Thursday, February 11th

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, Interviews Reed Lindsay

There are shifts in Haiti as aid continues to come, but for most Haitians it is not getting easier. Yesterday, one of the most poignant reports of the current situation in Haiti came from founder of Honor and Respect Foundation, Reed Lindsay, during an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. If you can listen to this without tears running down your cheeks, you are stronger than we.

Haiti Confirms Death Toll of Over 230,000. The Haitian government has now confirmed an earthquake death toll of over 230,000. Another 300,000 are reported to have been treated for injuries and there are still thousands who have not been able to get medical help or aid. Over 2,000,000 are homeless. We’ve watched as the numbers escalate…and sadly these figures undoubtedly will continue to move upwards.While this eblast was waiting to be sent, the estimate death toll rose from 200,000 to 230,000. The number of those killed, injured and left homeless in cities and towns outside Port-au-Prince is difficult to calculate. Signs begging for help are scrawled on buildings, in the ground, along crumbled walls.

Aid workers report that food and other supplies are now coming more rapidly but that red tape, fear of ambush, transportation bottlenecks and corruption are keeping aid from reaching many people who need it. Reed reported, Saturday, February 6, on his way to the Artibonite to cover the story from there, that “Aid distributions in Port-au-Prince are more visible, but still people are hungry!”

“Most refugees from the capital are in northern Haiti’s Artibonite Valley, a starkly desolate region of rice fields and deforested mountains the color of cigarette ash.”
[See this story from the Los Angeles Times.]

Honor and Respect Foundation continues its fundraising efforts, with a strong focus on allocating moneys not only to the immediate needs, but to projects that will be sustainable.

Historically, Haitians have always helped themselves. In the past weeks, neighborhoods have formed camps, and those with strong internal organization plans have had the best opportunity to access food, clean water and shelter. There has even been talk about starting up schools under tarps in these “tent cities” , which in reality is a gathering of people under a sea of sheets and tarps which offering some protection from the sun, but little else in the way of privacy or safety. We understand that the neighborhood of Jake, which was HRF’s pilot neighborhood, is in better shape and is receiving supplies more easily than Solino, another neighborhood assembly supported by HRF in the past. There could be many reasons for this, but perhaps the biggest reason is the fact that the latter neighborhood is less accessible via major roads. We continue to search for the best way to help.

In the past week. We are happy to report that a collaboration of a number of small NGOs who had a presence in Haiti long before the quake (and will continue to be working there after the major aid agencies have departed) are now represented collectively on a new website launched this week under the name Haiti Response Coalition. This website will keep you up-to-date on what is happening both on the ground in Haiti as well as relate the progress of its members as we work from the States responding to the needs as they are presented to us. On this site you’ll find the most urgently required supplies for those interested in making in-kind donations. The site will also serve as a way for HRF and other members to collaborate, network, interface, and respond amongst ourselves to specific requests from areas where we’ve been working respectively and beyond. Numerous Haitians are joining Haiti Response Coalition team members in positions of leadership as well as filling in where help is needed. Their energy, resourcefulness, experience and knowledge will continue to be indispensible as we begin to rebuild together. In addition, Haiti Response Coalition, will give all of us a stronger voice within the international aid community, with government agencies, as well as in the press.Honor and Respect Foundation will work closely with this trusted assembly of non-profits as we pool our resources and our knowledge base.

To best summarize. We quote below a letter written on February 6, by our friend, Sasha Kramer of SOIL, a co-member of Haiti Response Coailtion:

“Driving through the city with the sun beating down and the smoke and dust blurring my vision, I am soaked in sweat and still the goosebumps rise over my skin. It is as if the souls of those still buried under the rubble are coursing through my veins, reaching for the sun, yearning to be free. I carry them with me as I ride through this broken city, but I can’t let them out, I am so afraid that they will take me with them to a place where I will no longer be able to serve, my mind is numb but my skin is crawling with loss. This morning I returned to Mon Nazar for the third time, the place where Rea Dol’s school SOPUDEP is, the place where I first fell in love with this country, the place that was once a bustling mountain full of hope and promise. Now the pages from children’s notebooks float in the breeze, while neighbors pour gas into the crumbled houses, burning the bodies of their lost loved ones, wailing as the bulldozers move in, 20 days too late, when all that is left to recover are body parts and the dust of shattered dreams. And still it is the resilience and not the destruction that threatens to break through the numbness, the children jumping rope and laughing in the middle of the burning garbage, the stranger who gently takes my hand and leads me through the rubble watching to make sure that the glass will never pierce through my faded sandals, the songs of love and solidarity that echo through the camps at night, the outpouring of support from friends around the world. Haiti has always been a country of extremes, and never more so than now. Haiti will bend but she will never break. Instead of bringing Haiti to its knees, the majority of people who survived have risen to their feet, ready to march forward. People who never would have thought that they would have the strength to stand up following a tragedy of this magnitude, have done so much more than stand, they have found an inner fortitude, a reserve of compassion and dedication that was released by the quake, a river of courage that spills from their hearts and every day people traumatized by loss are engaging in extraordinary acts of kindness. … Everyone has lost so much, but it is incredible to see the emptiness of loss transformed into the fire of action. Please know that your donations and solidarity are the fuel that helps us keep the fire lit, the fire that light our paths as we walk through the crumbling walls of this proud city, the fire that will eventually burn away the loss and destruction and from the ashes Haiti will rise again, as she always does.”

