into the real world and off to haiti?

so looks like i got my first real stateside job in more than 3 years (the greenpeace stint doesn't really count). yeah! holler at your boy!

i'm the new coordinator for international action, an ngo that works on providing clean water to communities in haiti through disinfection vis-a-vis chlorination.

i returned from thailand shortly before the earthquake, and immediately knew that i wanted to help. i initially planned to volunteer for a couple of weeks at international action's office in dc before going to michigan to serve as an intern for tillers international.

when offered a staff position at ia, it was difficult choosing between the two. i'd been wanting to go to tillers to learn valuable trade skills such as draft plowing, blacksmithing, and woodworking for a few years now. tillers is an international rural development training center that stresses the importance of using low-technology and fossil fuel free methods of growing food and artisan building skills for self-sufficiency and a more sustainable way of living.

having these abilities would have given me greater self-reliance and independence, deeper empathy for farmers and artisans in lesser developed countries, and allowed me to put to the test a lot of development and agriculture/permaculture theory that i've learned over the years.

i truly looked forward to working with them, but ultimately decided that i was needed at ia. it's a small organization, and i believe i can help them grow. i couldn't conscientiously turn my back on the unbelievable post-earthquake suffering and destruction that i saw in many field photos.

as many of you know, haiti, a product of colonialism and rampant corruption, is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. infant mortality is high, and thousands fall ill and die because of preventable waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera, hepatitis, and diarrhea.

we aim at providing clean water to neighborhoods, schools, hospitals, and orphanages through a simple chlorination system that provides clean water for $0.25 per person per year. this is a much more sustainable solution that alternative complex and expensive filtration systems that costs hundreds to thousands times more.

january's earthquake destroyed much of port-au-prince's water system, so our local staff are diligently working to provide water relief and starting to plan to rebuild and expand the whole water system.

i'll most likely be heading over myself in a couple of weeks to help cement partnerships and network with other ngos. apparently, after the earthquake, a slew of humanitarian groups jumped right in, but unfortunately with racist undertones. my impression is that there's very little engagement with local haitian groups working on the ground, and that they are mostly written off as incompetent and ineffective. this is hardly the case.

case in point, our haiti director, a haitian himself, had taken gps readings of all the water tank/chlorination systems in the city before the earthquake. these coordinates were given to usaid and the us military to make the first and only reliable and thorough map showing the condition of port-au-prince's water system after the earthquake. *just as a small disclaimer, nothing that i write here reflects the views and opinions of international action.*

i'm excited but also hesitant to go, for i want to help out, but don't want to be automatically cataloged as a "disaster tourist." you won't belief how many inquiries we've gotten from people who are seeking opportunities to volunteer on the ground. although they mean well, many are unskilled and would more likely get in the way of relief and reconstruction efforts. after i tell them that we need help in our office and that our local staff are working hard on the ground, very few reply back.

i understand that witnessing destruction and despair is "sexy" and speaks volumes on resumes, but i just question how much good that will do (unless said person is a superstar photo/video journalist, reporter, or philanthropist).

although i don't speak creole or french--again, reinforcing the idea of unsuitable foreigners coming into help the helpless natives...an idea i abhor and don't want to play into--i want to do what i can and help. let's hope this works out.

time to crack open the creole language software program...

day 6 update from partners in health

From Ted Constan, Partners In Health: "Crisis in Haiti" (this is from the PIH listserv, i just changed some formatting and put in links)

Watch a video of Katie Couric's interview with PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl on CBS here.

Donate now here.

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Dear Jeremy,

Six days can seem like an eternity. It's hard to believe that so little time has passed since the earthquake shook Port-au-Prince. In the days since, we've worked around the clock to bring urgently needed surgical teams, medical supplies, water, and food into a devastated city.

Thanks to a true team effort, at the general hospital in Port-au-Prince alone, we helped get 7 operating rooms up and running, performing surgeries around the clock. By tomorrow night, we should have 10 or 12. At our sites in the Central Plateau and Artibonite regions, we have eight more functional operating rooms that are already supplying surgical and medical care to hundreds of earthquake victims fleeing the destruction of Port-au-Prince. And thanks to a partnership with many people and organizations here in the U.S., we've filled 10 planes with surgical teams and supplies, and have many more scheduled flights throughout this coming week.

