Central American Studies

1O2 cHAprER THBEE HUMAN RtcHTs

Broken palm trees, rutted roads, and rivers still \\,irhour proper brid$es are visiblereminders that another hurricane could strike ar an' time. A school bus, hftf-submergedin a river that was once the main road l.,to ,o*ln. i, "

.,,""t *rt.ess to ail that was lost. Theinhabitants of this Caribbean coastal village^knor,v it .ur-r r-r"ip"n again. That is why theyare so anxious to rebuild their homes u*uy f.o^ rhe low_lying part of the coast.'Here we have a small community trying to do all the right things - take care ofthe environment, stop deforestation, protecr its water suppries,, says Suzanne Shende,a Trinidadian American human and civil rights lawye. -r,o has been working with theGarifuna for nine years 'Every international conference and all the aid agenciei say theywant to mitigate the consequences of natural disasters and here is a community tryingto do iust that' And yet when a community needs such a small thing as fuel, the inrerna-tional donors aren,t there, After both Mitch and Michelle, the government's reconstruction efforts focusedmainly on the central parts of the country and left the Garifuna to fend for themseives.So the Garifuna wr

rhecomited,,^:;::,,::fr;;:::\:';:":;l;:;X: jY!ffi ;lH,:Xlli"ilm,was formed' And despit" puluiiou's concerns and the problems the Garifuna still face,the comite has been able to transform the lives of many of the people whose iives ittouches' In the past seven years, it has raised money and built houses for single mothers,supported artisans' farmers, and fishermen, and ,"i ,p kitchens to feed children and theelderly' begun training projects, supported micro businesses, and defended human righrs.The comite built houses for people without resources who had lost their homes,sent materials to help repair more thanforty schools, provided equipment and medicinesfor hospitals and health centres, repaired cultural ."nt."r, houses, schools, and smallbusinesses' and delivered donationsio tne needy. These had to be transported by what-ever means availabre * by boat, canoe, horse, mule, horse cart, pickup truck, or on foot.Because of the bad roads, many of which are impassable during the rarny season, thereis no established meth?d of. trinsporting medicines and supplies. Some of these same ,"ji'i:"r

are keeping donarions riom re'aching rhe ',""di"ri p"opre after rhe rsunamis

After the hufficane, even stems and seeds utilised by Garifuna farmers were notavailable (although international agencies and the gor"..,*".,t provided the seeds usedby the Latino population, says ani Lucy Bengo ciea, comite secretary) so the comitelooked furrher away for seeds they .oril ;;;";';;";;j", .nor, in need. rrs workincludes collecting seedlin$s from one town that has a surplu's and taking them to othertowns that have none, often by pickup truck across rutted and sometimes flooded roadsand then by boat across a river to a stlll isolated town. Three towns are accessible onlyby boat' People who receive the seeds are committed to providing future seeds to otherfarmers' making the project sustainable, They also alrect a small portion of their harvestto needy community members. The Comite worl

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