Half-Hour for Haiti: Hurricane Response- What Can We Do?
September 9, 2008
Update: Haiti has had an almost unfathomable string of bad news lately, with 4 tropical storms or hurricanes in the last three weeks: Fay, then Gustave, then Hannah then Ike. Estimates of the deaths caused by the storm have surpassed 1,000, and will continue to climb. More people will be killed in the coming months- from food shortages caused by the storms’ destruction of farms, from difficulty accessing healthcare because of destroyed roads, and from the general aggravation of poverty. At the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH) and the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), we are not hurricane response experts, so we’ve included information below from organizations that are qualified to respond.
But it is important for all of us to remember that these storms are only part natural disaster. It is not natural that Haiti suffers more fatalities than the rest of the Caribbean combined whenever a storm hits it (see Another Unnatural Disaster, October 2004). The lethal combination of poverty, weak governance and foreign interference leaves Haiti without the ability to enforce laws on cutting down trees, install adequate drainage systems or effectively execute disaster planning and response. So although it is important to respond to the current catastrophe, it is even more important to work to implement the structures necessary to prevent the next catastrophe. These structures include elected legislative and executive branches that are responsible to the voters, not just the international community or people who live in hurricane-proof housing. They include a justice system that can enforce the laws fairly and effectively, and international aid and trade policies designed to help Haiti’s poor, not the world’s rich and powerful.
Other Updates: The Jubilee Act for debt cancellation has been placed on the Senate calendar for a vote through the unanimous consent process. Time is short, as this session is scheduled to end later this month. Although the bill appears to have enough votes to pass if it reaches a vote, it is possible that some Senators will place a “hold” on the bill, which would make getting to a vote difficult. Think about Haiti still sending $1 million to wealthy banks that are supposed to be fighting poverty, while Haitians pass a hurricane on open rooftops, with no food or water. We’ll keep you updated.
Thank you to everyone who has donated to the Raboteau Massacre Victims’ Challenge
. We have raised $31,407, which is 73% of the goal that the Raboteau victims set for us, of $43,000. There are still 3 weeks before the challenge ends on September 30, so if you have not yet contributed, help us reach our goal, and receive our exceptional thank-you gifts, by donating today. Raboteau was, unfortunately, completely flooded in the storms, and many of our clients lost most of their possessions. The good news is that they all appear to have survived. There is some consolation that the $430,000 the victims received in court-ordered compensation in May will help them rebuild their lives.
Rep. Alcee Hastings (FL) has issued a call to President Bush to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians in the U.S. TPS would allow non-resident Haitians living in the U.S. to remain in the country, work, and send money back to needy relatives in Haiti. The Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network just issued a TPS Action Alert.
Hurricane Response:
Below is a message from IJDH Board Member Dr. Paul Farmer, relating what he and his organization, Zanmi Lasante experienced as they respond to the storms. Below that are links to other organizations. None of them are “disaster relief” organizations, but all are combining response to the hurricanes with their long term work changing the unjust structures that make Haiti vulnerable to disasters.
“I have never seen anything as painful"
Paul Farmer writes from flood ravaged Haiti
On Saturday, September 6, Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer wrote to colleagues and supporters of Partners In Health (PIH) describing the devastation caused by flooding from Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna in Haiti. The previous day Paul and colleagues from Zanmi Lasante had driven to and through the coastal city of Gonaïves, where tens of thousands of people have been driven from their homes and thousands more are living on rooftops without any access to food, water or shelter. Hurricane Ike arrived the next day with more torrential rains and deadly floods.
6 September 2008
Dear PIHers:
Zanmi Lasante social workers searching for patients in Hinche, Haiti
I am writing from Mirebalais, the place where our organization was born, having just returned from Gonaïves—perhaps the city hit hardest by Hurricane Hanna, which, hard on the heels of Fay and Gustav, drenched the deforested mountains of Haiti and led to massive flooding and mudslides in northern and central Haiti. A friend of mine said this morning: “I am 61 years old, born and raised in Hinche. I have never seen it under water.” Gonaïves, with 300,000 souls, is in far worse shape, as you’ll see from the other pictures I append. The floodwaters in Hinche are dropping, but as of 5 p.m. last night, when we left Gonaïves, the city was still under water. And hurricanes Ike and Josephine are heading this way as I write.
Everyone copied on this note has already heard, most probably directly from PIH, about these storms and their impact on Haiti. I apologize for writing again and for asking my own colleagues and friends to consider sending more resources—we need food, water, clothes, and, especially, cash (which can be converted into all of the above)—so that Zanmi Lasante, and thus all of us, can do our part to save lives and preserve human dignity.
The need is of course enormous. After 25 years spent working in Haiti and having grown up in Florida, I can honestly say that I have never seen anything as painful as what I just witnessed in Gonaïves—except in that very same city, four years ago. Again, you know that 2004 was an especially brutal year, and those who work with PIH know why: the coup in Haiti and what would become Hurricane Jeanne. Everyone knows that Katrina killed 1500 in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast, but very few outside of our circles know that what was then Tropical Storm Jeanne, which did not even make landfall in Haiti, killed an estimated 2000 in Gonaïves alone. Logging on this morning from Mirebalais, I see that Ophelia has circulated the essay I wrote about what are, essentially, unnatural disasters.
We’re faced with another round of death and obliteration. Haiti’s naked mountains promise many more unnatural disasters. We know that a massive reforestation program and public works to keep cities safer are what’s needed in the medium and long term. But there’s a lot we can do in the short term to help out with disaster relief.
None of us regard PIH as a disaster-relief organization. Together, we’ve built PIH—meaning the network of locally directed organizations working in 10 countries—to serve a different cause. We wanted to attack poverty and inequality and bring the fruits of modernity—health care, education, et cetera—to people marginalized by adverse social forces. It seemed likely, as reports came in this week, that many other institutions and organizations would be far better able to respond to the after-effects of storms and floods. I’d been told, as the American Airlines flight passed over flooded Gonaïves, that the city was cut off from outside help, but even as I heard this, I knew that our own colleagues were there, volunteering what meager resources we had on hand, and a few hours later I was there too. I was hoping that we’d find that the city was receiving the expert attention of organizations trained to do disaster relief. So imagine my surprise, yesterday, when I discovered that very little in the way of help had reached Gonaïves or the other flooded towns along the coast.
Click here for the rest of Paul Farmer’s article.
Other Emergency Response Appeals:
Haiti Emergency Relief Fund provides support directly to Haiti’s progressive grassroots activists
Haiti Reborn supports reforestation projects and women’s rights
Sustainable Integrated Organic Livelihoods (SOIL) protects soil resources, and transforms wastes into resources
For more information about the Half-Hour for Haiti Program, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, or human rights in Haiti, see www.HaitiJustice.org. To receive Half-Hour for Haiti Action Alerts (about 2 per month), send an email to HalfHour4Haiti@ijdh.org.
Comments