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Extra Ski Night Mt. Hood Meadows Raises $21,500 for Haiti Relief
Terry Richard February 18, 2010 http://blog.oregonlive.com/terryrichard/2010/02/extra_ski_night_mt_hood_meadow.html Source Publication: The Oregonian Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort raised more than $21,500 for Mercy Corps during Monday evening’s Haitian Relief night, Feb. 15. The resort extended operational hours on the President’s Monday holiday and challenged skiers and snowboarders to purchase a $10 night ticket online, all of which was donated to Mercy Corps Haitian Relief efforts. More than $8,000 was raised from advance purchasing guests, some of whom didn’t even use the lift ticket. Meadows officials are donating an additional $12,700 from the evening’s proceeds to up that total to $20,760. Meadows guests also dug deep into their pockets offering spare change and bills to Mercy Corps volunteers attending the event. Meadows has a page on the Mercy Corps Web site for those who would like to contribute: www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/mthoodmeadows.
18 February 2010
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Cash for Work Helps Haitians Rebuild
Haiti's unemployment rate was already above 50% before the earthquake hit. Now some organizations are investing in cash-for-work programs that give Haitians much-needed training and jobs. Sabri Ben-Achour February 17, 2010 http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/02/17/pm-cash-for-work# Source Publication: NPR's Marketplace Listen to this audio interview by clicking here Kai Ryssdal: The president of France took a tour of Port-au-Prince today. Nicolas Sarkozy said afterward the French government's giving Haiti $400 million in disaster relief. It'll help pay for reconstruction and emergency assistance. But there are a lot of ways assistance money gets spent on the ground. It goes for food. And water. Medical care. And sometimes jobs. From Port-au-Prince, Sabri Ben-Achour explains. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sabri Ben-Achour: In the court yard of one Port-au-Prince primary school, there's a small secluded tent city. Jean Remont lives there, under a sheet and a few sticks. Using a very worn looking shovel, he's scooping away rubble. You have to clean up where you live, he says. He's been working since 6 a.m., so has Danielle Mislo. A lot of people want this job, she says. I'm happy to have it, but I have so many problems, my house is gone, my kids are sick. It's not enough, but it's better than nothing. Mislo and Remont -- and couple hundred other people -- have this job thanks to Mercy Corps, a Maryland-based aid organization. CAROL WARD: The idea really is to get money into people's pockets. Carol Ward is running this pilot project. It's a type of foreign aid called Cash for Work, and it's just that -- people get cash for doing some kind of useful work like clearing rubble or a little bit later on actually rebuilding buildings. WARD: They're working their hearts out, bless them. Haiti's unemployment rate was already above 50 percent before the earthquake, so the demand for work is staggering. Bill Holbrooke is the Haiti country director for Mercy Corps. BILL HOLBROOKE: You can show up on any street corner in any spontaneous settlement, and you'll find a very, very long line of individuals, survivors who are anxious to go to work. But cash for work is also about training. HOLBROOKE: There is a very large and unacceptable percentage of people who are unemployable. They don't have job skills that are marketable. Construction is where the training will start says Holbrooke, given the immense rebuilding task ahead in Haiti. HOLBROOKE: There are meaningful, long-term jobs in the construction sector that have very few qualified people to fill. And so we've gotta address that. The World Food Program recently announced it was going to launch cash for work type programs as well. They'd hire about 100,000 people. Manuel Orozco is an economist with the Inter-American Development Bank. MANUEL OROZCO: Cash for work, I think, it's just very important in Haiti, because of the large unemployment rate. It has to be sustained over a couple years Orozco says so workers gain different skills. OROZCO: So that when the program ends they can actually be absorbed by the private sector. It does have a positive impact. Orozco is adamant about that last part, transitioning to the private sector. If NGO's don't pay attention, they could put the local construction industry out of business down the road. OROZCO: If you make it a widespread process, it will have distortions in the national markets because it does compete with the demand for local labor. For now the goal is to get people back on their feet, and back at the primary school tent settlement Antoinette Nesto hopes it will do just that. This is a good job for me, she says, but I used to be in business. I'd buy and sell at the market. Then I lost all my merchandise in the earthquake. For now, she'll keep sweeping rubble. Maybe, she says, she'll make a little bit of money in the hope of one day starting up her business again. From Port-au-Prince, I'm Sabri Ben-Achour for Marketplace.
