Haiti Blogs
Read Paul Biddle's Eighth Instalment from Haiti
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The building work is moving on a pace with the accommodation nearly completed in Arcahaie along with the massive walls in Delmas; the difference is incredible from the destroyed buildings we found when we got here. I cannot believe we got the project off the ground so fast. It's six months on from the earthquake and for those of us who have been here all that time there are changes to see. Life in Haiti has always been hard and the poverty extreme but the markets are full, the rubble is being cleared and music fills the air most nights. I do not pretend to like workshops having attended a few in my time. That said I do attend if I feel they will benefit my work and usually if they have “security” in the title. Very shallow I know, but having been a soldier, policeman and a prison officer I think I understand the psyche of my trade |
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It’s not trickery or deceit but in fact everything we do in prisons has “security” at its core from “change management” to “human rights”
In my last job I was tasked with co-ordinating justice and prisons throughout Afghanistan at the provincial level; I visited over 20 provinces. I used the sobriquet “security sector reform” for the prisons and police and “human rights” and “justice” for civil society and the judiciary. Each sector attended no doubt wondering why the other had turned up.
I always start my workshops with a question which at the end of the session I want answered. I also want to learn something myself. The best workshops are the ones where you can walk away saying to yourself “I never knew that.”
In all debates I get someone to write the most salient points down; this is where you will learn and those attending will learn.
Why workshops and not training? I think when you are not familiar with the country or you have not been able to undertake a training needs assessment you may not truly know what is required. Also it would be wrong to start training if you are not the primary facilitator.
Our workshops targeted the Haitian senior management, the director, the deputy director, the director’s staff officer, the director of training and the director of engineering and all the regional sub-directors. It also had MINUSTAH and the ICRC as guests.
We have through the workshops gained a greater understanding of the training needs which have now been passed to the UN.
Smaller design workshops for the planners, engineers and architects on “security” design and “security” planning have also been undertaken but mainly at the sites.
Workshops do not need to be set piece - some of the best are impromptu. During a meeting when posed with a problem and time is allowed, stop the meeting and turn it into a workshop. Resolve the issue and resume the meeting. It works!
Workshops are a great tool,not only to impart your knowledge and experience but more importantly to gain the knowledge you need to be more effective.
Read Paul Biddle's Seventh Instalment from Haiti
Well it’s raining here in Port-au-Prince and I hear it 's wonderful weather in the UK ….the Caribbean, what can I say! |
The building work is moving on a pace with the accommodation nearly completed in Arcahaie along with the massive walls in Delmas; the difference is incredible from the destroyed buildings we found when we got here. I cannot believe we got the project off the ground so fast.
It's six months on from the earthquake and for those of us who have been here all that time there are changes to see. Life in Haiti has always been hard and the poverty extreme but the markets are full, the rubble is being cleared and music fills the air most nights. |
The World Cup has been an absolutely joyous occasion for the Haitians with workers stopping to cheer and applaud the various teams, cars with flags and groups running along the roads singing
During the last game, Holland versus Germany, I had been asked to meet some senior prison managers. When I arrived they insisted that we watch the game. Apparently that was why they wanted to meet me. Bill Shankly’s quote about football and life springs to mind!
I have a stinking cold and our cook, bless her, mothers all of us and is constantly making special soups for Bill and various potions made up of bark, leaves and who knows what for me .
I told her I had a sore throat and she spent the morning brewing this concoction and then made me drink it . You will be pleased to know my sore throat has gone and I slept really well!!!.
Our cook, and I do love her to bits , likes to give us goat for lunch . But why does goat smell like goat?
We are in our last few weeks of the mission and I leave in a few weeks . I hope to undertake a few more blogs before I finish……ah is that goat for lunch, yep ....
Read Paul Biddle's Sixth Instalment from Haiti
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Another workshop today, this time on prison security procedures. With our UN colleagues and the Haitian prison service senior management, there were up to 12 people attending. Alex and Damien translated the technical jargon which Bill and I delivered.
We found initially that the workshops took about 2-3 hours. Now because of the interest in them, they take all day. Meetings for the rest of the week normally have further questions and answers. We have another four workshops and then the UN will take over.
