Mario Joseph in the Huffington Post

[bcholmes]

Is it dangerous for you to do your human rights work in Haiti?

Yes it is very dangerous. Generally, I lead a very restricted life. I have been separated from my family because of my work. My wife and children live in Miami. Thankfully, they have political asylum. It is not a very easy situation. There have been several times where bullets have flied into the office. My home and car has been broken into. I have been stalked by phone and told that I was going to be killed. Once, I received an envelope with a bullet in it. It is not a very easy situation. You can see that I have lost all of my hair. I also have diabetes and high blood pressure. This means that this work is very stressful. It is very difficult. I recognize this because it has affected my health. It is true that we will all die so I am not bothered. I do not want to die but I know that the cause I am defending is a good cause. I do not have a problem with this. What I would really like to see is for the situation of Haiti to change. This is what I will regret if I do not have a chance to see this.

- "Has Foreign Aid Hurt Haiti: An Interview with Mario Joseph", Huffington Post

Every once in a while I'm very conscious of the fact that I prevent myself from thinking about how much danger people I know in Haiti live with. It's hard knowledge to process. And yet, clearly it doesn't take anywhere near the toll on me that it takes on them. They do what they do because it means everything to them.