An Update from Buck Close, January 25, 2010
From: Buck Close
To: Friends of Haiti, PIH, The Salesian Sisters, and 1000 Jobs/Haiti
Re: The week after
First of all, thank all of you who read this for the generous outpouring of support for the victims of the January 12th earthquake in Haiti. Together you have contributed over $100,000 to Partners in Health, the Salesian Sisters, and 1000 Jobs/Haiti. It is already being put to good use.
Since all of you have seen ample coverage of conditions in Haiti on CNN and elsewhere, I will not try to duplicate it. The one observation I will make is that the lack of sanitary facilities – basically ways to get rid of human waste – is a HUGE problem in Port au Prince and is making a miserable situation almost unbearable. The refugee camps that are spread all over create a concentration of people in small spaces that is toxic. Being anywhere close to one of those camps is an assault on one’s senses that I have never experienced before – even in Haiti. The situation at the Sisters’ mother house and the Port au Prince school is a microcosm of that phenomenon because in each case you have over 100 people living in close proximity with no running water and no real sanitary facilities. It is difficult to manage the situation so as to minimize this unpleasant and unhealthy byproduct of the quake. While most Haitians are accustomed to living in difficult circumstances, this situation is much more difficult and much more unpleasant, not to mention dangerous.
During the week of the 18th through the 24th, I went back to Haiti via the Dominican Republic (DR). On the night of the 17th I had finally gotten through to Sister Marie Claire via her cell phone. When I had asked her if they had enough food and water, she said that that was becoming a challenge and she asked me to return to help get a flow of water, food, and other necessities flowing from the DR. The DR is overflowing with people trying to get to Haiti. There were no trucks to rent so I rented a 12 passenger van. I got a hotel online and paid for the room but there was no room waiting when I got there. So the crisis in Haiti does have ripple effects on the island of Hispaniola. A friend of my sister Francie, Chris Kouri, had volunteered to go with me on 24 hours notice and he met me in Santo Domingo. We overloaded the van with supplies the first morning and drove it to the border where we unloaded it into the Sisters’ truck for the trip to Port au Prince. Then we went back to Santo Domingo (a 5 hour drive) for more supplies. A tire came apart just before we made it back to the city and we spent an interesting hour in the dark beside a highway with cars and trucks whizzing by at high speeds. I would still be there if Chris’ persistence had not finally paid off so that we could limp into Santo Domingo. The next morning, armed with a new vehicle, we shopped in SD and then left for the border. This time we crossed into Haiti and went straight to the Maison Provincial (Salesian Sisters mother house) to deliver the supplies and spend the night.
Everyone at the MP is still living outdoors because the tremors continued throughout last week. The Sisters had been given about 20 tents by Food for the Poor last year and they were now pitched on every remotely flat surface around the house. These tents were full of women and girls ranging in age from 4 to 94. With no electricity, everyone basically got up at daybreak and went to bed as soon as the sun went down. Chris and I “slept” in our van to the extent that was possible given the noise around us, the mosquitoes, and the bucket seats. The next day we went to the airport to meet my sister Katy Close, MD who was on her way to the Hopital Albert Schweitzer to work. She had about 40 boxes of medicines worth many 1000’s of $ and we had the considerable challenge of loading these all into our small 1000 Jobs pickup while about 50 Haitian men and boys competed aggressively to “help” us. Those of you who have been to the airport in Haiti can appreciate the scene. We were “rescued” by Dieuseul, our driver, who gave the most aggressive of the “helpers” $20 on the condition that he would allocate it among the group. As the helpers descended on this misguided man, we made our escape with me perched on the top of a pyramid of boxes in the 90 degree heat. I am definitely too old to repeat that ride.
The following day I drove back to Santo Domingo (about 7hours) to meet my sister Francie and her husband Michael who had brought six huge duffle bags full of supplies requested by the Sisters. They also brought, as I had, a considerable amount of cash to be used for buying supplies over the next few weeks. This cash, over $20,000 between the two of us, is now in the hands of the Salesian Sisters. We made another round trip to the border the next day and left the supplies and cash with the Salesian Sisters (Dominican Republic) who live near the border in La Descubierta.
While in Haiti, I was able to see our 1000 Jobs employee Amelie. She is living with her 9 year old son in front of her damaged house. Her main concerns are obtaining food and water for herself and her son near term and the fact that her son will not have a school to attend for the foreseeable future. It worries her tremendously that he will have nothing to do but sit around for months. While I was able to help her with a cash grant of $400, I really couldn’t realistically offer her any comfort vis a vis her son Olivier’s immediate future. It is bleak. I cannot personally imagine having to sit around in the heat and dust for months with nothing to do but wait. Getting people jobs of any kind is vital. However I was able to tell her and Dieuseul, our other direct employee, that we had received enough donations from you to be able to say that we will help them rebuild their homes as soon as that is feasible. This was welcome news. She will also be contacting the 24 women who work in our Port au Prince coops this week – assuming that they are all alive – to let them know that they will be paid during the weeks of lost production. So, while the lives of these 26 people have not been rendered easy, they have had some good news as a result of your generosity and have something to hope for in the not-too-distant future. Putting everyone back to work with real jobs is the next step.
In terms of the Salesian Sisters, what has been accomplished is this: a method of supplying their basic needs for their people in Port au Prince (about 350 people in 6 locations) has been established with your donations and the active daily cooperation of the Salesian Sisters of the Dominican Republic. Basically all sourcing is done in the DR by the SS of the DR. The supplies are brought to their school at La Descubierta where the SS of Haiti pick them up and drive them to Port au Prince. This will go on indefinitely I suppose. Your donations are used to pay for the supplies.
Next steps:
1. We have a request for 7 small generators to be used at the Sisters’ locations around Port au Prince. We are trying to figure out whether to buy these here and air freight them to the DR or just to buy them there. Hopefully our friends of the Salesian Sisters of the DR will be able to help us with the logistics. I am waiting to hear from them now. Francie and Michael have been working on sourcing these from SC and have made plenty of progress in getting good prices for both the generators themselves and the shipping.
2. We need to design some way to get money into the hands that need it down there without someone physically carrying cash. There has to be a better way! However there is no banking in Haiti now. So I am trying to set up an arrangement which will allow us to wire funds to the DR to the Salesian Sisters there for the account of their counterparts in Haiti. Am waiting for word on that.
3. With the demands of the re-supply effort in terms of driving, the Sisters need additional drivers and we will offer to pay the cost of hiring at least one more qualified driver. Driving in Haiti is challenging at the moment so not just anyone can do it.
4. In the community surrounding the Sisters’ mother house, there are 100’s of families living on the street. One sister, Rose Monique, is organizing these neighbors so that they can best address critical needs. They hold meetings in the courtyard of the house there. The Sisters have asked for more tents for these people and will, undoubtedly, be sharing their provisions with them. So there is a certain open-endedness to the need. The Sisters are actively reaching out to those around them and ministering to their needs during the crisis. It is something wonderful to see – self sacrificial souls looking outward when the great temptation is to turn insular and self protective. They never quit living their love of neighbor.
Summary of 1000 Jobs grants and grants in kind to date:
1. Cash grants to Salesian Sisters of Haiti – $9000
2. Cash grants to 1000 Jobs employees – $800
3. Supplies purchased for Salesian Sisters – $3763.08
Thanks again for your generosity. We may be only at the beginning but we have begun well.
Buck Close
1000 Jobs/Haiti
316 W. Main Rd.
Little Compton, RI 02837
No comments yet.