Connections

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.

Haiti Response Coalition Progress Report

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Haiti Response Coalition Progress Report: February 3, 2010

As Coalition members begin to see more clearly that their immediate humanitarian relief efforts are intricately tied to their vision for long-term, sustainable program implementation, they have gathered to more formally organize around these efforts.  Since late January, meetings of Coalition members and Haitian community organizing partners have taken place regularly to discuss the evolving nature of their immediate efforts as well as to flesh out more formal organizational structure and goals.

Two levels of effort are happening:  (1) responding to basic humanitarian needs (2) beginning to organize strategy meeting of Haitian-community leaders to develop a Haitian rebuilding strategy and agenda.

One major point discussed at the Coalition meetings is trying to bring together a planning committee of Haitian community-leaders that would help develop a national strategy for rebuilding and redeveloping Haiti.  The purpose of this gathering would be to bring together Haitian community leaders from around the country, using some traditional meeting and some open space methodology, to discuss and determine what the Haitian rebuilding agenda and strategy looks like.

In addition to the longer-term strategizing, Haiti Response Coalition continues to work with Haitian community organizers to do needs-assessments of the new tent cities that have developed after the earthquake, specifically focusing on the partner communities of Coalition member organizations.  Completing these standard assessment forms should help expedite the distribution of needed supplies from MINUSTAH and other larger NGOs.

The assessments so far have uncovered that some communities, like Solino, have had no distributions of anything at all.  Solino is an example of a community in a dire situation.  It has not yet received any first aid, water or food aid.  The people of Solino are living on the street along the sewer canal which is filled with garbage.  A first rain will leave them literally in the garbage.   Other communities like Jake have been organizing themselves and have received some distributions, maybe once or twice, not a regular daily basis yet.  Other communities are getting aid maybe once or twice per day,  but that is very rare.  So there is still a very real bottle neck in aid distribution and a lack of access to basic needs like water,  food and  even shelter.   Shelter continues to be an undefined issue.  At the UN coordinated logistics cluster meetings for shelter, for example, there is discussion of about distributing tarps and ropes to provide temporary shelter.  However, meetings also include discussion about that fact that where people are living right now in tent cities are in unsustainable; therefore, they need to move from these areas.  This is causing at least some holding back of distribution of temporary housing supplies because officials do not want people to put set up in places that cannot be maintained over the long-term.

Haiti Response Coalition also has been trying to deliver aid to communities outside of Port-au-Prince, as identified by Coalition member organizations.  Petit Goave, for example, has not yet received coordinated aid distribution.  It appears that there have been some small, sporadic water distribution efforts only.  Most people do not have any kind of temporary shelter and there is a diminishing food supply.  It has begun to rain a little bit just about every day, so shelter concerns are very real and imminent.  Ryan McCrory of Haitian Sustainable Development Foundation is trying today to get a first load of food to Petit Goave, as well as working to complete an initial needs-assessment of community members.

Haiti Response Coalition member organizations are working to supply Jacmel with needed food supplies for distribution.   Michael Adam, a volunteer from New York, will fly into Santo Domingo on February  4, and proceed from there to accompany a boat load  of mainly food to Jacmel.  Additionally, Sustainable Haiti is working to provide food, especially to areas of Jacmel that have not yet received any aid.  The second medical team from Delaware also will arrive in Jacmel within the next few days.

Multiple 40-ft containers of temporary housing materials, such as tarps, tent, and ropes, being donated coming from the City of Sydney, Australia are now on the way! Upon their arrival, the materials will be distributed in areas of Port-au -Prince, Jacmel , and other locations as identified by the Coalition assessment results.

Haiti Response Coalition Progress Report

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Haiti Response Coalition: Coordinating with Medical Teams

Progress Report: January 25, 2010

From the very first moment we learned about the earthquake and began to realize the extent of the damage, the Haiti Response Coalition has been working to secure a way to get desperately needed medical supplies and teams onto the ground in Haiti. For eleven days we have been up against a bureaucratic bottleneck that has made it nearly impossible to move resources onto the ground in Haiti.

After a few days of calling everyone in our extended networks, KONPAY was able to get office space for the Haiti Response Coalition to have a team in place on the ground in Santo Domingo at the offices of FUNGLODE. Our incredible team in Santo Domingo is being coordinated temporarily by Anna Dioguardi and Steven Moyano. They have been working with a large web of volunteers and AMURT’s Peter Meadow and team to establish contacts there to assist our efforts. They are embedded there with the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic. Nestor Sanchez at The Nature Conservancy helped us connect with General Valeria of the Dominican military, which made it possible to and acquire space for medical teams and cargo on navy vessels from the port of Cabo Rojo in Pedernales directly to Jacmel.

Through Reed Lindsay and the Honor and Respect Foundation, the Coalition connected with Hye Young Lee whose friend Wes Carter heads up the Atlantic Packaging Company. Wes and Atlantic have made their trucks and warehouse available to us, have worked to ensure our cargo can get through customs, have offered us free diesel from their tank, and have connected us to other important companies. Atlantic has helped us move cargo over land to meet boats at Pedernales headed to Jacmel.
Two teams have taken the land and water route to Jacmel so far, the Christiana Care team from Delaware and Team Ange (angel in Haitian Creole) from New Jersey.