Bill Quigley of the Center for Constitutional Rights writes:

“It’s much harder to be a Haitian today than ever. People are getting sicker, the need is rising, the international response is leveling off and declining. Without a significant change what’s in front of Haiti is going to be much worse than it is today.” He encourages all to put pressure on US-AID to work with small Haitian community organizations.”

Friday, January 29th

Haiti, I am sorry…

Haiti I am sorry
We misunderstood you
One day we’ll turn our heads and restore your glory
Haiti I am sorry
We misunderstood you
One day we’ll turn our heads and look inside you
-David Rudder of Trinidad and Tobago

David Josue, a friend of Reed’s originally from Haiti, is now helping Honor and Respect Foundation and our NGO colleagues and sent us this song he first heard 22 years ago! The words released a torrent of tears and we cry openly as our hearts open to our Haitian friends.

In this past week, the mood and energy of our friends in Haiti and our NGO colleagues have assumed yet another tempo. As the intensity of rescue is replaced by plans for relief and recovery, “medical care”, “water”, “food”, “shelter” appear over and over again in emails that crowd our computers.

Since the quake hit, Honor and Respect Foundation has been working with Melinda Miles of Konpay (based in Jacmel, Haiti) and other small NGO’s with years of collective experience in Haiti. This week, HRF helped form Haiti Response Coalition, a growing group of small NGOs, generously pooling our resources-information, networks, ideas-to allow us to be more effective and efficient in Haiti today, tomorrow and in the days, weeks, months and even years to come. We’ve been helping to coordinate teams on the ground in Port-au-Prince under the direction of Amber Munger of AMURT. We are now receiving aid from our Haitian friends as they join us and take leadership positions in helping us in our relief efforts. The warehouse we secured in Santo Domingo has allowed us to have an open channel of delivery of supplies from the Dominican Republic to Jacmel, PAP and other areas devastated. On Saturday, Melinda will be in Port-Au-Prince where she will meet with Reed. Early next week she’ll bring back to HRF a first hand assessment that we will pass on to you.

HRF Board received very said news today. Raymond Lochard of Fonkoze*, who worked with HRF, lost his life in the quake. Raymond was HRF’s contact at Fonkoze ensuring that your donations reached the PAP neighborhoods we supported. Jeanne Vilinsky who takes care of HRF’s finances was informed of his death and recollects how professional and responsive Raymond always was as he helped us facilitate our transactions. Our thoughts are with Raymond, the other two Fonkoze employees who lost their lives with him, and with their loved ones.

*Fonkoze is Haiti’s alternative bank and largest micro-finance institution for the organized poor in Haiti.

Valerie Kaussen, who has volunteered for Honor and Repect Foundation and was in Haiti at the time of the earthquake, thankfully returned uninjured and has taken on the task of being HRF’s point person for the Jakè and Solino neighborhoods. Here is her latest report (from Solino on TeleSUR TV):

“I’ve been in touch with AVS (Solino) representatives several times over the last week. Mark Arthur reported that there are 7 families (55 people total) associated with AVS (Solino), in SERIOUS need. There are 2,500 people in the Solino neighborhood. EVERYONE needs food and water. They do not seem to have a water source. A small coffee can of rice at that time was costing 175 gds (about $4.00), way beyond their means. On Saturday, 1/23, I spoke with Jean-Claude of AVJ (Jakè) They also need food, water purification supplies, and basic medicines for 616 families. There are 16,000 people in the Jakè neighborhood.”

HRF has connected both Jakè and Solino with our Haiti Response Coalition team members in PAP and we’re hoping to give you updates in subsequent emails about our success in assisting them in finding means for a steady flow of relief.

Reed Lindsay was inspired to start Honor and Respect Foundation while working as a freelance investigative journalist and living in Jakè, Port-au-Prince, Haiti. For those of you who know Reed, you may be interested in seeing a few of his news stories from Haiti aired on TeleSUR TV:

Our heartfelt thanks to all of you for your your emails, your thoughts and your generous donations. We are pleased to announce we have topped $50,000 in less than three weeks and will try to double this in the next three weeks, knowing that needs will continue to mount long after Haiti disappears from the daily headlines. Immediate expenditures will be focused on clean water, clean food and mosquito netting…all in an attempt to prevent the spread of infectious diseases which will become more threatening when the rainy season begins at the end of Februrary. We’ll keep you updated as moneys enable us to bring some relief and security and with that hope for the future.

