Haiti devastated; support is needed now for its redevelopment

The 12 January earthquake that destroyed the major part of Port-au-Prince also destroyed the headquarters of the National Centre of Geo-Spatial Information (CNIGS), also the HQ of the national chapter of the Institute of Geography and History (IPGH) in Haiti .

The IPGH Secretary-General has been in contact with various official information sources of the UN and the OAS in Haiti and with that information, confirms that at least five professionals working in the Centre have died, including Gina Porcena Meneus.

Haiti has faced tremendous challenges in meeting its objectives for geography and cartography. With the assistance of the European Union and other sources of international cooperation, Gina Porcena assumed the direction of the Centre and her work has been recognized for advancing the Haitian capacity for geographic and spatial information - which a good part has now been lost with the destruction of the building.

Gina, mother of two daughters, as been associated with IPGH since 2006, when she participated as the Haitian delegate to the 39th annual meeting of IPGH's executive board, in Viña del Mar, Chile. There, together with her colleague Maria Luisa Castello, Chairwoman of the PAIGH’s National Section in Brazil, she took part in the Closing Session, and on behalf of the delegates she expressed:

“We consider that in a Pan American institute there are basic principles that must be promoted: SOLIDARITY, EXCHANGE, RESPECT AND MUTUAL SUPPORT among the Member States. If these principles are not accomplished in a political and economic level in the region, in this globalized world and with so many inequities among the states, we therefore think these may be promoted in the technical and scientific level of the countries of the PAIGH.”

Since then, Gina never missed the statutory meetings of the Institute and in the most recent one, the 19 General Assembly held in Quito, Ecuador in October 2009, besides sharing her joy, she announced her desire to recompose the National Section. To this end, she designated Elizabeth Farah François as the Executive Secretary of the National Section and also she offered the CNIGS to host the 45 Meeting of the Directing Council to take place in 2014. Farah is a survivor of the earthquake (see photo at the right) The chiefs and representatives of the national development organizations meeting as the "United Summit for Haiti", in Santo Domingo on 18 January 2010, have agreed to the formation of a working group that will have its objective as making a strategic plan for the reconstruction of the country, taking as its main goal support for the people of Haiti, as well as meeting the UN's Millennium Goals for Haiti. Thus, the IPGH as member of the Interamerican Committee for Reduction of Natural Disasters (CIRDN), and responsible for the continental objectives for the Committee's goals, will be involved in the work and objectives of the IPGH's Panamerican Agenda, 2010-2020, including wherever possible, its support for the re-establishment of Haiti's National Centre of Geo-Spatial Information.

With this proposal, we [the IPGH] are now undertaking this objective with special attention and we are calling upon the
community of like-minded people - especially members of the Panamerican Network of Professionals (RPP),
to support these ideas and initiatives.

Starting from today, the Forum for the Agenda are inviting responses for the following question:

What ideas, alternatives and proposals might the IPGH consider in order to support the re-activation of Haiti's CNIGS and the work of its Academy of History and Geography?

Send your replies to: agendaipgh@ipgh.org