The earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 12 sent shockwaves deep into the Haitian American business community. The response was immediate from owners of small family businesses whose ties to the beleaguered Caribbean nation are exceptionally strong. Many of them are first-generation Americans whose parents emigrated to the U.S. during the political upheaval and economic crises of the 1980s, so they still have family and friends on the island.
“I can’t tell you how much I have heard from them about the horrors they are suffering,” says Alex Villier, president of ValuCare Inc., a healthcare agency with 700 employees in Hempstead, N.Y. Villier was born in Haiti, and more than a third of his nurses, therapists and aides are Haitian as well. “My employees have been tremendously affected,” he says. “Many of their family members are living on the street because their houses were downed. Whatever they had was lost. They suffer the devastation in their heart.”
Villier operates the agency with the help of his brother, Reginald, and his wife, Carmel. When disaster struck, he went right to work gathering medical supplies in conjunction with his church, Bethlehem Assembly of God in Valley Stream, N.Y. Using his connections in the music industry from a previous career, he helped organize a fund-raising concert featuring Haitian artists. The aid is bound for Fermate, one of the poorest areas near Port-au-Prince.
Donations stream in
Villier’s contributions are part of a steadily growing stream coming from the Haitian American business community. According to census data, Haitians are New York’s ninth largest immigrant group, with about 268,000 living there now. South Florida has the largest single concentration of Haitians in the U.S., with about 313,000, while another 308,000 are located in other parts of the country. Groups like Miami’s Haitian American Nurses Association and the Haitian League of New Jersey have sent dozens of doctors and nurses to help. The business community—big and small—has pitched in as well.
Thierry Alkhal is president of Prestige Products, a four-year-old food products company he started with his parents and brothers in Miami. Just before the earthquake hit, they had introduced a new line, Micheli Pasta, named after his mother’s family and intended for distribution throughout the southeastern U.S. and export to Haiti. Undaunted by the setback to his business model, Alkhal turned his energies to the relief effort.
“We’re planning a food drive in Florida where we’re going to match product purchases one-for-one,” Alkhal explains. He says it’s an approach the company has used before to support other causes. In this case, the donations will be funneled to Sow A Seed in Miami, a non-profit organization that provides for disadvantaged children in Haiti. Alkhal expects to donate 10,000 pounds of pasta to the relief operation. “Our effort can’t change what happened, but hopefully we will be able to feed thousands of families,” he says. “We hope to continue the program for at least 12 months so the people can depend on it.”
Also supporting Sow A Seed is Judith Joseph, owner of Le Chic Event Planning in Boca Raton, Fla. The former Marriott Hotel director started the business five years ago and works with her oldest son and five other employees to stage weddings, bar mitzvahs and corporate events. She emptied her showroom in Palm Beach so Sow A Seed could use it as a drop-off point for contributions. Her son has been driving truckloads of supplies to Miami for transshipment to Haiti. The first shipment had 27 pallets, the second had 19 and a third was being assembled at press time.
Like many others in the Haitian community, Joseph has many relatives still on the island. She didn’t hear from her brother and his family for four days after the disaster. “We were going crazy because we knew many people in their neighborhood had died,” she says. “Finally, we heard from them, but it was very difficult. They lost their house and had been living in the streets for a week and a half. Their boy was especially traumatized.”
Brasserie Creole, a spacious family-run restaurant in Queens, N.Y., has been a gathering place for Haitians for more than 20 years. When the earthquake struck, Pachuska Vil, daughter of co-founder William Vil, added Haiti relief efforts to her duties as entertainment director of the establishment. She now manages H.O.P.E. Pour Ayiti, a program the restaurant started to collect donations and relief supplies. In addition to sending out fliers and e-mails, she promotes the cause extensively on Facebook and involves the restaurant staff of 60 in sorting donated supplies and soliciting donations from customers. The restaurant is using proceeds from several events to pay for shipping the supplies it is collecting.
“This disaster was life-changing for me,” reflects Miami business owner Alkhal. “I see it as a wake-up call that at any time, no matter where you are, there are no guarantees. You have to make the best of the time you are here.”
Dave Donelson is a business journalist based in West Harrison, N.Y.