Sunday, January 24th

Spirit and strength will pull Haiti’s people through

Article written from Port-au-Prince by Reed Lindsay (Board Member, Honor and Respect Foundation) for The Observer.

As the tremors and the NGOs recede, Haitians continue the fight against colonialism that their ancestors began 220 years ago

Nearly two weeks have passed since the earthquake, and journalists are beginning to leave. The obvious stories have been done and, for some, things are becoming monotonous.

I’ve seen this happen before: the hurricane that devastated Gonaives in 2008, the food crisis of that year, the armed rebellion that led to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s removal by US troops. When catastrophe strikes, Haiti is swarmed by foreigners, journalists, foreign troops, aid workers, diplomats and celebrities. But the world can only take so much tragedy and soon Haiti is back to making occasional appearances in a news brief.

Yesterday I was behind one of Haiti’s colourfully painted buses usually adorned with inspiring biblical slogans. This one was uncharacteristically morbid: “Life is not only roses, it is sometimes dark.” Life has never seemed darker. Around 120,000 are dead, thousands maimed, hundreds of thousands homeless, livelihoods destroyed. Food, water and medicine are finally starting to arrive, but the demand continues to overwhelm supply.

The outlook in Haiti was never rosy; now it is bleak. Tragedy was never hard to find, although in ordinary times it could take some groundwork to root out the quintessential story. Now it’s impossible to avoid.

During the five years I lived in Port-au-Prince, the question would often be raised in conversation as to whether there was any hope for Haiti. The answer, for many visiting foreign journalists, UN bureaucrats and aid workers, was resoundingly negative. Haiti was too poor, too deforested, too far behind the rest of the world. Its people were too corrupt, disorganised, duplicitous, opportunistic. In darker moments, I too could fall into this pessimistic perspective, but then I would witness an act of unsolicited kindness or solidarity or perseverance or dignity, and I would be reminded of the spirit and strength of the Haitian people.

On Friday, I visited a refugee camp near the airport. Nobody had had any contact with international organisations except the Red Cross, which had distributed high-energy biscuits and 350 tarpaulins, enough for 10% of the families. The government and elite, the US, France and Canada, the UN and NGOs, are already planning to move these refugees into larger camps where tents could be replaced by houses. But the people here knew nothing of this. As always here, the poor have little or no representation in these meetings.

Instead they are on the ground. In the camp, a tall, young Haitian stood over a water-dispensing hose, gently berating a group of women squabbling over their order in the line. He had spent hours making sure people kept calm. In the alleys between the tents, one of which already had a street name written on a piece of wood nailed to a stick, a man was giving chocolates to children. He was in a committee set up to distribute aid when it came. Another group was discussing strategies for security.

When the journalists are gone, when the international aid business returns to normal, when the marines leave, when the peacekeeping mission packs up or changes its name, life will go on in Haiti and Haitians will continue the struggle their ancestors began 220 years ago against colonialism.

And the major players in Haiti – the US, France and Canada, the UN, the major financial institutions and international NGOs, the Haitian government and elite – are likely to continue to “help Haiti” oblivious to this struggle.

The exclusion of the poor from the decisions that affect them explains why the most recent pre-earthquake international efforts to help Haiti were focused on increasing the number of maquiladoras – or factories – where businesses pay negligible taxes and Haitians make subsistence wages, if they are lucky. It explains why most international aid is spent on NGO bureaucracies and what relatively little money gets to the Haitian people creates dependencies instead of self-sufficiency. It explains why a UN peacekeeping mission considered a success in New York and Washington is reviled in Haiti. It explains, in part, why the future for hundreds of thousands of Haitians is so uncertain.

Reed Lindsay was a journalist in Haiti before starting the Honor and Respect Foundation, a project aimed at getting Haitian children into school.

Thursday, January 21st

Working together

Honor and Respect Foundation continues to spend hours each day partnering with other small NGOs who have had an impressive, long term presence in Haiti. We are collaborating with our colleagues and will keep you posted as we hear news from on the ground in Haiti. These updates will offer information that you may not be receiving via the larger news networks and larger aid organizations. It is hoped that the reports we provide daily will help not only keep you current, but give you another glimpse of what is happening on the ground in Haiti and in the backstage scenes of trying to bring aid to our Haitian neighbors.

