+(50%25).jpg)
The update below is a reply to the Corbett list - a listserve of people who have been focused on Haiti issues for many years. That list has forwarded a lot of urgent requests and communications from people in Haiti and 'first responders.'
I saw a request for urgent medical care for a Pastor and parish in P au P on Sat. I was with a colleague who's a nurse and we decided to try to help. Below is our reply/update to the listserve but it illustrates the need for medical care that is ongoing. I know CNN keeps saying Haiti doesn't need doctors, and I'm not sure who they're talking too, but it's certainly not the Haitian people, or the people we saw on Sat or those we'll see tomorrow, and those we're HOPING the Intl Red Cross can reach tomorrow. Bottom line is: the need has shifted in Haiti. Not urgent operations and triage, but many people with now two-week old bad injuries who have yet to see a doctor. They're in the poor areas, not near downtown.
Today we went out to visit Jacmel, 1.5 hours from the capital. Every few kilometers, a sign with urgent pleas... for food, especially, but also care. Health care, counseling, medicine - it's all needed. So CNN's Sanjay Gupta needs to talk to some new people to get the real info, away from the US military hospital reps and way up in the hills -- the rest of Haiti that has yet to get real attention. The suffering is great and still very urgent. Haiti needs docs. -- AC
Dear Corbetters,
Just wanted to let you know that my colleaugue Susie (a nurse) and I were able
to respond to the list request yesterday for urgent care from a Pastor. I
got the message at around 2 pm, and contacted Pasteur Estinvil (sp?) a bit
later. We found the Zanmi Lasante (PIH) tent just pulling out of their
temporary camp at 5 and they promised to look for meds for a next day clinic
but meantime, we found Bill Pape at Gheskio and he did the same. By am., we
had enough of a stock to start a rough set up in a corner of Cite Les Cayes
- which is close to the airport - a popular crowded section. As the pastor
had said, the people in his area hadn't had any medical attention or food
aid since the earthquake and some were in bad shape. We set up a child's
school desk in the middle of a child's school room that hadn't completely
fallen, in the middle of otherwise rubble, which was next to his small
church area -- an inner covered courtyard. He has about 450 people there.
The first baby Susie saw had had a bloc fall on its head and had quite a
bruise, and appeared supine and hadn't eaten etc, while her mother had
extreme stomach pains where her Caesarean section had been and she'd been
bleeding since she fell in the earthquake. The first two candidates for a
hospital transfer...
We had three others transferred by day's end for what
appeared to be broken bones under very swollen limbs (ribs, knees, wrists).
I thought people were in good shape, considering how little they've had and
living outdoors under sheets-for-tents amid rubble. The babies were mostly
suffering from diarrhea, minor fevers, and colds/coughs that had developed,
probably from the outdoor exposure for some. We had the right medicine and
managed. We didn't have insulin for the diabetic case, but have found that
for tomorrow, and best of all, were able to get the serious cases seen at
the Israeli hospital with appts for Monday for the xrays and additional
screening they need.
The pastor's wife is a nurse too, and she has started discussion groups for
the trauma that is a clear major problem... people simply so so so so
grieving.
This pastor has three other parishes with just as many people in need, so
tonight I spoke to Intl Red Cross and asked to see if we can get some health
posts set up in those places, and I am confident it will happen by Monday.
So that's one little field update...,
--stay tuned.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
OCHA Jan 31 Sit. Report - Haiti Progress Review
Note: A number of important updates are in this summary report by OCHA, the UN umbrella organization that coordinates international relief of all the different UN agencies and relevant NGOs.
Most importantly, the CONTACT numbers -- very hard to get until now! - are at the end of this report for those of you who are providers or advocates on the ground in Haiti and seeking to reach 'the authorities at UN or whoever' that is responsible for the aid effort. The field coordination in Haiti is centralized by a UN Cluster team, and broken down by different thematic areas, like protection, food, etc. See below and share widely. The next report will be out around Feb 1...
*(Thanks for my pal and Haiti expert Greg Chamberlain for passing this on. Wish you were with us in Haiti, Greg..) - AC
I. HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES
• Food and shelter remain the priorities for assistance to hundreds of thousands of people in need.
• Health priorities include mobile clinics for first aid, psychosocial support and post-operative care. Cases of tetanus have been reported. Suspected cases of measles were confirmed as chicken pox.
• The WASH Cluster is reaching almost 500,000 people a day with water.
• The port has been declared unsafe for incoming ships following an in-depth assessment. Port-au-Prince airport is operating at peak capacity with an average of 120 incoming flights per day,although ‘no-shows’ are becoming an issue.
• The Government reports that some 340,000 people have now left Port-au-Prince with the largest number of arrivals in Artibonite department.
• Crowd control requirements at food distribution sites remain a concern. Inflated prices for food and other essentials are contributing to rising tensions among the population.
II. Situation Overview
The priorities for assistance continue to be food and shelter. The Government and the Shelter Cluster have adopted a strategy to provide emergency and transitional shelter to the highest number of those in need before the start of the rainy season. This will include distribution of a range of shelter material, including tents,
plastic sheeting, fastening fixtures and rope. A 3,000 person site at Tabarre in Port-au-Prince is almost complete and the first families are expected to arrive in the coming says.
According to WHO/PAHO, medical teams are reporting a shift in the types of cases they are receiving. There is a decrease in trauma cases and an increase in mental health needs. Several medical teams report a growing caseload of diarrhea in the last few days. There have been reports of tetanus, but previously reported cases of the measles were confirmed as chicken pox. WHO is working to overcome challenges related to the cold chain and the distribution of vaccines for targeted vaccination campaigns where there are high concentrations of people in resettlement areas.
As of 28 January, the Government reported that more than 341,000 persons have departed Port-au-Prince for locations outside the capital. This represents an increase of approximately 80,000 people from the previously reported figure of 260,000 as of 27 January, but this may largely be based on better reporting rather than new movements. Over a third of the total – some 133,000 individuals – have arrived in Artibonite department. The Government is concerned about the potential strain on local resources and service infrastructure in these outlying departments.
The acting Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and the OCHA Special Adviser to the Humanitarian Coordinator visited Jacmel and Leogane on 28 January and were accompanied by media representatives. The mission met with several agencies, NGOs and military actors that are providing assistance. Local authorities and responding agencies reported urgent needs in the provision of emergency shelter, camp management, protection, and specialized medical care in orthopedics and physical therapy.
Partners also called for a further roll-out of the cluster coordination structure at the departmental level.
The inter-agency multi-sector needs assessment is continuing. On 28 January, eighteen assessment teams visited 11 areas, concluding coverage of all Port-au-Prince communal sections. Assessments of areas outside of Port-au-Prince continued on 29 January. There have been some delays in the assessment due to the inaccessibility of several communes, including Kenscoff and Carrefour. It is expected that the needs in these isolated areas will be especially high.
Following its formal request for a Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and Recovery Framework (RF), the Government of Haiti has asked for quick implementation of the PDNA under strong national leadership.
Discussions are currently underway among the Government, European Commission, United Nations, World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank regarding the scope and timing of both the planning mission and the PDNA/RF.
The newly established Joint Operations and Tasking Centre (JOTC) is coordinating procedures for requesting military or police assistance in support of humanitarian relief operations. It is staffed by MINUSTAH, OCHA civil-military personnel and other key partners. Humanitarian organizations wishing to request assistance should be channeled through the appropriate Cluster Lead. Requests for use of military assets must be submitted at least 48 hours in advance to allow for sufficient planning and coordination. Request forms and a briefing note have been developed and a reception centre set up to receive and initiate response planning.
While the overall security situation in Port-au-Prince remains stable, crowd control at aid distribution points, especially food distribution, remains a concern. A UN military escort/protection force was unable to contain the crowd at a food distribution in the Martissant area of Carrefour on 27 January. Two individuals were
detained by the UN military at an incident in Carrefour on 28 January following an altercation involving knives at a food distribution site. The UN military handed the individuals over to the Haiti National Police. The Government is using local radio stations to announce that it is illegal to resell humanitarian aid.
The 12 clusters1 designated in the Flash Appeal are holding regular meetings to coordinate their joint efforts.
III. Logistics
Following light repairs to Port-au-Prince’s south port, an in-depth assessment has found more seriousdamage. The port has been declared unsafe for incoming ships, so landing crafts are being used to offload them, but with very limited capacity and these should be coordinated in advance. Ships are being diverted to intermediate holding. The port of Santo Domingo has three terminals within the bay and provides a viable option for cargo arriving by sea.
The Logistics Cluster has a civil-military coordinator in Miami advising on slot allocations for incoming cargo at the Port-au-Prince airport. A proposal is underway to allocate 50 percent of flights to humanitarian cargo and 50 percent to bilateral flights and flights supporting the Government of Haiti. A bottleneck is being caused by goods arriving without clear consignees, addresses and packing lists. There is also an issue of prioritized flights not being cancelled in time, resulting in disruptive ‘no-shows’.
The cluster reports that 50 trucks are available in Haiti including M6 and long-haul vehicles for inter-agency cargo transport. While the cluster can still assist with urgent requests for fuel on an ad hoc basis, fuel is now available in town and organizations should have no problem securing supplies.
UNHAS has so far transported passengers from 86 organizations, including UN agencies, NGOs, governments and media institutions from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince. UNHAS now offers passenger transport from Monday through Sunday. A base camp will be opening in Port-au-Prince in the coming days to provide accommodation for 2staff.
Shelter/Non-Food Items (NFIs)
Government and the Shelter Cluster have adopted a strategy to provide emergency and transitional shelter to the highest number of those in need before the start of the rainy season. This will include distribution of a range of shelter material, including tents, plastic sheeting and rope. The cluster is prioritizing the acquisition of plastic sheeting, corrugated galvanized iron, timber and other fastening fixtures and 44,852 plastic sheets.
Tent distributions to several existing makeshift settlement sites such as Champs de Mars, Place Boyer and Place Saint Pierre are not feasible due to the high density of the population in these areas. Shelter needs will have to be covered exclusively through the provision of plastic sheeting.
An initial mapping of ‘who is doing what where’ has been carried out in order to establish a distribution plan. The cluster is populating an NFI Tracking Matrix to compile stock, pipeline and distribution information from partners. Important capacity gaps remain in NFI and shelter distribution; all partners are encouraged to
communicate their distribution capacities to the cluster.
Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM)
Three planned settlements have been finalized for sites in Parc St Claire in Delmas 33, Parc Colofaire in Delmas 33, and Tabarre 48 Carradeux Street. The Civil Protection Department also began to set up 230 family tents at a site located in front of the airport.
The site at Tabarre is almost complete and the first families are expected to arrive in the coming says. It will accommodate over 3,000 people. According to IOM, partners are setting up 350 ten-person tents, as well as finalizing work on latrines, showers, and electricity for the settlement. The main constraint for efficient site planning remains insufficient sharing of information between partners.
The Civil Protection Department will launch a radio campaign to request community leaders to provide data on displacement of populations in their communities. This information will allow CCCM partners to identify focal points to manage camps and shelter sites. IOM is preparing a Rapid Shelter Assessment (RSA) form to
consolidate data across agencies on displacement in shelter sites.
Food
A total of 585,733 people have been reached with food by WFP and its partners since the start of the response. This is an increase of 127,000 people over the past two days.
Despite significant logistical challenges, WFP food distributions continue to reach the most severely affected people. WFP has been channeling food support through orphanages and hospitals order to target some of the most vulnerable groups. WFP plans to increase coverage to include an additional 370 orphanages, in
partnership with UNICEF.
WFP is also extending its emergency operation for an additional six months in order to continue to assist vulnerable Haitians and to support essential rehabilitation and stabilization measures. In the longer term, a gradual transition from general food distributions to food- and cash-for-work activities is planned, as relief
gives way to recovery.
A large number of bilateral partners and NGOs are also providing food assistance. A centralized tracking needs to be established to avoid double counting reported deliveries. In order to gain a full picture of food assistance and to accurately reflect all efforts, partners are encouraged to report their activities to the food
cluster coordinator.
A cluster tracking sheet template has been posted on http://haiti.oneresponse.info.
Health
Several organizations have reported cases of tetanus, according to the Health Cluster. The suspected cases of measles were later confirmed as chicken pox. The risk of a measles outbreak will depend upon the reintroduction of the measles virus into the population.
PAHO/WHO is insisting that all aid workers going to Haiti should be vaccinated against both measles and rubella to prevent anyone from bringing measles or rubella into the country.
An isolated case of typhoid has been reported. A health situation room has been established and surveillance is carried out through 51 health facilities. A network of 154 health institutions is participating in early warning mechanisms.
In terms of medical supplies, crutches and x-ray equipment are in short supply and specialists in orthopedic and internal medicine are in high demand, according to the cluster.
Some 15,000 liters of fuel has been distributed to four hospitals in Port-au-Prince: General Hospital, Hospital de la Paix, National Laboratory and Isaie Jeanty. A further 15,000 liters of fuel will be distributed over the coming days. The fuel is being provided by the Government of Venezuela.
The cluster has compiled a ‘who does what where’ database to provide an overview of the services being offered in the health sector. It has been agreed that Save the Children will act as Health Cluster Lead in Leogane and Jacmel.
PAHO/WHO has been compiling information on health facilities and their locations. A dataset of over 900 facilities in Haiti, including geographic location and unique identifiers based on codes generated by the Ministry of Health in Haiti, is being shared with partners in order to improve coordination of health services.
WASH
The WASH cluster reached 464,000 people with 2,320,000 liters of water at 133 sites throughout Port-au-Prince, according to UNICEF. The provision of bottled water for public institutions continues in addition to potable water distributions. The distribution of water to orphanages has started as of 29 January.
The cluster is prioritizing the rapid scaling up of latrine construction. There is a need to coordinate sanitation in the camps and to increase partnerships in sanitation. A UNICEF field visit to four settlement sites in Jacmel concluded that the WASH cluster in this area should concentrate on sanitation as the next phase of the response.
Nutrition
The caseload for nutrition support is currently estimated at 480,000 children under five, 120,000 pregnant and 120,000 lactating women. The Nutrition Cluster has finalized an initial mapping of all NGOs working on nutrition in Haiti (available at http://haiti.oneresponse.info).
UNICEF estimates that 50,000 non-breastfed infants need nutritional support. There is currently capacity to reach out to 1,200 of them. The main constraint is the lack of partners. Because of the high numbers of orphans and mothers who are not able to breastfeed, there is a need for infant formula, but it should be provided in a controlled way. A sub-cluster has been activated in Port-au-Prince to oversee all aspects of infant feeding and to ensure coordination.
ACF and Concern are targeting an estimated 40,000 children for treatment of severe acute malnutrition.
Approximately 1,000 children requiring artificial feeding have been identified. A shipment of 288 cans of 32oz ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) has arrived in Port-au-Prince and will be distributed. A second shipment is expected shortly.
The cluster is looking to expand coverage in Leogane and Jacmel. UNICEF plan to open offices in these locations and to hire cluster coordinators.
Protection
The Protection Cluster has identified priority protection issues, including security around the settlements and access to assistance for vulnerable groups, in particular older persons and people with disabilities. The Protection Cluster is looking to address these issues as a matter of priority and is working in close cooperation with the Shelter and Food clusters. Human Rights Offices outside of Port-au-Prince (Cap Haitien, Fort Liberte, Gonaive, Hinche, Jacmel, Jeremie, and Les Cayes) have been tasked with recording displacement-related challenges.
Following a request by IOM, UNHCR is deploying a Registration Officer and an IDP Profiling Officer to provide technical support to the CCCM cluster with registration and the use of profiling for assistance and protection.
Emergency Telecommunications
WFP and ETC partners are providing internet connectivity and general ICT support to the humanitarian community at the MINUSTAH logbase. Additional access points have been established to allow for improved connectivity.
WFP has, together with MINUSTAH and IHP, initiated engineering work for the provision of communications infrastructure in Camp Charlie (humanitarian base camp to accommodate humanitarian staff). The GSM, donated by Ericsson, has arrived in Santo Domingo and will be transferred to Port-au-Prince to support network access for mobile phones.
IV. Coordination
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti has activated the Humanitarian Country Team to improve coordination and policy making and to ensure equal partnership between the UN and other humanitarian partners, including the Government, NGOs and the Red Cross Movement.
The Directorate General of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Mayor's Association (referred to as CIVITAS) has invited all national and international humanitarian actors working in Port-au-Prince to a meeting on 31 January at the Tabarre city hall. The goal of the meeting is to improve coordination of assistance.
The Joint Operations and Tasking Centre is systematizing requests and coordination for the use of military assets by humanitarian partners. A UN civil-military coordination officer has been dispatched to Leogane to
ensure liaison and coordination between humanitarian organizations and the international military.
Since the beginning of the emergency, the EU has deployed over 800 civil protection experts and provided
assistance from 25 EU/EEA countries through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. This has included 12 urban
search and rescue teams; 2 field hospitals; 5 advanced medical posts and 37 medical teams; 7 assessment
teams as well as other assistance. The EU civil protection mechanism also co-financed the transport of an
IHP inter-agency base camp. An EU Civil Protection assessment and coordination team has been on site
since 14 January supporting the activities of UNDAC and facilitating coordination between EU civil protection
teams on site.
V. Funding
The Emergency Relief Coordinator has approved $2 million in funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help earthquake-affected Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Approximately $1 million will go to WHO and UNFPA to boost health services for Haitians needing assistance in clinics along the border. The majority of the remaining funds will go to support the humanitarian pipeline into Haiti.
According to the Financial Tracking Service (FTS), the Flash Appeal is currently 82 percent funded. Of the $575 million requested, $473 million has been received and $12 million has been pledged. Donors are urged to convert all pledges into cash. The agriculture and education sectors are both less than 6 percent funded.
Humanitarian partners have agreed to start consultations for the revision of the Haiti Flash Appeal, which is tentatively scheduled to be finalized by mid-February. The revised appeal will cover a 12-month period.
FTS also documents all contributions and pledges to projects not listed in the Flash Appeal. To date, the combined total is more than $778 million in funding and more than $769 million in uncommitted pledges.
The Emergency Relief Response Fund for Haiti has $73 million in pledges, of which almost $59 million has been received. Over 30 project proposals have been received from across the clusters and are being reviewed. Global Cluster Leads are requested to review and coordinate with their field-based clusters prior to submitting future project proposals to Caroline Peguet (peguet@un.org) and copied to errf-Haiti@un.org.
All companies that wish to make cash and in-kind donations are urged to use the new UN/Business Partnership Gateway, at http://business.un.org. This function matches offers of support with UN needs.
