The widow of Henry “Tulile” Claude Jean, a 35-year-old Haitian shoe-shine and cobbler who was found lynched in a park in Santiago, Dominican Republic, on Feb. 11, is sick, destitute and living in fear in a Santo Domingo shanty town. She also longs to see her children, from whom she’s been separated for over five months.
Photo journalist Tony Savino, a Haïti Liberté collaborator, visited Erzulia Selima, 22, at the home of her parents in the Dominican capital’s suburban barrio of Rosa Carito.
“The apartment is in a basement with no windows, and at the time, there was no electricity,” Savino reports. “The heat and humidity were unbearable.”
Erzulia moved to the Dominican Republic with her parents from Plaisance when she was 11 years old, so she has spent half her life in the country. But she fears the repression and deportation campaign which Dominican authorities are currently waging against Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian ancestry.
After her husband was killed, Erzulia contracted first malaria and then typhoid fever. Now she has kidney stones, which make it difficult for her to bend over or do any strenuous lifting. Furthermore, she recently broke a tooth and now has a serious mouth infection.
With Tulile, she had two girls: Yulisa Jean, 10, and Juliana Jean, 8. After the lynching, both daughters were sent to Haiti for their safety and have not been told that their father is dead. Juliana has been asking for him, Erzulia says. The sick mother doesn’t even want to tell Yulisa, who may be old enough to understand, for fear that she may tell her younger sister, traumatizing her.
In her dire state, Erzulia says she has only received some help from Edwin Paraison, a former Haitian consul and long-time Haitian activist in the DR.
Erzulia is appealing to the world for financial help so that she can visit her daughters. People can contribute to her by going to the Go Fund Me appeal or can send money directly to her via Tony Savino’s PayPal account at [email protected].