18 February 2010
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Video: Cleaning up Petionville, Haiti
Here's a video from my visit to one of Mercy Corps' cash-for-work sites today.
17 February 2010
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Their teacher went to Haiti…and now they want to help
Sara Logue was a high school student when she visited Haiti in 2003. Now a fifth grade teacher at Tom McCall Upper Elementary School in Forest Grove, Oregon, she’s making sure her students are connected with the world beyond the walls of the school. Students participating in Tom McCall Upper Elementary School's Haiti fundraiser for Mercy Corps included (from left to right) Kaitlyn Hiett, Kate O'Handley and Elissa Anderson. Photo: Sara Logue “We have a very community-based classroom,” says Logue. So when she learned about the earthquake that flattened Port-au-Prince in January, Logue was “shocked and heartbroken.” She also made sure to discuss the disaster with her class. “I showed them pictures from my trip there, and we talked about the earthquake,” she recounts. “One boy, Matt, raised his hand right away. ‘What can we do to help?’ he asked. Now, this wasn’t a ‘Should we help?’ or an ‘If we help…’ – it was this clear determination to do something. And the rest of the class felt the same way.” Logue was proud of her 32 ten- and eleven-year-olds as they brainstormed various ideas and decided to hold a coin drive. The next day, they began bringing in piggy banks and pockets full of change, while parents added checks and currency to the collection jar. In the first three days, they raised $600. Another classroom joined in, and soon it became a school-wide campaign. In two weeks, they raised $1,726.57 to support Mercy Corps’ relief and recovery work in Haiti. “Honestly,” says Logue, “ours is not a wealthy community, and in this economy, lots of our families have had layoffs. I really didn’t expect them to raise that much. Most of all, I love the way they just assumed they would help. At their age, that’s pretty impressive.”
17 February 2010
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Portlanders: Combine your love for soccer and Haiti tonight
If you're a soccer fan in Portland and want to help Haiti rebuild at the same time, this post is for you! Tonight, the Portland Timbers face off against the University of Portland men's soccer team on the University's Merlo Field at 7 p.m. In this charity match, the Timbers will field a team of guest players and trialists against returning members of the University of Portland squad that reached the third round of the 2009 NCAA tournament. Tickets are only $7 and all proceeds raised at the event will support Mercy Corps' programs in Haiti, which are helping create jobs, restart the economy, help children cope with trauma and much more. There will be a silent auction of signed Timbers jerseys other sports memorabilia during the match. Proceeds from the auction items will also benefit Mercy Corps. Hope to see you there for some great soccer for a great cause! From the Timbers: http://www.mercycorps.org/fundraising/timbersarmy and http://www.portlandtimbers.com/newsroom/headlines/index.html?article_id=1528 From the Pilots: http://www.portlandpilots.com/news/2010/2/8/MSOC_0208100837.aspx
17 February 2010
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'It Was Like a Huge Bomb Fell'
Ashland resident Richard Jacquot facilitated emergency relief efforts for four weeks as a contract worker for Mercy Corps John Darling February 17, 2010 http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100217/NEWS02/2170309/-1/NEWSMAP Source Publication: The Ashland Daily Tidings One of the first disaster responders to land in Haiti after the Jan. 12 earthquake, Richard Jacquot of Ashland found that his most powerful tool was his Blackberry, which he used to organize help from neighboring nations. With 230,000 dead and chaos all around him, Jacquot slept in the airport parking lot the first night and, with dawn, leaped into his job as disaster team administrator, setting up water sanitation, building 800 