Port-Au Prince.

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We had the opportunity to meet with Briana Beauvoir from Hope for Haiti. Briana is Hope for Haiti’s Director of Philanthropy. She helps with all of the funding and emails that they receive. During our interview, we learned about Hope for Haiti’s Hike for Haiti event. The Hike for Haiti event is about registering as a team to Hike the equivalent of 200 flights of stairs to raise awareness for Haiti. As of right now, Haiti needs our help more than ever. There is violence everywhere, and the thought of being murdered comes up everyday.

The organization Briana Beauvoir works at, Hope for Haiti, is a not profitable organization aiding Haitian communities in southern Haiti. Briana had told us about Hope for Haiti’s work, giving 7,000 children schooling. What we learned from the interview was Briana’s thoughts on Haiti in the media. Since Donald Trump was saying immigrants were eating dogs and cats in Springfield, for the people that believed that, it gave them a negative view of Haitian people. Haitians people are very kind, and it is upsetting that people view them like this. The media gives Haitian people a negative portrayal whenever they actually cover the media.

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On February 7th, me and my group interviewed Paige Oberlag and Todd Lowans. We wanted to know more about organizations that help in Haiti firsthand. Paige is the leader of Mission of Hope’s Women empowerment team. She was living in Haiti up until 2016, when she was forced to leave her home due to the rising violence. When this happened, she decided to devote herself to non profit organizations helping people in Haiti from the D.R. She has made a great impact and is fulfilling her mission every day. Todd started helping out when one of his friends who was a missionary in Haiti told him about the crisis there and he decided that he was going to make a change. He had been working there for a while untill one day, he woke up with gangs taking over his city and being evacuated. he had to be brought to another city and then the D.R. While he was in the small town he helped out get families back on their feet, and that drove him to keep going with his work once he reached the D.R. We asked about ways we could help out, but sadly, no opportunities showed themselves. They told us that the best ways to help out, especially when this topic is so overlooked and there is nothing much to do when you are so far away. They told us that simply being kind to Haitian immigrants can make a difference, because they are probably here alone, in a foreign country trying to make a living.
Overall their interview was very interesting and helpful for us to move forward with our project.

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We had an interview with Paige Oberlag, the leader of Mission of Hopes Women Empowerment Team, and Todd Lowans, Mission of Hopes Vice President of operations. It was a pleasure interviewing them as they work at a Non-Governmental Organization that helps Haiti. Paige Oberlag currently lives in the DR with her husband helping out on the issue. In this interview, we learned Todd’s and Paige’s thoughts of Haiti in the media and some personal stories of theirs.

During our interview today, we asked the two how they think Haiti is portrayed in the media. Todd said that there is little to nothing about Haiti in the media, but there are some things when there is a heavy assassination, like the president a couple years ago. But ultimately, Todd thinks Haiti is covered when there is an American person stuck in Haiti and can’t get back to America. There are a couple things in the media, but once they are back to America there is nothing new. Paige had previously lived in Haiti in 2019, but when the gangs were on the uprise, they had to go to the DR, and they went from the north coast to the south coast only because of the gangs.

Todd had a story where overnight, the streets where he had his campsite were completely destroyed, and there were hundreds of roadblocks in the area. Another note, this only happened overnight. They had been trapped in the area, and someone had to come help them. Some friends from a separate organization had been kidnapped by some gangs in Haiti, but thankfully they were able to rescue them.

With all of the stories they told us about, it really just tells me how dangerous and quickly things can escalate there. The part with the media also just screams at me that the US really just doesn’t care about issues in places like Haiti.

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On Friday, our grade went to the Museum of the City of New York. The trip wasn’t very beneficial to my group. As Haiti is in the Caribbean and the museum was mostly about the history of activism in NY. Even though we didn’t learn anything about our topic, we still learned about some of the history of movements.

The museum really made me wonder what I can do at a young age. We’re doing this project for school, but some people chose to do this with their own will. The history of activism is way more than I thought it was.

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Me and my group watched the documentary: Haiti on Fire. It was a very powerful experience because it showed us another face to the story of the people living there and not just reporters from the outside. I learned a lot about how the people are dealing with their situation. the part where the people interviewed the man at the hospital really spoke to me because he had the courage to speak up about how he really felt about Jimmy Barbecue and how he doesnt care about the people’s lives, he just wants to be power.

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Today, me and my group members watched the documentary, Haiti on Fire, and it taught us quite a bit about Haiti’s current state. The sad reason why the documentary is called ‘Haiti on Fire’ is because parts of Haiti, and some citizens of Haiti are lit on fire right now. One of the multiple things we learned was that your friends could die at any moment, Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier’s barber had died just randomly, it just shows how surprising and violent Haiti can really be. The documentary was very graphic and showed some people that were actually burned alive.

In Haiti, there are two ‘rival’ groups/gangs, the G9, and the G-Pep. Both of them hate each other and have different views on what they want Haiti to be. In Haiti, there are multiple views of how Jimmy Barbecue is as a person. People say that Jimmy Barbecue will ruin Haiti, he is a cannibal, murderer, and he burns people alive. On the other hand, Jimmy Cherizier and his gang think of him as an idol. He wants to be president and he says he will save Haiti. The documentary shows Jimmy Cherizier as a somewhat decent person. But people describe him as much worse things. Overall, we learned a lot more background on the gang violence in Haiti.

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We interviewed my father, Emmanuel Alexandre on December 19. We asked him questions about his experiences in Haiti and what he thought we as students could do to help. I got suggestions about how to help this cause even as a student in a nother country. Him sharing his experiences with us helped us unerstand really what we as a group are dealing with and that the problem isnt just the gangs, but how people are treated in general. It was very helpfull to have someone to share that has had these experiences firsthand. overall, this meeting was a good way to open the path to understanding haiti’s history without only focusing on the downsides.

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On Thursday, December 19th, me and my group members had an interview with Emmanuel Alexandre Jr, Massamba’s father. We talked about the gang violence and how they’re taking over areas in the country. We learned that there isn’t just physical violence, but there is sex trafficking and many other issues. Emmanuel also shared a few stories. Including one where he talked about how one day he was woken up, and there was marching outside about an issue there.

There isn’t much we can do about helping for the issue, all we can really do is donate to organizations that will help make schools higher quality for the kids. Emmanuel also suggested that we reach out people that immigrated from Haiti or experience violence in the area. The infamous gang leader, Jimmy ‘Barbecue’ Cherizier’, him and his gang had killed the old prime minister of Haiti. One of the main messages we got is that, even though were students, we should try as much as we can. I’m looking forward to learning more about this.

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