All humanitarian partners, including donors and recipient agencies, are encouraged to inform FTS of cash and in-kind contributions by sending an email to: fts@reliefweb.int.
VI. Contacts
1. OCHA Contacts
(Location/ Role /Name /Contact Details)
New York Desk Officer
Ms. Heidi Kuttab kuttab@un.org
tel. + 1 917367 33 65
New York Spokesperson
Ms. Stephanie Bunker bunker@un.org
+1 917 367 5126
Geneva Spokesperson
Ms. Elisabeth Byrs byrs@un.org
+41 2 2 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570
Geneva Humanitarian AffairsOfficer
Ms. Yasmine Rockenfeller
rockenfeller@un.org
tel. + 41 22 917 1325
Geneva Donor Relations
Ms. Helena Fraser
+41 22 917 1690
mobile: +41 79 444 6025
Geneva In-kind Offers
Ms. Adriana Carvalho-Friedheim
carvalho-friedheim@un.org
+ 41 22 917 3514
Haiti Spokesperson
Mr. Nick Reader
reader@un.org
Mobile +1646 752 3117
Haiti Communications to disaster affected communities
Ms. Kristen Knutson knutson@un.org
+1646 785 0415
Haiti Emergency Relief Response Fund
Ms. Caroline Peguet
peguet@un.org
+509 34912261
Haiti JOTC
minustahjoc@un.org
+509 3702 6613
Dominican Republic UNDAC
undac.rd@gmail.com
2. Cluster Contacts in Haiti
Agriculture Cluster
Coordinator Yon Fernandez de Larrina
Agricluster.haiti@gmail.com
+509 37 63 22 98
Cluster Coordinator
Christopher Gascon
Early Recovery Cluster Coordinator
Jean Marc Cordaro
Jean-marc.cordaro@undp.org
Education Cluster Coordinator Andrea Berther
aberther@unicef.org
Emergency Shelter Cluster Coordinator
Nuno Nunes
shelterhaiti2010@iom.int
nnunes@ion.int
+509 37 01 6065
Emergency Telecommunications
Senior Emergency Manager
Dane Novarlic
dane.novarlic@wfp.org
+971 50 507 1135
Environment Focal point
Antonio Perera
Antonio.perera@unep.org
+509 349 032 50
Food Aid Cluster Coordinator
Raoul Balletto
Foodcluster@yahoo.com
raoul.balletto@wfp.org
+509 37 01 23 77
Gender (Cross Cutting Issue)
Advisor
Victoria Rames rames@un.org
Health Cluster Coordinator
Dana van Alphen
hai.clustersante@paho.org
vanalphe@paho.org
Logistics / UNHAS Cluster Coordinator
Andrew Stanhope
andrew.stanhope@wfp.org
haiti.logs@logcluster.org
+ 503 78 61 5152
Logistics
Logistics Officer
Baptiste Burgaud
baptiste.burgaud@wfp.org
+393490507280 (Mobile)
Logistics Cargo and Storage
haiti.cargo@logcluster.org
Nutrition Cluster Coordinator
Mija Ververs mijaververs@hotmail.com
+509 34 92 0425
Protection Cluster
Coordinator Fabrizio Hochschild
protectionhaiti@gmail.com
Gender-based Violence Coordinator of sub group
Tania Patriota
Patriota@unfpa.org
Child Protection Coordinator of sub group
Ayda Eke haiticpwg@gmail.com
WASH Cluster Coordinator
Souleymane Sow
ssow@unicef.org
+509 34 91 6956
WASH Deputy Cluster Coordinator
Silvia Gaya
sgaya@unicef.org
+88164138587
Most importantly, the CONTACT numbers -- very hard to get until now! - are at the end of this report for those of you who are providers or advocates on the ground in Haiti and seeking to reach 'the authorities at UN or whoever' that is responsible for the aid effort. The field coordination in Haiti is centralized by a UN Cluster team, and broken down by different thematic areas, like protection, food, etc. See below and share widely. The next report will be out around Feb 1...
*(Thanks for my pal and Haiti expert Greg Chamberlain for passing this on. Wish you were with us in Haiti, Greg..) - AC
I. HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES
• Food and shelter remain the priorities for assistance to hundreds of thousands of people in need.
• Health priorities include mobile clinics for first aid, psychosocial support and post-operative care. Cases of tetanus have been reported. Suspected cases of measles were confirmed as chicken pox.
• The WASH Cluster is reaching almost 500,000 people a day with water.
• The port has been declared unsafe for incoming ships following an in-depth assessment. Port-au-Prince airport is operating at peak capacity with an average of 120 incoming flights per day,although ‘no-shows’ are becoming an issue.
• The Government reports that some 340,000 people have now left Port-au-Prince with the largest number of arrivals in Artibonite department.
• Crowd control requirements at food distribution sites remain a concern. Inflated prices for food and other essentials are contributing to rising tensions among the population.
II. Situation Overview
The priorities for assistance continue to be food and shelter. The Government and the Shelter Cluster have adopted a strategy to provide emergency and transitional shelter to the highest number of those in need before the start of the rainy season. This will include distribution of a range of shelter material, including tents,
plastic sheeting, fastening fixtures and rope. A 3,000 person site at Tabarre in Port-au-Prince is almost complete and the first families are expected to arrive in the coming says.
According to WHO/PAHO, medical teams are reporting a shift in the types of cases they are receiving. There is a decrease in trauma cases and an increase in mental health needs. Several medical teams report a growing caseload of diarrhea in the last few days. There have been reports of tetanus, but previously reported cases of the measles were confirmed as chicken pox. WHO is working to overcome challenges related to the cold chain and the distribution of vaccines for targeted vaccination campaigns where there are high concentrations of people in resettlement areas.
As of 28 January, the Government reported that more than 341,000 persons have departed Port-au-Prince for locations outside the capital. This represents an increase of approximately 80,000 people from the previously reported figure of 260,000 as of 27 January, but this may largely be based on better reporting rather than new movements. Over a third of the total – some 133,000 individuals – have arrived in Artibonite department. The Government is concerned about the potential strain on local resources and service infrastructure in these outlying departments.
The acting Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and the OCHA Special Adviser to the Humanitarian Coordinator visited Jacmel and Leogane on 28 January and were accompanied by media representatives. The mission met with several agencies, NGOs and military actors that are providing assistance. Local authorities and responding agencies reported urgent needs in the provision of emergency shelter, camp management, protection, and specialized medical care in orthopedics and physical therapy.
Partners also called for a further roll-out of the cluster coordination structure at the departmental level.
The inter-agency multi-sector needs assessment is continuing. On 28 January, eighteen assessment teams visited 11 areas, concluding coverage of all Port-au-Prince communal sections. Assessments of areas outside of Port-au-Prince continued on 29 January. There have been some delays in the assessment due to the inaccessibility of several communes, including Kenscoff and Carrefour. It is expected that the needs in these isolated areas will be especially high.
Following its formal request for a Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) and Recovery Framework (RF), the Government of Haiti has asked for quick implementation of the PDNA under strong national leadership.
Discussions are currently underway among the Government, European Commission, United Nations, World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank regarding the scope and timing of both the planning mission and the PDNA/RF.
The newly established Joint Operations and Tasking Centre (JOTC) is coordinating procedures for requesting military or police assistance in support of humanitarian relief operations. It is staffed by MINUSTAH, OCHA civil-military personnel and other key partners. Humanitarian organizations wishing to request assistance should be channeled through the appropriate Cluster Lead. Requests for use of military assets must be submitted at least 48 hours in advance to allow for sufficient planning and coordination. Request forms and a briefing note have been developed and a reception centre set up to receive and initiate response planning.
While the overall security situation in Port-au-Prince remains stable, crowd control at aid distribution points, especially food distribution, remains a concern. A UN military escort/protection force was unable to contain the crowd at a food distribution in the Martissant area of Carrefour on 27 January. Two individuals were
detained by the UN military at an incident in Carrefour on 28 January following an altercation involving knives at a food distribution site. The UN military handed the individuals over to the Haiti National Police. The Government is using local radio stations to announce that it is illegal to resell humanitarian aid.
The 12 clusters1 designated in the Flash Appeal are holding regular meetings to coordinate their joint efforts.
III. Logistics
Following light repairs to Port-au-Prince’s south port, an in-depth assessment has found more seriousdamage. The port has been declared unsafe for incoming ships, so landing crafts are being used to offload them, but with very limited capacity and these should be coordinated in advance. Ships are being diverted to intermediate holding. The port of Santo Domingo has three terminals within the bay and provides a viable option for cargo arriving by sea.
The Logistics Cluster has a civil-military coordinator in Miami advising on slot allocations for incoming cargo at the Port-au-Prince airport. A proposal is underway to allocate 50 percent of flights to humanitarian cargo and 50 percent to bilateral flights and flights supporting the Government of Haiti. A bottleneck is being caused by goods arriving without clear consignees, addresses and packing lists. There is also an issue of prioritized flights not being cancelled in time, resulting in disruptive ‘no-shows’.
The cluster reports that 50 trucks are available in Haiti including M6 and long-haul vehicles for inter-agency cargo transport. While the cluster can still assist with urgent requests for fuel on an ad hoc basis, fuel is now available in town and organizations should have no problem securing supplies.
UNHAS has so far transported passengers from 86 organizations, including UN agencies, NGOs, governments and media institutions from Santo Domingo to Port-au-Prince. UNHAS now offers passenger transport from Monday through Sunday. A base camp will be opening in Port-au-Prince in the coming days to provide accommodation for 2staff.
Shelter/Non-Food Items (NFIs)
Government and the Shelter Cluster have adopted a strategy to provide emergency and transitional shelter to the highest number of those in need before the start of the rainy season. This will include distribution of a range of shelter material, including tents, plastic sheeting and rope. The cluster is prioritizing the acquisition of plastic sheeting, corrugated galvanized iron, timber and other fastening fixtures and 44,852 plastic sheets.
Tent distributions to several existing makeshift settlement sites such as Champs de Mars, Place Boyer and Place Saint Pierre are not feasible due to the high density of the population in these areas. Shelter needs will have to be covered exclusively through the provision of plastic sheeting.
An initial mapping of ‘who is doing what where’ has been carried out in order to establish a distribution plan. The cluster is populating an NFI Tracking Matrix to compile stock, pipeline and distribution information from partners. Important capacity gaps remain in NFI and shelter distribution; all partners are encouraged to
communicate their distribution capacities to the cluster.
Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM)
Three planned settlements have been finalized for sites in Parc St Claire in Delmas 33, Parc Colofaire in Delmas 33, and Tabarre 48 Carradeux Street. The Civil Protection Department also began to set up 230 family tents at a site located in front of the airport.
The site at Tabarre is almost complete and the first families are expected to arrive in the coming says. It will accommodate over 3,000 people. According to IOM, partners are setting up 350 ten-person tents, as well as finalizing work on latrines, showers, and electricity for the settlement. The main constraint for efficient site planning remains insufficient sharing of information between partners.
The Civil Protection Department will launch a radio campaign to request community leaders to provide data on displacement of populations in their communities. This information will allow CCCM partners to identify focal points to manage camps and shelter sites. IOM is preparing a Rapid Shelter Assessment (RSA) form to
consolidate data across agencies on displacement in shelter sites.
Food
A total of 585,733 people have been reached with food by WFP and its partners since the start of the response. This is an increase of 127,000 people over the past two days.
Despite significant logistical challenges, WFP food distributions continue to reach the most severely affected people. WFP has been channeling food support through orphanages and hospitals order to target some of the most vulnerable groups. WFP plans to increase coverage to include an additional 370 orphanages, in
partnership with UNICEF.
WFP is also extending its emergency operation for an additional six months in order to continue to assist vulnerable Haitians and to support essential rehabilitation and stabilization measures. In the longer term, a gradual transition from general food distributions to food- and cash-for-work activities is planned, as relief
gives way to recovery.
A large number of bilateral partners and NGOs are also providing food assistance. A centralized tracking needs to be established to avoid double counting reported deliveries. In order to gain a full picture of food assistance and to accurately reflect all efforts, partners are encouraged to report their activities to the food
cluster coordinator.
A cluster tracking sheet template has been posted on http://haiti.oneresponse.info.
Health
Several organizations have reported cases of tetanus, according to the Health Cluster. The suspected cases of measles were later confirmed as chicken pox. The risk of a measles outbreak will depend upon the reintroduction of the measles virus into the population.
PAHO/WHO is insisting that all aid workers going to Haiti should be vaccinated against both measles and rubella to prevent anyone from bringing measles or rubella into the country.
An isolated case of typhoid has been reported. A health situation room has been established and surveillance is carried out through 51 health facilities. A network of 154 health institutions is participating in early warning mechanisms.
In terms of medical supplies, crutches and x-ray equipment are in short supply and specialists in orthopedic and internal medicine are in high demand, according to the cluster.
Some 15,000 liters of fuel has been distributed to four hospitals in Port-au-Prince: General Hospital, Hospital de la Paix, National Laboratory and Isaie Jeanty. A further 15,000 liters of fuel will be distributed over the coming days. The fuel is being provided by the Government of Venezuela.
The cluster has compiled a ‘who does what where’ database to provide an overview of the services being offered in the health sector. It has been agreed that Save the Children will act as Health Cluster Lead in Leogane and Jacmel.
PAHO/WHO has been compiling information on health facilities and their locations. A dataset of over 900 facilities in Haiti, including geographic location and unique identifiers based on codes generated by the Ministry of Health in Haiti, is being shared with partners in order to improve coordination of health services.
WASH
The WASH cluster reached 464,000 people with 2,320,000 liters of water at 133 sites throughout Port-au-Prince, according to UNICEF. The provision of bottled water for public institutions continues in addition to potable water distributions. The distribution of water to orphanages has started as of 29 January.
The cluster is prioritizing the rapid scaling up of latrine construction. There is a need to coordinate sanitation in the camps and to increase partnerships in sanitation. A UNICEF field visit to four settlement sites in Jacmel concluded that the WASH cluster in this area should concentrate on sanitation as the next phase of the response.
Nutrition
The caseload for nutrition support is currently estimated at 480,000 children under five, 120,000 pregnant and 120,000 lactating women. The Nutrition Cluster has finalized an initial mapping of all NGOs working on nutrition in Haiti (available at http://haiti.oneresponse.info).
UNICEF estimates that 50,000 non-breastfed infants need nutritional support. There is currently capacity to reach out to 1,200 of them. The main constraint is the lack of partners. Because of the high numbers of orphans and mothers who are not able to breastfeed, there is a need for infant formula, but it should be provided in a controlled way. A sub-cluster has been activated in Port-au-Prince to oversee all aspects of infant feeding and to ensure coordination.
ACF and Concern are targeting an estimated 40,000 children for treatment of severe acute malnutrition.
Approximately 1,000 children requiring artificial feeding have been identified. A shipment of 288 cans of 32oz ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) has arrived in Port-au-Prince and will be distributed. A second shipment is expected shortly.
The cluster is looking to expand coverage in Leogane and Jacmel. UNICEF plan to open offices in these locations and to hire cluster coordinators.
Protection
The Protection Cluster has identified priority protection issues, including security around the settlements and access to assistance for vulnerable groups, in particular older persons and people with disabilities. The Protection Cluster is looking to address these issues as a matter of priority and is working in close cooperation with the Shelter and Food clusters. Human Rights Offices outside of Port-au-Prince (Cap Haitien, Fort Liberte, Gonaive, Hinche, Jacmel, Jeremie, and Les Cayes) have been tasked with recording displacement-related challenges.
Following a request by IOM, UNHCR is deploying a Registration Officer and an IDP Profiling Officer to provide technical support to the CCCM cluster with registration and the use of profiling for assistance and protection.
Emergency Telecommunications
WFP and ETC partners are providing internet connectivity and general ICT support to the humanitarian community at the MINUSTAH logbase. Additional access points have been established to allow for improved connectivity.
WFP has, together with MINUSTAH and IHP, initiated engineering work for the provision of communications infrastructure in Camp Charlie (humanitarian base camp to accommodate humanitarian staff). The GSM, donated by Ericsson, has arrived in Santo Domingo and will be transferred to Port-au-Prince to support network access for mobile phones.
IV. Coordination
The Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti has activated the Humanitarian Country Team to improve coordination and policy making and to ensure equal partnership between the UN and other humanitarian partners, including the Government, NGOs and the Red Cross Movement.
The Directorate General of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Mayor's Association (referred to as CIVITAS) has invited all national and international humanitarian actors working in Port-au-Prince to a meeting on 31 January at the Tabarre city hall. The goal of the meeting is to improve coordination of assistance.
The Joint Operations and Tasking Centre is systematizing requests and coordination for the use of military assets by humanitarian partners. A UN civil-military coordination officer has been dispatched to Leogane to
ensure liaison and coordination between humanitarian organizations and the international military.
Since the beginning of the emergency, the EU has deployed over 800 civil protection experts and provided
assistance from 25 EU/EEA countries through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. This has included 12 urban
search and rescue teams; 2 field hospitals; 5 advanced medical posts and 37 medical teams; 7 assessment
teams as well as other assistance. The EU civil protection mechanism also co-financed the transport of an
IHP inter-agency base camp. An EU Civil Protection assessment and coordination team has been on site
since 14 January supporting the activities of UNDAC and facilitating coordination between EU civil protection
teams on site.
V. Funding
The Emergency Relief Coordinator has approved $2 million in funding from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help earthquake-affected Haitians in the Dominican Republic. Approximately $1 million will go to WHO and UNFPA to boost health services for Haitians needing assistance in clinics along the border. The majority of the remaining funds will go to support the humanitarian pipeline into Haiti.
According to the Financial Tracking Service (FTS), the Flash Appeal is currently 82 percent funded. Of the $575 million requested, $473 million has been received and $12 million has been pledged. Donors are urged to convert all pledges into cash. The agriculture and education sectors are both less than 6 percent funded.
Humanitarian partners have agreed to start consultations for the revision of the Haiti Flash Appeal, which is tentatively scheduled to be finalized by mid-February. The revised appeal will cover a 12-month period.
FTS also documents all contributions and pledges to projects not listed in the Flash Appeal. To date, the combined total is more than $778 million in funding and more than $769 million in uncommitted pledges.
The Emergency Relief Response Fund for Haiti has $73 million in pledges, of which almost $59 million has been received. Over 30 project proposals have been received from across the clusters and are being reviewed. Global Cluster Leads are requested to review and coordinate with their field-based clusters prior to submitting future project proposals to Caroline Peguet (peguet@un.org) and copied to errf-Haiti@un.org.
All companies that wish to make cash and in-kind donations are urged to use the new UN/Business Partnership Gateway, at http://business.un.org. This function matches offers of support with UN needs.