latrines, distributing life's necessities and launching a cash-for-work program. "The emergency response was so difficult. It was like a huge bomb fell," recalled Jacquot, who has responded to disasters many times before but never in a place where all services — water, power, electricity, police, government, food markets — were gone. "We went to the general hospital and distributed emergency food, high-energy biscuits, moving soon to wet feeding, which is regular food," said Jacquot, a contract worker for Mercy Corps in Portland. "The hospital's kitchen was not working. "The people were just traumatized. The sanitary conditions were absolutely apocalyptic. It was very hot and humid. The rains were starting," said Jacquot, noting that his team visited a nursing school that once served 70 students and staff and no piece of the building bigger than a fist was left. Only 10 survivors were pulled out. After a week, women from outlying areas began bringing in their food crops, selling them at booths along roads. Residents who helped in the disaster recovery effort through Mercy Corps' cash-for-work program were able to buy the food with the money they made, about $5 a day. In his four weeks there, Jacquot administered a Comfort for Kids program, which helps children overcome post traumatic stress disorder by retelling their tough times and drawing pictures of it. The program also trains parents to recognize the symptoms of psycho-social problems. The children "need to download their story and they do," he said. "In the end they have fewer problems with it than the adults." Working with Mercy Corps, Jacquot responded after the Indian Ocean tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the China quake and other disasters. But because some measure of social services and government were left intact, they were considerably easier, he said. "The (Haitian) government didn't exist," he said. "It had no rescue teams, no ambulances, no heavy equipment to move rubble." His task force didn't deal with medical or search-and-rescue issues, he said, noting that after 72 hours, about when he arrived, the chances of finding someone alive "go down very drastically" because of dehydration and kidney failure. After the quake, people refused to sleep inside buildings. They slept in parks, driveways and streets, leaving narrow corridors for vehicles, said Jacquot, recalling a six-foot-square plot of parkland on which a family of 12 tried to live. Port-au-Prince, epicenter of the 7.0-magnitude quake, was a collection of problems waiting to get a lot worse before disaster struck, Jacquot said. Tens of thousands of people relocated over the years in the periphery of the capital city, looking for work and erecting slum housing, he said. Most structures, even the multi-story downtown buildings, were put up with little regard for building codes. Many were sited on hillsides and they all came down "like dominoes," he said. "There's no economic or social opportunity, except in Port-au-Prince. There is no middle class — they all leave Haiti. There's only the pick-and-shovel people and those who run things. They have building codes but no one to enforce them. Those who oppose government regulation should see what it's like in practice." Mercy Corps' long-term goal, he said, is to promote agriculture (Haiti imports 40 percent of its food, although it has much arable land) and clear drainage canals for the coming rainy season. The upside of the killer quake is that Haitians, with the help of Mercy Corps and other groups and nations, can focus on a new Haiti, he said. "It often takes a disaster to make changes for the better, same as in our own lives," he said. The devastation to Haiti will take a decade to repair, he said. "If the international community sees this as an opportunity to guide and help the government, it may get rebuilt so it isn't just sitting there, waiting for the next (disaster)."
17 February 2010
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Article
Cleaning up Petionville, Haiti
Here's a video from my visit to one of Mercy Corps' cash-for-work sites today.
