Mercetaine's journey began in Haiti in 1991 when she boarded a boat bound for Florida. "Never, never, never say you can't do it. I learned that at African Services. "

Mercetaine’s journey began in 1991 when she landed in Florida after four days at sea. She boarded a boat from Haiti just before the election of President Jean Bertrand Aristede. A year later, the infamous military coup set an international refugee crisis in motion. Nearly three-quarters of the 40,000 people who fled were eventually returned to Haiti.

After arriving, Mercetaine headed to New York City where she lived with extended family. She applied for political asylum and began working, but less than a year later, an immigration judge denied her asylum claim on the grounds that Haiti was safe enough to return. Knowing that chronic political instability and violence in Haiti meant there was no guarantee of personal safety, Mercetaine appealed her case. The process would stretch out over a period of more than ten years.

During that time, Mercetaine suffered a bout of pneumonia and, after a long hospitalization, was diagnosed with HIV in 2001. With her immigration status in limbo, she didn’t think any options would be available to her. In need of emotional support, a social worker at a city hospital suggested she talk to someone at African Services.

Soon after, Mercetaine met Claudette Francois, a case worker at African Services originally from Haiti herself. Claudette helped Mercetaine enroll in ADAP, a program that provides AIDS care for uninsured New Yorkers, and she began attending ACS’s weekly support group for people with HIV. Looking back, Mercetaine says she never could have sustained ARV therapy without the support of other French-speaking women in the group who gave her tips on managing side-effects. “I saw a better life is possible,” she says.

After regaining her health, Mercetaine became increasingly involved at African Services with ESL classes, our women’s advocacy program, and legislative visits to Albany and Washington, D.C. where she spoke to elected officials about issues impacting the lives of immigrants in the U.S. She also began advocating aggressively on her own behalf, working with African Services legal staff on her asylum case.

Through her committed involvement and spirit of volunteerism, Mercetaine has helped build a strong support network among African and Caribbean newcomers at African Services and has spearheaded a fundraising effort among clients. “You have to be good to the people that are good to you,” she says. Among her family, she is known as an outspoken advocate of safe sex and says that her nieces and nephews seek her out for relationship advice, knowing that they’ll never leave without condoms.

And this fall, 16 years after arriving in the U.S., Mercetaine was granted a green card. “Everything is different now,” she says. “Never, never, never say you can’t do it. I learned that at African Services.”