All humanitarian partners, including donors and recipient agencies, are encouraged to inform FTS of cash and in-kind contributions by sending an email to: fts@reliefweb.int.
VI. Contacts
1. OCHA Contacts
(Location/ Role /Name /Contact Details)
New York Desk Officer
Ms. Heidi Kuttab kuttab@un.org
tel. + 1 917367 33 65
New York Spokesperson
Ms. Stephanie Bunker bunker@un.org
+1 917 367 5126
Geneva Spokesperson
Ms. Elisabeth Byrs byrs@un.org
+41 2 2 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570
Geneva Humanitarian AffairsOfficer
Ms. Yasmine Rockenfeller
rockenfeller@un.org
tel. + 41 22 917 1325
Geneva Donor Relations
Ms. Helena Fraser
+41 22 917 1690
mobile: +41 79 444 6025
Geneva In-kind Offers
Ms. Adriana Carvalho-Friedheim
carvalho-friedheim@un.org
+ 41 22 917 3514
Haiti Spokesperson
Mr. Nick Reader
reader@un.org
Mobile +1646 752 3117
Haiti Communications to disaster affected communities
Ms. Kristen Knutson knutson@un.org
+1646 785 0415
Haiti Emergency Relief Response Fund
Ms. Caroline Peguet
peguet@un.org
+509 34912261
Haiti JOTC
minustahjoc@un.org
+509 3702 6613
Dominican Republic UNDAC
undac.rd@gmail.com
2. Cluster Contacts in Haiti
Agriculture Cluster
Coordinator Yon Fernandez de Larrina
Agricluster.haiti@gmail.com
+509 37 63 22 98
Cluster Coordinator
Christopher Gascon
Early Recovery Cluster Coordinator
Jean Marc Cordaro
Jean-marc.cordaro@undp.org
Education Cluster Coordinator Andrea Berther
aberther@unicef.org
Emergency Shelter Cluster Coordinator
Nuno Nunes
shelterhaiti2010@iom.int
nnunes@ion.int
+509 37 01 6065
Emergency Telecommunications
Senior Emergency Manager
Dane Novarlic
dane.novarlic@wfp.org
+971 50 507 1135
Environment Focal point
Antonio Perera
Antonio.perera@unep.org
+509 349 032 50
Food Aid Cluster Coordinator
Raoul Balletto
Foodcluster@yahoo.com
raoul.balletto@wfp.org
+509 37 01 23 77
Gender (Cross Cutting Issue)
Advisor
Victoria Rames rames@un.org
Health Cluster Coordinator
Dana van Alphen
hai.clustersante@paho.org
vanalphe@paho.org
Logistics / UNHAS Cluster Coordinator
Andrew Stanhope
andrew.stanhope@wfp.org
haiti.logs@logcluster.org
+ 503 78 61 5152
Logistics
Logistics Officer
Baptiste Burgaud
baptiste.burgaud@wfp.org
+393490507280 (Mobile)
Logistics Cargo and Storage
haiti.cargo@logcluster.org
Nutrition Cluster Coordinator
Mija Ververs mijaververs@hotmail.com
+509 34 92 0425
Protection Cluster
Coordinator Fabrizio Hochschild
protectionhaiti@gmail.com
Gender-based Violence Coordinator of sub group
Tania Patriota
Patriota@unfpa.org
Child Protection Coordinator of sub group
Ayda Eke haiticpwg@gmail.com
WASH Cluster Coordinator
Souleymane Sow
ssow@unicef.org
+509 34 91 6956
WASH Deputy Cluster Coordinator
Silvia Gaya
sgaya@unicef.org
+88164138587
Saturday, January 30, 2010
HAITI: AFTER THE CATASTROPHE, WHAT ARE THE PERSPECTIVES ?
Thanks to Greg Chamberlain for forwarding this Public Declaration by progressive civil society organizations in Haiti.
It represents a strong current of thought among left-leaning Haitians who are both grieving and mobilizing, but are also deeply concerned on a political level, by the widely perceived failure to date of the Preval government to speak out to the Haitian people and the world -- to lead, as they see it; by the US military focus on 'security' vs. food aid in the immediate days after the earthquake -- and the continued US military control of logistics in the humanitarian response; and their concerns about global discussions related to 'rebuilding Haiti' that they feel reflect a neoliberal economic agenda of globalization and not a national agenda developed by Haitians for Haitians. - AC
HAITI: AFTER THE CATASTROPHE, WHAT ARE THE PERSPECTIVES ?
Port-au-Prince, 27 January 2010 -
Statement by the coordinating committee of progressive organisations (see the list of the participating platforms and individual organizations at the foot of the text)
To all our partners
On January 12th 2010 an earthquake of unprecedented force struck our
country with dramatic consequences for the people of many areas in the
west and south east, and for the country as a whole. The tremor
registered 7.3 on the Richter scale, and the irreparable losses it
caused have left our country in mourning and unbearable pain. The
tragedy we are facing today is certainly one of the gravest in our
history, and its traumatic effects will stamp their mark on our 21st
century.
The partial accounts that have already been disseminated go some way to
expressing the dreadful, indescribable horror that we collectively
lived through during those endless 35 seconds on January 12th, and
which have left so powerful a legacy of pain and tears. More than
150,000 dead, 500,000 injured, over a million homeless, tens of
thousands who have lost limbs, 300,000 refugees who have fled into the
countryside, more than 3 million disaster victims who, from one minute
to the next, saw their lives, their homes and their society changed
forever. A whole society is traumatised, and lives in fear of probable
aftershocks or of a second earthquake.
Our organizations have all been profoundly affected by this event. We
have lost close relatives, work colleagues, children, young people,
professionals with dreams full of promise and skills, buildings,
equipment, tools, and a huge body of documents embodying thirty years
of the collective experience of grassroots and community organizations.
The losses are enormous and irreplaceable.
Despite our pain, it is important that that we all pause to reflect on
what has happened and to draw from this tragic experience the lessons
and the guidance that will allow us to continue our tireless dedication
to building a different country, one that is capable of overcoming the
cycle of dependency and destruction and rising to the level of the
dreams of universal emancipation of its founders and of all the people
of Haiti.
The extent of the disaster is certainly linked to the character of the
colonial and neo-colonial State our country has inherited, and the
imposition of neo-liberal policies over the last three decades. The
extreme centralization around the ‘Republic of Port-au-Prince’ imposed
after the US occupation of 1915-1934 is certainly one determining
factor. In particular the complete liberalization of the housing market
has opened a space for rampant speculation by every kind of
opportunist.
We have been deeply moved by the extraordinary spirit of solidarity
displayed by the people of the metropolitan area who for the first
three days after the disaster responded with self-organization, helping
to save the lives of thousands of people trapped under the rubble and
building 450 refugee camps which made it possible for 1.5 million
people to survive thanks the sharing out of the available resources
(food, water, and clothing). We honour and respect the people of
Port-au-Prince! These spontaneous organs of solidarity must now play a
central role in the reconstruction and reconceptualising of our
national space.
We address this letter to our partners, and the national and
international networks in which we participate, to inform you of the
actions we have taken and our objectives for the short, medium, and
long term.
For over a week now a group of organizations and platforms have been
meeting regularly to address the new situation, setting up new
strategies and methods of work. As representatives of the organizations
and platforms who are signatories to this document, and as a result of
a number of meetings to assess the new situation and define common
strategies, we have adopted a position based on the following
guidelines:
To contribute to defending the main gains made by the popular and
social movements of Haiti now threatened by the new situation.
To help to respond to the urgent immediate needs of the people, by
setting up community service centres with the means to respond to the
following needs: food, primary health care, medical and psychological
assistance for those in shock as a result of the earthquake.
To take advantage of the presence of the international press in our
country to present a different image to that disseminated by the
imperialist forces.
To establish new ways of overcoming the atomisation and dispersal which
are among the central weaknesses of our organizations.
This process of gathering our forces should begin with the creation of
a common space where our six teams can provisionally come together
while they continue to work independently, while at the same time
putting in place permanent mechanisms for mutual exchange and joint
work. We will seek to establish a collective approach in seeking common
responses to our problems, and to build a real and viable alternative
based on popular
democracy.
As far as the immediate emergency is concerned, we are in the process
of setting up centres in each area of the city. One is already
operational at 59 Avenue Poupelard in the premises of a community
school run by the SAJ/VEYE YO (Solidarite Ant Jen) organization. It
provides for nearly 300 people who are given two meals a day and
accommodated in tents. The centre offers them consultations, medicine,
and psychological support. These services are also offered to those
living in the refugee camps that have been spontaneously set up in the
area. The centre functions thanks to the generous support of a group of
Haitian professionals (doctors, nurses, psychologists, and social
workers) with the support of the aid organization, Deutsche Not Ärzte
e.V. (German Emergency Doctors Union) - Cap Anamur. We are trying to
extend the centres into other metropolitan districts badly hit by the
earthquake and where no centres of this kind currently exist. We
anticipate that four more will be set up the districts of Carrefour
(Martissant, Fontamara) and Gressier. We would call upon the solidarity
of all our partners in helping to ensure that they function effectively.
At the same time, the two platforms and four organizations involved
have set up a meeting and coordination centre at the offices of
FIDES-Haiti, in Impasse Gabriel-Rue de Fernand in Canapé Vert. This
space is open to other platforms and organizations of the popular and
democratic movement. We are committed to mobilizing the different
elements of that movement with a view to, on the one hand, extending
emergency help to the disaster victims, and on the other, to lead to
the formulation of a joint plan designed to rebuild our organizations
and institutions. We will communicate this plan, and the concrete
projects associated with it, to our partners as soon as possible.
The emergency aid effort we are involved in is alternative in character
and we expect to advocate a method of work which will denounce the
traditional practices in the field of humanitarian aid which do not
respect the dignity of the victims and which contribute to the
reinforcement of dependency. We are advocating a humanitarian effort
that is appropriate to our reality, respectful of our culture and our
environment, and which does not undermine the forms of economic
solidarity that have been put in place over the decades by the
grassroots organizations with which we work.
Finally, we would like to salute once more the extraordinary generosity
of spirit which has moved public opinion across the world in the wake
of the catastrophe we have suffered. We acknowledge it and we believe
that this is the moment for creating a new way of seeing our country
that will make it possible to build an authentic solidarity free of
paternalism, pity, and the taint of inferiority. We should work to
maintain this spirit of solidarity as against the momentary impact of
fashion and media exaggeration. The response to the crisis has proved
that in certain situations the people of the world can move beyond
hasty judgments based on sensationalism and stereotypes.
Massive humanitarian aid is indispensable today, given the scale of the
disaster, but it should be deployed in terms of a different vision of
the reconstruction process. It should connect with a break from the
paradigms that dominate the traditional circuits of international aid.
We would hope to see the emergence of international brigades working
together with our organizations in the struggle to carry out agrarian
reform and an integrated urban land reform programme, the struggle
against illiteracy and for reforestation, and for the construction of
new modern, decentralised and universal systems of education and public
health.
We must also declare our anger and indignation at the exploitation of
the situation in Haiti to justify a new invasion by 20,000 U.S.
Marines. We condemn what threatens to become a new military occupation
by U.S. troops, the third in our history. It is clearly part of a
strategy to remilitarise the Caribbean Basin in the context of the
imperialist response to the growing rebellion of the peoples of our
continent against neo-liberal globalization. And it exists also within
a framework of pre-emptive warfare designed to confront the eventual
social explosion of a people crushed by poverty and facing despair. We
condemn the model imposed by the U.S. government and the military
response to a tragic humanitarian crisis. The occupation of the
Toussaint Louverture international airport and other elements of the
national infrastructure has deprived the Haitian people of part of the
contribution made by Caricom, by Venezuela, and by some European
countries. We condemn this conduct, and refuse absolutely to allow our
country to become another military base.
As leaders of the organizations and platform who have set this process
in motion, we are writing to share our initial analysis of the
situation. We are certain, and you have already shown this to be true,
that you will continue to support our work and our struggles in the
framework of the construction of an alternative from which our country
can rise again from this terrible catastrophe and struggle to break
free of the cycle of dependency.
For the Coordinating Committee:
Sony Estéus Director of SAKS
Marie Carmelle Fils-Aimé
Programme officer for ICKL
Camille Chalmers
Director of PAPDA
On behalf of the organizations and platforms taking part in this
initiative:
Marc Arthur Fils-Aimé, Institut Culturel Karl Léveque (ICKL);
Maxime J. Rony, Programme alternatif de Justice (PAJ);
Sony Estéus, Sosyete Animasyon ak Kominikasyon Sosyal (SAKS);
Chenet Jean Baptiste, Institut de Technologie et d’animation (ITECA);
Antonal Mortimé, Plateforme des Organisations Haïtiennes de Droits
Humains (POHDH) composed of:
Justice et Paix (JILAP), Centre de recherches Sociales et de Formation
pour le Développement (CRESFED), Groupe Assistance Juridique (GAJ),
Institut Culturel Karl Léveque (ICKL), Programme pour une Alternative
de Justice (PAJ), Sant Karl Lévèque (SKL), Réseau National de Défense
des Droits Humains (RNDDH), Conférence haïtienne des Religieux
(CORAL-CHR)
Camille Chalmers, Plateforme haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un
Développement Alternatif (PAPDA) composed of:
Institut de Technologie et d’animation (ITECA), Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn
(SOFA), Centre de Recherches Actions pour le Développement (CRAD),
Mouvman Inite Ti Peyizan Latibonit (MITPA), Institut Culturel Karl
Léveque (ICKL), Association Nationale des Agroprofessionnels Haïtiens
(ANDAH)
It represents a strong current of thought among left-leaning Haitians who are both grieving and mobilizing, but are also deeply concerned on a political level, by the widely perceived failure to date of the Preval government to speak out to the Haitian people and the world -- to lead, as they see it; by the US military focus on 'security' vs. food aid in the immediate days after the earthquake -- and the continued US military control of logistics in the humanitarian response; and their concerns about global discussions related to 'rebuilding Haiti' that they feel reflect a neoliberal economic agenda of globalization and not a national agenda developed by Haitians for Haitians. - AC
HAITI: AFTER THE CATASTROPHE, WHAT ARE THE PERSPECTIVES ?
Port-au-Prince, 27 January 2010 -
Statement by the coordinating committee of progressive organisations (see the list of the participating platforms and individual organizations at the foot of the text)
To all our partners
On January 12th 2010 an earthquake of unprecedented force struck our
country with dramatic consequences for the people of many areas in the
west and south east, and for the country as a whole. The tremor
registered 7.3 on the Richter scale, and the irreparable losses it
caused have left our country in mourning and unbearable pain. The
tragedy we are facing today is certainly one of the gravest in our
history, and its traumatic effects will stamp their mark on our 21st
century.
The partial accounts that have already been disseminated go some way to
expressing the dreadful, indescribable horror that we collectively
lived through during those endless 35 seconds on January 12th, and
which have left so powerful a legacy of pain and tears. More than
150,000 dead, 500,000 injured, over a million homeless, tens of
thousands who have lost limbs, 300,000 refugees who have fled into the
countryside, more than 3 million disaster victims who, from one minute
to the next, saw their lives, their homes and their society changed
forever. A whole society is traumatised, and lives in fear of probable
aftershocks or of a second earthquake.
Our organizations have all been profoundly affected by this event. We
have lost close relatives, work colleagues, children, young people,
professionals with dreams full of promise and skills, buildings,
equipment, tools, and a huge body of documents embodying thirty years
of the collective experience of grassroots and community organizations.
The losses are enormous and irreplaceable.
Despite our pain, it is important that that we all pause to reflect on
what has happened and to draw from this tragic experience the lessons
and the guidance that will allow us to continue our tireless dedication
to building a different country, one that is capable of overcoming the
cycle of dependency and destruction and rising to the level of the
dreams of universal emancipation of its founders and of all the people
of Haiti.
The extent of the disaster is certainly linked to the character of the
colonial and neo-colonial State our country has inherited, and the
imposition of neo-liberal policies over the last three decades. The
extreme centralization around the ‘Republic of Port-au-Prince’ imposed
after the US occupation of 1915-1934 is certainly one determining
factor. In particular the complete liberalization of the housing market
has opened a space for rampant speculation by every kind of
opportunist.
We have been deeply moved by the extraordinary spirit of solidarity
displayed by the people of the metropolitan area who for the first
three days after the disaster responded with self-organization, helping
to save the lives of thousands of people trapped under the rubble and
building 450 refugee camps which made it possible for 1.5 million
people to survive thanks the sharing out of the available resources
(food, water, and clothing). We honour and respect the people of
Port-au-Prince! These spontaneous organs of solidarity must now play a
central role in the reconstruction and reconceptualising of our
national space.
We address this letter to our partners, and the national and
international networks in which we participate, to inform you of the
actions we have taken and our objectives for the short, medium, and
long term.
For over a week now a group of organizations and platforms have been
meeting regularly to address the new situation, setting up new
strategies and methods of work. As representatives of the organizations
and platforms who are signatories to this document, and as a result of
a number of meetings to assess the new situation and define common
strategies, we have adopted a position based on the following
guidelines:
To contribute to defending the main gains made by the popular and
social movements of Haiti now threatened by the new situation.
To help to respond to the urgent immediate needs of the people, by
setting up community service centres with the means to respond to the
following needs: food, primary health care, medical and psychological
assistance for those in shock as a result of the earthquake.
To take advantage of the presence of the international press in our
country to present a different image to that disseminated by the
imperialist forces.
To establish new ways of overcoming the atomisation and dispersal which
are among the central weaknesses of our organizations.
This process of gathering our forces should begin with the creation of
a common space where our six teams can provisionally come together
while they continue to work independently, while at the same time
putting in place permanent mechanisms for mutual exchange and joint
work. We will seek to establish a collective approach in seeking common
responses to our problems, and to build a real and viable alternative
based on popular
democracy.
As far as the immediate emergency is concerned, we are in the process
of setting up centres in each area of the city. One is already
operational at 59 Avenue Poupelard in the premises of a community
school run by the SAJ/VEYE YO (Solidarite Ant Jen) organization. It
provides for nearly 300 people who are given two meals a day and
accommodated in tents. The centre offers them consultations, medicine,
and psychological support. These services are also offered to those
living in the refugee camps that have been spontaneously set up in the
area. The centre functions thanks to the generous support of a group of
Haitian professionals (doctors, nurses, psychologists, and social
workers) with the support of the aid organization, Deutsche Not Ärzte
e.V. (German Emergency Doctors Union) - Cap Anamur. We are trying to
extend the centres into other metropolitan districts badly hit by the
earthquake and where no centres of this kind currently exist. We
anticipate that four more will be set up the districts of Carrefour
(Martissant, Fontamara) and Gressier. We would call upon the solidarity
of all our partners in helping to ensure that they function effectively.
