- ATD Fourth World

At the heart of the symposium, was the involvement of poor people refusing the fatality of poverty. “We are speaking tonight keeping in mind all the families who are tired of living in poverty and who feel alone here and around the world,” declared Nerline Laguerre at the opening of the symposium. Nerline represented the ATD Fourth Worlds gathering committee in Haiti, which brings together 18 mothers and fathers of families living in extreme poverty in various parts of the capital city. Created in 2001, this committee has maintained the links between families shaken by the deaths and dispersed by the violence, during the major tensions of the last three years.

Facing this young woman, representing the families living in extreme poverty, there was almost 600 people of different ages, cultures and social origins : University professors, students, artists, invited guests from Mexico, Guatemala, The Dominican Republic, Guadeloupe and Cuba, top ranking civil servants, mayors, company executives and people from the international community in Haiti, also present was the director of FOKAL who is also the president of the scientific committee, the director of the ATD Fourth World Institute of research and training in human relations, and Eugen Brand General Delegate of the International organization ATD Fourth World. They embodied the message on the paving stone at the Trocadero in Paris which is at the origins of the world day for overcoming extreme poverty: “Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty”.

Eugen Brand declared, “What model of democracy is such a meeting which calls on the intelligence of the poorest? […]Haiti found the key to this democracy re-founded with everyone, and to which we aspire in all countries…” The project of this symposium, which questions the link between poverty and democracy, was recognized by the university world by its relevance. Michele Pierre Louis, director of FOKAL, said, referring to the independence of the republic of Haiti in 1804. “How can we continue to believe that maintaining the Haitian peasant in his present condition will enrich the country? […] Two hundred years ago, we dared to think of freedom, will we dare today to think of equality?” The acts, which will be published, and will share the symposium’s learning, rich in sharing experiences, thoughts and encounters. It was a true exercise in democracy. A path for Haiti to follow remains uncovered, and even more than that; “because these questions require that everybody should give their time, intelligence and heart to find a light together,” as the Fourth World families had expressed in the inaugural session.

Contributions by Gabrielle Erpicum, Saint Jean Lherissaint, Paul Marechal.