Honor and Respect Foundation is passing on these two reports from Sasha Kramer, a friend of Reed’s and founder of SOIL (Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods) a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting soil resources, empowering communities and transforming wastes into resources in Haiti. We pass this on to you today, and although these words were written a few days ago, they will give you a glimpse of help being given and received. Bringing aid into Haiti is complicated and at this point chaotic, unorganized and a disaster in itself. We’ll keep reports coming to you as they are substantiated. They are discouraging. In the meantime, take comfort in the fact that there are people like Sasha on the ground in Haiti making a difference. (SOIL is another NGO with whom Honor and Respect Foundation is partnering.)

Songs of Grief and Solidarity

Port au Prince, Haiti, January 17, 2010

Apologies if these notes seem unpolished…that is because they are…we barely have time to write and internet is patchy so I will do what I can to get out information but I don’t promise eloquence.

Love to you all and know that we are safe and taking precautions. Thank you to everyone who has sent words of love, encouragement and support.

Last night we (myself, Cat Laine, Paul Namphy, Wisnel Jolissaint, Lisius Orel and Baudeler Magloire) arrived in Port au Prince just before sunset. As we came into the city with our truck piled full of water, gas, shovels and food we got a flat tire. The news reports of looting have been so exaggerated that we were concerned that a mob of people might come take everything before we even made it into the city. I am pleased to report that, as per usual, reports of violence in Haiti are largely disinformation. Yes, we did hear shooting late last night, and yes we did see a fight over a mattress at a camp in the city but our overall impression has been sheer amazement at the solidarity displayed by communities.

We drove into the city past the airport and along Delmas 33. Initially it looked like about 1 in 5 houses had sustained damage and perhaps 1 in 20 had completely collapsed. However as we got father in towards Delmas the damage looked much more severe with perhaps 1 in 5 buildings completely collapsed. I have never seen anything like this, honestly it is hard to even feel. People have not even begun to mourn as everyone is still in a state of crisis. As we drove by the police station on Delmas 33 we saw someone carrying a severed foot of a police officer out of the wreckage…I barely even blinked…everything is so surreal.

We went straight to Matthew 25, a guesthouse which remained relatively untouched by the quake. We went to locate our friend Amber who has been helping to coordinate volunteer efforts. We are so grateful for the way in which we have been received by the guesthouse, they immediately allowed us to remove all of the materials from the car and invited us to sleep in the backyard (no one is sleeping inside as the aftershocks have continued over the past few days). I was so amazed to run our dear friend Ellie Happel at the guesthouse. She flew in from NY the day after the quake to help with relief.

Once we had unloaded the car we all went with Marcorel to see his family in Jake. When we arrived it was already dark and there were people sleeping everywhere in the streets. As we waited for Marcorel to make his way through the camp to locate his family we saw several young men from the neighborhood setting up a large light rigged to some batteries. As light flooded the crowd of people they burst into song. Songs of solidarity, songs of grief, songs of thanks that they had survived. We followed Mako through the blankets and makeshift tents to where his family (8 brothers and sisters and his mom and dad) huddled together on a pile of blankets. They were so happy to see him and we all piled into their bed and Ellie, Paul, Cat and I were each handed a baby. The singing continued in the background as Marcorel’s family told the story of where they each were when the quake hit.

After leaving the camp we visited the site where Caribbean Market once stood. As I stared in disbelief at the pile of concrete and twisted shopping carts I remembered my many trips to this market over the years. I remember that Caribbean market was the first place that I visited on my own in Port au Prince, cautiously walking through the streets in 2004 by myself, not speaking any Kreyol, knowing only the market. To see it in ruins was unimaginable. American FEMA firefighters were still picking through the rubble. They said that they were still hearing voices inside and that they had been working for 30 hours without a break.

Around 8:30 we headed back to the guesthouse where we were incredibly blessed to have access to power and fruit. I could barely blink my eyes, the lids so heavy with exhaustion and shock. After several coordination meetings we finally tumbled into sleep, all of us gathered in the backyard, under the stars, sleeping to the sound of the songs of grief.

Please keep sending your love and prayers. Also you can help us by getting your friends to sign up for the SOIL group on Facebook and follow our posts. Also any fundraising help is deeply appreciated and will go 100% towards disaster relief. You can donate online at www.oursoil.org.

With love from Port au Prince,
Sasha

Kouraj Cherie

Port au Prince, Haiti, January 17, 2010

This afternoon, feeling helpless, we decided to take a van down to Champs Mars (the area around the palace) to look for people needing medical care to bring to Matthew 25, the guesthouse where we are staying which has been transformed into a field hospital. Since we arrived in Port au Prince everyone has told us that you cannot go into the area around the palace because of violence and insecurity. I was in awe as we walked into downtown, among the flattened buildings , in the shadow of the fallen palace, amongst the swarms of displaced people there was calm and solidarity. We wound our way through the camp asking for injured people who needed to get to the hospital. Despite everyone telling us that as soon as we did this we would be mobbed by people, I was amazed as we approached each tent people gently pointed us towards their neighbors, guiding us to those who were suffering the most. We picked up 5 badly injured people and drove towards an area where Ellie and Berto had passed a woman earlier. When they saw her she was lying on the side of the road with a broken leg screaming for help, as they were on foot they could not help her at the time so we went back to try to find her. Incredibly we found her relatively quickly at the top of a hill of shattered houses. The sun was setting and the community helped to carry her down the hill on a refrigerator door, tough looking guys smiled in our direction calling out “bonswa Cherie” and “kouraj”.