At the same time, the two platforms and four organizations involved
have set up a meeting and coordination centre at the offices of
FIDES-Haiti, in Impasse Gabriel-Rue de Fernand in Canapé Vert. This
space is open to other platforms and organizations of the popular and
democratic movement. We are committed to mobilizing the different
elements of that movement with a view to, on the one hand, extending
emergency help to the disaster victims, and on the other, to lead to
the formulation of a joint plan designed to rebuild our organizations
and institutions. We will communicate this plan, and the concrete
projects associated with it, to our partners as soon as possible.
The emergency aid effort we are involved in is alternative in character
and we expect to advocate a method of work which will denounce the
traditional practices in the field of humanitarian aid which do not
respect the dignity of the victims and which contribute to the
reinforcement of dependency. We are advocating a humanitarian effort
that is appropriate to our reality, respectful of our culture and our
environment, and which does not undermine the forms of economic
solidarity that have been put in place over the decades by the
grassroots organizations with which we work.
Finally, we would like to salute once more the extraordinary generosity
of spirit which has moved public opinion across the world in the wake
of the catastrophe we have suffered. We acknowledge it and we believe
that this is the moment for creating a new way of seeing our country
that will make it possible to build an authentic solidarity free of
paternalism, pity, and the taint of inferiority. We should work to
maintain this spirit of solidarity as against the momentary impact of
fashion and media exaggeration. The response to the crisis has proved
that in certain situations the people of the world can move beyond
hasty judgments based on sensationalism and stereotypes.
Massive humanitarian aid is indispensable today, given the scale of the
disaster, but it should be deployed in terms of a different vision of
the reconstruction process. It should connect with a break from the
paradigms that dominate the traditional circuits of international aid.
We would hope to see the emergence of international brigades working
together with our organizations in the struggle to carry out agrarian
reform and an integrated urban land reform programme, the struggle
against illiteracy and for reforestation, and for the construction of
new modern, decentralised and universal systems of education and public
health.
We must also declare our anger and indignation at the exploitation of
the situation in Haiti to justify a new invasion by 20,000 U.S.
Marines. We condemn what threatens to become a new military occupation
by U.S. troops, the third in our history. It is clearly part of a
strategy to remilitarise the Caribbean Basin in the context of the
imperialist response to the growing rebellion of the peoples of our
continent against neo-liberal globalization. And it exists also within
a framework of pre-emptive warfare designed to confront the eventual
social explosion of a people crushed by poverty and facing despair. We
condemn the model imposed by the U.S. government and the military
response to a tragic humanitarian crisis. The occupation of the
Toussaint Louverture international airport and other elements of the
national infrastructure has deprived the Haitian people of part of the
contribution made by Caricom, by Venezuela, and by some European
countries. We condemn this conduct, and refuse absolutely to allow our
country to become another military base.
As leaders of the organizations and platform who have set this process
in motion, we are writing to share our initial analysis of the
situation. We are certain, and you have already shown this to be true,
that you will continue to support our work and our struggles in the
framework of the construction of an alternative from which our country
can rise again from this terrible catastrophe and struggle to break
free of the cycle of dependency.
For the Coordinating Committee:
Sony Estéus Director of SAKS
Marie Carmelle Fils-Aimé
Programme officer for ICKL
Camille Chalmers
Director of PAPDA
On behalf of the organizations and platforms taking part in this
initiative:
Marc Arthur Fils-Aimé, Institut Culturel Karl Léveque (ICKL);
Maxime J. Rony, Programme alternatif de Justice (PAJ);
Sony Estéus, Sosyete Animasyon ak Kominikasyon Sosyal (SAKS);
Chenet Jean Baptiste, Institut de Technologie et d’animation (ITECA);
Antonal Mortimé, Plateforme des Organisations Haïtiennes de Droits
Humains (POHDH) composed of:
Justice et Paix (JILAP), Centre de recherches Sociales et de Formation
pour le Développement (CRESFED), Groupe Assistance Juridique (GAJ),
Institut Culturel Karl Léveque (ICKL), Programme pour une Alternative
de Justice (PAJ), Sant Karl Lévèque (SKL), Réseau National de Défense
des Droits Humains (RNDDH), Conférence haïtienne des Religieux
(CORAL-CHR)
Camille Chalmers, Plateforme haïtienne de Plaidoyer pour un
Développement Alternatif (PAPDA) composed of:
Institut de Technologie et d’animation (ITECA), Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn
(SOFA), Centre de Recherches Actions pour le Développement (CRAD),
Mouvman Inite Ti Peyizan Latibonit (MITPA), Institut Culturel Karl
Léveque (ICKL), Association Nationale des Agroprofessionnels Haïtiens
(ANDAH)
Repost Hesperian free Kreyol Heath Materials incl 'Where There Is No Doctor', etc.
Here are some links for Health Materials and How To's that were developed by Haitians are available for free downloading at the great ">Hesperian publishers, based in Berkeley, CA.
They have great books for field doctors, nurses, midwives and dentists too, as well as tailored material for deaf children, for example.
Here is a link to a pdf document of the the Haitian Kreyol edition of Where There is No Doctor:
http://www.hesperian.info/assets/Where_There_is_no_Doctor_Creole.pdf
Link to a pdf of the Haitian Kreyol edition of Where Women Have No Doctor.
Also available as a printed book from 4 The World Resource Distributers
www.4WRD.org Tel: 417-862-4448 Fax: 417-863-9994 orders@4wrd.org
Link to a pdf of the Haitian Kreyol edition of Sanitation and Cleanliness booklet: produced by Hesperian partner, SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods)
Link to a pdf of a cholera fact sheet in English:
All of the above and other health materials in English and Spanish and some in French can be downloaded here:
http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download.php
kanpe kanpe!
They have great books for field doctors, nurses, midwives and dentists too, as well as tailored material for deaf children, for example.
Here is a link to a pdf document of the the Haitian Kreyol edition of Where There is No Doctor:
http://www.hesperian.info/assets/Where_There_is_no_Doctor_Creole.pdf
Link to a pdf of the Haitian Kreyol edition of Where Women Have No Doctor.
Also available as a printed book from 4 The World Resource Distributers
www.4WRD.org Tel: 417-862-4448 Fax: 417-863-9994 orders@4wrd.org
Link to a pdf of the Haitian Kreyol edition of Sanitation and Cleanliness booklet: produced by Hesperian partner, SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods)
Link to a pdf of a cholera fact sheet in English:
All of the above and other health materials in English and Spanish and some in French can be downloaded here:
http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download.php
kanpe kanpe!
Friday, January 29, 2010
Article on Haitian Women's Response; Link to Wired's new ReWiring Haiti site
HI all,
I've been in P au P all week. Will provide a trip update later. Meantime, please see an article I published yesterday at World Pulse media.
I also asked my ex-upstairs neighbor, Evan Hansen, Ed in Chief of Wired Online, to bring together some of the best minds and experiences in tech and innovation -- including green architecture, urban planning, communications, IT, and disaster recovery - to help Haitians consider how to rebuild their grid. He launched ReWiring Haiti and invites those interested in these aspects of Haiti's future to join the conversation.
URL for World Pulse story:
http://www.worldpulse.com/magazine/articles/holding-up-haiti-women-respond-to-nightmare-earthquake?page=0,0
URL for ReWiring Haiti: http://haitirewired.wired.com/
CALL FOR PRESERVATION:
Meantime, small impt note: As the bulldozers work to clear the rubble, some Haitians who are very involved in Preservation of Haiti's rich cultural heritage are sounding the alarm about the need to PRESERVE and RESTORE Haiti's unique architecture - including 100 year old houses that are slated for demolition in Jacmel.. without their owner having had a chance to bring in their own engineers to assess if they can be preserved and restored to withstand future shocks.
Ironically in P au P, Haiti's famed gingerbread houses are among the only ones standing (like my late grandmere's house in Bois Verna, an otherwise very hard-hit section with nearby Sacre Coeur church collapses. We need to learn from the survival of these well-built wooden houses... those that fell often collapsed because the larger brick structures next to them fell on top of them...
Meantime, for all who ask: I find Haiti's indomitable spirit alive and well, despite grievous loss.
Finally, I have proposed an idea I've had for a memorial DAY FOR HAITI -- soon.
A day to Honor the Dead, and Fight for the Living.
The concept is for a global day of mourning and celebrating Haiti's losses and survival at the same time. A decentralized affair, global, allowing Haitians everywhere. including the Diaspora, to pay homage, and most importantly, to speak AS HAITIANS TO HAITIANS, with the global community as a witness. A spiritual affair, that honors Haiti's fallen cities, and many leaders, the millions surviving and the spirit of Haiti, with song, prayer, words... this led by Civil Society, which invites Haitian government leaders to join as a critical sector of the society in charge of the overall message of unification and solidarity.
The idea and decentalized concept is receiving very positive response from the colleagues here I've shared it with...Haitian community leaders, journalists, cultural workers in theater, art, literature, and historians.
They are all so busy and overwhelmed there's been no time to mourn. But all agree, esp with bulldozers arriving, parents of children and those with other loved ones buried in the rubble are having a terrible time, and all need some closure, even as they step forward to embrace their own survival and the need to continue on.
More on this soon. Share the idea and let me know your thoughts. A small working group is going to meet here, to see about next steps, and share with government officials. Some day sooner than later, to come together Tet Ansamn.
AC
I've been in P au P all week. Will provide a trip update later. Meantime, please see an article I published yesterday at World Pulse media.
I also asked my ex-upstairs neighbor, Evan Hansen, Ed in Chief of Wired Online, to bring together some of the best minds and experiences in tech and innovation -- including green architecture, urban planning, communications, IT, and disaster recovery - to help Haitians consider how to rebuild their grid. He launched ReWiring Haiti and invites those interested in these aspects of Haiti's future to join the conversation.
URL for World Pulse story:
http://www.worldpulse.com/magazine/articles/holding-up-haiti-women-respond-to-nightmare-earthquake?page=0,0
URL for ReWiring Haiti: http://haitirewired.wired.com/
CALL FOR PRESERVATION:
Meantime, small impt note: As the bulldozers work to clear the rubble, some Haitians who are very involved in Preservation of Haiti's rich cultural heritage are sounding the alarm about the need to PRESERVE and RESTORE Haiti's unique architecture - including 100 year old houses that are slated for demolition in Jacmel.. without their owner having had a chance to bring in their own engineers to assess if they can be preserved and restored to withstand future shocks.
Ironically in P au P, Haiti's famed gingerbread houses are among the only ones standing (like my late grandmere's house in Bois Verna, an otherwise very hard-hit section with nearby Sacre Coeur church collapses. We need to learn from the survival of these well-built wooden houses... those that fell often collapsed because the larger brick structures next to them fell on top of them...
Meantime, for all who ask: I find Haiti's indomitable spirit alive and well, despite grievous loss.
Finally, I have proposed an idea I've had for a memorial DAY FOR HAITI -- soon.
A day to Honor the Dead, and Fight for the Living.
The concept is for a global day of mourning and celebrating Haiti's losses and survival at the same time. A decentralized affair, global, allowing Haitians everywhere. including the Diaspora, to pay homage, and most importantly, to speak AS HAITIANS TO HAITIANS, with the global community as a witness. A spiritual affair, that honors Haiti's fallen cities, and many leaders, the millions surviving and the spirit of Haiti, with song, prayer, words... this led by Civil Society, which invites Haitian government leaders to join as a critical sector of the society in charge of the overall message of unification and solidarity.
The idea and decentalized concept is receiving very positive response from the colleagues here I've shared it with...Haitian community leaders, journalists, cultural workers in theater, art, literature, and historians.
They are all so busy and overwhelmed there's been no time to mourn. But all agree, esp with bulldozers arriving, parents of children and those with other loved ones buried in the rubble are having a terrible time, and all need some closure, even as they step forward to embrace their own survival and the need to continue on.
More on this soon. Share the idea and let me know your thoughts. A small working group is going to meet here, to see about next steps, and share with government officials. Some day sooner than later, to come together Tet Ansamn.
AC
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Haiti GOVT Info Bulletin - Important Summary
A public information bulletin has been released by the Haitian government summarizing the impact of the January 12 earthquake. It is in French and includes statistics related to death toll, injury and displacement related to the quake; plans and request related to temporary resettlement of Haitians in and around the capital, Port-au-Prince, information related to other cities; and advice for citizens related to the risk of future earthquakes and assessments of structural damage to buildings. It also included information related to current economic factors, reopening of banks, and information relevant to conditions and challenges in smaller cities.
The bulletin notes that President Preval has requested urgent delivery by the international community of 200,000 family size tents, and 36 million food rations to help feed 1.5 million people.
Selected major information and suggestions include :
-- Environ 112 200 morts, 195 000 blessés, 1 million de sans abris, la moitié des maisons détruites à Port‐au‐Prince,
Jacmel et Léogane ; au moins 23 centres hospitaliers privés effondrés.
Around 112,000 dead, 195,000 wounded, 1 million homeless, half the houses destroyed in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and Leogane; at least 23 private hospitals collapsed.
-- Le gouvernement a annoncé hier la création de 2 camps pour les personnes déplacées de Port‐au‐Prince: l'un sur
la route de Tabarre et l'autre à la Croix des Bouquets. Un autre site a été identifié dans
la zone de Léogane.
The government yesterday announced the creation of 2 camps for displaced persons in Port-au-Orince: one on the road to Tabarre, the other at Croix des Bouquets. Another site has been identified in the zone of Leogane.
-- Un communiqué de presse de l’United State Geological Survey (USGS) publié le 21 janvier 2010 présente une estimation de l’activité des répliques pour les trente prochains. Selon ce communiqué, la probabilité d’un ou plusieurs séismes de
magnitude 7 ou supérieure surviennent est moins de 3% ; un ou plusieurs séisme(s) de magnitude 6 ou plus, est
de 25% ; un ou plusieurs séismes de magnitude 5 ou plus, est d’environ 90%. Approximativement 2 ou 3
répliques de magnitude 5 ou supérieure sont attendues pendant cette période de temps.
A United States Geological Survey (USGS) published 21 January 2010 offers an estimate of quake activity for the next 30. According to this communique, the probability of one or more earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater is less than 3%; one or more earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more is 25%; one or more magnitude 5 or more is around 90%. Approximately 2 or 3 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater are expected during this period of time.
-- Seuls des ingénieurs qualifiés peuvent déterminer si un bâtiment endommagé est sûr et peut être
réoccupé. La règle à tenir tant que les ingénieurs ne sont pas sur place la suivante : si un bâtiment n’a pas l’air
sûr, c’est qu’il ne l’est pas.
Only qualified engineers can determine if a damaged building is sound enough to be recoccupied. The rule to follow until an engineer has evaluated a property is: if the building doesn't look sound, it isn't.
--Aujourd’hui 24 janvier, on estime que la capacité de distribution de l’aide alimentaire varie entre 200 000 à
300 000 rations par jour. Ce qui veut dire que, seulement à Port‐au‐Prince et ses environs, plus de 800 000
personnes ne peuvent être satisfaites. C’est le principal défi.
Today, we estimate the capacity of food distribution varies between 200,000 and 300,000 rations a day. This means that, in Port-au-Prince and its surroundings alone, over 800,000 people will not be reached. This is the major challenge.
Other:
The government is opposed to precipitous adoptions and uncontrolled departures from Haiti of vulnerable or orphaned children and is concerned about the risk of trafficking.
NGOs engaged in humanitarian or food aid are encouraged to work with the UN system that has been established.
The bulletin notes that President Preval has requested urgent delivery by the international community of 200,000 family size tents, and 36 million food rations to help feed 1.5 million people.
Selected major information and suggestions include :
-- Environ 112 200 morts, 195 000 blessés, 1 million de sans abris, la moitié des maisons détruites à Port‐au‐Prince,
Jacmel et Léogane ; au moins 23 centres hospitaliers privés effondrés.
Around 112,000 dead, 195,000 wounded, 1 million homeless, half the houses destroyed in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and Leogane; at least 23 private hospitals collapsed.
-- Le gouvernement a annoncé hier la création de 2 camps pour les personnes déplacées de Port‐au‐Prince: l'un sur
la route de Tabarre et l'autre à la Croix des Bouquets. Un autre site a été identifié dans
la zone de Léogane.
The government yesterday announced the creation of 2 camps for displaced persons in Port-au-Orince: one on the road to Tabarre, the other at Croix des Bouquets. Another site has been identified in the zone of Leogane.
-- Un communiqué de presse de l’United State Geological Survey (USGS) publié le 21 janvier 2010 présente une estimation de l’activité des répliques pour les trente prochains. Selon ce communiqué, la probabilité d’un ou plusieurs séismes de
magnitude 7 ou supérieure surviennent est moins de 3% ; un ou plusieurs séisme(s) de magnitude 6 ou plus, est
de 25% ; un ou plusieurs séismes de magnitude 5 ou plus, est d’environ 90%. Approximativement 2 ou 3
répliques de magnitude 5 ou supérieure sont attendues pendant cette période de temps.
A United States Geological Survey (USGS) published 21 January 2010 offers an estimate of quake activity for the next 30. According to this communique, the probability of one or more earthquakes of magnitude 7 or greater is less than 3%; one or more earthquakes of magnitude 6 or more is 25%; one or more magnitude 5 or more is around 90%. Approximately 2 or 3 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or greater are expected during this period of time.
-- Seuls des ingénieurs qualifiés peuvent déterminer si un bâtiment endommagé est sûr et peut être
réoccupé. La règle à tenir tant que les ingénieurs ne sont pas sur place la suivante : si un bâtiment n’a pas l’air
sûr, c’est qu’il ne l’est pas.
Only qualified engineers can determine if a damaged building is sound enough to be recoccupied. The rule to follow until an engineer has evaluated a property is: if the building doesn't look sound, it isn't.
--Aujourd’hui 24 janvier, on estime que la capacité de distribution de l’aide alimentaire varie entre 200 000 à
300 000 rations par jour. Ce qui veut dire que, seulement à Port‐au‐Prince et ses environs, plus de 800 000
personnes ne peuvent être satisfaites. C’est le principal défi.
Today, we estimate the capacity of food distribution varies between 200,000 and 300,000 rations a day. This means that, in Port-au-Prince and its surroundings alone, over 800,000 people will not be reached. This is the major challenge.
Other:
The government is opposed to precipitous adoptions and uncontrolled departures from Haiti of vulnerable or orphaned children and is concerned about the risk of trafficking.