16 February 2010
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Group Addresses Mental Health Needs Of Haitian Children
February 15, 2010 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123668471 Source Publication: NPR's Tell Me More In the weeks since the horrific earthquake that leveled much of Haiti's capital we've seen images of death and destruction and a few amazing rescues. But one aspect of the devastation that the television screen cannot capture is the psychological trauma of a generation of Haitian children who have experienced dramatic loss and serious injury. "Comfort for Kids" is a program developed by Mercy Corps, a non profit international humanitarian organization, and child care provider Bright Horizons. Its aim is to help Haitian children traumatized by the earthquake. Host Michel Martin talks with Griffen Samples, senior technical adviser of Comfort for Kids. Listen to this audio interview by clicking here MICHEL MARTIN, host: Its been almost a month since an earthquake leveled much of Haitis capital. Weve seen many images of suffering, but one aspect of the devastation which the screen cannot truly capture is the psychological trauma experienced by those who have suffered loss and serious injury. Today, we want to focus on an initiative designed to address the needs of children, in particular, the mental health needs of children. Comfort for Kids is a program developed by Mercy Corp, thats a nonprofit international humanitarian organization along with childcare provider Bright Horizons. Griffen Samples is the senior technical advisor to the program and she joins us now from Port-au-Prince. Welcome, thank you for joining us. Ms. GRIFFEN SAMPLES (Senior Technical Advisor, Comfort for Kids): Hey, its my honor and I appreciate the chance to help to your NPR listeners learn whats happening on the ground. MARTIN: What are you trying to do? Ms. SAMPLES: Mercy Corps, in partnership with Bright Horizons, after 9/11, developed a very simple messaging program that enables adults, parents, professionals, paraprofessionals to provide resilience in children so that they can minimize the number of children who need the scarce mental health resources that exist after a disaster. MARTIN: And so what is exactly does that mean? Youre trying to what help the adults who are there help the kids. Ms. SAMPLES: Thats exactly it. And we have a training program that we have effectively implemented in the U.S. after 9/11, after Hurricane Katrina; aspects of the component were launched in Guatemala after Hurricane Stan. Weve used it in other earthquake responses in Peru and also in China. MARTIN: And what does this training entail, I mean, this program weve done a lot of reporting on mental health issues and who gets those services, who doesnt get those services. And one of the things that seems to come up a lot is this whole question of culturally competent care; what represents comfort to some people, might not represent comfort to other people. And so one of the questions I have is what are some of the tools that youll be sharing with adults to try to help kids in this situation. Ms. SAMPLES: We have a couple of things, Michel. The first thing is a very simple messaging training program. And with our trainings - weve piloted to already, weve trained just under 100 people - we look, at first, how are adults responding to the earthquake. Adults are expected to take care of children, thats normal in any culture. So, before we can get into how we can support children better, we say, well, you know - what are you seeing among yourselves? What are different behaviors that you are having yourself or maybe you see in your friends, in your family? And normal adult reactions to a crisis, be it in earthquake or large natural disaster or 9/11, would be anxiety, fear, sleeping too much. For adults, there might be drinking too much or smoking too much. So, people tend to have normal anxiety-type reactions after a crisis and one of our key messages is to normalize those reactions. People may not know that those are simply normal adult reactions after a trauma. MARTIN: Who are some of the adults who will receive this kind of training? Ms. SAMPLES: That's a - its a key question. The training will be reaching out to two different groups. We will be partnering with a program thats under the aegis of the first lady, Madam Preval. She is hosting child spaces where children will be doing arts activities. Theyll be doing it for two-and-a-half hour sessions, three times a day, six days a week. So there will be a rotation of children. And so one group of work will be the mothers who have brought their children. You know, two-and-a-half hours is not enough time to go and do a lot. Traffic is crazy, crazy, can take an hour-and-a-half to get anywhere here. The other groups weve worked with - the teachers, the nurses, the day-care workers. Weve had psychologists, weve had a very wide range in our pilots, already, will continue with that group as a second training population; and the parents as his own discreet training population. MARTIN: What are some of the challenges of offering this kind of training in this particular setting? I mean, one of the things that occurs to me is, on 9/11, is devastating as it was, was confined to a relatively limited geographic area - you know, the worst physical damage was, you know, lower Manhattan or at the Pentagon. So, once you got away from those areas you could get basic services, you know what I mean - you could get food, you could get water, you could get shelter. But here, you know I mean, the