Haiti earthquake - D7020 update Jan. 31, 2010
D7020 Website - Haiti Updates
Sorry about the delayed update but we are working on a number of
issues and none of them seem easy right now. As you know we are re-
evaluating the situation with an emphasis on our Haitien Family of
Rotary and where we need to go from here. We obviously have many of
the supplies and assistance that was originally called for still
coming in and are processing it through onto the ground daily. The
status reports by region and for our Quake Zone clubs should be in by
later tomorrow so a clearer update will be posted then. We have Dr.
Greg Hoeksema, a fellow Rotarian from Cayman on the ground doing a
medical evaluation of supplies and equipment. He is done in the Pignon
area and is going to Cap Haitien tomorrow and onto Port de Paix
Tuesday evening.
President Shaun Ingraham, and Tyson from the Eluthera Rotary Club are
on the ground and on their way into Port au Prince tomorrow morning
with the Director of Habitat for Humanity. He is going to be texting
out information to us, so that should help with our insight. I just
spoke to him and he will be providing me with his sense of the
situation later on today.
The entire education system in the country has been shut down. not one
child anywhere going to school. There is slow movement now to begin to
reopen Missionary and Private Schools although the Education Ministry
has not officially permitted that yet and they have no clear strategy
to do so. The transient population with children arriving in their
respective new communities may well never get back to school unless we
do something. I have a call out for BIG Tents, Circus or MASH type
tents. There were in excess of 300 schools destroyed in the PaP area
alone so this challenge is a big one. The children, orphaned or not,
need a place to get together and play and socialize at the very least
soon, so keep that in minds you search for the tents.
Food and Shelter is still a core need. For food be sure its more in
the way of beans, rice, protein supplements, baby formula etc. Tents,
sleeping matts, blankets, clean clothing etc. We have our Florida
Rotary Friends setting up 10 40ft containers throughout the State to
collect food and shelter items. We are hoping to ship 8 containers
from Nassau as well this week. We are still at the point where we can
buy supplies in Haiti so money still works. Certainly for the long
term and for the bigger longer term projects, money will be the most
necessary.
Through the high tech capability of our District I was able to go live
on REACH radio in the BVI's yesterday thanks to Don. Good job Don.
Transportation into and on the ground is a difficult and an ever-
changing process. The last flight we sent in was met by a road block
and an unruly crowd with sticks. The UN, police, and Dr. Guy put down
the unrest but it is getting more complicated and difficult there as
you can imagine. The people are getting more and more desperate as the
population numbers in these rural communities increases and supplies
dwindle. There are also Political factions now using the opportunity
to try to build a constituency and some control by having the goods in
their possession. More to come on this as I better understand it.
We had some issues with some of our supplies being taken yesterday by
force by the French Army. It's a clear sign that the coordination of
all the relief in Haiti is and will continue to be a BIG challenge as
we go forward. On a good note, 40,000 lbs of supplies from the Sint
Maarten / St. Marten area clubs got through to Rotary's storage in PaP
after a very complex transportation route, so we can get it done.
We are setting up a more permanent and defined response committee for
the ongoing relief. Our 1st meeting is 4:00PM tomorrow and I will
share the structure of it with you after the meeting.
Have a good day
PDG Dick
ps: here is a further update on Shelterboxes...
An update on the Shelter Box issue from this mornings update.
What happened was the Shelter Boxes were sent into a Rotary warehouse
in error and they (Shelter Box and French army) had come to get them
back. Those in the warehouse as I can tell did not realize this
recieving error and accepted the supply, and were not happy that they
were being taken away from them.
Shelter Box and the Rotarian Haiti ground team met this morning and
have sorted out the issue and should be good going forward. Understand
that there is a lot of confussion on the ground given the
circumstances and Shelter Box has been working extraordinaruily hard
to get the boxes to where they need to go in the midst of this
confussion and in very difficult circumstnces since the very
begining.
They are doing a great job.
PDG Dick