NGOs engaged in humanitarian or food aid are encouraged to work with the UN system that has been established.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Situation Report - Contacts Info - Haiti Orphanages (1.24.10)
Please click the link below to view a Google speadsheet of information and contacts about Orphanages that Haiti Vox has gathered since the January 12 earthquake. Please provide our team with any updates or contact numbers you can.
This information comes from a variety of sources and is incomplete, but represents our effort to collate,and review twitter, Ushahidi SMS alerts, media stories and email bulletings, along with telephone interviews with groups in and outside Haiti.
Information, updates or corrections can be sent to: julieseasuth@gmail.com. If these are very urgent and require immediate follow up, please cc Anne-christine at: talktothefuture@gmail.com.
We'll be working to actively inform and help Haitian, UN, and inter-agency officials who are working to respond to the urgent needs of Orphanages and Orphans and Missing Children in Haiti, and with grassroots Orphan caretakeres, sponsor groups and donors who are concerned or inquiring about how to assist these groups in Haiti.
Please inform colleagues and spread the word about our effort to collect updated information that can quickly be shared to help orphans urgently needing services in Haiti now.
Special thanks to Julie Sutherland for research and creation of this spreadsheet. Thanks to colleagues who are working to help us make this a tool that will serve many agencies and individuals.
-- Anne-christine
Situation Report - Haiti Orphanages (as of 1.23.10 - HaitiVox)
This information comes from a variety of sources and is incomplete, but represents our effort to collate,and review twitter, Ushahidi SMS alerts, media stories and email bulletings, along with telephone interviews with groups in and outside Haiti.
Information, updates or corrections can be sent to: julieseasuth@gmail.com. If these are very urgent and require immediate follow up, please cc Anne-christine at: talktothefuture@gmail.com.
We'll be working to actively inform and help Haitian, UN, and inter-agency officials who are working to respond to the urgent needs of Orphanages and Orphans and Missing Children in Haiti, and with grassroots Orphan caretakeres, sponsor groups and donors who are concerned or inquiring about how to assist these groups in Haiti.
Please inform colleagues and spread the word about our effort to collect updated information that can quickly be shared to help orphans urgently needing services in Haiti now.
Special thanks to Julie Sutherland for research and creation of this spreadsheet. Thanks to colleagues who are working to help us make this a tool that will serve many agencies and individuals.
-- Anne-christine
Situation Report - Haiti Orphanages (as of 1.23.10 - HaitiVox)
Orphanage Reporting Database (English, Kreyol, Espanol,, Francais)
Below please find links to a new Haiti Vox online Orphanage Reporting Database.
I created this template in consultation with orphan advocates working in Haiti, in order to help us collectively centralize information gathering, news and field reports about the status of orphanages and orphans, missing children and the needs of orphan caretakes in Haiti post the January 12 earthquake. I hope this helps everyone working to aid Haiti's orphans and the orphanages who have suffered so much and need our urgent help.
Please help us spread the word about this database gathering effort and help us update the information. Much thanks, Anne-christine
Special thanks to Julie Sutherland for her help in researching and creating this form.
******************************************************************************
A voir: Donnees de base sure les Orphelinats - Haiti Tremblement de Terre 2010
Para ver: Base de Datos de Informacion sobre los Orfonatos - Haiti Terremoto 2010
Gade: Enfomasyon Sou Òfelens - Trembleman de Tè 2010
URL LINKS:
Orphanage Reporting Database - Haiti 2010 Earthquake - (English)
Enfomasyon Sou Òfelens - Trembleman de Tè 2010 (Kreyol)
Données de base sur les Orphelinats- Tremblement de Terre January 2010 (Francais)
Base de datos de información sobre Orfonatos - Terremoto de Haiti Enero 2010 (Espanol)
I created this template in consultation with orphan advocates working in Haiti, in order to help us collectively centralize information gathering, news and field reports about the status of orphanages and orphans, missing children and the needs of orphan caretakes in Haiti post the January 12 earthquake. I hope this helps everyone working to aid Haiti's orphans and the orphanages who have suffered so much and need our urgent help.
Please help us spread the word about this database gathering effort and help us update the information. Much thanks, Anne-christine
Special thanks to Julie Sutherland for her help in researching and creating this form.
******************************************************************************
A voir: Donnees de base sure les Orphelinats - Haiti Tremblement de Terre 2010
Para ver: Base de Datos de Informacion sobre los Orfonatos - Haiti Terremoto 2010
Gade: Enfomasyon Sou Òfelens - Trembleman de Tè 2010
URL LINKS:
Orphanage Reporting Database - Haiti 2010 Earthquake - (English)
Enfomasyon Sou Òfelens - Trembleman de Tè 2010 (Kreyol)
Données de base sur les Orphelinats- Tremblement de Terre January 2010 (Francais)
Base de datos de información sobre Orfonatos - Terremoto de Haiti Enero 2010 (Espanol)
Update: Border Plan Unlikely, say Insiders
Quick Update re the reported plans for a large Haitian IDP camp near DR border.... looks unlikely, say insiders....
Santo Domingo, Sun evening:
Despite media reports quoting UN and Haitian authorities that a UN plan was being considered for the creation of a large Border Camp that might house 100,000 people evacuated from quake-damaged Port-au-Prince and other heavily-affected cities and towns, my conversations with Red Cross workers here in Santo Domingo suggest that the plan has or will been dropped. Why?
There is too much opposition and concern by Dominican officials about having such a large, dispossessed internally displaced person's IDP camp so close to the border. And there are serious challenges to moving such a large population of very seriously injured people.
I hope to get more official confirmation of where the plan - or the revision of the plan - stands tomorrow.
Meantime, Red Cross and other agency teams from around the world are quickly setting up other humanitarian 'tent city' provisional sites - like one planned at Fort de France -- and looking at other food distribution sites in the provinces.
Stay Tuned.
Santo Domingo, Sun evening:
Despite media reports quoting UN and Haitian authorities that a UN plan was being considered for the creation of a large Border Camp that might house 100,000 people evacuated from quake-damaged Port-au-Prince and other heavily-affected cities and towns, my conversations with Red Cross workers here in Santo Domingo suggest that the plan has or will been dropped. Why?
There is too much opposition and concern by Dominican officials about having such a large, dispossessed internally displaced person's IDP camp so close to the border. And there are serious challenges to moving such a large population of very seriously injured people.
I hope to get more official confirmation of where the plan - or the revision of the plan - stands tomorrow.
Meantime, Red Cross and other agency teams from around the world are quickly setting up other humanitarian 'tent city' provisional sites - like one planned at Fort de France -- and looking at other food distribution sites in the provinces.
Stay Tuned.
IMPT Update DR 'Humanitarian Corridor'
UPDATE - New strict procedures have been implemented, starting TOMORROW that apply to transporting humanitarian CARGO and PASSENGERS via Dominican Republic to Haiti.
Also: the UN has negotiated clearance of customs for this humanitarian corridor for the next six months.
This information is relevant esp to smaller NGOs, groups wishing to sent humanitarian supplies or medicine into Haiti and Port-au-Prince with security provided, using the UN convoy system, via the Dominican Republic - who may not have logistical support or their own truck, storage, etc.
Take home message: New impt rules are in place for UN agencies, and larger NGOs who are part of the official relief effort.
To quote the report (following, below) from the UN Logistics Cluster in charge of this transportation and shipping of humanitarian aid aspect of the Haiti quake relief effort:
"Strict procedures are now in place for booking of both passenger and cargo transport. All requests for passenger transport should be directed to unhaspax.haiti@wfp.org, while (email) cargo movement requests should be sent to haiti.cargo@logcluster.org)."
Further below is today's UN Cluster Group Logistics Situation Update with complete details I discuss here first.
UPDATE:
Today in S. Domingo I slipped over to the UN House at Rue Anaconda 9 (for future mtgs for those of you in smaller NGOs - impt mtg place for all cluster gps including nutrition, protection, etc. related to Quake) to attend a weekly meeting of the UN Cluster Gp on Logistics... a regular update they're having with key relief orgs handling logistics for UN relief effort via border.
This was attended by the major UN players and larger NGOs who are in the humanitarian area bringing large-scale supplies into Haiti via the 'humanitarian corridor' being set up.Only a few non UN groups attended, but the info is very relevant to all NGOs and gps seeking to bring supplies into Haiti.
Bottom line is that new transport and storage services are available including:
--new container space,
--new warehouse space at Jimani,
--new flight schedules for cargo from Las Americas airport. UNHAS is in charge and registration is required. Contact the email listed below on the UN Logistics Cluster Situation Report. Flights will happen twice daily, for up to 35 passengers.
--and commercial flights from Las Americas will also be available. UNHAS also in charge.
-- trucks and groups without trucks invited to participate in UN transport convoy that go out twice daily from Jimani to Port-au-Prince,with UN security provided
--Barahona airport(very soon -will be ready). Contact UN Logistics Cluster email listed below for cargo transport requests.
-- sea access is being developed at smaller ports - updates soon from the Cluster.
Also: Fuel, trucks have been added to both P au P and Jimani ends of the shipping routes. 20.000 gallons of fuel has been brought in, and fuel is available to NGOs putting trucks into the UN convoys at BOTH ends.
This is for transporting supplies WITH the UN convoy. which also has security provided to the convoys via MINUSTAH -- an arrangement set up by the Dominican Govt, not the UN.
Note: while security concerns have been raised, the groups at the meeting today did NOT report security problems regarding the UN transport convoys to date.
UPDATE: This service is available to smaller NGOs and groups without their own trucks or bringing in smaller donations, etc.. but you must work through the Cluster Group to register with them, to inform them of your needs in advance, at either end of the process.
You can store your pallets, etc at a DHL run warehouse at Jimani set up for smaller NGOs.
All cargo hoping to use DHL assistance/storage in warehouse must make sure to post the name of the CARGO AGENT on the manifest -- which is DAMA. '
Warehouse is located inside the customs area at Jimani border. Address:
DHL Temporary Warehouse
Unit 14, CV, SDQ'
Jimani
tel: 829-774-2225
YOU are NOT REQUIRED TO DO THIS, but it's available. Obviously, this will help agencies and smaller groups avoid customs fees and delays, and get secure passage to and from the Port-au-Prince airport for further distribution to food distribution points in Haiti -- and Jimani, Dominican Republic.
Below is the Official Situation Report from that Meeting, posted at the Cluster Group Logistics website.
------------------------------------------------------------
Logistics Cluster
SANTO DOMINGO LOGISTICS CLUSTER
SITUATION REPORT
HAITI EARTHQUAKE
DATE: 24/JANUARY/2010
CONTENTS
1. HIGHLIGHT
2. LOGISTICS COORDINATION
3. BORDER CROSSING AND CUSTOMS
4. AIR OPERATION
5. INFRASTRUCTURE AND STORAGE
1 Highlight
• UNHAS has increased the capacity for cargo and passengers out of Santo Domingo (La
Isabela airport).
2 Logistics Coordination
• The Logistics Cluster in Santo Domingo held its third meeting today, Sunday 24 January. 30
different organisations participated.
• The next Logistics Cluster meeting will be held at the UN House in Santo Domingo on
Wednesday 27 January at 1400 hrs.
• The Barahona hub is not yet operational.
• Operational procedures are now in place for cargo movement requests (CMRs). CMRs should,
regardless of means of transport, be sent to haiti.cargo@logcluster.org
3 Border Crossing and Customs:
• WFP has on behalf of the Logistics Cluster negotiated tax exemption at the airport on all
incoming humanitarian goods for the next six months. Further details will be disseminated in
the following days.
• Two Logistics Officers are based at the border crossing in Jimaní. Further staff is currently being
deployed.
4 Air Operation
• The cargo transport capacity between Santo Domingo and Port-au Prince has increased.
Pending demand, two aircrafts, one Caribou aircraft capable of carrying 2.7 mt and one
Antonov 12 capable of carrying 16 mt, are available.
• The capacity of the UNHAS passenger service between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo has
also increased. Pending demand, 2 aircrafts are now available to provide transport up to a
maximum of 86 passengers each day.
• Strict procedures are now in place for booking of both passenger and cargo transport. All
requests for passenger transport should be directed to unhaspax.haiti@wfp.org, while cargo
movement requests should be sent to the address referred to above
(haiti.cargo@logcluster.org).
5 Infrastructure and storage
• 70 flatbed trailers continue to operate between Santo Domingo and the Haitian border, where
they twice daily are met by the MINUSTAH escort. No problems have been reported
concerning this route.
• More incoming cargo is expected at Las Americas airport. The Logistics Cluster is currently
working on increasing existing storage capacity.
For inquiries about participation or this service, please contact:
Eva-Kristin Urestad Pedersen
Logistics Cluster
Information Management Officer
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Mob.: + (1)829 817 1606
Also: the UN has negotiated clearance of customs for this humanitarian corridor for the next six months.
This information is relevant esp to smaller NGOs, groups wishing to sent humanitarian supplies or medicine into Haiti and Port-au-Prince with security provided, using the UN convoy system, via the Dominican Republic - who may not have logistical support or their own truck, storage, etc.
Take home message: New impt rules are in place for UN agencies, and larger NGOs who are part of the official relief effort.
To quote the report (following, below) from the UN Logistics Cluster in charge of this transportation and shipping of humanitarian aid aspect of the Haiti quake relief effort:
"Strict procedures are now in place for booking of both passenger and cargo transport. All requests for passenger transport should be directed to unhaspax.haiti@wfp.org, while (email) cargo movement requests should be sent to haiti.cargo@logcluster.org)."
Further below is today's UN Cluster Group Logistics Situation Update with complete details I discuss here first.
UPDATE:
Today in S. Domingo I slipped over to the UN House at Rue Anaconda 9 (for future mtgs for those of you in smaller NGOs - impt mtg place for all cluster gps including nutrition, protection, etc. related to Quake) to attend a weekly meeting of the UN Cluster Gp on Logistics... a regular update they're having with key relief orgs handling logistics for UN relief effort via border.
This was attended by the major UN players and larger NGOs who are in the humanitarian area bringing large-scale supplies into Haiti via the 'humanitarian corridor' being set up.Only a few non UN groups attended, but the info is very relevant to all NGOs and gps seeking to bring supplies into Haiti.
Bottom line is that new transport and storage services are available including:
--new container space,
--new warehouse space at Jimani,
--new flight schedules for cargo from Las Americas airport. UNHAS is in charge and registration is required. Contact the email listed below on the UN Logistics Cluster Situation Report. Flights will happen twice daily, for up to 35 passengers.
--and commercial flights from Las Americas will also be available. UNHAS also in charge.
-- trucks and groups without trucks invited to participate in UN transport convoy that go out twice daily from Jimani to Port-au-Prince,with UN security provided
--Barahona airport(very soon -will be ready). Contact UN Logistics Cluster email listed below for cargo transport requests.
-- sea access is being developed at smaller ports - updates soon from the Cluster.
Also: Fuel, trucks have been added to both P au P and Jimani ends of the shipping routes. 20.000 gallons of fuel has been brought in, and fuel is available to NGOs putting trucks into the UN convoys at BOTH ends.
This is for transporting supplies WITH the UN convoy. which also has security provided to the convoys via MINUSTAH -- an arrangement set up by the Dominican Govt, not the UN.
Note: while security concerns have been raised, the groups at the meeting today did NOT report security problems regarding the UN transport convoys to date.
UPDATE: This service is available to smaller NGOs and groups without their own trucks or bringing in smaller donations, etc.. but you must work through the Cluster Group to register with them, to inform them of your needs in advance, at either end of the process.
You can store your pallets, etc at a DHL run warehouse at Jimani set up for smaller NGOs.
All cargo hoping to use DHL assistance/storage in warehouse must make sure to post the name of the CARGO AGENT on the manifest -- which is DAMA. '
Warehouse is located inside the customs area at Jimani border. Address:
DHL Temporary Warehouse
Unit 14, CV, SDQ'
Jimani
tel: 829-774-2225
YOU are NOT REQUIRED TO DO THIS, but it's available. Obviously, this will help agencies and smaller groups avoid customs fees and delays, and get secure passage to and from the Port-au-Prince airport for further distribution to food distribution points in Haiti -- and Jimani, Dominican Republic.
Below is the Official Situation Report from that Meeting, posted at the Cluster Group Logistics website.
------------------------------------------------------------
Logistics Cluster
SANTO DOMINGO LOGISTICS CLUSTER
SITUATION REPORT
HAITI EARTHQUAKE
DATE: 24/JANUARY/2010
CONTENTS
1. HIGHLIGHT
2. LOGISTICS COORDINATION
3. BORDER CROSSING AND CUSTOMS
4. AIR OPERATION
5. INFRASTRUCTURE AND STORAGE
1 Highlight
• UNHAS has increased the capacity for cargo and passengers out of Santo Domingo (La
Isabela airport).
2 Logistics Coordination
• The Logistics Cluster in Santo Domingo held its third meeting today, Sunday 24 January. 30
different organisations participated.
• The next Logistics Cluster meeting will be held at the UN House in Santo Domingo on
Wednesday 27 January at 1400 hrs.
• The Barahona hub is not yet operational.
• Operational procedures are now in place for cargo movement requests (CMRs). CMRs should,
regardless of means of transport, be sent to haiti.cargo@logcluster.org
3 Border Crossing and Customs:
• WFP has on behalf of the Logistics Cluster negotiated tax exemption at the airport on all
incoming humanitarian goods for the next six months. Further details will be disseminated in
the following days.
• Two Logistics Officers are based at the border crossing in Jimaní. Further staff is currently being
deployed.
4 Air Operation
• The cargo transport capacity between Santo Domingo and Port-au Prince has increased.
Pending demand, two aircrafts, one Caribou aircraft capable of carrying 2.7 mt and one
Antonov 12 capable of carrying 16 mt, are available.
• The capacity of the UNHAS passenger service between Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo has
also increased. Pending demand, 2 aircrafts are now available to provide transport up to a
maximum of 86 passengers each day.
• Strict procedures are now in place for booking of both passenger and cargo transport. All
requests for passenger transport should be directed to unhaspax.haiti@wfp.org, while cargo
movement requests should be sent to the address referred to above
(haiti.cargo@logcluster.org).
5 Infrastructure and storage
• 70 flatbed trailers continue to operate between Santo Domingo and the Haitian border, where
they twice daily are met by the MINUSTAH escort. No problems have been reported
concerning this route.
• More incoming cargo is expected at Las Americas airport. The Logistics Cluster is currently
working on increasing existing storage capacity.
For inquiries about participation or this service, please contact:
Eva-Kristin Urestad Pedersen
Logistics Cluster
Information Management Officer
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Mob.: + (1)829 817 1606
600,000 P-au-P homeless; 130,000 relocated - IOM Report
Below is an update from the IOM, detailing updates related to TENT SITES, WATER DISTRIBUTION, HOMELESS/DISPLACED people, and TRANSPORT of people to provinces, other sites of safety.