damage is so widespread. So, can you just talk a little bit about what are some of the challenges of addressing psychological needs given the physical circumstances there? Ms. SAMPLES: Sure, and I want to underscore - when we talk with people, local authorities, representatives with community, talking with the first lady and her colleagues - we do not provide mental health counseling, we do not provide therapy. What we provide is simple messaging in how adults, either parents or professionals or paraprofessionals, can promote resilience in children. MARTIN: Mm-hmm. Ms. SAMPLES: Most children are inherently resilient. Children can bounce back way faster than adults, if they get the right support. Its very difficult for people who havent received training. You know, many people think children maybe showing bad behavior, so they maybe being just like ill-behaved; when in fact, what theyre demonstrating with their showing are normal reactions to trauma, by not knowing the difference between what was bad behavior in the normal times and the normal reaction to trauma after a crisis, parents and adults may not be responding appropriately. MARTIN: How though, can you encourage parents to respond appropriately when theyre so devastated themselves? We cant isolate the trauma that the adults have experienced from thats what their children are experiencing. Ms. SAMPLES: Youre absolutely right and thats why we always start our training saying, how are you? What youre doing to take care of yourself? And it gives them a chance to talk among themselves, because theyve been so busy. So, actually its a very informal training. Its more like a conversation that we hold. MARTIN: How many people do you hope will get this training over the course of your time there? I dont know how long you plan to be there, but how long do you think the project will last. Ms. SAMPLES: Michel, Mercy Corp is going to be help the long term. We have preliminary figures that say we would like to reach 1,500 people in the communities. So, church leaders, nurses, teachers, people who are key what we call key informants in the community. So, its the short-term response that we anticipate will be part of an ongoing program with Mercy Corp here in Haiti. MARTIN: Griffen Samples is the senior technical advisor for Mercy Corp, Comfort for Kids. She was kind enough to join us by phone from Port-au-Prince, where she is working. Griffen, thank you so much for speaking with us. Ms. SAMPLES: My pleasure, my honor. Call back in two weeks so I can update you on how many and the reaction of more of the participants. (Soundbite of laughter) MICHEL: Okay, well try. Thanks a lot. Ms. SAMPLES: Best, bye. MICHEL: Okay.
15 February 2010
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Timbers Will Play Benefit Match For Haitian Relief
Amelia Templeton February 15, 2010 http://news.opb.org/article/6728-timbers-will-play-benefit-match-haitian-relief/ Source Publication: OPB News The Portland Timbers will play the University of Portland Pilots this Wednesday in a charity match to benefit Haiti. Tickets are $7 and the money raised will go to Mercy Corps. The Portland aid agency is providing shelter and food to earthquake survivors in Haiti. The Timbers announced last week they had signed Haitian National Team Midfielder James Marcelin. He’s been playing for the Puerto Rico Islanders but was on break in Haiti when the earthquake struck. Marcelin will appear in the game Wednesday, along with young prospective players invited to a training camp and some members of the regular team. The Timbers season kicks off on April 17th.
15 February 2010
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Haiti Response Team
Mercy Corps has deployed an A-team of humanitarian first responders. These experts from around the world have collective experience that includes responses to the China earthquake (2008), Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (2008), and Hurricane Katrina (2005). Here are key members of our team: Bill Holbrook is our country director. Bill is a 20-year veteran of international aid work, including two tours in Haiti, relief work in Sudan and a five-year stint for Mercy Corps in Azerbaijan last decade. Gene Kunze brings 10 years of experience in humanitarian work and served as program director for our emergency response to China's Sichuan earthquake in 2008. Mugur Dumitrache is a crisis-tested water and sanitation advisor who's brought innovative solutions to the aftermath of dozens of disasters, including last year's earthquake in Indonesia. Sean Collins is a tested program manager and skilled logisitician with emergency experience in places including Indonesia and Iraq. Jacques Azemar is volunteering his logistical skills burnished during a 30-year tenure in the U.S. military. A former Army Colonel, Jacques is a Haitian-American who won many awards for his service in conflict zones during his career. Hans Van Liedekerke, a member of Mercy Corps' supply-chain management team, has over 15 years experience in the industry and is a well-known expert in delivering supplies during emergencies, including the Indian Ocean tsunami. Abdou Seyni is a senior finance and administration who has over 18 years of experience in his field. Kody Leonard has worked as a System Administrator with Mercy Corps for almost three years, supporting our headquarters and field staff with their IT needs. In Santo Domingo (logistics) Matthew Schwartzberg is a senior material aid officer for Mercy Corps who has previously coordinated supply shipments for disaster relief in Myanmar and China.