When we got back to Matthew 25 it was dark and we carried the patients back into the soccer field/tent village/hospital where the team of doctors had been working tirelessly all day. Although they had officially closed down for the evening, they agreed to see the patients we had brought. Once our patients were settled in we came back into the house to find the doctors amputating a foot on the dining room table. The patient lay calmly, awake but far away under the fog of ketamine. Half way through the surgery we heard a clamor outside and ran out to see what it was. A large yellow truck was parked in front of the gate and rapidly unloading hundreds of bags of food over our fence, the hungry crowd had already begun to gather and in the dark it was hard to decide how to best distribute the food. Knowing that we could not sleep in the house with all of this food and so many starving people in the neighborhood, our friend Amber (who is experienced in food distribution) snapped into action and began to get everyone in the crowd into a line that stretched down the road. We braced ourselves for the fighting that we had heard would come but in a miraculous display of restraint and compassion people lined up to get the food and one by one the bags were handed out without a single serious incident.

During the food distribution the doctors called to see if anyone could help to bury the amputated leg in the backyard. As I have no experience with food distribution I offered to help with the leg. I went into the back with Ellie and Berto and we dug a hole and placed the leg in it, covering it with soil and cement rubble. By the time we got back into the house the food had all been distributed and the patient Anderson was waking up. The doctors asked for a translator so I went and sat by his stretcher explaining to him that the surgery had gone well and he was going to live. His family had gone home so he was alone so Ellie and I took turns sitting with him as he came out from under the drugs. I sat and talked to Anderson for hours as he drifted in and out of consciousness. At one point one of the Haitian men working at the hospital came in and leaned over Anderson and said to him in kreyol “listen man even if your family could not be here tonight we want you to know that everyone here loves you, we are all your brothers and sisters”. Cat and I have barely shed a tear through all of this, the sky could fall and we would not bat an eye, but when I told her this story this morning the tears just began rolling down her face, as they are mine as I am writing this. Sometimes it is the kindness and not the horror that can break the numbness that we are all lost in right now.

So, don’t believe Anderson Cooper when he says that Haiti is a hotbed for violence and riots, it is just not the case. In the darkest of times, Haiti has proven to be a country of brave, resilient and kind people and it is that behavior that is far more prevalent than the isolated incidents of violence. Please pass this on to as many people as you can so that they can see the light of Haiti, cutting through the darkness, the light that will heal this nation.

We are safe. We love you all and I will write again when I can. Thank you for your generosity and compassion.

With love from Port au Prince,
Sasha

Following up on this is an NPR story below that refers to Haitians helping themselves and distribution of food at Matthew 25:

AMY GOODMAN:How are people organizing? This whole issue of security that has been raised over and over again to explain why aid hasn’t come from this area-we’re in the area of the airport where there is so much aid that has been stockpiled-and gone out to communities, so why the UN has said, for example, Léogâne, epicenter of the earthquake, that they would only come there after they could guarantee security.

KIM IVES: Like you said, Amy, this is the nub of the question. Security is not the issue. We see throughout Haiti the population themselves organizing themselves into popular committees to clean up, to pull out the bodies from the rubble, to build refugee camps, to set up their security for the refugee camps. This is a population which is self-sufficient, and it has been self-sufficient for all these years.

It’s not now that a bunch of Marines have to come in with big M-16s and start yelling at them. Watching the scene in front of the General Hospital yesterday said it all. Here were people who were going in and out of the hospital bringing food to their loved ones in there or needing to go to the hospital, and there were a bunch of Marine-of US 82nd Airborne soldiers in front yelling in English at this crowd. They didn’t know what they were doing. They were creating more chaos rather than diminishing it. It was a comedy, if it weren’t so tragic.

Here is-they had no business being there. Sure, if there’s some way where you have an army of bandits, which we haven’t seen, on any mass scale going and attacking, maybe you might bring in some guys like that. But right now, people don’t need guns. They need gauze, as I think one doctor put it. And this is the essence of-it’s just the same way they reacted after Katrina. It’s the same way they acted-the victims are what’s scary. They’re the other. They’re black people who, you know, had the only successful slave revolution in history. What could be more threatening?

AMY GOODMAN: And the community organizations in place here?