IOM Press Briefing Notes
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Date: 24 Jan 2010
Sunday 24 January 2010
Spokesperson: Jean-Philippe Chauzy
HAITI - Urgent Need for More Tents as Two More Sites are Found to Relocate the Displaced - Two new sites in Port-au- Prince and Léogâne have been identified to develop temporary tent settlements for those living in deplorable conditions in makeshift settlements without basic services.
In the capital, a temporary tent settlement within the city limits on Route de Tabarre will be developed to house some 4,000 persons currently living in an improvised settlement on the grounds of the Prime Minister's Offices.
Another site has been identified in Léogâne, a city southeast of the capital which was devastated by the earthquake.
IOM is in discussion with its partners to find agencies to provide basic services and management at the sites. The Haitian National Police will provide security in the settlements.
"The temporary tent settlements will provide a clean and safe environment for the displaced, but they are a short term solution. Tent settlements are not sustainable," emphasised Vincent Houver, IOM Chief of Mission in Haiti.
The Government of Haiti plans to establish several sites in the greater Port-au-Prince area, each able to accommodate a few thousand individuals. Earthquake victims will be relocated to these sites pending reconstruction efforts.
"A more solid and sustainable option is needed, but we also need tents. There is a shortage of tents," said Houver.
IOM has 10,000 family-size tents in its warehouse in Port-au-Prince, but estimated needs stand at 100,000 to assist 500,000 persons.
The Organization is also receiving a huge number of requests for tents from NGOs and many groups and families that have lost their homes.
"Tents are by no means the only solution, but in the short term we need them. We are also pushing for more sustainable alternatives, but we need to support the government in its need to provide an immediate improvement for the homeless, so we need to move forward with these sites," said Houver.
"The relocation of displaced people is complex and requires that basic services be up and running and to have security in place before people are moved. The endeavour is not a simple check list. IOM and its partners are on the ground to help the people of Haiti, but the task must be done right," said Houver.
As of 22 January, the Government of Haiti had reported 609,000 persons without shelter in the wider Port-au-Prince area. The number of people leaving the capital is increasing daily.
More than 130,000 people have taken advantage of the Government's offer of free transportation to cities in the north and southwest.
Meanwhile, IOM and its cluster partners, including Concern Worldwide, GOAL, Care, are providing the displaced with non-food items donated by the US and Japanese governments, reaching some 200,000 persons each day with essentials such as hygiene kits, jerrycans, water purification tablets, blankets, mosquito nets, and plastic sheeting.
On Saturday IOM distributed hygiene kits and jerrycans to 29,013 persons at 14 locations in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods of Pétionville, Juvenat, Canapé Vert, Delmas 83, and Delmas 85.
As part of an initial appeal launched on 15 January, the Organization is asking for US$ 30 million to provide emergency shelter, non-food assistance and among other things, establish a cash-for-work programme that would include rubble removal .
IOM has so far received pledges totalling USD 19,6 million from the US government (OFDA/USAID), Sweden, Canada, France, Finland, Korea, the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Clinton Foundation and Argos Cement Company of Colombia to support ongoing relief operations and future rebuilding efforts.
Private donations can be made to IOM through the IOM website at www.iom.int and in the United States at http://www.usaim.org/PROJECTHaiti.asp
For further information, please contact Niurka Pineiro, in Port-au-Prince, on Tel: + 509 3490 6678, email: niurkapineiro@yahoo.com or Jean-Philippe Chauzy or Jemini Pandya, IOM Geneva, Tel: + 41 22 717 9361/+ 41 79 285 4366, Email: jpchauzy@iom.int and + 41 22 717 9486/+ 41 79 217 3374 Email: jpandya@iom.int respectively. Copyright © IOM. All rights reserved.
note: updates will appear on Relief Web
IOM Press Briefing Notes
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Date: 24 Jan 2010
Sunday 24 January 2010
Spokesperson: Jean-Philippe Chauzy
HAITI - Urgent Need for More Tents as Two More Sites are Found to Relocate the Displaced - Two new sites in Port-au- Prince and Léogâne have been identified to develop temporary tent settlements for those living in deplorable conditions in makeshift settlements without basic services.
In the capital, a temporary tent settlement within the city limits on Route de Tabarre will be developed to house some 4,000 persons currently living in an improvised settlement on the grounds of the Prime Minister's Offices.
Another site has been identified in Léogâne, a city southeast of the capital which was devastated by the earthquake.
IOM is in discussion with its partners to find agencies to provide basic services and management at the sites. The Haitian National Police will provide security in the settlements.
"The temporary tent settlements will provide a clean and safe environment for the displaced, but they are a short term solution. Tent settlements are not sustainable," emphasised Vincent Houver, IOM Chief of Mission in Haiti.
The Government of Haiti plans to establish several sites in the greater Port-au-Prince area, each able to accommodate a few thousand individuals. Earthquake victims will be relocated to these sites pending reconstruction efforts.
"A more solid and sustainable option is needed, but we also need tents. There is a shortage of tents," said Houver.
IOM has 10,000 family-size tents in its warehouse in Port-au-Prince, but estimated needs stand at 100,000 to assist 500,000 persons.
The Organization is also receiving a huge number of requests for tents from NGOs and many groups and families that have lost their homes.
"Tents are by no means the only solution, but in the short term we need them. We are also pushing for more sustainable alternatives, but we need to support the government in its need to provide an immediate improvement for the homeless, so we need to move forward with these sites," said Houver.
"The relocation of displaced people is complex and requires that basic services be up and running and to have security in place before people are moved. The endeavour is not a simple check list. IOM and its partners are on the ground to help the people of Haiti, but the task must be done right," said Houver.
As of 22 January, the Government of Haiti had reported 609,000 persons without shelter in the wider Port-au-Prince area. The number of people leaving the capital is increasing daily.
More than 130,000 people have taken advantage of the Government's offer of free transportation to cities in the north and southwest.
Meanwhile, IOM and its cluster partners, including Concern Worldwide, GOAL, Care, are providing the displaced with non-food items donated by the US and Japanese governments, reaching some 200,000 persons each day with essentials such as hygiene kits, jerrycans, water purification tablets, blankets, mosquito nets, and plastic sheeting.
On Saturday IOM distributed hygiene kits and jerrycans to 29,013 persons at 14 locations in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods of Pétionville, Juvenat, Canapé Vert, Delmas 83, and Delmas 85.
As part of an initial appeal launched on 15 January, the Organization is asking for US$ 30 million to provide emergency shelter, non-food assistance and among other things, establish a cash-for-work programme that would include rubble removal .
IOM has so far received pledges totalling USD 19,6 million from the US government (OFDA/USAID), Sweden, Canada, France, Finland, Korea, the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Clinton Foundation and Argos Cement Company of Colombia to support ongoing relief operations and future rebuilding efforts.
Private donations can be made to IOM through the IOM website at www.iom.int and in the United States at http://www.usaim.org/PROJECTHaiti.asp
For further information, please contact Niurka Pineiro, in Port-au-Prince, on Tel: + 509 3490 6678, email: niurkapineiro@yahoo.com or Jean-Philippe Chauzy or Jemini Pandya, IOM Geneva, Tel: + 41 22 717 9361/+ 41 79 285 4366, Email: jpchauzy@iom.int and + 41 22 717 9486/+ 41 79 217 3374 Email: jpandya@iom.int respectively. Copyright © IOM. All rights reserved.
note: updates will appear on Relief Web
Water, Sanitation Update- from WASH Cluster Gp 1.23
Below is yesterday's report on WATER DISTRIBUTION in Leogane and the capital by the WASH Cluster logistics group for the Haiti quake.
Note the different partners involved, including local Haitian organizations who may be sources of information for groups on the ground seeking access to water in these cities and other areas....
Clearly, progress....
WASH Cluster Haiti Update 23 January
Partners:
ACF, MSF-F, OXFAM,CRE, Red Cross, GMEP, LIAUTAUD, MSF-B, GCC, GRET, GRET ODC, WINNER, CARE, Comite St Surin, Comite rue Pacot, FISEH, ACTED, WORLD VISION, Haiti Outreach, HOPE HAITI, CRS Haiti, HOPE HAITI, WORLD VISION, Merlin, Plan International, Children Voice Foundation (SFI), SFI - Comite Local, FLM, SAVE THE CHILDREN, Mairie de Tabarre, Mairie de Pétion-Ville, Mairie de Carrefour
Note: the above list is not exhaustive. Only those partners implementing (and reporting) WASH in PaP are mentioned.
Action
• 1st WASH cluster coordination meeting outside of Port au Prince took place in Leogan and gathered over 18 WASH cluster partners (minute of the meeting to come tomorrow)
• 16 organizations are getting involved or planning a response in the areas of Gressier, Leogan, Petit Goive and Grand Goive
• A sanitation meeting took place to organize a jump start of sanitation response in Leogan. Agreement reached is that IFRC (trough the Austrian Red Cross) will use its mass sanitation module to begin the construction of latrines for the 20,000 people located in 6 sites in Leogan city. Management of these latrines will be done by individual organizations involved in the various sites
• CARE, ACF, Spanish Red cross, Canadian Army are providing water supply in Leogan town. Given the number of actors already involved or planning to in Leogan, water supply in Leogan Town is a need but no longer a priority. The priority for water supply in leogan is at the rural areas (sections communales)
• Agreement has been reached to have at least one sub cluster in Leogan. Details to be worked out by DINEPA and UNICEF which will be presented to the WASH cluster partners on the 25/01
• Providing input to the document prepared by OCHA for the SRSG in the framework of Conference on Haiti, which will take place in Canada
• Attending inter cluster meeting and discussed the importance on how to involve the national authorities in the clusters
• Field monitoring in 15 camps of Port au Prince took place by one of the monitoring focal point. All sites visited, except one had water.
• At least 1.175 m3 of water distributed in 115 different places of the city of Port au Prince, for an estimated population of 235.000 people
• Efforts for scale up water supply are based on restabilising the network in PaP and the water vendor system. Focus is made to speed up the process. DINEPA & partners assure first phase of free distribution
• Agreement with DINEPA on:
o basis of monitoring mechanism to follow up water production and distribution
o monitoring mechanism for fuel stock and use
o Need to increase dramatically number of bladders to accelerate distribution
o Use of bottled water as temporary strategy until ‘exit strategy’ will be ready in hospitals, health centres, child protection structures
o New water points distribution will be included in distribution plan if coming organized and based in recommendation done by NGOs and Municipalities
• DINEPA & partners will set up a mechanism to support Municipalities to organize community based organizations to assume water distribution and will set up the link of water distribution points with the 508 identified settlements by Shelter cluster.
Plan for tomorrow (1/24)'
• Distribution of water in 115 points to distribute 1.400 m3 of water (potential population of 281.000 people)
• Joint visit from different agencies and DINEPA to Canape Vert and Carrefour to follow up activities and discuss organization system (all WASH and NFIs) in Carrefour
• Water Supply working group
• Monitoring visit in PaP
• Inter cluster meeting
Note the different partners involved, including local Haitian organizations who may be sources of information for groups on the ground seeking access to water in these cities and other areas....
Clearly, progress....
WASH Cluster Haiti Update 23 January
Partners:
ACF, MSF-F, OXFAM,CRE, Red Cross, GMEP, LIAUTAUD, MSF-B, GCC, GRET, GRET ODC, WINNER, CARE, Comite St Surin, Comite rue Pacot, FISEH, ACTED, WORLD VISION, Haiti Outreach, HOPE HAITI, CRS Haiti, HOPE HAITI, WORLD VISION, Merlin, Plan International, Children Voice Foundation (SFI), SFI - Comite Local, FLM, SAVE THE CHILDREN, Mairie de Tabarre, Mairie de Pétion-Ville, Mairie de Carrefour
Note: the above list is not exhaustive. Only those partners implementing (and reporting) WASH in PaP are mentioned.
Action
• 1st WASH cluster coordination meeting outside of Port au Prince took place in Leogan and gathered over 18 WASH cluster partners (minute of the meeting to come tomorrow)
• 16 organizations are getting involved or planning a response in the areas of Gressier, Leogan, Petit Goive and Grand Goive
• A sanitation meeting took place to organize a jump start of sanitation response in Leogan. Agreement reached is that IFRC (trough the Austrian Red Cross) will use its mass sanitation module to begin the construction of latrines for the 20,000 people located in 6 sites in Leogan city. Management of these latrines will be done by individual organizations involved in the various sites
• CARE, ACF, Spanish Red cross, Canadian Army are providing water supply in Leogan town. Given the number of actors already involved or planning to in Leogan, water supply in Leogan Town is a need but no longer a priority. The priority for water supply in leogan is at the rural areas (sections communales)
• Agreement has been reached to have at least one sub cluster in Leogan. Details to be worked out by DINEPA and UNICEF which will be presented to the WASH cluster partners on the 25/01
• Providing input to the document prepared by OCHA for the SRSG in the framework of Conference on Haiti, which will take place in Canada
• Attending inter cluster meeting and discussed the importance on how to involve the national authorities in the clusters
• Field monitoring in 15 camps of Port au Prince took place by one of the monitoring focal point. All sites visited, except one had water.
• At least 1.175 m3 of water distributed in 115 different places of the city of Port au Prince, for an estimated population of 235.000 people
• Efforts for scale up water supply are based on restabilising the network in PaP and the water vendor system. Focus is made to speed up the process. DINEPA & partners assure first phase of free distribution
• Agreement with DINEPA on:
o basis of monitoring mechanism to follow up water production and distribution
o monitoring mechanism for fuel stock and use
o Need to increase dramatically number of bladders to accelerate distribution
o Use of bottled water as temporary strategy until ‘exit strategy’ will be ready in hospitals, health centres, child protection structures
o New water points distribution will be included in distribution plan if coming organized and based in recommendation done by NGOs and Municipalities
• DINEPA & partners will set up a mechanism to support Municipalities to organize community based organizations to assume water distribution and will set up the link of water distribution points with the 508 identified settlements by Shelter cluster.
Plan for tomorrow (1/24)'
• Distribution of water in 115 points to distribute 1.400 m3 of water (potential population of 281.000 people)
• Joint visit from different agencies and DINEPA to Canape Vert and Carrefour to follow up activities and discuss organization system (all WASH and NFIs) in Carrefour
• Water Supply working group
• Monitoring visit in PaP
• Inter cluster meeting
Haiti ORPHANAGE Status Report - Contacts 1.23
Dear all,
Here is some quick information about orphanages and what's been happening this weekend.
Later today I'll be posting an EXCEL FILE with updated information and contact numbers about Haitian orphanages that includes notes their situation -- children killed, injured, or okay; food and shelter needs; etc. The information will be posted on this blog..
Thanks to my colleague Julie Sutherland for working with me and some other orphan's advocates to pull this information together.
OVERALL PICTURE:
Many children have been orphaned by the earthquake -- the number is just a guess. We can't really know yet. Let's say tens of thousands and leave it at that. It will be more than we think since so many can't be found yet and the situation is in total flux as people have fled for the provinces and diaspora.
Bottom line: many children without parents, in trauma, injured, homeless, without any food. They have huge needs.
Many children have been taken to field hospitals, and many to existing orphanages IF THEY ARE STILL STANDING. Many facilities and homes and missionary centers were damaged, some altogether. But others survived with far less damage and are operational and taking in a lot of kids.
Orphanages in Port-au-Prince are getting help - some of them. The small ones in the popular neighborhoods further away from the center remain with acute needs.
Death/ Injury toll:
I won't try for numbers -- no point. So many children killed, and many are injured. I won't repeat any media stories here - google 'Children or Orphans and Haiti Quake' and you'll read plenty. Not hundreds, not thousands. Many more.
The national picture is moving quickly and the focus of the large agencies and State Department has been to help orphanages and missions and individuals with large numbers of vulnerable or orphaned children in their care to access: FOOD, MEDICAL HELP, and SAFETY -- with PROVISIONAL SHELTER close behind.
SHELTER, SAFETY:
Right now, many simply have children camped out, outside, in the backyards of their damaged facilities, but some are getting help and medical aid has arrived to some in the capital, especially.
The emerging PLAN is for Haitian orphaned/homeless/vulnerable/injured children to be evacuated as a large group and taken to safety within Haiti's borders.
UN and Haitian officials, working with the US military, are currently setting up a large BORDER CAMP for 100,000 people on the Dominican Border. Many Red Cross groups have or are arriving to help set up base camps in other cities too, to help with this move.
According to my sources, there will be a section of this camp for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). It will be well-guarded, where the children can get medical care, food, and recover in SECURITY. Their individual cases will be processed via expedited mechanisms by the Haitian and UN authorities responsible for this population.
NOTE: I have NOT gotten this information confirmed by the State Dept or Cluster group officials in charge of the Haiti portfolio -- yet. So consider it the 'word on the street' for now until I post otherwise. If it's wrong or the details have since changed, I'll let you know as soon as I know.
I'll also share details about the Border Camp plan as soon as I can confirm them.
FOOD: Food is needed, but some is arriving, depending on the groups. If you're with a big agency, you're lucky. If you're not, you're scrambling and your kids have little or nothing.
SECURITY: Some of you have undoubtedly read recent media reports on the ARMED ATTACKS on orphanages. This is true - and in response, the orphanages CANNOT TAKE more than 1-2 days worth of food or supplies - to avoid being targeted by people. For the most part, community people around the orphanages have RALLED TO PROTECT, HELP the orphanages. But there are armed young men, some of whom MAY BE escapees of the National Penitentiary which collapsed in the quake, who may be behind these robberies and hold ups.
SECURITY personnel and UN troops HAVE BEEN ALERTED to the needs for greater security for the Orphanages. I'll report on this too.
IN THE COUNTRYSIDE:
Outside the capital, needs remain URGENT and TREMENDOUS. Many many orphanage, NGO And missionary groups are sending in their people with supplies and wrangling to get incoming aid to these orphanages but the situation is one of flux. Haitians have rushed to leave the destroyed capital, Port-au-Prince and cities like Jacmel and Petit Goave, especially after the most recent big 6.1 aftershock, and children are on the move too. They're searching for any FOOD, shelter or help they can get, hoping to find relatives in the provinces -- if they have them.
Many groups are worried about the vulnerability of these children traveling solo or in small groups -- especially GIRLS.There is are serious risks of violence, and the risk of sexual violence trafficking is always high in countries in situations of disaster.
There are urban and suburban gangs of young men armed with machetes who have looted or are desperately searching for food as hunger rises - let's call it near-starvation, sets in. UN troops have picked some up. Communities have also acted to attack potential looters, even killing them.
