Connections

Letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls for free, fair and inclusive elections in Haiti

Monday, September 27th, 2010

On September 13, 2010, eight months after the earthquake in Haiti, more than 20 civil society organizations from the U.S. and Haiti signed and sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging the U.S. administration to act quickly to ensure that Haiti’s presidential and legislative elections, scheduled to take place in November 2010, are free, fair and inclusive.  The letter notes that three critical issues threaten to undermine the legitimacy of the elections:

• the limited credibility of Haiti’s electoral authority
• the arbitrary exclusion of over a dozen political parties from the electoral process, including Haiti’s most popular party, Fanmi Lavalas
• the current obstacles to electoral participation for hundreds of thousands of Haitians, in particular the communities displaced by the earthquake.

The letter outlines actions that the US administration needs to take to help resolve these issues and notes that action must be taken promptly in order to guarantee the success of long-term reconstruction efforts in Haiti.  Read the letter’s complete text here.

"We've Been Forgotten"

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

The recently released report “We’ve Been Forgotten”: Conditions in Haiti’s Displacement Camps Eight Months After the Earthquake reminds us of the startling realities of daily life in the displacement camps even now … 8 months later.

Haiti: Six Months Later

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Six months after Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake … and the majority of Haitian people are still struggling to secure humane living conditions and their basic human needs like potable water, food and sanitation.   This begs the question: “How are the billions of dollars of relief and reconstruction aid being spent?”

HRC member organizations continue to ask this question and monitor the situation on the ground – in the camps.  Based on their research, conversations and observations, they have compiled reports that highlight Haiti’s situation 6 Months Later.

Please see the following reports that were discussed on Tuesday, January 13th, at the Congressional Briefing in Washington, DC:

Haiti Six Months Later: Reports from the Ground – Camps Conditions, Decentralization, Elections

Presenters Include:

Mario Joseph, Bureaux des Avocats Internationaux (BAI)

Manolia Charlotin, Haiti 2015

Nicole C. Lee, Esq,., TransAfrica Forum

Melinda Miles, Haiti Response Coalition & Let Haiti Live

Reports Discussed Include:

The International Community Should Pressure the Haitian Government For Prompt and Fair Elections – Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti / BAI

Haiti Cherie, My Dear Haiti - TransAfrica Forum

Haiti’s Answer for Six Months & Sixty Years - Let Haiti Live, A Project of TransAfrica Forum

Crisis at Saint Louis Gonzague Camp

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Members of HRC  are closely following the situation in the Saint Louis Gonzague Camp -  in the Delmas section of Port au Prince – and others where the threats of relocation by force have people living in fear.  READ the alert posted by a friend of HRC – NOW: Fight in Haiti, Rich Against Poor and JOIN STOP Haiti Private School from Forcefully Moving 11,000 People

Beyond Borders featured in the Huffington Post

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Marian Wright Edelman discusses how the work of Beyond Borders is crucial to the safety of Haiti’s most vulnerable children. Haiti’s Restavèk Children: The Child Servitude Crisis

TransAfrica Forum says U.S. Relief Efforts in Haiti Are Not Being Effective

Saturday, March 20th, 2010

“The situation in Haiti remains dire. No one should be deceived. Hundreds of people still desperately need medical care, shelter and food. The U.S. needs to remain vigilant and provide effective assistance” –Nicole Lee, President of TransAfrica Forum in Haiti this week.  Read More!

HSDF & HRC

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

The following commentary about involvement with Haiti Response Coalition was shared by Kathy McAllister of Haitian Sustainable Development Foundation, one of HRC’s member organizations.

After the devastating first images and reports came out of Haiti on January 12th it became apparent that our work at the Haitian Sustainable Development Foundation took a drastic turn from work as usual to super charged.  We needed to find colleagues, friends and family in Haiti to know if they were safe, what areas had been hit the hardest and how this affected our programs.  By reaching out to Melinda Miles at Konpay who we had partnered with in the past we were able to come together, share information, assessments and resources that I know resulted in moving critical aid into areas otherwise not receiving any and therefore saved lives.  The Haiti Response Coalition has brought together organizations that had already been working in Haiti and has joined our missions into a long term commitment in the recovery of Haiti and her people.

Tents for Haiti

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Visit Tents for Haiti to learn more about how you can help provide much-needed shelter to the people of Haiti.

TENTS-FOR-HAITI DRIVE

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

PRE-PLANNING GUIDE FOR YOUR TENT-FOR-HAITI DRIVE

Beyond Borders & Haiti Response Coalition

This guide is for those who are in the planning stages of a donation drive. If you can answer these questions before you begin, we think your drive will be much more fun (exciting, even!) and rewarding for everyone involved.
1. Is your drive in response to a specific request from the communities you are focusing on?
2. Do you know who is going to distribute the aid when it arrives in the country of destination?
3. When you have chosen the organization you want to donate to, are you prepared to contribute money to, or cover entirely, the cost of shipping of your material from the country of origin to the recipient country?
4. Are you willing to let your chosen organization distribute your donation as they see fit? (This means that the goods will go to the communities that have been identified as most needy.) If no, have you communicated to your chosen organization what your wishes are for distribution to see if it is feasible?