KIM IVES: Oh, and the community organizations, we saw it the other night up at Matthew 25, where we’re staying, the community. A shipload-a truckload of food came in in the middle of the night unannounced. It could have been a melee. The local popular organization, Pity Drop [phon.], was contacted. They immediately mobilized their members. They came out. They set up a perimeter. They set up a cordon. They lined up about 600 people who were staying on the soccer field behind the house, which is also a hospital, and they distributed the food in an orderly, equitable fashion. They were totally sufficient. They didn’t need Marines. They didn’t need the UN. They didn’t need any of these things, which we’re being told also in the press and by Hillary Clinton and the foreign ministers that they need. These are things that people can do for themselves and are doing for themselves.

Other links you might be interested in continuing to follow:

Monday, January 18th

Haitian survivors

Reed Lindsay, who helped found Honor and Respect Foundation, filed this report for Telesur about Haitian survivors and the ongoing challenges facing Haiti:

Sunday, January 17th

Words from Haiti

Report from Reed Lindsay, Port-au-Prince via Skype:

I spent the first half of the day in the airport, full of airplanes and helicopters and dozens of journalists. One journalist who had worked in Iraq told me it was like another Green Zone. The military was taken over by the US military, which insists that planes are arriving as fast as possible, although countries such as Brazil, Russia and France have complained they haven’t been able to land planes, as well as is the case with NGOs. The airport was a zoo (even Geraldo was there. Outside, I saw an aid distribution for the first time. WFP was giving out high-energy biscuits. People are lined up for them by the hundreds, and the UN troops were keeping them in a line. I had seen this type of food distribution get out of hand before, and expected it to happen again, but it didn’t, at least while I was there, I think because the Haitians don’t care much for those biscuits. One 15-year old girl I talked to after she got the aid said she had expected real food (rice) and not something that won’t even fill her stomach.

I’m seeing now on internet, the first time I’ve connected in four days, that things did get out of hand in other parts of the city. I talked with families, mainly fathers and children as young as five, who were scavenging in rubble looking for anything they could sell: rebar, wood, anything they could scavenge for food and water. There are tent cities springing up everywhere. The first couple of days after the quake many people were sleeping on the ground, but now they are digging in, building makeshift refuges out of sticks, sheets and sheet metal. I heard the same thing over and over again: they need food, water and medical attention, while the US helicopters flew overhead. I didn’t go to many parts of the city today, but nobody I spoke with seemed to know where the helicopters were going. The entire time I spent at the airport I tried to track down who was coordinating the aid but nobody seemed to know, least of all the journalists. One of them responded: “Nobody is coordinating the aid.” The US may have total control over the airport but the distribution does not seem to be organized yet.

More than anything, my impression is there hardly is any distribution, at least relative to the need. Gasoline is extremely hard to come by, so are phone cards.

Many people in the tent city had houses that were not completely destroyed, but they don’t dare go back to them as many are cracked, or were damaged, and nobody knows how sound the structure.

WORDS FROM HAITI

HRF decided to try to bring you WORDS FROM HAITI sent to us directly or via our e-mail contacts. These words make up stories that are incomprehensible in their pain. In relating them, an intimate picture surfaces of a besieged country and its courageous people.

“Never in our history had we to bury our dead in mass graves, however broke we were.”
–David Josue

David Josue, a marvelous young man from Haiti whom Reed met while reporting in New Orleans, works for Cynthia McKinney, former congresswoman from Georgia shared this yesterday:

“My family suffered some fatalities and some of my friends lost everyone. He reports:The school Sainte Trinite in Jacmel collapsed and all students and faculty perished. L’Hopital St Michel collapsed as well. The city is in ruins. People from Carrefour estimated that there are more dead then people alive. There is a huge mass burial going on in Lamantin. Bodies are still under the rubbles including the teenage son of a friend. Nothing has been done yet in Carrefour, Gressier, Leogane and the surrounding neighborhood and cities. A lot of civil servants, elected officials are among the dead. We are all waiting to see the aid arrive to people in Carrefour and other places.”

Today, David writes: “My friend’s daughter is alive and trapped under the rubbles at the University of Port au Prince. He begs for help. And a response is received: We are working to get some help but it is too dark to do anything and we have no light.” …The cries don’t stop.

Honor and Respect Foundation sends our heartfelt thanks to all who have responded to our emails and shared your own pain as news unfolds about the devastation in Haiti. Your compassion and prayers and thoughts as well as your generous donations WILL make a difference to those now suffering. Haiti is no longer “not on the map”. We are grateful for your communications and grateful for your incredible generosity!

Thank you as well for sharing these emails and leading people to HRF’s website.

With profound gratitute,

Board Members of Honor and Respect Foundation

Saturday, January 16th

The situation grows more dire by the minute…no help is forthcoming on the ground!

Melinda Miles of Konpay was able to talk to Reed this morning via cell phone. He reports there continues to be no aid on the ground in PAP whatsoever. He says there are 20 planes on the runway at the airport but sees no distribution of the aid. He reports there are no police and very little UN presence in the city. He is now heading to the airport to try get info about why AID is not getting in to PAP or out to the people.