UN and other troops have been picking up unaccompanied children and bringing them to hospitals and then contacting Haitian, UNICEF, church, and private orphanage officials in their local areas to assure these children will be place in safe locations and given help.
MEDICAL CARE:
Many children have been tended to, and many have had limbs amputated, while others are recovering from major wounds and broken limbs.
There's still a great need for surgical, orthopedic care and medicine for children.
ADOPTION:
Some orphanages with children who had pending adoptions have been able to fly children out of Haiti when the paperwork was ready or well enough advanced.Initially, there was a RUSH to get children out of Haiti, but this has been STOPPED.
Why?
In one unfortunate case, widely republished in the media, some journalists just took a child that was scheduled for a US adoption and put that child on a plane for Miami when the paperwork was not ready. Homeland Security stopped them, which has led to heightened scrutiny about other groups who were reportedly just coming into Haiti hoping to rescue children -- and take them home. Some apparently may have succeeded. Details on that to come.
Again: good intentions abound, and so do urgent needs of children. So does love of children, and the desire by many US and other country couples to adopt these children.
But there are Haitian and international laws concerning adoption, and also against kidnapping and trafficking children.
As one Red Cross official put it to me, while asking to be off the record:
"There are a lot of church groups and missionary groups in particularly who want to have these kids. But sorry people, it doesn't matter who you are. We know how urgent the need is. But there are still rules and there has to be a process followed for applying to adopt. It has to be legal and you're going to have to get in line. It shouldn't matter how long you've worked in Haiti or who you know -- though that apparently has helped some groups get kids out. Now the UN is cracking down on that...."
As he explained, since late last week, the UN and Haitian authorities in charge stepped in to say: WAIT. We must to do this right. Put the immediate needs of the children first, and follow an expedited process for evaluation. Find out if any relatives here in HAITI can take them in, search for relatives in other countries, THEN consider foster or adoption placements.
Haitian-Americans have been particularly vocal on the radio about their fear of white evangelical groups "stealing: vulnerable Haitian children -- and have expressed fear that vulnerable Haitian children will be treated differently than any other children orphaned by catastrophe. Charges of racism are bandied about, which is the last thing the US wants attached to its plan to help Haiti.
As it stands, UN and other agency officials are ACUTELY AWARE of all concerns.
The number one focus remains on getting KIDS TO SAFETY, and MEDICAL EVALUATIONS, and FOOD. Any large-scale adoptions or provisional foster placements being discussed or implemented must be done LEGALLY, ETHICALLY, TRANSPARENTLY and there needs to be harmonization of different regulations, nationally and internationally, related to Haitians and Unaccompanied Refugee Minors.
Issues include: TRAUMA, CULTURAL DISPLACEMENT and the fact that some children MAY have relatives that are alive but missing and may take some time to locate - if they can be located. There are also relatives in the diaspora ready to take the children in...etc.
So instead of a large airlift of children which was planned recently under a plan similar to the past Cuban airlift (Peter Pan), the Haitian 'Plan Pierre' is advancing, but with more care given to the complex issues involved.
I'll be talking to UN, orphan and Red Cross officials in Haiti tomorrow when I get there.. I'm in Dom Rep now, headed for the border... and update you further.
ON THE GROUND: CONFUSION, HUGE NEEDS...
I've continued to get many emails/calls from adoptive parents in the US and relatives of people whose kids survived in Haiti who are asking: WHO CAN WE CALL? WHAT DO WE DO?
The answer is: if you have kids that you are connected to, or any paperwork, contact the State Department hotline set up for this. I listed the contact information in a recent BLOG POST.
Other questions:
HOW CAN WE HELP? CAN WE SEND THE ORPHANAGES FOOD? WHO NEEDS AID?
Answer: There are US, European and many other agencies/church groups who are sponsors of orphanages in Haiti. Their websites list the ways to send them money and in-kind donations.
You can target donations to orphanages listed in the Excel sheet, but for now, the best way is to find the outside sponsors and get them the money or medicines, and they will get it to their people in Haiti.
More on this soon, though. I'll be visiting several orphanages in the next days and will give you concrete updates about HOW to Help, Where to Send, and which groups need the medical aid the most.
COMING SOON:
We have prepared a BLANK FORM - to be posted here online - for anyone to fill out and help us update information on orphanages. It's in multiple languages and we'll post the links shortly.
If you have information, please help us, and we'll send this on to authorities. It's a way of helping to centralize info and expedite to agencies who are totally overwhelmed and don't know what's what in the current picture.
I'll be posting when I can get to email in the coming days. Planning a visit to the border today to see the logistics, camp set up for arriving orphans, Feminist Solidarity Camp, and hospital in Jimani. Then to the capital.
Nou la. That's the word from Haitians I speak to. We are here.
Here is some quick information about orphanages and what's been happening this weekend.
Later today I'll be posting an EXCEL FILE with updated information and contact numbers about Haitian orphanages that includes notes their situation -- children killed, injured, or okay; food and shelter needs; etc. The information will be posted on this blog..
Thanks to my colleague Julie Sutherland for working with me and some other orphan's advocates to pull this information together.
OVERALL PICTURE:
Many children have been orphaned by the earthquake -- the number is just a guess. We can't really know yet. Let's say tens of thousands and leave it at that. It will be more than we think since so many can't be found yet and the situation is in total flux as people have fled for the provinces and diaspora.
Bottom line: many children without parents, in trauma, injured, homeless, without any food. They have huge needs.
Many children have been taken to field hospitals, and many to existing orphanages IF THEY ARE STILL STANDING. Many facilities and homes and missionary centers were damaged, some altogether. But others survived with far less damage and are operational and taking in a lot of kids.
Orphanages in Port-au-Prince are getting help - some of them. The small ones in the popular neighborhoods further away from the center remain with acute needs.
Death/ Injury toll:
I won't try for numbers -- no point. So many children killed, and many are injured. I won't repeat any media stories here - google 'Children or Orphans and Haiti Quake' and you'll read plenty. Not hundreds, not thousands. Many more.
The national picture is moving quickly and the focus of the large agencies and State Department has been to help orphanages and missions and individuals with large numbers of vulnerable or orphaned children in their care to access: FOOD, MEDICAL HELP, and SAFETY -- with PROVISIONAL SHELTER close behind.
SHELTER, SAFETY:
Right now, many simply have children camped out, outside, in the backyards of their damaged facilities, but some are getting help and medical aid has arrived to some in the capital, especially.
The emerging PLAN is for Haitian orphaned/homeless/vulnerable/injured children to be evacuated as a large group and taken to safety within Haiti's borders.
UN and Haitian officials, working with the US military, are currently setting up a large BORDER CAMP for 100,000 people on the Dominican Border. Many Red Cross groups have or are arriving to help set up base camps in other cities too, to help with this move.
According to my sources, there will be a section of this camp for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). It will be well-guarded, where the children can get medical care, food, and recover in SECURITY. Their individual cases will be processed via expedited mechanisms by the Haitian and UN authorities responsible for this population.
NOTE: I have NOT gotten this information confirmed by the State Dept or Cluster group officials in charge of the Haiti portfolio -- yet. So consider it the 'word on the street' for now until I post otherwise. If it's wrong or the details have since changed, I'll let you know as soon as I know.
I'll also share details about the Border Camp plan as soon as I can confirm them.
FOOD: Food is needed, but some is arriving, depending on the groups. If you're with a big agency, you're lucky. If you're not, you're scrambling and your kids have little or nothing.
SECURITY: Some of you have undoubtedly read recent media reports on the ARMED ATTACKS on orphanages. This is true - and in response, the orphanages CANNOT TAKE more than 1-2 days worth of food or supplies - to avoid being targeted by people. For the most part, community people around the orphanages have RALLED TO PROTECT, HELP the orphanages. But there are armed young men, some of whom MAY BE escapees of the National Penitentiary which collapsed in the quake, who may be behind these robberies and hold ups.
SECURITY personnel and UN troops HAVE BEEN ALERTED to the needs for greater security for the Orphanages. I'll report on this too.
IN THE COUNTRYSIDE:
Outside the capital, needs remain URGENT and TREMENDOUS. Many many orphanage, NGO And missionary groups are sending in their people with supplies and wrangling to get incoming aid to these orphanages but the situation is one of flux. Haitians have rushed to leave the destroyed capital, Port-au-Prince and cities like Jacmel and Petit Goave, especially after the most recent big 6.1 aftershock, and children are on the move too. They're searching for any FOOD, shelter or help they can get, hoping to find relatives in the provinces -- if they have them.
Many groups are worried about the vulnerability of these children traveling solo or in small groups -- especially GIRLS.There is are serious risks of violence, and the risk of sexual violence trafficking is always high in countries in situations of disaster.
There are urban and suburban gangs of young men armed with machetes who have looted or are desperately searching for food as hunger rises - let's call it near-starvation, sets in. UN troops have picked some up. Communities have also acted to attack potential looters, even killing them.
UN and other troops have been picking up unaccompanied children and bringing them to hospitals and then contacting Haitian, UNICEF, church, and private orphanage officials in their local areas to assure these children will be place in safe locations and given help.
MEDICAL CARE:
Many children have been tended to, and many have had limbs amputated, while others are recovering from major wounds and broken limbs.
There's still a great need for surgical, orthopedic care and medicine for children.
ADOPTION:
Some orphanages with children who had pending adoptions have been able to fly children out of Haiti when the paperwork was ready or well enough advanced.Initially, there was a RUSH to get children out of Haiti, but this has been STOPPED.
Why?
In one unfortunate case, widely republished in the media, some journalists just took a child that was scheduled for a US adoption and put that child on a plane for Miami when the paperwork was not ready. Homeland Security stopped them, which has led to heightened scrutiny about other groups who were reportedly just coming into Haiti hoping to rescue children -- and take them home. Some apparently may have succeeded. Details on that to come.
Again: good intentions abound, and so do urgent needs of children. So does love of children, and the desire by many US and other country couples to adopt these children.
But there are Haitian and international laws concerning adoption, and also against kidnapping and trafficking children.
As one Red Cross official put it to me, while asking to be off the record:
"There are a lot of church groups and missionary groups in particularly who want to have these kids. But sorry people, it doesn't matter who you are. We know how urgent the need is. But there are still rules and there has to be a process followed for applying to adopt. It has to be legal and you're going to have to get in line. It shouldn't matter how long you've worked in Haiti or who you know -- though that apparently has helped some groups get kids out. Now the UN is cracking down on that...."
As he explained, since late last week, the UN and Haitian authorities in charge stepped in to say: WAIT. We must to do this right. Put the immediate needs of the children first, and follow an expedited process for evaluation. Find out if any relatives here in HAITI can take them in, search for relatives in other countries, THEN consider foster or adoption placements.
Haitian-Americans have been particularly vocal on the radio about their fear of white evangelical groups "stealing: vulnerable Haitian children -- and have expressed fear that vulnerable Haitian children will be treated differently than any other children orphaned by catastrophe. Charges of racism are bandied about, which is the last thing the US wants attached to its plan to help Haiti.
As it stands, UN and other agency officials are ACUTELY AWARE of all concerns.
The number one focus remains on getting KIDS TO SAFETY, and MEDICAL EVALUATIONS, and FOOD. Any large-scale adoptions or provisional foster placements being discussed or implemented must be done LEGALLY, ETHICALLY, TRANSPARENTLY and there needs to be harmonization of different regulations, nationally and internationally, related to Haitians and Unaccompanied Refugee Minors.
Issues include: TRAUMA, CULTURAL DISPLACEMENT and the fact that some children MAY have relatives that are alive but missing and may take some time to locate - if they can be located. There are also relatives in the diaspora ready to take the children in...etc.
So instead of a large airlift of children which was planned recently under a plan similar to the past Cuban airlift (Peter Pan), the Haitian 'Plan Pierre' is advancing, but with more care given to the complex issues involved.
I'll be talking to UN, orphan and Red Cross officials in Haiti tomorrow when I get there.. I'm in Dom Rep now, headed for the border... and update you further.
ON THE GROUND: CONFUSION, HUGE NEEDS...
I've continued to get many emails/calls from adoptive parents in the US and relatives of people whose kids survived in Haiti who are asking: WHO CAN WE CALL? WHAT DO WE DO?
The answer is: if you have kids that you are connected to, or any paperwork, contact the State Department hotline set up for this. I listed the contact information in a recent BLOG POST.
Other questions:
HOW CAN WE HELP? CAN WE SEND THE ORPHANAGES FOOD? WHO NEEDS AID?
Answer: There are US, European and many other agencies/church groups who are sponsors of orphanages in Haiti. Their websites list the ways to send them money and in-kind donations.
You can target donations to orphanages listed in the Excel sheet, but for now, the best way is to find the outside sponsors and get them the money or medicines, and they will get it to their people in Haiti.
More on this soon, though. I'll be visiting several orphanages in the next days and will give you concrete updates about HOW to Help, Where to Send, and which groups need the medical aid the most.
COMING SOON:
We have prepared a BLANK FORM - to be posted here online - for anyone to fill out and help us update information on orphanages. It's in multiple languages and we'll post the links shortly.
If you have information, please help us, and we'll send this on to authorities. It's a way of helping to centralize info and expedite to agencies who are totally overwhelmed and don't know what's what in the current picture.
I'll be posting when I can get to email in the coming days. Planning a visit to the border today to see the logistics, camp set up for arriving orphans, Feminist Solidarity Camp, and hospital in Jimani. Then to the capital.
Nou la. That's the word from Haitians I speak to. We are here.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Big Border Plan, my own thoughts & headlines
Personal Note First....:
I'm headed down to the Santo Domingo border tomorrow, then into Haiti on Monday, so my blog updates may be more Reposts, and critical updates than original reporting thru the weekend.
I'll be tracking three main topics while in Haiti, and working to help orphanages and orphan care providers by assessing needs and networking and I supposed, screaming with them, to get help to the vulnerable children.
Photo credit: CNN
Topics are:
Overall Plan for Resettlement: Who, What, Where, etc.. Logistics update, with a focus on medical urgencies/delivery.
Orphans and Missing Children: The shifting plan to process, put into safety, and help orphanages to put children into appropriate transitional care. Within this, the vulnerability of girls is on my mind - I'll be talking to officials, see what can be done.
Women's Health Needs: There's a growing critical need to set up focused prenatal and maternal care for pregnant women and for women's health needs.
One idea I shared earlier today with the Corbett listserve today was for women's health advocates to set up a base of operations at the about-to-open (on Monday) Feminist Solidarity Camp on DR Border side.
This could be a centralized way to allows vol. individuals and professionals to gather, quickly organize, create medic and trauma and other support service teams of secondary providers, and set up temporary women's clinics and care where it's most needed.
They can also link there with the women's media teams there to advocate for needs and voices of women as this relief effort grows. A day time broadcast / update would also be great. (any of you indie media people reading this out there, take note.) Internews is on the ground, along with Reporters without Borders -- setting up a media center for Haitian journalists. Let's keep the women's voices central to the important conversations about responding, rebuilding, revisioning Haiti.
Re How to Build NOW: The main idea that keeps coming to my mind is Twinning: Creating mini-structures with existing local NGOs in communities, using a survey process to establish key contacts and outside groups with skills to help them rebuild. A nationwide twinning system, with global linkage to the myriad providers, donors, resources, ideas that are arriving. We need to get this organized, avoid duplication, support transparency..
It's not a pie-in-the-sky idea. It works and it especially works to channel resources by allowing groups to choose who they want to work with, to allow an organic process of help to take place -- within an overall schema that is organized and transparent.
A large-scale civil society and even governmental twinning effort, across sectors and at all levels,could really go far. It would help training and resources to arrive in tandem, and would keep the effort rooted in local solutions, create jobs locally, and allow for some accountability, so that Haitians in communities would remain in charge of the agenda, rebuilding with an acute awareness of the most immediate needs of their local clients.
Yes it would take central organization. But it could be done with the existing Internet software for large-scale social networking, and decentralized planning. Any high-level planners in charge of GOH, Clinton, State who want to explore more, please contact me. Plus all of you plebeian first responders and folks with great ideas and experience, of course....
I'm going to pitch this at the Women's Solidarity Camp for Women's NGOs and Leaders, and similarly to the Orphan First Responders. It in no way competes with the larger military and government efforts to create a camp, etc..
but it does allow for immediate, medium and longer-term support to be given in a way that outsiders don't impose the agenda, or fly in-fly out, but that it's a critical exchange that allows Haiti to restore leadership, support leaders, and for a massively decentralized, but organized with a centralized focus, model of rebuilding. It will take sector coordination, but it keeps an important share of control, resources and overall vision in the hands of local Haitians at local levels, while allowing government to do what it must.
Just a (okay, big) thought I wanted to share with Haiti watchers....Let me know what YOU think. Comments welcome. Share it.
I also believe, more strongly than ever, that a Craigs-list type bulletin board, with multi language translation and SMS text access would be ideal for the massive exchange of HELP that is already coming, but is all over the place, as is normal.
By grouping this huge problem and possible sharing of solutions into Service Sectors and Categories, a la Craigslist, we again rely on the global community to speak, and Haitians to have direct access to resoruces, vs. having higher-level gatekeepers. Plus it allows for great transparency to allow donors and possible RFPs to be visible and have many people bid for contracts that are already being offered - -but to those in the know.
Calling Craig Newmark (which I'll do today).. or any of you other High End Tekkies.. Some asked why not Ushahidi? My friends there are amazing, and I've been engaged in the Haiti platform, feeding and sharing ideas to make it as effective as it can be for crisis monitoring. But the folks there are tapped out, and can't add Services or a Global bulletin board now.
The www.haitivolunteers.com list is great, but it's a downward scroll and hard to see what came a few days before -- just a different organizing system -- and not set up to track if the need was met or service offered. I feel strongly that the platform of a Craigslist is the way to go - mobile, interactive, citizen-drive, public, with the usual protections against scammers.
Que pensez vous tous? Eske ou kap we sa?
NEWS Jan 22: Top Headlines --
Now for the CNN's recent headlines. I'm only posting those that are most relevant to the topics I'm focused on. - with comments added.
The big news, meantime, is the Plan in the Works: creation of a huge camp along the DR Border to house up to 100,000 people, and the parallel search for shelter within D Rep for 10,000 patients.
The camp news I'll update you on, but do want to note there is already much active grumbling within some Dom Rep groups. They have 'concerns' -- okay, they're frankly opposed - to such a large migration of Haitians into their country.