The leave cycle hits us for the last time with Bill and Damien off this week. I will be finishing in just over a month. I can’t reflect fully on my experience yet as there is still much to do, but it only seems like yesterday when we arrived.
The building work goes on and the new wall at Delmas is a splendid piece of work with foundations as deep as they are high. The new cell doors at Arcahaie have been approved as a national standard.
The new policies we have drafted will be presented next week and we have had agreement that the UN will take them on for implementation.
The first tropical storm is with us, so rain and winds over the weekend, just in time to watch the England versus Germany football match……rain and bad football, just like home!
It was a nice surprise last week when my wife arranged for the team to take me out for a surprise birthday dinner. Thanks guys, it was much appreciated.
Read Paul Biddle's Fifth Instalment from Haiti
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The art of blogging, apart from being somewhat cathartic, helps makes the team here in Haiti feel part of the wider world.
Since the last blog much has happened.. Alex went to the Dominican Republic on leave. He came back to regale us with tales of interesting rest stops and motorcycle taxi rides. He has fallen in love with the island and we will, I am sure, be hard pressed to get him to leave when we finish. Following the Icelandic ash cloud, Bill got stuck in various countries as did Damien.
We welcomed Cherry and Imogen, the project review team who were looking at how our projects have progressed! René our Haitian translator has also been working tirelessly in the background. He is one of the nicest and most competent people I have ever met, a true gentleman.
We are still working with our Canadian and UN colleagues. Our work with the Haitian authorities is continuing with workshops on security, contingency planning and change management. We are working hard to promote the need for international minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners,
The building work is moving on apace with difficulties over door design and fitting now resolved. Whilst I was away, the team tested the doors in situ to sign them off as secure. This involved the team using iron bars to try to test the cells. It must have been a sight!
The construction side of the two projects has provided employment for over 70 unemployed Haitian workers and the impact on the local community has been significant.
On Monday we have more workshops, site visits and meetings. Our work here is only achievable through the strength and expertise of the team. We bear both our successes and challenges together.
Paul
Read Paul Biddle's fourth instalment from Haiti
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Haiti means Land of the High Mountains and as you take the short trip from Santo Domingo to Port au Prince in the UN plane, you get a very good glimpse of how rough the land is and how hardy the people have to be to survive here. British involvement in Haiti was a small footnote in history. Invading in 1793, we were sent packing by 1798. This was part of the wars against the French, a small reminder still survives in the British fort in the south of the country It is therefore with some sense of irony that we have returned to Haiti with a very able Frenchman on the team! Our excellent local staff, who have been with us from the start, are truly exceptional. We would not have achieved what we have without their cheerful support. Our work here moves on apace. Ground has been broken on the two construction projects and we have almost daily workshops on prison design and prison policy. .We have steered away from the dreaded “death by power point” - beloved of by so many! Instead through open discussions and scenario based workshops, we have engaged our Haitian colleagues. Our work here is not about quick wins but about sustainability. |
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Although it’s not as hot as Helmand, the humidity is through the roof. The country is also suffering from a massive fuel shortage with all the garages closed. On Sunday we were caught in a massive downpour with the roads flooded and visibility down to zero. I can only imagine what it must be like in the camps. Haiti is still a country devastated by the legacy of the recent earthquake but slowly but surely, the Haitians are getting their country back on its feet |
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Read Paul Biddle's third instalment from Haiti
Success is only measured by how sustainable it is. As with all reconstruction projects, to give the host society some quick successes means a great deal. When we arrived, many internationals and local experts said that the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince had been devastated beyond repair - the smell of burning and the odour of sweat from thousands of prisoners hung in the air, along with piles of scattered belongings littering the floors.
Tucked away in the corner was the old chapel built over a hundred years ago. This was a hellish corner where over 400 prisoners had lived.
Our assessment was simple. The first steps had to be made by the Haitians, and we would help them along the way.
Despite the amount of rubbish, and fire damage, I assessed the damage in the “Brick” block to be minimal. With our direction, the clean up process began and so the journey to recovery.
Today, just three weeks on, 507 prisoners are back in the National Penitentiary and next week the other blocks will undergo reconstruction. The administration will also start the long process to rehabilitation.
