New Tremor today -- and New Posts from Haiti coming this week

Hello Haiti Vox Readers,

Quick apologies for the break in postings to this web blog -- I shifted my daily focus on posting updates recently to work with colleagues in and outside Haiti last month to set up a new global solidarity initiative to help women and girls there: PotoFanm+Fi (Women and Girls Pillar) -- which was initially named PotoMitan: Rebuilding Haiti. Have a look at the blog in-process: www.potofanm.org.

Starting today, I'll resume regular postings to Haiti Vox again, and will be providing more personal reports and perspectives here, and longer investigative reports on key challenges of rebuilding Haiti for a forthcoming e-magazine.


NEW 4.4 TREMOR HITS HAITI MONDAY....

First the news on a NEW 4.4 tremor that hit Haiti this morning....

It occurred about 40 km west of the capital and struck a few hours after I left the island (news on the trip to come in future posts....) According to an AP report, people screamed and ran in panic from buildings, but little damage is reported, nor human casualties.

Here is the link to the USGS geological incident report:http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/last_event/world_haiti.html.

LIGHTNING at the hospital...

The newest aftershock tremor came hours after a major rainstorm Sunday night that was marked by ferocious thunder and lighting that struck the ground. I was meeting journalist friends at the Oloffson hotel when the lightning made a huge explosive sound that let us know it had struck something possibly nearby -- and caused those sitting on the patio of the hotel like me to dash inside. (A personal aside: I was struck by lighting when I was 13 - and remain hyper-sensitive to the risk of those living in tents in Haiti to this threat. It's terrifying and more powerful than one can imagine...).

I just now learned that a new colleague I met recently who was also in Haiti, Dr. Barth Green of Project Medishare, later informed reporters that a bolt of lightning struck the ground next to his project's 5000-tent hospital area by the airport, causing an electric fire to melt wires in an operating room and smoke to fill the tent hospital area. It led patients to evacuate a few of them - and caused additional stress to a population already coping with torrential rains that have started coming down thick as thick as ropes in the past week or so - the annual Rainy Season deluge. See brief report here.

Post-rain, the rubble that is so carefully piled up on the sides of streets was scattered everywhere again, making it hard to drive, and yet, by morning, residents had cleared the way for traffic to move again. As I've said before and will keep repeating: is there anyone as strong as a Haitian? Meaning, can you believe how strong, and determined to move forward the Haitian people show themselves to be, day in and day out. Go there if you want to be impressed.


Also: for those of you interested, here is the link to a summary report on an expert USGS team that completed their evaluation of the damage in February. Note that a few details related to the identification of buildings may be wrong in this initial report, which has been updated but not in this PDF:

http://www.eqclearinghouse.org/20100112-haiti/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/USGS_EERI_HAITI_V1.1.pdf


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

JOIN US: Gender Advocates (incl. you men... invited!)

Regarding the above mentioned PotoFanm+Fi, please consider this a public, open invitation to Join The Cause -- including you gender-advocate men...you male feminists. We collectively need all voices to help support Haitian women and girls empowerment as a key to Haiti's future, especially in this critical period...

so don't be shy or rule yourself out if you're some dude in construction who is new to Haiti. Instead, and for all of you promoting new NGO and other rebuilding projects, take a second to ask yourselves:

-What am I (my org, my NGO, my dept. doing to help women in Haiti? Girls?
-How can I advocate for some gender equality or plain ole fairness in the sector I represent?
-Where are the jobs for women and girls in the rebuilding Haiti schema? In construction, green tech, reforestation, disaster preparedness, etc, etc.
-How can we create or expand a whole lot of new Cash-for-Work jobs that women are well poised to do, like childcare or teaching school in tent cities, like training women to be peer counselors to do grief counseling, help the newly disabled, etc.. again in camps, and of course, hire women to prepare food, or buy food from market women (note all you NGOs who aren't yet doing this...), or train women to become lay birth attendants to pregnant women, etc.

Point is: we need to expand the Cash-for-Work programs to allow women who really can't leave their children or remaining property unattended in the camps in order to try to clear streets or move heavy rubble.. we need jobs women can do and are really needed for - to help the displaced population living in the camps.

You get my drift. Do your part! Step Up. And if you're a Haitian man, especially! We need your participation and leadership all you foreign NGOs mesye qui vle sipote fanm ann Ayiti...)

Ta for now....