15 February 2010
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What We're Doing in Haiti
Haitians left homeless after the earthquake camp out in a Port-au-Prince park. Photo: Photo: Reuters/STR New, courtesy www.alertnet.org More than a month after the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked Haiti, Mercy Corps’ team of emergency response experts is working to meet the immediate needs of survivors. At the same time, our team is laying the groundwork for longer-term recovery, drawing upon Mercy Corps’ three decades of experience helping disaster-struck communities transition from receiving aid to carrying out their own recovery. Haitian authorities estimate that more than 217,000 people died in the earthquake and that three-quarters of the capital city, Port-au-Prince, will have to be rebuilt. At least one million people have been displaced. The Mercy Corps team is coordinating with the United Nations and other aid groups on the ground to ensure the most efficient response. Team of Experts Mercy Corps has deployed an A-team of humanitarian first responders. These experts from around the world have collective experience that includes responses to the China earthquake, Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, and Hurricane Katrina. Learn more about our Haiti Response Team Right Now: Water, Trauma Support, Jobs The Mercy Corps response is currently focused on immediate humanitarian needs: food to beleaguered hospitals, water and sanitation, trauma support for children and job creation. Five days after the quake, this woman and her baby need water first, then food and shelter. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps Earthquake survivors like this little girl are living in parks and vacant lots around Port-au-Prince. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps Clean Water and Sanitation Water and sanitation assessments continue in preparation for securing clean water and safe latrines for at least 42,000 people in Haiti's capital. On February 3, our team installed a water filtration unit at a local hospital. Job Creation and Economic Recovery To jumpstart the decimated economy and begin rebuilding efforts in earthquake-affected areas, Mercy Corps has initiated a cash-for-work program that pays earthquake survivors a daily wage to clear debris, restore buildings and repair basic infrastructure. We plan to employ more than 8,000 workers in some of Port-au-Prince's poorest and most-devastated neighborhoods. Through the cash-for-work approach, survivors carry out their own recovery efforts. Employing survivors gives them the dignity of earning an income they can then spend on the supplies they need for their families. Their purchases in turn help restart local commerce. Trauma Support for Children When the earthquake struck, all schools in Port-au-Prince collapsed. Haitian children who survived the earthquake experienced trauma that could negatively affect them for life. To help restore children’s sense of well-being, Mercy Corps is providing post-trauma help using Comfort for Kids. This counseling methodology was first developed in New York by Mercy Corps and Bright Horizons, a global workplace childcare provider, to help children recover from the trauma of 9/11. Subsequently, Mercy Corps has used Comfort for Kids to help children recover from the China and Peru earthquakes and Hurricane Katrina. Mercy Corps recently announced a partnership with Haiti's First Lady, Elisabeth Delacourt Préval, to implement Comfort for Kids trainings for adult caregivers. The First Lady and UNICEF will organize “safe spaces” in camps to run arts, sports and music activities for children, while Mercy Corps will run simultaneous sessions — in French and Creole — to educate parents and caregivers about child symptoms of trauma and how they can be addressed. Next Steps Mercy Corps will focus on supporting the creation of jobs, especially in the provinces around Port-au-Prince, in sectors such as agriculture, tourism and apparel manufacturing. Mercy Corps also expects to use cash grants to help people rebuild assets like small businesses, fishing boats, food carts. In addition, Mercy Corps is exploring options with microfinance provider FONKOZE and other partners to help small- and mid-size businesses grow using remittances and microfinance. In the coming weeks and months, Mercy Corps plans to expand its work to include the provinces surrounding Port-au-Prince, particularly the Central Plateau