Halfway through shooting his documentary about the rough streets of Haiti, “Children of a Motherless Land,” where the social order bottoms out at child slave and where street children number half a million, Michel Dessources has a new mission.
“My project becomes even more important,” he said from his Yonkers apartment. “Now the entire nation is homeless. There is a whole new urgency.”
Dessources, 37 and in the U.S. since 1997, has lost “seven or eight uncles, aunts and cousins and perhaps 15 close friends, people I went to school with.” When he spoke Jan 18, miracles were still happening. “But now I”™m afraid it”™s been too long. At this point, if they”™re in the rubble, it”™s probably too late.”™”™
Dessources was born in Port au Prince, but lived “35 or 40 minutes away” in Leogane. “It”™s 90 percent destroyed,” he said. Contact was sparse and food and water were in desperate shortage. More so than money, he said, the most dire need was in the distribution arena. “I would love to be there, but right now with security and the absence of services, what can I do? It”™s difficult to just sit and watch.
“I spoke with Mayor Naramie Jasmin of Spring Valley yesterday,” Dessources said. “Rockland County has 12,000 Haitians and they”™ve organized a flight with 35 nurses. They”™re ready to go once they get the OK, as soon as possible. I and four other people have requested seats on a flight to help with efforts. And, yes, I would bring my camera.”
Dessources (pronounced de-source) has produced a five-minute trailer for “Children of a Motherless Land,” available on YouTube or at childrenofamotherlessland.org.
Growing up in Haiti, he said he was inured to the suffering of the Haitian street children. He returned as an adult to film the 2005 Jacques Roc feature “Pluie D”™espoir (Shower of Hope),” a Haitian coming-of-age tale. It was then, as the father of a small boy, now 10-year-old Brandon, that he first paid attention to the street children.
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“I want this to be the eyes and voice of the street children of Haiti,” Dessources said. “There are half a million of them. The lowest are child slaves and they go up from there to street children.” He had planned to finish the film by April. Early feedback, he said, has been strong, including from those in the industry with the power to get a one-hour documentary ”“ his proposed length ”“ on TV. Now: “Who knows? The money will be tough to get. My first reaction is to get there and help my family. My second reaction is to document what”™s happening. Money is the issue.”
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Schello Jean-Louis lives in Rockland County. He is studying criminal justice at Rockland Community College and counts Dessources as a friend. He did not lose close family in the earthquake, but fears for friends from whom he has heard nothing. (Estimates of the dead at press time were at more than 200,000 and the grim task of mass burials had begun.)
Jean-Louis said there was no single donation source that had surfaced via word of mouth among the Haitians, “But it is money they need. Let the people on the ground buy food and water and get it out there physically. A group of us got together and hit the streets and we”™ve raised $1,500. Right now we are deciding who”™s going to get it.”
“Pluie D”™espoir” has meantime witnessed a spike in interest on the Internet; its website offers a link to donate.
Aid update
A snapshot of help from Westchester County includes assistance from:
- Purchase-based MasterCard Worldwide waived interchange fees on Haitian relief donations made using U.S. issued MasterCard cards to: The American Red Cross, AmeriCares, UNICEF, Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, United Way and CARE USA. MasterCard’s support also includes a $250,000 donation to the American Red Cross. The company also double-matched employee contributions to the Haitian relief fund of the Red Cross. ?? The PepsiCo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Purchase-based PepsiCo, donated $1 million and provided Quaker products and bottled water and Gatorade for victims through its bottlers in Florida and the Dominican Republic. Of the million dollars, half will go toward future building efforts.
- Stew Leonard”™s, the Connecticut-based grocer with a location in Yonkers, formed a Haiti Relief Team in support of 107 Haitian Team Members who have been personally affected by the earthquake. The Stew Leonard”™s Haitian Relief Team began collecting donations on Jan. 18 with 100 percent of all donations going to those in need.
- Burlington Coat Factory in White Plains is collecting money to be donated directly to the American Red Cross. The store, located at 275 Main St., is joining another 430 Burlington Coat Factory stores nationwide in the effort.