1.  The Delaware Christiana Care Team

This is the first team we sent in via Navy boat. They arrived late at night on Wednesday and were met by a bus at the Santo Domingo airport. They spend several hours traveling to the port in Pedernales, and then waited there for the boat to be loaded. After a four hour boat ride they arrived in Jacmel and set up an operating room in a tent at the Hospital St. Michel in Jacmel. Joe Duplan of KONPAY has coordinated their logistics on the ground and worked closely with Guerda Lexima and Fondasyon Limyè Lavi to prepare for their arrival, finding them a secure place to stay and meeting local authorities.

Beth Miller of the Delaware News Journal is with the team and has been Tweeting and uploading pictures throughout the trip. Today the team was asked to leave the hospital because Medecins san Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders will be taking over the facility. The team didn’t waste any time before heading out to offer a mobile clinic to a new tent city in Jacmel. Sedrick Desir reported:

“We made the hospital grounds functional, with the help of the Canadians, we can work at another site… We are here to help the people of Jacmel and nothing else. The tent OR we put up allowed our surgeons to save many lives and that is why we came. So we will continue to do so.”

To follow the Christiana team, visit the Delaware News Journal’s page on them here http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=Haiti

2.  Team Ange: Angels of the OR in Cayes-Jacmel

The Angel team came mainly from New Jersey and is coordinated by a wife and husband team, Katie and Michael Galotto. They arrived in Santo Domingo on Friday and we transported them to the port in Pedernales. Through a contact on the ground in Jacmel, Rick Barger, several team members were picked up in Pedernales on helicopter and small aircraft and flew to Jacmel, while the others stayed behind and traveled on the ship with their cargo.

At the same time, a flight carrying supplies for them was traveling to Port-au-Prince. It arrived late on Friday night and Amber Munger was there at the airport with a team to meet the plane. Communications continue to be difficult, and Amber was on the phone with Melinda Miles, of KONPAY in Massachusetts, searching the airport for the plane. Using her cell phone to call the co-pilot with her other ear, Melinda was able to get Amber face-to-face with the pilot. Amber and her team laughed at the silliness of it all and she remarked, “This is the first time I’ve really laughed since this all started.” A moment of levity and connection brought to us by ATT, Voila, Comcast and Verizon!

A second plane arrived early Monday morning, and Amber and Daniel Tillias will load the cargo onto a truck to Cayes-Jacmel. We were very excited to read this report that Katie Galotto gave to Julia Helstrom, D.O. on January 24, 2010:

“They are in Cayes-Jacmel and doing GREAT.  They have become the only site in south Haiti with anesthesia, so are getting all surgical cases in the area sent to them.  They worked through the night last night doing surgeries.  Sad news is, they have not been able to save many legs because the infection is so bad that they are doing more amputations than fixing fractures.  They have essentially become THE hospital in south Haiti! Katie couldn’t say enough about how pleased she was as to how things are going.”

Another point of entry has been northern Haiti. Two teams we are collaborating with entered that way:

3.  CCH Team to Jacmel

Karen Carr from the Community Coalition of Haiti (CCH) flew into Santiago last Monday with a team of seven others and crossed the border at Dajabon-Ouanaminthe. They then flew via Missionary Aviation Fellowship directly to Jacmel from Pignon, and were the first team of foreign surgeons to arrive in Jacmel on Wednesday.

4. Team Emmanuel TV to Arcahaie

On Friday a team of 8 experienced medical field staff flew into Cap-Haitien and were met by Peter Haas of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group (AIDG). With his assistance, Fiona Tonge and her team visited the airport to make sure their cargo, which arrived on Sunday, would be able to clear customs. Before they traveled to Haiti, Kathy McAllsiter with the Haitian Sustainable Development Fund contacted local authorities in Arcahaie to ensure their desire and participation for setting up a field hospital there. Team Emmanuel TV brought several tons of medical supplies and food for their operations in Arcahaie, and Kathy arranged for former Peace Corps driver Pierre Juste Anesoir to accompany the team to Cap-Haitien and act as a guide and interpreter as they travel to Arcahaie to set up their hospital.

We are currently working to coordinate another team into Haiti in the next week:

5. Thiotte-Wisonsin Team

Dr. Maureen Murphy contacted KONPAY last week about getting a team to Thiotte, in the southeastern department near the border with the Dominican Republic. Her community has a long-term commitment to the community there and does regular clinic visits annually. They heard of the need for medical response for victims in Thiotte and those returning to the village from Port-au-Prince.  The team will fly into Santo Domingo on January 29. Our team there will get them on a bus to the Jimani-Malpasse border. Once they cross, local leaders from Thiotte will meet them in Malpasse to transport them to the village to set up their clinic.

In addition to these fantastic teams, the Haiti Response Coalition offered logistical support to Representative Maxine Waters for her visit to Haiti this Monday and Tuesday. Sarah Cool made reservations for Rep. Waters and her team to fly with World Vision to Port-au-Prince today, and our team in Santo Domingo, Anna Dioguardi and Steven Moyano are briefing Congresswoman Waters before she leaves Santo Domingo.