My thoughts: some legitimate concerns (impact of migration, etc.. but also a historic tension, and underlying racism within the responses of those opposed: they have zero interest in destitute, homeless immigrants), and a rather unfortunate expression -- one that is at odds with the actual ACTION of a great majority of Dominicans who have poured their hearts and pockets out to help in this quake. So many have lined up to give blood, every other day, for Haitians: what more symbolic image of how much they care ie. giving of their own bodies and energy?
Headlines then:
(CNN) -- Friday, January 22
1:39 p.m. -- The international aid organization Partners in Health reports it has 24 operating rooms established and working 24 hours a day in Haiti. More than 140 surgeons, nurses, anesthetists and other specialists were involved in the organization's quake relief effort, it said.
1:20 p.m. -- CNN's Ivan Watson speaks to a fisherman in Petit Paradis, Haiti, who describes a tsunami from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake more than 12 feet high. The water swept away his father and at least three other people in the fishing village, the fisherman tells Watson.
12:24 p.m. -- As of Thursday evening more than $355 million in donations had been raised for relief efforts, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofit organizations. The estimate is based on a survey of 35 charities contributing the largest amounts of money to Haiti.
11:57 a.m. -- Corporate donations to Haiti earthquake relief have surpassed $100 million, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Business Civic Leadership Center. The center reports the $106 million donated so far is the fifth-largest corporate response to a natural disaster ever, trailing only hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and earthquakes in Kashmir (2005) and China (2008).
10:18 a.m. -- The International Organization for Migration reports that as of Friday 508 makeshift settlements have been identified in the area of Port-au Prince. Surveys by the organization and the Haitian government of 314 of those settlements put their population at 472,000.
7:54 a.m. -- The U.S. Geological Survey reports a 4.4-magnitude aftershock strikes about 15 miles north-northwest of Port-au-Prince. Depth was about 6 miles.
6:40 a.m. -- Authorities pushing to clear earthquake-relief bottlenecks in Haiti continue to work Friday to improve the flow of relief supplies at the south pier in Port-au-Prince. The January 12 quake damaged the capital's north and south piers. Haitian authorities and the U.S. military had restored one-way traffic to the south pier, which is the smaller of the two, by Thursday. Port-au-Prince's north pier remains unusable.
And in case you missed this YESTERDAY: ORPHAN PROVIDERS TAKE NOTE! What action is needed: ARMED SECURITY FOR THE ORPHANAGES - MAINTENANT! NOW! GET THOSE TROOPS WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PROVIDING SECURITY TO DO SO THERE. ESSENTIAL!!
Thursday, January 21
8:30 p.m. -- Haiti's orphanages have become targets for people desperate for food, water and medical supplies, aid workers said. On Wednesday night, Maison de Lumiere, an orphanage caring for 50 orphans, came under attack from a group of 20 armed men, aid workers told the Joint Council on International Children's Services. A neighboring orphanage sheltering about 135 children has been robbed several times over the past few days, they said.
6:20 p.m. -- U.S. medical assistance teams have treated 7,000 patients in Haiti, the White House said in a statement. A total of 160 U.S. missions have been flown carrying 2,600 tons of relief supplies and more than 2,500 military and relief personnel into Haiti, and will be delivering 50,000 hand held radios to Haitians, the statement said.
The U.S. has also evacuated approximately 10,500 people from Haiti so far, including 8,300 American citizens, the White House said.
5:59 p.m. -- The Senate unanimously passed legislation Thursday that will allow taxpayers to deduct cash donations to Haiti earthquake relief on their 2009 tax returns instead of having to wait to file the claims next year.
4:37 p.m. -- Haitians are lining up in the streets for hours to try to receive wire transfers at the banks and wire services open in Haiti. Some Haitians said they haven't been able to eat because they don't have cash to buy any food available at street markets.
3:34 p.m. -- The U.S. Southern Command conducted an air drop of food and water over Haiti on Thursday. A C-17 delivered water and 17,200 meals ready to eat , the military said in a statement. Thursday's air drop was the second since the quake; the first was Monday.
-
I'll call your attention to the last item -- which is great, but FAR TOO LATE. As many critics and despairing aid workers have pointed out all week, the US military plan for relief was guided from Robert Gates on to focus on security - and driven by fears of mass looting and panic. Some pundits - well, a lot -- have been quick to denounced this strategy as reflecting tacit racism toward poor, homelss, black people. The arguement made for security vs. air drops was fear of causing riots, say defensive military spokespeople. Their fear has not been borne out, as Haitians have primarily remained calm. NOW people are starving and the clashes have started.
It was an unfortunate, certainly preventable poor choice -- to focus on security vs. food aid. But it was understandable if you look at standard operating procedure for the military -- this is unfortunately the typical military focus: Order, Security. Add in the fact that Haitians guiding US and UN officials are/were often members of the elite business class who worried about their own assets and property -- since these were the only buildings or assets standing or not damaged in the quake.
(Trust me, I know this. I have family in Haiti and they are members. They've done great in this crisis, I have to publicly say. But I've been hearing my share about others. OY!)
My point is: Yes, The focus on security over hunger is inexcusable in hindsight. Yes, many died or may die as a result, needlessly. The Obama administration's choice was not one that reflected on the most important need: for food. It focused on order first. Wrong.
Now, they're trying to make it right. Or more right. That's good. Do it - faster.
I feel it's easy to criticize, harder to do right. So there will be critics who are right and actors who did wrong. But it's always important to look at the decisions from the perspective of the other person, being in the other person's shoes, and recognizing that these large scale bureaucracies are not fast-moving, even if troop movements can be. I'm not excusing, just understanding. I'm mourning too, and I will say: there's no justification for it that will stand in the already short hindsight of a week - the critical first days - when the US military plan failed too many Haitians.
Many have said Bravo to Israel, China, Dominican Republic, Cuba. They all got in super fast, and did save lives. Let's credit the US for responding and doing all it has, but let's also acknowledge what didn't happen. And let's LEARN now, and INCREASE the AIR DROPS MASSIVELY, FAST. Even while the plan to set up camps moves forward. C'mon 82nd airborne. We do know you can do it. Let's see you unleashed to save lives, even more than you are.
That's it for moi -- as I personally deploy :).
Do start commenting. I know there are over a thousand of you reading since I started this blog last Wed but people keep sending to my private email. Share your thoughts. A blog is meant to be a public conversation, after all. Don't be shy...
And finally, a personal note. I haven't dared ask family members if my grandmere's house is collapsed, just down from the Sacre Coeur church in Bois Verna, on ruelle Duncombe, which was her maiden name. I have so many memories of Haiti when I was young and visited, during the terrible Duvalier years. That Haiti, as many people have said this week, is gone. The Duvalier Haiti was already gone. But the Haiti we have loved in all its kaleidoscopic richness and poorness - the fabulous city of Port-au-Prince included -- it's changed forever. I know everyone who loves Haiti carries the cities that were and now are no longer in their hearts and eyes, and look to the cities that are being reborn as I write.
Nou la. Nou kanpe.
I'm headed down to the Santo Domingo border tomorrow, then into Haiti on Monday, so my blog updates may be more Reposts, and critical updates than original reporting thru the weekend.
I'll be tracking three main topics while in Haiti, and working to help orphanages and orphan care providers by assessing needs and networking and I supposed, screaming with them, to get help to the vulnerable children.
Photo credit: CNN
Topics are:
Overall Plan for Resettlement: Who, What, Where, etc.. Logistics update, with a focus on medical urgencies/delivery.
Orphans and Missing Children: The shifting plan to process, put into safety, and help orphanages to put children into appropriate transitional care. Within this, the vulnerability of girls is on my mind - I'll be talking to officials, see what can be done.
Women's Health Needs: There's a growing critical need to set up focused prenatal and maternal care for pregnant women and for women's health needs.
One idea I shared earlier today with the Corbett listserve today was for women's health advocates to set up a base of operations at the about-to-open (on Monday) Feminist Solidarity Camp on DR Border side.
This could be a centralized way to allows vol. individuals and professionals to gather, quickly organize, create medic and trauma and other support service teams of secondary providers, and set up temporary women's clinics and care where it's most needed.
They can also link there with the women's media teams there to advocate for needs and voices of women as this relief effort grows. A day time broadcast / update would also be great. (any of you indie media people reading this out there, take note.) Internews is on the ground, along with Reporters without Borders -- setting up a media center for Haitian journalists. Let's keep the women's voices central to the important conversations about responding, rebuilding, revisioning Haiti.
Re How to Build NOW: The main idea that keeps coming to my mind is Twinning: Creating mini-structures with existing local NGOs in communities, using a survey process to establish key contacts and outside groups with skills to help them rebuild. A nationwide twinning system, with global linkage to the myriad providers, donors, resources, ideas that are arriving. We need to get this organized, avoid duplication, support transparency..
It's not a pie-in-the-sky idea. It works and it especially works to channel resources by allowing groups to choose who they want to work with, to allow an organic process of help to take place -- within an overall schema that is organized and transparent.
A large-scale civil society and even governmental twinning effort, across sectors and at all levels,could really go far. It would help training and resources to arrive in tandem, and would keep the effort rooted in local solutions, create jobs locally, and allow for some accountability, so that Haitians in communities would remain in charge of the agenda, rebuilding with an acute awareness of the most immediate needs of their local clients.
Yes it would take central organization. But it could be done with the existing Internet software for large-scale social networking, and decentralized planning. Any high-level planners in charge of GOH, Clinton, State who want to explore more, please contact me. Plus all of you plebeian first responders and folks with great ideas and experience, of course....
I'm going to pitch this at the Women's Solidarity Camp for Women's NGOs and Leaders, and similarly to the Orphan First Responders. It in no way competes with the larger military and government efforts to create a camp, etc..
but it does allow for immediate, medium and longer-term support to be given in a way that outsiders don't impose the agenda, or fly in-fly out, but that it's a critical exchange that allows Haiti to restore leadership, support leaders, and for a massively decentralized, but organized with a centralized focus, model of rebuilding. It will take sector coordination, but it keeps an important share of control, resources and overall vision in the hands of local Haitians at local levels, while allowing government to do what it must.
Just a (okay, big) thought I wanted to share with Haiti watchers....Let me know what YOU think. Comments welcome. Share it.
I also believe, more strongly than ever, that a Craigs-list type bulletin board, with multi language translation and SMS text access would be ideal for the massive exchange of HELP that is already coming, but is all over the place, as is normal.
By grouping this huge problem and possible sharing of solutions into Service Sectors and Categories, a la Craigslist, we again rely on the global community to speak, and Haitians to have direct access to resoruces, vs. having higher-level gatekeepers. Plus it allows for great transparency to allow donors and possible RFPs to be visible and have many people bid for contracts that are already being offered - -but to those in the know.
Calling Craig Newmark (which I'll do today).. or any of you other High End Tekkies.. Some asked why not Ushahidi? My friends there are amazing, and I've been engaged in the Haiti platform, feeding and sharing ideas to make it as effective as it can be for crisis monitoring. But the folks there are tapped out, and can't add Services or a Global bulletin board now.
The www.haitivolunteers.com list is great, but it's a downward scroll and hard to see what came a few days before -- just a different organizing system -- and not set up to track if the need was met or service offered. I feel strongly that the platform of a Craigslist is the way to go - mobile, interactive, citizen-drive, public, with the usual protections against scammers.
Que pensez vous tous? Eske ou kap we sa?
NEWS Jan 22: Top Headlines --
Now for the CNN's recent headlines. I'm only posting those that are most relevant to the topics I'm focused on. - with comments added.
The big news, meantime, is the Plan in the Works: creation of a huge camp along the DR Border to house up to 100,000 people, and the parallel search for shelter within D Rep for 10,000 patients.
The camp news I'll update you on, but do want to note there is already much active grumbling within some Dom Rep groups. They have 'concerns' -- okay, they're frankly opposed - to such a large migration of Haitians into their country.
My thoughts: some legitimate concerns (impact of migration, etc.. but also a historic tension, and underlying racism within the responses of those opposed: they have zero interest in destitute, homeless immigrants), and a rather unfortunate expression -- one that is at odds with the actual ACTION of a great majority of Dominicans who have poured their hearts and pockets out to help in this quake. So many have lined up to give blood, every other day, for Haitians: what more symbolic image of how much they care ie. giving of their own bodies and energy?
Headlines then:
(CNN) -- Friday, January 22
1:39 p.m. -- The international aid organization Partners in Health reports it has 24 operating rooms established and working 24 hours a day in Haiti. More than 140 surgeons, nurses, anesthetists and other specialists were involved in the organization's quake relief effort, it said.
1:20 p.m. -- CNN's Ivan Watson speaks to a fisherman in Petit Paradis, Haiti, who describes a tsunami from the 7.0-magnitude earthquake more than 12 feet high. The water swept away his father and at least three other people in the fishing village, the fisherman tells Watson.
12:24 p.m. -- As of Thursday evening more than $355 million in donations had been raised for relief efforts, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper covering nonprofit organizations. The estimate is based on a survey of 35 charities contributing the largest amounts of money to Haiti.
11:57 a.m. -- Corporate donations to Haiti earthquake relief have surpassed $100 million, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Business Civic Leadership Center. The center reports the $106 million donated so far is the fifth-largest corporate response to a natural disaster ever, trailing only hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and earthquakes in Kashmir (2005) and China (2008).
10:18 a.m. -- The International Organization for Migration reports that as of Friday 508 makeshift settlements have been identified in the area of Port-au Prince. Surveys by the organization and the Haitian government of 314 of those settlements put their population at 472,000.
7:54 a.m. -- The U.S. Geological Survey reports a 4.4-magnitude aftershock strikes about 15 miles north-northwest of Port-au-Prince. Depth was about 6 miles.
6:40 a.m. -- Authorities pushing to clear earthquake-relief bottlenecks in Haiti continue to work Friday to improve the flow of relief supplies at the south pier in Port-au-Prince. The January 12 quake damaged the capital's north and south piers. Haitian authorities and the U.S. military had restored one-way traffic to the south pier, which is the smaller of the two, by Thursday. Port-au-Prince's north pier remains unusable.
And in case you missed this YESTERDAY: ORPHAN PROVIDERS TAKE NOTE! What action is needed: ARMED SECURITY FOR THE ORPHANAGES - MAINTENANT! NOW! GET THOSE TROOPS WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PROVIDING SECURITY TO DO SO THERE. ESSENTIAL!!
Thursday, January 21
8:30 p.m. -- Haiti's orphanages have become targets for people desperate for food, water and medical supplies, aid workers said. On Wednesday night, Maison de Lumiere, an orphanage caring for 50 orphans, came under attack from a group of 20 armed men, aid workers told the Joint Council on International Children's Services. A neighboring orphanage sheltering about 135 children has been robbed several times over the past few days, they said.
6:20 p.m. -- U.S. medical assistance teams have treated 7,000 patients in Haiti, the White House said in a statement. A total of 160 U.S. missions have been flown carrying 2,600 tons of relief supplies and more than 2,500 military and relief personnel into Haiti, and will be delivering 50,000 hand held radios to Haitians, the statement said.
The U.S. has also evacuated approximately 10,500 people from Haiti so far, including 8,300 American citizens, the White House said.
5:59 p.m. -- The Senate unanimously passed legislation Thursday that will allow taxpayers to deduct cash donations to Haiti earthquake relief on their 2009 tax returns instead of having to wait to file the claims next year.
4:37 p.m. -- Haitians are lining up in the streets for hours to try to receive wire transfers at the banks and wire services open in Haiti. Some Haitians said they haven't been able to eat because they don't have cash to buy any food available at street markets.
3:34 p.m. -- The U.S. Southern Command conducted an air drop of food and water over Haiti on Thursday. A C-17 delivered water and 17,200 meals ready to eat , the military said in a statement. Thursday's air drop was the second since the quake; the first was Monday.
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I'll call your attention to the last item -- which is great, but FAR TOO LATE. As many critics and despairing aid workers have pointed out all week, the US military plan for relief was guided from Robert Gates on to focus on security - and driven by fears of mass looting and panic. Some pundits - well, a lot -- have been quick to denounced this strategy as reflecting tacit racism toward poor, homelss, black people. The arguement made for security vs. air drops was fear of causing riots, say defensive military spokespeople. Their fear has not been borne out, as Haitians have primarily remained calm. NOW people are starving and the clashes have started.
It was an unfortunate, certainly preventable poor choice -- to focus on security vs. food aid. But it was understandable if you look at standard operating procedure for the military -- this is unfortunately the typical military focus: Order, Security. Add in the fact that Haitians guiding US and UN officials are/were often members of the elite business class who worried about their own assets and property -- since these were the only buildings or assets standing or not damaged in the quake.
(Trust me, I know this. I have family in Haiti and they are members. They've done great in this crisis, I have to publicly say. But I've been hearing my share about others. OY!)
My point is: Yes, The focus on security over hunger is inexcusable in hindsight. Yes, many died or may die as a result, needlessly. The Obama administration's choice was not one that reflected on the most important need: for food. It focused on order first. Wrong.
Now, they're trying to make it right. Or more right. That's good. Do it - faster.
I feel it's easy to criticize, harder to do right. So there will be critics who are right and actors who did wrong. But it's always important to look at the decisions from the perspective of the other person, being in the other person's shoes, and recognizing that these large scale bureaucracies are not fast-moving, even if troop movements can be. I'm not excusing, just understanding. I'm mourning too, and I will say: there's no justification for it that will stand in the already short hindsight of a week - the critical first days - when the US military plan failed too many Haitians.
Many have said Bravo to Israel, China, Dominican Republic, Cuba. They all got in super fast, and did save lives. Let's credit the US for responding and doing all it has, but let's also acknowledge what didn't happen. And let's LEARN now, and INCREASE the AIR DROPS MASSIVELY, FAST. Even while the plan to set up camps moves forward. C'mon 82nd airborne. We do know you can do it. Let's see you unleashed to save lives, even more than you are.
That's it for moi -- as I personally deploy :).
Do start commenting. I know there are over a thousand of you reading since I started this blog last Wed but people keep sending to my private email. Share your thoughts. A blog is meant to be a public conversation, after all. Don't be shy...
And finally, a personal note. I haven't dared ask family members if my grandmere's house is collapsed, just down from the Sacre Coeur church in Bois Verna, on ruelle Duncombe, which was her maiden name. I have so many memories of Haiti when I was young and visited, during the terrible Duvalier years. That Haiti, as many people have said this week, is gone. The Duvalier Haiti was already gone. But the Haiti we have loved in all its kaleidoscopic richness and poorness - the fabulous city of Port-au-Prince included -- it's changed forever. I know everyone who loves Haiti carries the cities that were and now are no longer in their hearts and eyes, and look to the cities that are being reborn as I write.
Nou la. Nou kanpe.
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