The Haitians have shown resilience and fortitude after the earthquake. They have now taken the first brave steps to building a new prison service that will hopefully lead the way for the rest of the justice system.
There is still however plenty of hard work for us to do….
Paul Biddle’s Blog from Haiti continues…
A few weeks ago, we said goodbye to
the tents, large bugs, and military to move to the rented house. The house can accommodate us all and has basic amenities.
One of the interesting things about being involved in this work is the people you meet and the opportunity to engage with cultures far removed from your own. In Haiti, one of the first and most important things to consider is the country’s history. Haitians are an exceptionally proud nation. They were the first black republic and, after the USA, the second nation to break free from their former colonial power. But Haiti has been devastated by the recent earthquake, it is now a nation which needs and has asked for assistance.
So who are the Haitians involved in our work? Everyday, a young man arrives on his motorbike. Self taught in prison design, he is always ready to listen to new ideas, constantly writing and taking notes.
There are the prison commanders… we normally collect them on the way to the prison. They wear civilian clothes as their uniforms were lost when their houses crumbled in the earthquake. They have no staff and the prisoners have long escaped… but every visit makes them more involved in the future they assumed would never be. I can only imagine what they are thinking. The prison staff sleep around the prisons. The questions remains though - where will they sleep when the rebuilding has taken place?
The Director of Prisons is an impressive, large and imposing man with a ready smile. He is a very, very proud man and not easily given to asking for help’. We normally meet him in a tent as no Haitians will set foot in a house. The events of January will run deep for some time.
Providing decent wind and rain proof shelter before the rainy season is a major priority for the Department for International Development (DFID). Read more about DFID's response to the Haiti earthquake here:
http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Media-Room/News-Stories/2010/Haiti-Earthquake/
Haiti - More than Voodoo and Rum
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Paul Biddle is head of a team of security experts from the This is our first blog and, like all first steps, it’s not easy. I knew very little about Haiti and what I did know was based on vague ideas - the land of Voodoo and Rum, Papa Doc and Bond movies. Nothing quite prepared me for my experience here. So why is the UK Government here...the devastating earthquake which killed thousands of Haitians was beyond awful. The international community, well versed in natural disasters, mobilised the rescue teams, delivered food and water and started the relief effort. The Haitians, initially stunned by the immeasurable loss of lives, the devastation of infrastructure and the crippling of government, have begun to rally. As stoic a people you would ever hope to meet, they’ve started the long process of healing and recovery. The UK Government’s Stabilisation Unit work here was to be a different sort - prisons!! I’ve been involved for over 25 years with prisons either building them, training the staff or mentoring senior prison management in both conflict and post-conflict situations but, as I said earlier, I’ve never worked in the aftermath of a major natural disaster. Re-constructing prisons in these circumstances is somewhat uncharted territory for the UK Government. In 30 seconds, most of the infrastructure in the capital and its surroundings were destroyed, including much of the Haitian prison service. Given the scenes of devastation I can only imagine how the prisoners and the guards felt in those 30 seconds and why the guards fled to their families, in some cases leaving the prisoners in their cells. Prisoners used any means they could to escape with some guards releasing prisoners back into the community on humane grounds. The escaping prisoners destroyed all prison records.....and up to 5000 of the total Haitian prison population of 8000 fled. So when the initial team came to Haiti, the Haitian Government gave a very clear assessment that they needed to re-establish law and order. The rebuilding of the prisons was the first step to achieving this and ensuring that the international aid effort was not threatened by lawlessness. The Haitians were also very clear that nothing could be the same as before the earthquake. They needed to do it better and to do so they were keen to accept the assistance of the international community - this is how we and our international partners came to be here. Our work, co-ordinated by the Haitian Ministry of Justice will begin in earnest over the next few months. I will blog on our successes and failures along with a good dose of measured humour...I look forward to the new staff arriving, introducing our Haitian friends to you and embracing Haitian culture.........Until next time….team of security experts from the UK’s Stabilisation Unit helping to restore law, order and security in Haiti’s capital by rebuilding and strengthening the prisons destroyed in the earthquake. Paul has worked for over 25 years in the prison sector in both conflict and post-conflict situations such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Here he recounts his experiences of the SU's work in Haiti. |
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