However, the logistical challenges of our immediate response are only the beginning of our effort to bring relief to the people of Haiti. While our progress has been impressive and rapid, it is dwarfed by the immense need. At this stage, we are working on streamlining bulk deliveries of supplies, medicines, and human resources to help handle the thousands more patients that still await care. And we know that to truly help Haiti "build back better," as President Bill Clinton has said, we need to ensure that the aid doesn't stop when the final emergency surgical team returns home.

After having their lives saved, many of our patients' worlds are changed forever, many will require months or even years of physical and emotional therapy. Some are orphans. Many of them have lost their homes and jobs. On a larger scale, the earthquake will shake Haiti for generations--government buildings lie in shambles, as do schools, hospitals, and roads. Before the earthquake, Haiti was already the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Just getting the country back to square one requires more work than what can be delivered in a single news cycle. But with your support, we remain steadfast in our commitment to build back better. After all, we've been working in partnership with poor communities and the government in Haiti for 25 years, and we don't plan to leave any time soon.

Watch a PIH Executive Director Ophelia Dahl discuss the importance of long term rebuilding efforts with CBS's Katie Couric here.

Read an op-ed by PIH co-founder Paul Farmer focusing on the importance of building back better here.

In solidarity,

Ted Constan
Chief Program Officer

haiti update

although there's a backlog of other topics it'd like to hit upon that have been mulling in my head for some time, for the next couple of posts, i'm going to focus mostly on the haiti earthquake. having been traveling back to the states, it's been hard keeping up with the situation in haiti for the past couple of days...

when i got home last night, i read haiti articles from sunday's la times. this one stood out:

For the first time since a catastrophic earthquake shuddered across Haiti last week, there were real signs of relief Saturday, with U.S. helicopters ferrying emergency supplies from an aircraft carrier off the coast and bulldozers taking to the streets of Port-au-Prince to shove through mountains of debris.

But there also were signs of the immense problems ahead: the stench of decaying bodies rising from neighborhoods; the sprawling tent cities springing up across the capital; the challenge of getting help to the victims in the face of the breathtaking scale of destruction and need.

LOOTING: Looting continued in Haiti on the third day after the earthquake, although there were more police in downtown Port-au-Prince.
(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

TENT CITY: One of the many tent cities that have sprung up around Port-au-Prince catering to the thousands left homeless after a 7.0 earthquake.
(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

another article today said that preliminary figures from haitian officials estimate that up to 100,000 are presumed dead.

an audio slide show entitled, "so many people need help" can be seen here.

graphic photos can be seen here. some images may be disturbing.

president obama has asked his former predecessors w bush and clinton to help with private fundraising efforts, and the ex-presidents have jointly launched the clinton bush haiti fund to solicit donations from the us and abroad.

i just transferred the leftover $200 from the power of one fund and an additional contribution to partners in health's stand with haiti campaign to deliver life-saving medical supplies and health-care to injured haitians. if you'd like to help with donations or would like more information on how you can help, please visit this post here for more information. every little bit helps.

i'll try to put up an oxfam donation page in the next day or so to try to do more direct fundraising.

help haiti now! you can make a difference!

for those who haven't heard yet, a massive earthquake registering 7.3 on the richter scale struck haiti on january 12th. much of the damage was felt in the port-au-prince, the nation's capital. depending on what news source you read, up to 50,000 people are thought to have perished, with about 3 million people affected. thousands are injured and without food and water, and many are still stuck in collapsed buildings.

although world leaders have pledged millions in aid and have already sent search and rescue teams, food and medical aid, and other forms of disaster response assistance to haiti, help that has actually reached the ground is marginal, partly due to the destruction of much of haiti's transportation infrastructure and a lack of logistical support. read a general overview of the situation here.



close-up photos of the destruction can be seen here, here, and here.

if you can help, please do.

IMPACT YOUR WORLD BY CLICKING HERE! the link includes many of the most effective charities and relief organizations rated by charitynavigator.org, an independent, non-profit organization that ranks charities based on effectiveness in the field and financial stability.

haitians need immediate help with basic needs, shelter, medical aid, and food.

