Verrettes (; ht, Vèrèt) is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Saint-Marc Arrondissement Saint-Marc ( ht, Sen Mak) is an arrondissement in Artibonite department of Haiti. It has 268,499 inhabitants.''Institut Haïtien de Statistique et d'Informatique'' (IHSI), 7 August 2003. Postal codes in the Saint-Marc Arrondissement start with th ...

, in the Artibonite department of Haiti. It is located approximately 58 km north of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and has 48,724 inhabitants. * Settlements * DesJardins * Deschapelles * Borel * Désarmes * Bastien

History

Verrettes is also known as the birthplace of the late president

Dumarsais Estimé Dumarsais Estimé (born April 21, 1900 in Verrettes, died July 20, 1953 in New York) was a Haitian politician and President of the Haitian Republic from August 16, 1946 to May 10, 1950. Previously, he was a member of the Parliament for Verrett ...

. During his presidency, he made great efforts to modernize the commune of Verrettes by constructing the water distribution system of "Bassin Vincent", building streets with sidewalks, and a modern sewer system. Unfortunately, subsequent governments abandoned this urbanization work, as the pavement of some streets was not completed.

Culture

The city of Verrettes has mostly been unaffected by Haiti's political turmoil and natural disasters. The small city is uneventful with a very low crime rate, but with an active nightlife. The city downtown is known for its live music, restaurants, clubs, and is also known as the playground for the town teenagers. The city is very self-sufficient with most of the population consuming goods produced from nearby family farms in rural neighborhoods. Most of the formal businesses are owned by the city's upper middle class residence. Their homes are usually located near the downtown area; just like Port-au-Prince most of the upper-middle-class homes are surrounded by large cement walls with iron gates or some sort of fences. Verrettes is mostly known for its strong emphasis on education; many rural town peasants relocate their children to Verrettes for their schooling, they usually rent houses and apartments in the town for their children to stay in. The middle and upper middle class residence are known for sending their children to Port-au-Prince to finish their studies. In the past few decades, there has been a large exodus of the upper middle class out of Haiti.

Religion

At Verrettes "l’Eglise de la Nativité" (Church of Nativity) is still one of the largest churches of the country. The religion of the city is mainly

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

with a small percentage practicing Vodou.Tip Top Globe: Verrettes
/ref>

School

*Jardin D'enfants: Kindergartner *La Providence:

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

*L'école Frere: Catholic School for Boys *L'école Mere: Catholic School for Girls *Charles Belair: Secondary School *Indistrielle: Secondary School *Lycée Garry:

College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

* Lycée Jacques Stephen et Alexis * Centre de Formation Classique * Centre D'etudes Secondaire des Verrettes * Centre d'Etudes Secondaire de Deschapelles * Ecole Mixte Gerald * Ecole Mixte Pelerin de Deschapelles *Institution Mixte Joseph C. Bernard *institution Mixte Jean Piaget *Institution Mixte Finotte Etienne *institution Mixte Cerelus Pierre Glaude

Public Building

* Hôtel de Ville *L'hôpital

*L'Église de la Nativité *Salle de Royaume *Hollywood Club *Verrettes Cinema

2010 earthquake

The city's senator died in the

2010 Haiti earthquake A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's c ...

. La Providence is currently hosting 300 Jacmelien from the city of

Jacmel Jacmel (; ht, Jakmèl) is a commune in southern Haiti founded by the Spanish in 1504 and repopulated by the French in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Port-au-Prince across the Tiburon Peninsu ...

displaced by the earthquake.

References

Populated places in Artibonite (department) Communes of Haiti {{Haiti-geo-stub