Below is an e-mail sent by Amber Munger of AMURT, a friend of Reed’s and someone who began helping HRF along with Melinda Miles of Konpay prior to the earthquake. Amber and Reed have been working side by side in Port-au-Prince since Wednesday.

The gunfire spread last night to our zone. At 1 am it started. It was off in the distance a ways when it first started but got closer and closer up until about 2:30 and then it seemed to stop. All of the homeless on the streets and in the refugee camps again met the chaos with loud singing, clapping and prayers.

I am at the Matthew 25 house in Delmas 33. Here we have set up a triage hospital with more than 1,300 refugees on a soccer field. The people at Matthew 25 have been traveling all over the city trying to figure out what clinics and hospitals are operational, what services they can provide and what the needs are.

There is no visible coordination effort from international agencies on the ground. There were no planes coming in yesterday. One of my coordinating partners, AMURT-Haiti, worked to find a plane of 30-40 doctors and supplies that could come, but the plane was not allowed to land in the PAP airport. We have teams in the Dominican Republic with truckloads of supplies, but they were stopped at the border and were not allowed entry.

The situation here is desperate and getting restless. The John Hopkins Students who were visiting Rights based Haiti and AMURT when the earthquake hit, have been doing surveys and assessments of the clinics and refugee camps in the nearby zones. The surveys that they conducted two days ago show that none of the people in the camps had food or water to last them more than a day.

Here at Matthew 25, we have been doing amputations, and other painful surgeries, with no painkillers, no anesthesia, nothing to work with. There are no tools for our doctors. We have numerous Haitian doctors and nurses here but no supplies! We have run out of antibiotics twice but then found them by searching at nearby clinics run by missions and NGOs.

We have heard nothing from MINUSTAH. I have not seen any of the international agencies on the ground. I have seen Belgian doctors and Cuban doctors all doing amazing work – but we have not seen or received any contact or assistance from higher agencies ourselves.

The city has run out of water and food – but the biggest problem is gas and diesel. The little that trickles in to the one or two gas stations is the subject of fights that will soon become rioting. At Matthew 25, there no diesel to run the generator. We are using the last power that the inverter has that may cut out at any time. Our vehicles are all on their last ounce of fuel. I have sent one of my trusted staff and friends who worked closely with me during the Gonaives emergency in 2008 to find gas this morning. I am afraid for him. There is no way for him to communicate with me because there is no phone service in the country. Now we are also running out of money. I gave my last cash today to pay for gas, a little bit of food, and a spare tire for one of our vehicles to replace one that was stolen. The nearest Western Union is two hours north in St. Marc and we are not sure if that is still functioning.

An added pressure on the city right now is that, due to the lack of communications, many people from the provinces are coming to search for their loved ones. They then add to the numbers of people stuck in PAP with no way out, no food, or water.

All of the problems that exist in catastrophes, we are experiencing now. how to dispose of the bodies, the human waste, how to move people out of the city. Everyone here is fearing rain because they think that the first rain will move the earth under the standing houses causing those buildings to fall as well. Each day more things fall.

I am coordinating with AMURT, KONPAY, Beyond Borders, Honor and Respect Foundation at Matthew 25, and many other partners on an integrated response that will help us get through the next week as well as prepare us to deal with the coming months of insecurity. We have coordinated the shipment of diesel from the open port in Cap-Haitian, the use of a shipping company to haul fuel from the DR to PAP, the use of a large protected storage compound to store the fuel. We have Haitian volunteers working with the John Hopkins team to conduct the surveys to provide us important data on the numbers and locations of people who are in need of medical care, so that when help and supplies arrive, we are able to efficiently get people to where they need to go. We have worked with grassroots leaders in Commune Anse Rouge to gather information throughout the commune on family names and locations in PAP so that each village can send on e or two people to search for loved ones in PAP rather than everyone from the villages going into the disaster zone.

in general, we are being used as a place for information exchange and a site for journalists to gather and share information. Organizational representatives are checking in daily to give updates and share information which I then share with my contact at KONPAY who then shares the information with the larger network of NGOS that we are coordinating with. Until MINUSTAH is able to re-establish a coordination base, we are making the Matthew 25 house the coordination headquarters for our operations.

Haitians are helping each other in glorious acts of compassion and kindness everywhere you look. These people have endured so much unspeakable and unnecessary suffering. I am today, as always, blessed to be walking with them in their struggle to overcome their awful and unfair circumstances, and am even more blessed to be sharing in the strength of spirit that makes each one of them my hero.

–Amber Lynn Munger, J.D., PAP, Haiti, January 16, 2009.

We are working alongside our colleagues: AMURT-Haiti, Konpay, Beyond Borders, all sharing resources, information and coordinating our efforts.

