Parents are waiting to hear. The students are waiting to hear. Administrators and guidance counselors are waiting to here.

There is stress. Fear that it will be like last year when parents – in some cases – didn't hear until June where their kids were going to school. Special Needs kids in particular were the last to know last year where they'd be going to middle school.

Stress. Anger. Frustration. Anxiety for kids  who are embarking on a big transistion and deserve to know what's next.

This is bad news for Brooklyn neighborhoods where people depend on the public hospitals for health care and mental health services. Here's an excerpt from the article in the NY Times today:

New York City’s publi hospital system announced  Thursday that it
was cutting 400 jobs and closing some children’s mental-health
programs, pharmacies and community clinics that serve more than 11,000 patients.

Alan D. Aviles, president of the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, blamed reductions in state reimbursement, a sharp increase in uninsured patients and the rising cost of labor, drugs and medical supplies for the cuts.

He warned that he would probably announce further job and service cuts in a month or two. The hospitals face a looming $316 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal
year, which begins in July, and the current plan would save $105
million.

  Since 1992, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees (HWHR) has been providing cultural programs to working class immigrants, including adult literacy, popular
education, community organizing and media production to fight worker exploitation and anti-immigrant
policy.

Ninaj Raou (pictured left) co-founded HWHR after working with Haitians who were detained
by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay after fleeing the military
coup in 1991.

After the ouster of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Ninaj, a former-fashion journalist, responded to a call by the U.S. Justice
Department for Creole interpreters to go to Guantanamo Bay and
help translate the 20-minute interviews refugees that were granted to
establish their legitimate fear of persecution. 

Back in Brooklyn, Ninaj and two fellow translators,
Nicole Payen and Marie Cerat, opened their homes to women who were
released in their final months of pregnancy and flown to New York with
no resources or any notification of relief agencies.

Scrambling to meet
the needs of these women, Ninaj and Marie went to see President
Aristide, then in exile in the U.S. When they were asked for the name of their organization, the two women founded (and named) Haitian
Women for Haitian Refugees on the spot. Soon after they began to help the new arrivals with housing and public assistance.

HWHR will celebrate International Women's Day on Monday, March 9th from 6-8 p.m at Kombit (279 Flatbush Avenue). 

There will be a Silent Auction of rare and original Haitian artwork All proceeds will go to Haitian Women For Haitian Refugees' community education program: Haitian Workers Project.

If you can't make it to the event, consider making a contribution. Send your tax-deductible donation payable to:

IFCO/Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees
418 W.145th Street ,
New York , NY
10031

The Where and When

Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees
Silent auction and celebration of International Women's Day
Kombit
279 Flatbush Avenue ,
Brooklyn , NY
11217
(#2 or #3 train to Bergen
or B or Q to Seventh Ave. )

Donation $50

For more information contact:
718 735-4660 haitianwomen@aol.com