area where approximately 500,000 people fled after the earthquake. The agency is striving to make these areas economically viable and provide critical resources to displaced families who have settled there. A Long Track Record of Helping Recovery The earthquake in Haiti left three million people in need of aid, exacerbating the dire humanitarian situation in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The Caribbean nation suffers extreme hunger and political instability, and this disaster only increases the needs of thousands of impoverished Haitian families. Mercy Corps has a long track record of helping people living in the world’s toughest conditions to recover and rebuild after natural disasters and conflict. The agency has special expertise in disaster response that establishes a foundation for, and leads directly to, self-sufficiency. HOW TO HELP Mercy Corps is accepting donations toward our earthquake response. Public support thus far has been strong, and corporations such as Amazon.com, ITT Corporation, Best Buy, Western Union, Gap, Nike, and Trilogy/Voilà have generously contributed to our efforts.
15 February 2010
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Beginning again with hope and faith
What was so incredibly hard to see was the destruction of national treasures and symbols of this city — such as the famous Iron Market — all broken, twisted and ruined. Photo: Rinn Self/Mercy Corps Yesterday was the final day of the three-day national mourning period here in Haiti. We’ve had several new team members come on board this weekend, and we thought today would be a good day to see more of the city and get a sense of the scale of destruction caused by the earthquake. Our country director Bill — who lived in Haiti for many years — and his wife Dominique, who was born and raised here, took us on a tour of downtown Port-au-Prince. It was the first time I had personally seen some of the worst hit areas of the city and it was absolutely overwhelming. What I had seen on TV and even in the displacement camps where Mercy Corps is working did not prepare me for the sheer heartbreaking magnitude of the damage that Port-au-Prince has suffered. The heart of the city, once a vibrant commercial center, now looks like a war zone. Completely shattered buildings line every street and the stench of death and burning trash is suffocating, even now a month after the earthquake. What was so incredibly hard to see — especially in the company of a native of Port-au-Prince — was the destruction of national treasures and symbols of this city: the National Cathedral, the famous Iron Market and the Presidential Palace, all broken, twisted and ruined. We climbed up on top of the car and watched throngs of men, women and children waving Haitian flags and marching towards the palace. People danced and smiled and waved at us and we smiled and waved back. Photo: Rinn Self/Mercy Corps Dominique wondered aloud — how do people rebuild from nothing? And we realized, no, this is actually much worse than nothing. There is no clean slate here to start from, they must live in and around the shattered shells of their homes and businesses because there is no alternative. In this densely populated and desperately poor place, it will take weeks, months and perhaps years to remove all of the broken pieces and start over. Seeing what I saw today, I can’t even imagine the pain of having my entire city destroyed and then having to look at that destruction every single day, reminding me of the people I had lost and the seemingly impossible journey of rebuilding ahead. As we neared the Presidential Palace, we realized that the crowds around us were all heading the same direction. Very suddenly, we found ourselves in the middle of a very large demonstration. We were forced to stop and park the car as thousands of people filled the main square outside the palace. But this was, very fortunately, a peaceful gathering with music, song and prayer. We climbed up on top of the car and watched throngs of men, women and children waving Haitian flags and marching towards the palace. People danced and smiled and waved at us and we smiled and waved back. It was an amazing and deeply moving mass expression of hope and faith, a wonderful sight after the incredibly painful tour we had just taken. Inspired by the unbroken spirit of the people we’d seen, we’ve all gotten a much-needed boost to start this week off with new energy and determination.
15 February 2010