08 March, 2007
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic—Haitian-born superstar, Emeline Michel, traveled to the Dominican Republic on March 1 on a three-day personal journey to the bateyes where more than 200,000 of her compatriots and their descendants live. Ms. Michel was welcomed and hosted by the humanitarian aid organization, the Batey Relief Alliance—BRA Dominicana.
The artist traveled to the province of Monte Plata where she made her first stop at batey Cinco Casas visiting BRA’s medical facilities and talking to local residents. She then traveled in the afternoon to batey Cojobal (a 2 ½ drive from Santo Domingo) where a multitude of children and adults awaited her with great joy, multicolored balloons, placards, and songs, “Bienvenida Emeline! Bienvenida Emeline!” “It was a memorable moment for me—having sung for so many years for countless audiences the emotionally charged song, Viejo, about the conditions of Haitians in the bateyes, and to now be right in the middle of that reality,” said Ms. Michel.
The singer, popularly known as the “Queen of Kreyol Songs” greeted the crowd emotionally in her mother tongue—Haitian Kreyol, “Bonjou zanmim yo!” or in English “Greetings my friends!” and sang Haitian folk songs, including “Tolalito” where she engaged the children to sing with her. After her short and improvised performance, the artist signed autographs and gave away CDs of her albums and personalized posters to the crowd. Many men and women—old and young—babies and children were all proud of the visit, as it was the fist time a world-famed Haitian artist has ever visited the bateyes. Ms. Michel explained that it was a complete shock to see a different world than what she had ever envisioned, “it is great to finally have my own insight—a priceless experience.”
A group of HIV/AIDS patients in the BRA’s HIV/AIDS prevention/treatment program was also there to talk to the artist about their lives and their life-saving treatment. There Ms. Michel had an intimate connection with one little girl who is HIV positive and an orphan after she had lost both of her parents to HIV/AIDS. “I returned home with my heart filled with both hope and despair—hope to witness the tremendous amount of work and care being provided by the Batey Relief Alliance, and despair to realize how many of us, instead of truly helping, have turned our backs away,” concluded Ms. Michel.
For more information about this release, contact Ulrick Gaillard at bra@bkreative.net or 917.627.5026. To learn more about the humanitarian work of the Batey Relief Alliance, visit www.bateyrelief.org.
Photo: Emeline Michel posing with one of the children at batey Cojobal. Credit Batey Relief Alliance.