YOU can choose to which field you want to donate to HERE. but before you do, please read this article from change.org about "what not to give in emergencies."

oxfam america's appeal for its haiti earthquake response fund can be viewed here. this is what al gore had to say about oxfam america's work in rebuilding haiti:

The earthquake in Haiti has been catastrophic. More than three million people have been affected, and estimates are that over 50,000 have died. The human suffering is unimaginable.

That's why I'd like to pause from our usual conversation and ask for your help.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 85% of Haitians already living in desperate poverty. Now, with hospitals in ruin, dire shortages of even basic necessities like fresh water, and no way to find out whether family members are alive, the Haitian people urgently need our help.

A number of organizations are already engaged in critical relief efforts, and I urge you to support as many of them as you can. One of them, Oxfam America, has an emergency response team of more than 200 people already on the ground. The need for clean water and critical public health services is massive and immediate -- and our donations can help save lives.

avaaz's appeal can be seen here.

you can also text on your cell to donate $10 to the american red cross, one of many groups working to address the crisis in haiti. more info on that here.

for his contribution to the power of one fund, one friend donated $100 to oxfam america for haiti relief. my sister will donate $20 to one of the orgs working there. another one of my friends made separate contributions to oxfam america, partners in health, and doctors without borders/medecins sans frontieres. the $200 that was donated by 2 of my family members to the power of one fund, but not yet assigned to a particular cause, will be put towards partners in health. when i get back to the states in 2 days, i will put another $100 toward partners in health's stand with haiti campaign.

i'm sure that there are many credible and effective organizations working on relief in haiti; but i chose to donate to partners in health [pih] based on my own independent research of them and the testimony of one of my good friends who so happened to use to work with pih. this is what she had to say of them:

[Partners in Health] They've been working in Haiti for two decades, and their facilities are outside of Port-au-Prince, so they're in a really good position to help with relief. Plus, very little of their money goes to admin/overhead costs, compared to other groups like the Red Cross. I've been encouraging people to donate to PIH. You should put their link in your blog

other factors pushing me towards pih are that 1.) many pre-existing hospitals and clinics have been destroyed in port-au-prince, 2.) reports that i've heard have specifically asked for more medical aid and supplies, and 3.) a functioning emergency health-care system will undoubtedly save thousands of lives. (as a side note, according to this article, partners in health most likely just became the largest health-care provider still functioning inside haiti).

please help if you can. the people of haiti need us!

the preceding were my very amateur reflections on aid. a much more detailed and expert analysis on relief aid for the haiti earthquake can be found at saundra schimmelpfennig's blog here. she's one of the co-founders of the disaster tracking recovery assistance center, an ngo that works on aid coordination and ensuring better aid distribution.

_____________________________________________

if you'd like to email your family and friends to help too, feel free to use this template:. you can also copy avaaz's template, which you can get from here.

hey x

how's it going? i'm x. anyways, i'm sure you've heard of the earthquake in haiti. it's really awful. i know money is scarce in these times, but if you have a few bucks to spare, i was wondering if you'd consider donating to the humanitarian effort to bring relief to haiti. if so, ways you can help out are listed on the blog of someone i know. it's linked below.

http://jeremymak.blogspot.com/2010/01/help-haiti-now-you-can-make-difference.html

i really don't mean to put pressure on you, and i know that there are a lot of other worthwhile charities that are working on other issues. so whatever you decide to do is fine by me. my heart just goes out to the people in haiti when i see the pictures of the destruction. i just don't know what else i as an individual can do at this point but spread the word. thought that you'd be someone interested in possibly helping, but don't mean to come across as pedantic about this, so please forgive me if that's how i come across. i don't make appeals to family and friends often or lightly. if you do find this blog post about the haiti earthquake helpful/insightful, please feel free to pass it along to anyone you think might want to read it. hope things are going well in x.


thanks for your consideration.

take care and be well,

x

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some new york times articles on the earthquake in haiti:

jan 13: haiti lies in ruins; grim search for untold dead
jan 13: in haiti, survivors search for the dead, and for solace
jan 14: tensions mount in devastated capital as nations step up aid pledges to haiti
jan 14: the missing in haiti
jan 15: rescuers race to find survivors in haiti as us troops work to speed aid flow
jan 15: relief groups seek alternative routes to get aid moving
jan 15: for those trapped, rescue is but the first hurdle