By Ervin Dyer
In the small shelter at North Park, the Haitian flags started going up at about 3 in the afternoon.
The wooden tables were covered in plastic cloths that were rouge and bleu, showcasing the national colors of the small Caribbean nation.
Before long, more people came, peppering the occasion with greetings in French Creole, the grassroots language in Haiti.
“Sak pase,” they’d ask, “What’s happening?”
“N’ap boule,” came the response, meaning “I’m fine.”
There were hugs all around as a diverse group – physicians, teachers, forklift operators, artists, computer programmers, preachers, food service workers and engineers – showed up for the third annual picnic sponsored by Haitians in Pittsburgh United, or HPU.
In the United States, immigrant Haitian communities flourish in Boston, Miami and New York City, but the founders and organizers of HPU say that there is an uptick of immigrant Haitians and their families settling in Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties, too.
HPU organizers want to use activities like the picnic in the park to help them find and connect so they can work together and serve Haitians who are coming to America and the disinformation impacting them. They also help those who are still living in Haiti and surviving the social and political challenges that have beset the nation.
Tiffany McilVaine, left, chats with Rozelle Pamphile at the Haitians in Pittsburgh United picnic at North Park. Photo by Ervin Dyer.
There are no formal U.S. Census numbers, but “No doubt the population is growing,” says physician Kans Delisma, who has served as chair of HPU for two years. About three years ago, a neighbor introduced Delisma to the Rev. Leon Pamphile, a Haiti native who has lived in Pittsburgh for more than 40 years and is the leader of the Functional Literacy Ministry of Haiti, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit that supports a mountainous community a few miles from Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city.
In 2021, Pamphile had recently founded and organized the nonprofit HPU and recruited Delisma to serve on the board. Delisma, also native to Haiti, has lived in Pittsburgh for six years but has been in America for about three decades.
With the immigrant Haitian population creeping up, the two men agreed it would be good to try to bring structure to the growing community. Some of the goals of HPU are to create mutual interaction, help newcomers navigate settlement, promote Haitian culture in a positive way and help those living in Haiti.
In the years since it began, HPU has held a Haitian cultural competency seminar, a celebration of Haitian Flag Day and several community events that gather friends and organizations who support Haitians.
“Haitians United is a way to not be isolated,” says Delisma. “Our slogan is ‘Unity is strength,’ a principle adopted from the Haitian national motto.”
Delisma and Pamphile say the Haitian population in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area is about 2,000 people — a mix of recently arrived immigrants, those who are flowing in from other cities, and first- and second-generation sons and daughters who are born in the United States. The region is attractive because it is welcoming, respectful, a manageable size, has employment opportunities and is affordable, says Delisma.
Getro Bernabe has lived in Charleroi for four years. He works to help newly arrived immigrant Haitians get settled in the Mon Valley. Photo by Ervin Dyer.
About half of the 2,000 are living in Charleroi, Washington County, but also Monessen, Belle Vernon, Monongahela and other Mon Valley communities, says Getro Bernabe, a Haiti native who has lived in Charleroi for four years.
The Haitians are drawn to the Mon Valley by word of mouth. Its affordability and opportunities for employment with the different industries — a packaging plant, a glass factory, an Amazon warehouse and others — are ways to offer Haitians a stable path into U.S. society.
“We are told that this is a place where we can come and make it,” he says.
A friend told Bernabe, 48, about Charleroi, and he left West Palm Beach, Florida, to come north. Bernabe, a former Haitian Coast Guard officer and liaison to the U.S. Embassy in the Caribbean, has been hired in the newly created role as an immigrant liaison, working with the Mon Valley’s Neighborhood Partnership Program to help recently arriving Haitians.
“I’m like a booster,” says Bernabe, after making the rounds at the picnic. “I’m a bridge-keeper. I speak the language and can help connect Haitians with resources – human services, hospitals and schools. I know how to break English barriers.”
Bernabe, who lives with his mom, estimates there are about 700 Haitian workers in the Mon Valley, about 150 school-age children, and other family members who push the population figures higher.
As Haitian music resonates from speakers at the picnic, Adriene Pamphile, 75, and her husband, Raoul, 77, sit at one of the wooden tables. They’re at the picnic with several of their children. The couple came to Pittsburgh in 1993, aided by Leon Pamphile, Raoul’s older brother, who’s been in Pittsburgh working as a teacher and preacher since the 1970s.
She’s from Port-au-Prince and he’s from LaBoule, a rural mountainous area not too far away. Today, they live in Verona, a suburb east of Pittsburgh. She retired as a food service worker with the Pittsburgh Public Schools, and he was a forklift operator for a laundry service. They raised their three sons and two daughters in Pittsburgh.
“We feel happy when we get the chance to meet other Haitians,” says Adriene Pamphile. “That’s not easy to do here. But coming [to the picnic] and being together, it’s a good idea: a way to keep the culture, history and use our language.”
Adriene and Raoul Pamphile at the Haitians in Pittsburgh United picnic in North Park on Saturday, Sept. 7. Photo by Ervin Dyer.
For Ricardo “Rico” Jean-Pierre, 33, the gathering is a good place to get to know others. The computer programmer came to the area in 2020 from New York City, where he grew up with his mom, Marie, and his father, Teliusm. The Haiti natives met and married in New York.
Jean-Pierre heard about HPU from a friend. After a recent breakup, he thought the group offered “community connectedness,” a benefit that would bleed into his personal progress and networking – helping him with jobs and other resources.
Tiffany McilVaine is the daughter of Haitian immigrants: her mom, Valentine, and her stepfather, Jean-Renal. She’s traveled to Haiti to visit cousins and walk through the village where her family is from. She grew up in the Boston area, went to college in North Carolina, but came to Pittsburgh about two years ago to work in sales management.
She’s aware of Pittsburgh’s connection to Haiti. When her sister recently visited, they proudly went to the Hill District, a neighborhood that in the early 1800s was called Little Hayti, because the residents there were deeply inspired by the 1804 Haitian Revolution and its mission of freedom and liberation.
A friend at work told her about the picnic.
“I told her I really wanna go,” says McilVaine. “I don’t know any Haitians here. But I believe in groups like Haitians United because I feel like, when I’m around Haitians, I hear the language, when I have the food, it makes me feel like home. I get that sense at the picnic. Today, I feel like I’m home.”
HPU welcomes new members by emailing [email protected] or by calling 412-512-1439.
Ervin Dyer is a writer who focuses his storytelling on Africana life and culture.
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