Edward Rawson wants Haiti to be in the news for all the right reasons. The executive director of Haiti Friends has partnered with the Latin American Cultural Center in Oakland to shine a light on the Caribbean nation with the art exhibit “Haiti: Culture, Religion and Revolution.” Rawson said that the stereotypes and recent unsubstantiated and negative stories about Haitian immigrants in the United States have been disappointing but unsurprising “That’s nothing new.
It’s always some kind of negative stereotype about Haiti that they’re always fighting to counter. This is our way of countering that. We wanted to give voice to Haitian people.
” Rawson’s grandparents, Gwen and Larry Mellon, moved to rural Haiti in 1954. They established the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, the first hospital in its region. Eventually, Rawson’s father — who was 10 years old when the family moved to Haiti — took over as managing director of the hospital.
For her part, his mother Lucy Rawson began Haiti Friends around 30 years ago. It was meant to be a sister organization for the hospital. “The main work that we do in Haiti is in direct partnership with the hospital.
We plant trees with farmers in the same area where the hospital operates. We give free education and agricultural training for farmers and we provide free trees. Basically, the project is an intersection of where the ecology and economy meet in rural Haiti,” Rawson said.
He pointed out that by adding economic d.