Colby College is giving its "Lovejoy Award" for Courage in Journalism to Miami Herald reporter Jacqueline Charles. Charles, whose mother is Haitian, has been covering Haiti, and its many challenges, for more than a decade.
Charles has also reported on the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, recently targeted by Trump campaign stories about eating pets.
"You know when I talk to people in the community, they're like, 'These are all lies.'" Charles said. "I wrote a story recently that said 'yeah somebody was accused of killing and eating a cat', but was two hours from Springfield, Ohio, and she wasn't Haitian."
She said a lack of foreign aid has left Haitians in despair, and increasingly unwilling to talk with foreign correspondents. Haiti's president was assassinated in 2021.
"Four hurricanes back-to-back in 30 days in 2008, food riots, then malnutrition, and, of course, the 2010 earthquake. But this particular moment in Haiti's history is perhaps the worst and the most difficult, just because of the gang violence and the despair that you see everywhere you go," Charles said.
Charles says that violence has made it harder to go into some places, during reporting trips. Still, she's reported on Haitians being driven from their homes with nothing but the clothes on their backs.