“I lost a friend and a brother in arms.” – Olivier Bottrie, Global President Travel Retail and Retail Development at The Estée Lauder Companies and President and founding board member at travel retail charity Hand in Hand for Haiti.
The heartfelt words of the Hand in Hand for Haiti Co-founder refer to the tragic slaying of US-based Portuguese national Filipe Fernandes near Saint-Marc, Haiti on 28 March.
Since the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti that cost around 250,000 lives, injured 300,000 people and displaced 1.5 million individuals, Filipe had worked tirelessly on the construction, maintenance and improvement of the Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable school funded by travel retail-led charity Hand in Hand for Haiti.
He was gunned down by bandits near the school while making his way back from the bank after withdrawing funds to pay employees. After the attack, he was rushed to Saint-Nicolas hospital in Saint-Marc, where he died of his wounds. In announcing his passing, Hand in Hand for Haiti said: “Filipe made Haiti his second home. He loved the country and its people and had planted roots there.
“The death of Filipe Fernandes is an immeasurable loss for the Hand in Hand for Haiti Foundation, and the school, Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable. It is also a terrible loss for Haiti… this brutal and senseless event is all the more shocking because it targeted a foreign national who came to Haiti to dedicate himself, body and soul, to building a world-class school to serve our students and the community.”
Today, Olivier Bottrie, the driving force behind both the genesis and the realisation of the Hand in Hand for Haiti project, pays his own moving tribute to his fallen friend.
“I lost a friend and a brother in arms. Filipe dedicated the past nine years to building state-of-the-art facilities and was focused on ensuring the school be maintained for generations of students to come.
“He was relentless and energetic. He was passionate and determined. We all miss him terribly. We must all thank him for what he has done for Haiti and its people.
“The anger I feel will not go away. The sadness in me will not fade away. Something is broken. This is unjust and ugly. My thoughts are for his wife Karen, his father Joâo, his nephew Paul, all his family and his many friends.”
The children of Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable honour Filipe Fernandes in song.
Martin Moodie writes: I have awaited Olivier’s comments before making my own. Having been involved in Hand in Hand for Haiti ever since a momentous trip to Haiti just weeks after the 12 January 2010 earthquake, I too am sickened and full of sorrow at Filipe’s loss.
His legacy, both remarkable and enduring, will be not only the physical structure of the school but of the lives of Haitian children that his work has shaped and will continue to shape for generations to come. It is the timeless legacy of education. I quote from my 2010 Blog, Hand in Hand for Haiti – Reflections on a Journey, written just after my return from the devastated land. The words, as appropriate today as they were then, underline what Filipe brought to the people, especially the young, of Haiti.
“Just because the overwhelming majority of Haitians are conditioned to hardship should not make it acceptable to the outside world. We cannot stand back and allow this deprivation, accentuated by natural disaster, to be perpetuated. The time has come to create what many respected commentators are already calling ‘a new Haiti’.
How Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable celebrated its first primary school graduation on 16 June 2018.
“Through Hand in Hand for Haiti, the travel retail industry – a true, instantly definable global business community – is playing a small but significant role in making Haiti great again. That is not meant to sound grandiose but is simply a statement of intent. And we will start by helping the country’s children.
“This is no ‘feel-good’ project that is going to be dropped in and forgotten about. Neither is it some western model imposed on a reluctant local community. We must work with local partners and together create an educational institution that is part of a coherent community development programme that will ultimately embrace and link with areas such as vocational skills training, medical services, investment and job creation.
“A week in this troubled, contradictory, maddening, inspirational country has encouraged us that such a vision is achievable… this initiative is a long-term, sustainable contribution to the remaking of a country. It will be a permanent testament to a time when the travel retail industry stood Hand in Hand for Haiti.”
The remarkable Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable is that permanent testament. Yes, to our industry’s immense goodwill but more, much more, to the memory of a fine and caring man who gave everything to Haiti, including, ultimately, his life. A brother in arms.
Filipe’s legacy: Visit Lycée Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable and meet Dieulande from Grade 5.