World Vision: Needs in Haiti immense, growing | Everyday Christian

World Vision: Needs in Haiti immense, growing | Everyday Christian

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from a missionary in Haiti from yesterday:

My sincerest thanks to all of you who have sent messages in the past few days: the caring, positive thoughts and solidarity have meant more than you can imagine. I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to reply to all – the volume has surpassed my capacity for individual responses.

For those who haven’t otherwise heard, I am in slushy Ontario right now and not in Haiti. Thankfully – on one hand. On the other, the frustration of waiting for news about friends and colleagues, and often not receiving it, is mind-numbing. Some of you also correctly anticipated the feeling of guilt for not being on-location to contribute to the response.

On the positive side, the structures we’ve devoted in times of (relative) stability are paying off in this time of crisis. Most important among them are our Haitian physiotherapist colleagues and our rehabilitation technician students (now technicians) who will be very busy as the overburdened medical system struggles to keep up with the crushing demand.

Next I need to mention the many North Americans with whom I’ve worked in the past 7 years and with whom I’ve stayed in touch. That network has come alive in the past 48-hours as we’ve pooled and distributed information that helps understand the situation on the ground. With the communications systems destroyed or overstretched it has been difficult to receive more detail than the same gruesome images that you’re all seeing on network news. By assembling the meager bits that each of us has received from Haiti we’ve been able to account for some important people and places of concern.

Many of you have asked how things are in the places where I was in Haiti. To understand that answer I’ll need to provide some context:

-From September 2007 until October 2009 I was based in a rural town called Deschapelles, 40 km north, or two hours drive, from the capital of Port-au-Prince. Do note that there is little in town besides the hospital where I worked. If you’re looking for the place on a map you may see the larger towns of Verrettes and Liancourt; Deschapelles is about midway between the two. I see that GoogleMaps has erroneously listed Deschapelles as “Desjardines”. Mapquest has listed the nearby village of Borel in lieu of Deschapelles.

-Over the summer of 2003 and then for a year in 2004-5 I lived and worked in Port-au-Prince, most of that in the hillside neighbourhood of Bourdon.

The short answers as to the situations in those places is the following:

-The quake was clearly felt in Deschapelles, but there was little damage locally – helped by the overwhelmingly flat terrain and tendency to only build up 1-2 floors. The recent challenge at Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti has been to deal with the deluge of casualties arriving from the capital in desperation; willing to brave the 2 hour trip in the back of pickup trucks out of desperation and an absence of other options. The organization posted an update yesterday and will undoubtedly post more (www.hashaiti.org/).

-The situation in Port-au-Prince is nightmarish. The compound where I used to work had a 5-storey apartment building collapse. There were people presumed inside who were not yet accounted for as of this morning. Fortunately, I received news last night that the friends for whom I had the most concern have been located and were not seriously injured. In all likelihood, however, I won’t know the fate of many others for whom I care until I next return to Haiti to see who and what is still standing. The best account that I’ve seen for the situation there was posted by the Canadian wing of the organization and is available at www.tchh.org/news.php.

At the heart of things, knowing the news serves little practical purpose beyond relieving worries (or signaling the start of mourning). Structures are in place to help deal with the situation in tangible ways but their capacity to respond will be dictated by their available resources. I can personally vouch for the work of the Red Cross for disaster relief and MSF/Doctors Without Borders for emergency medical care (Canada= www.redcross.ca and www.msf.ca; US = www.redcross.org and http://doctorswithoutborders.org/) . At the time of this writing the headline of each of these websites was the earthquake in Haiti. Although not based in the capital, Hôpital Albert Schweitzer is also offering substantial care to the wounded despite pre-existing resource shortages that have led to recent downsizing (www.hashaiti.org or http://canadianhashaiti.squarespace.com/).

Thank you again for your concern over Haiti, whether it has been in the last few days or at any point in the last few years. As mentioned above, previous contributions have been invaluable to the capacity to respond in this time of crisis. Haiti is now in the news; please keep it in your mind, even after the bodies have been counted, the dust has settled and CNN has returned home.