Now you are ready to plan your drive!

Who is Beyond Borders and the Haiti Response Coalition?
Beyond Borders is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization working in Haiti since 1993. You can visit Guidestar.org for the full profile. BB is a coordinating member of the Haiti Response Coalition (HRC). Our staff on the ground in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel are prepared to receive tents
at the designated port of entry and to distribute them in the communities with which we work.

Why tents?
After losing their homes, countless families are in dire need of IMMEDIATE shelter for their healthand safety. Haiti is still experiencing aftershocks on a daily basis, and so even if their home is still standing, families are not moving back into them because they are structurally damaged and not safe to inhabit.

How will the tents be used?
Families of 5-10 people are in URGENT need of protection from THE RAINY SEASON THAT HAS ALREADY BEGUN! Children are getting colds and the flimsy found material being used for protection is melting or being washed away by the rain!

Where will the tents be pitched?
Tents will be pitched in urban and country settings. From our staff in Port-au-Prince: “Most tents come with lots of poles and stakes and are made for
camping on grassy fields. What people in Haiti need is a tent made with strong fabric, room to stand, cross ventilation, seamless waterproof construction, vinyl floor, fire retardant material. Ideally, the free standing tent could be set up on concrete, a cement back yard, or even on a street, or granitelike surface since Port au Prince does not have many park settings.”

Can you recommend any particular models of tent?
Average daytime temperature: 85-90 F
Average daily inches rain for the spring: 10”
The following models have been suggested:
• Mountain Sport Eureka Item # 058394 http://www.mountainsports.com
• Shelter Systems http://www.shelter-systems.com/
• Eureka Equinox Item # 27466WC http://www.campmor.com

Where do I send the tents I collect?
We are stockpiling tents at our warehouse in southern Florida. When we have enough tents to fill a container, we pack them and they are shipped to Port-au-Prince to be received by our staff. Please contact Sarah Cool at coolsarahs@gmail.com in advance of your donation drive to give us a heads upon what you expect to collect. Sarah will then give you the address of the warehouse where you will ship your tents. It’s very important to notify her again when you send your packages to the warehouse so that she can alert them.

What happens to the tents when they arrive in Haiti?
Shipments will be received in Port-au-Prince by partners on the ground who are members of the Haiti Response Coalition. They will distribute the shipments directly to families in need of shelter and other provisions.

How much does it cost to ship my donation to Haiti? How is that calculated?
Our shipping cost is $20 per cubic foot of container space, as specified by the shipping company working with Econocaribe. In addition, there are fees related to customs, taxes, etc and ground transport of the shipments to communities within Haiti. Please take this into consideration and submit
your tax-deductible monetary donations directly to:
Beyond Borders
PO Box 2132
Norristown, PA 91404
Make sure to write “Tents for Haiti” in the memo line on your check!

Who can I contact if I have questions related to logistics?
Contact Sarah Cool at coolsarahs@gmail.com.

Even though I’m planning a tent drive, do you have a “wish list” of things in need?
Yes, visit the Urgent Needs section of the Haiti Response Coalition website   for a regularly updated list.

THANK YOU for helping to house Haitian families who have lost everything. The hurricane season starts in June and over 10 tropical storms are expected in 2010. If you want to be involved in permanent housing projects, or you know of engineers or builders or others who may be interested, please let us know!

Haiti Response Coalition Progress Report

Monday, February 8th, 2010

Haiti Response Coalition

February 8, 2010 Progress Report

Haiti Response Coalition continues to respond to immediate humanitarian needs and simultaneously works to build capacity for implementing long-term, sustainable response initiatives, some of which stem directly from efforts member organizations already had underway prior to the earthquake.

Haiti Response Coalition members in Port-au-Prince continue to complete community needs-assessments, focusing on communities in which member organizations already have established programs and relationships.  Information gathered from these assessments are informing both immediate humanitarian relief efforts as well as planning for long-term response.  The Coalition also continues to coordinate with UN/OCHA and other larger NGOs through the established cluster system for access to information, coordination and resources.

Haiti Response Coalition members in Jacmel have been distributing food and other basic supplies.  However, Jacmel, similar to other regions outside of Port-au-Prince [and even part of the capital city], has yet to receive regular shipments of needed supplies.  In the meantime, the Coalition members in Jacmel have established the infrastructure of an orderly distribution plan that would enable them to provide food distribution on a regular basis, rather than sporadically, to help contribute to restoring some normalcy and routine into the lives of the people.

Haiti Response Coalition also is committed to supporting and helping to facilitate efforts of its Haitian national partners to have a forum to discuss and prioritize a Haitian National Rebuilding   & Redevelopment Strategy.  Planning meetings for this initiative are underway.  In addition to this, three areas of long-term, sustainable redevelopment programs that Coalition members are investigating are related to agriculture and food security, rural health care and community development, and rural education access.  More specific information about these initiatives will be reported as it becomes more concrete.