Labadee - anyone ever bring anyhting to the people in Haiti?

I was just wondering if anyone has ever brought anything to the people of Haiti when they go to Labadee. If so, what have you brought and is there a procedure you need to follow to do this?

In the straw market once, years ago, one of the vendors really wanted my Nike baseball hat as part of a transaction. So I gave it to him...

Another time in Costa Maya my wife had an inexpensive bag from Old Navy that had gotten something all over the inside of it, so at our beach excursion she ended up tossing it. Later we saw one of our tour guides (who was the nicest young lady) retrieve it from the rubbish bin and we overheard her telling the other guide how all she had to do was remove the lining and sew something new in, etc. Was sort a moment of reflection for my wife and I but of course we gave them a nice tip at the end.

After that I thought about buying some inexpensive shirts and other items at the factory outlet, e.g. Nike/Adidas/whatever that could be given away. You know, the stuff usually on a table when you walk in at the 5-10 dollar range that is perhaps difficult to obtain in some of these places.

On the other hand a great many always say "cash is king" which I agree with so I would never hand out an item in lieu of gratuity, but rather in addition to.

We were on Explorer right after the earthquake in early 2010 and we stopped in Labadee. Explorer brought pallets of water and other supplies. Also, several people on our roll call brought supplies. I've seen others report bringing school supplies after making arrangements ahead of time. Other than the staff hired to work there and those in the straw market, you won't have contact with locals. If you do some searching here, you can probably find some of the old posts from the 2010 timeframe when the earthquake happened with info on bringing supplies. There have been posts since, but mostly on roll calls.

I was on an Allure cruise where the roll call collected musical instruments and school supplies. They had cooperation from Royal and a few persons went with the donation to the school built by Royal

Read this review by Toddcan who took school supplies to Labadee.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1811839

We will be there in May and we're wondering the same thing. Who do you think we should contact at RCCL in this regard? We would like to bring school supplies.

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The one time I stopped on Labadee, there was man wading up paper currency and throwing it over the "wall". It didn't take long for the RCCL employees to put a stop to it.

I was on an Allure cruise where the roll call collected musical instruments and school supplies. They had cooperation from Royal and a few persons went with the donation to the school built by Royal

We were on one too... was it an early December cruise? May have been the same one. The Meet and Mingle was the biggest and best too.... So much was collected for the schools.

Check out Pack for a Purpose. My wife and I have done that in various vacations.

I tipped the restroom attendant in the past. She seemed older, frail and very grateful for a tip. I'm guessing a lot of people don't remember to take cash with them to the restroom. I would love to know what people there could actually use in addition to cash, especially women and children. Possibly reusable/washable sanitary pads, new packs of underwear, cloth diapers? I have tried to find information online about what Haitians need but it seems to boil down to infrastructure which one person obviously cannot provide.

I tipped the restroom attendant in the past. She seemed older, frail and very grateful for a tip. I'm guessing a lot of people don't remember to take cash with them to the restroom. I would love to know what people there could actually use in addition to cash, especially women and children. Possibly reusable/washable sanitary pads, new packs of underwear, cloth diapers? I have tried to find information online about what Haitians need but it seems to boil down to infrastructure which one person obviously cannot provide.

So true about the infrastructure and so sad, there's nothing we can do about that like you said. The Haitian could use all the things you've mentioned and so much more. Anything you give them, even if it's one thing, even a few dollars, they appreciate it. Some of the things I have brought to them over the years are, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hygiene products, t shirts underwear, clothing, shoes, flashlights with batteries, many have no electric or running water. I'd find a Haitians that's working on the beach and give them the bag of things and tell them to give it to the needy. Many years ago, the Concierge on Explorer would take the bags of clothing that guest brought on board and give it to the Haitians.

A group of us from a Roll Call in 2014 purchases school supplies which we gave to Royal and they distributed it to their school. I now prefer just handing things directly to a Haitians.

Posters on CC complain about the people in the straw market being very aggressive, I do agree, but people should realize, Haiti is one of the poorest country and they are just trying to feed their family.

One of our contributions as International cruise critters

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1531904

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So true about the infrastructure and so sad, there's nothing we can do about that like you said. The Haitian could use all the things you've mentioned and so much more. Anything you give them, even if it's one thing, even a few dollars, they appreciate it. Some of the things I have brought to them over the years are, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hygiene products, t shirts underwear, clothing, shoes, flashlights with batteries, many have no electric or running water. I'd find a Haitians that's working on the beach and give them the bag of things and tell them to give it to the needy. Many years ago, the Concierge on Explorer would take the bags of clothing that guest brought on board and give it to the Haitians.

 

A group of us from a Roll Call in 2014 purchases school supplies which we gave to Royal and they distributed it to their school. I now prefer just handing things directly to a Haitians.

Posters on CC complain about the people in the straw market being very aggressive, I do agree, but people should realize, Haiti is one of the poorest country and they are just trying to feed their family.

Haiti has become totally dependent on outside charity. There are many churches and organizations that have been there for years and the people don't know anything else. The culture is now, unfortunately, completely dependent on hand outs.

The tipping is not something that RCI supports and it's even mentioned by RCI on the map/info for the port. We've been going there since about 2009/2010 and while there is massive poverty in Haiti, those working at the private beach area play it. The market area is one we avoid, because honestly, if the vendors would bother to get to know their customers, they'd learn pretty quickly, that harassing people is not the way to make a sale. The aggressiveness is not necessary and is a real turnoff. In some cases, people are being taken advantage of because those working Labadee make very good money compared to the rest of the island. You are better off giving to charities that work the whole island.

We were on one too... was it an early December cruise? May have been the same one. The Meet and Mingle was the biggest and best too.... So much was collected for the schools.

Yes it was in December. Maybe the Allure inaugural . Should have read the whole thread before replying. Yes, the critters.

Yes it was in December. Maybe the Allure inaugural . Should have read the whole thread before replying. Yes, the critters.

Yes, it was with the crittters... great group... Yes I replied too soon without a full read. My bad...

We found out that the majoirty locals practice Catholicism.

We took RING ROSARIES and holy cards, and when we passed them out on the hill, they were very grateful.

No we are not holy rollers.

We handed the bag of cards and rosaries to one of the elderly women and she passed them out as we left.

Later

Good post...

we where also on critter cruise donated school supplies.I work in street sales!!When in Labadee I saw something very disturbing,After a vendor MKing a sale, a man came over to him and took the money away from him,I I asked vendor if that was his boss and he said no Tax Man. So the carving he was selling for 20$ got Negotiated down to 10$ then tax man took 8$ that left 2$ to pay for carving ,rent and feed himself.I stuck around a little bit and saw the same thing over and over again with different vendors.

I see why there so aggressive

On a stop in Labadee, a lady on the tram had several large suitcases. I commented that she didn't pack light for a beach day (was attempting to be funny). She explained she was from Haiti, now living in the States. She had gotten permission to leave the port to go visit family. The suitcases were things for family. Saw her on the way back to the ship, sans suitcases. She said it was a day filled with emotions, good and bad.

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We had a thunderstorm during one of our visits to Labadee. One of the tour guides asked were we got the disposable rain ponchos we were wearing. He said they have no rain gear there. We gave him the extras we had in our back pack and he asked if he could have our wet ones too for family members. Now I try to remember to bring some with me each visit.