Press: contact Melinda Miles (Konpay) 978-283-0068 or melinda@konpay.org

Press: Journalist, Reed Lindsay, Port-au-Prince, Haiti 011-509-3456-4488

All other questions: Barbi Reed (Honor and Respect Foundation) 208-841-9200 or barbi@hrfhaiti.org

Many thanks to all of you who have responded and thank you for passing on the latest information we’re giving you from Port-au-Prince. We’ll continue to keep you updated.

Honor and Respect Foundation has always directed its fundraising efforts to help the impoverished in Haiti. Because of the dire needs now facing our Haitian friends, all moneys donated as of 1.12.10, until further notice, will be directed toward alleviating their suffering and the hardships brought on by the recent earthquake. As Honor and Respect Foundation has no overhead, one hundred percent of all moneys received will reach Haiti and be used efficiently and resourcefully.

If you’d like to donate, please click here.

Friday, January 15th

Update from Reed

The worst may yet to come, if we do not act fast. People are already thirsty, and water, is difficult to find, even to buy. I drove through the entire city today and didn’t see a single aid distribution. Al Jazeera news team told me the same. Streets are normally lined with street food merchants. Now difficult to find any food and it will get worse. Situation desperate but could get catastrophic soon. Thousands are dead, probably tens of thousands. Bodies hauled off in trucks to be buried in common graves, but many bodies still lying on the street and many more in wreckage. It is too late for them. But for those who survived, time is running out. Communities are starting to organize. But they have no resources. Everyone sleeping in streets and plazas parks. They have set up their own refugee camps. Thousands have fled for countryside. But most have nowhere to go.

-Reed Lindsay, Jacquet, Port-au-Prince

Things are changing rapidly in Haiti. Keeping ahead of the needs is impossible but anticipating is essential as we work with other grassroots non-profits that have experience in Haiti.

Amber Munger of AMURT, reported yesterday: “In my thirteen years of working in Haiti, not once before have I seen such massive destruction as we are experiencing now. Nor have I seen such motivation, determination, compassion, and solidarity among people. When we entered portoprens after the quake struck, the city had fallen and was continuing to fall as a result of continuous aftershocks. The streets were full of people sitting together. Everyone was sitting in the middle of the roads for fear that the houses would continue to fall on them. They were singing. The whole city was singing. They were singing songs of solidarity. They were singing songs of thanks and praise that they were still able to sing and to be together. These people have lost everything. The city is now a city of refugees. But they are putting their voices together to be thankful.”

From Melinda Miles of Konpay: “Water is already a scarce resource and is likely to be the first crisis. Reed is part of an excellent – but small – team of people on the ground that are beginning to connect and work together. They are going to start identifying places where volunteers can do the most good without increasing the pressure for food and water in the capital. We are trying to decentralize and staff clinics in outlying areas so victims can be evacuated to safe places with shelter, water, food.”

Fuel for generators is disappearing fast. Water, food, medical aid…all continue to be in short supply. If you’d like to help, know that every dollar you give will go directly to the people of Haiti. Consider making a donation to Honor and Respect Foundation. We’ll work with other non-profits and direct the moneys in the most effective way.

If you’d like to donate, please click here.

Thursday, January 14th

HRF responding to earthquake

My house is standing. Many thousands dead. Bodies everywhere. Big buildings fell. Just piles of rubble. Decomposing bodies. People asleep in street or plazas afraid of aftershocks. Have not seen any aid yet.

-Reed Lindsay, Jacquet, Port-au-Prince

Reed Lindsay of Honor and Respect Foundation rushed to Haiti on Tuesday as a humanitarian first and secondly as a journalist. He arrived in Port-au-Prince yesterday evening, spent last night in the Venezuelan Embassy. His words above came from the streets of Jacquet, his former neighborhood and the site of the first assembly for Friends of SODA, now known as Honor and Respect Foundation (HRF). Fortunately Reed found a number of friends in Jaquet alive and well but as you can tell from his words above the situation is dire.

HRF is mobilizing as quickly as possible to get positioned to use your donations to assist those in need. E-mails and calls of concern are pouring in.

If you feel you can donate, please know that ALL monies will go DIRECTLY to the people in Haiti with not a single penny being spent for administration, etc. Reed will assess the immediate requirements in the neighborhoods HRF has been involved with in Port-au-Prince and we’ll keep you posted as he sends word back.

If you can use your personal and professional networks to raise additional moneys, know that donations will be used in the wisest way and directed efficiently to those whose lives have been shattered and find themselves filled with despair and sorrow.

Thank you for your past support of Honor and Respect Foundation and special heartfelt thanks today for your thoughts and your caring about those in need in Haiti. We’ll keep in touch with you as we receive word from Haiti.

If you’d like to donate, please click here.