Haiti – 2 year anniversary of earthquake

Like so many places in Haiti, idyllic natural beauty and the harsh reality of deep poverty collide in Tiawa.

Perched atop a mountain in Léogâne, Tiawa affords an extraordinary view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately, much of that vista is scarred by destruction. Haiti's devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake destroyed 80 to 90 percent of the buildings in Léogâne, according to official estimates. It was the area hardest hit by the quake.

In Tiawa, the quake gave rise to an impromptu camp of 1,500 people; people who had lost many members of their families, and nearly all of their possessions. CARE began supporting the families with emergency relief supplies immediately after the earthquake. Now CARE is helping them make the transition from recovery to rebuilding.

Today the camp's population is steadily dwindling. Many residents have rebuilt their homes. Others have moved to improved shelters built with assistance from CARE or other aid groups.

Jean Elie Maitre, VSLA Technical Advisor, is holding a training session for a group of women in a camp in Leogane where CARE has just started implementi­ng the Village Loans and Savings Associations.

Integral to CARE's five-year, $100 million program to help Haitians rebuild their country are initiatives to help them develop their own economic opportunities after they've moved out the camps. In the fall, CARE launched the first Village Savings and Loan Association in Tiawa. VSLAs are self-managed savings groups. CARE teaches participants, the majority of whom are women, who save and loan money in small groups.

Members borrow money from the savings fund to pay household expenses and to start small businesses. The loans are repaid with interest which is then shared among the group members. Participants earn a greater rate of return on their savings than they would in a bank, while building bonds with their neighbors. VSLA loan repayment rates are near 100 percent.

Crucially, VSLAs elevate the status of women in their communities by demonstrating how the economic empowerment of women helps not just women, but everyone around them, including men and boys.

At one of the first VSLA meetings in Tiawa, the group sang a song composed by VSLA field manager Yves François Constant. "Where VSLA people stand, there's no space for misery," they sang. "Where VSLA people stand, women have autonomy."

CARE VSLA staff holding an information meeting for a group of civil society and women's organizations and two representatives of the city hall  in Carrefour where CARE has just started implementing the Village Loans and Savings Associations.

The Tiawa VSLA groups grew out of a gender-based violence counseling and support group CARE launched after the earthquake. After helping women survivors cope with the aftermath of gender-based violence, CARE is helping them take the next step by offering a VSLA program as a way to help the women weave their own economic safety nets. CARE's objective is to help women, and therefore their families, gain autonomy.

Although all of the money in a VSLA comes from the participants, CARE is facilitating VSLA growth in Tiawa and elsewhere in Haiti by fostering connections with responsible local businesses. Through CARE, VSLAs will soon team with Haiti-based Earthspark International to market green and clean energy products in Haitian communities. Conservation and better environmental stewardship are essential to Haiti's long-term recovery.

And to make sure their growing savings are stored safely, CARE will partner with a local mobile phone provider to develop a mobile wallet designed specifically for VSLAs. It will allow VSLA members to securely store and transfer money electronically, eliminating the need for group members to guard large stores of cash.

Though the VSLA model is new to the earthquake zone, it is not new to Haiti. Prior to the earthquake, CARE helped groups of women start VSLAs in Grand Anse, in the southwestern corner of the country. When survivors from other parts of Haiti poured into Grand Anse after the earthquake, the families with women who participated in VSLAs were better able to cope.

"Parents had to accommodate and feed their [returning] children and grandchildren," said Léonne Rochas, a regional VSLA chairwoman in Grand Anse. "The financial autonomy they gained from VSLAs helped them a lot."

CARE and the original Haitian VSLA groups in Grand Anse are now rapidly expanding.

"We don't advertise this product. It does its own marketing," Rochas says. "The women around us have seen how savings have gained us more respect in our families and communities. We are role models now."

Learn More >

Donate Now >

"I see her growing up and developing physically and I worry," she says. "When you become a mother at a young age, without any other asset available, you live the rest of your life in misery. No mother would like to see her child living in a similar situation."

Maude is attending a meeting at CARE's reproductive health center in the community of Santo, Léogâne. Officials estimate Haiti's devastating January 12, 2010 destroyed 80 to 90 percent of the buildings in Léogâne. This included not only homes but also the infrastructure of the normal life people rely on: markets, schools, government offices, and health clinics.

The earthquake turned Santo into a tent city of almost 10,000 people. CARE quickly moved in to help, distributing delivery kits and supplies for pregnant mothers and newborn babies, and offering counseling sessions to lower the risk of gender-based violence in this traumatized community.

More recently, CARE built the Santo health center, one of two it has constructed so far and one of 10 planned in all. CARE staff and nurses from a nearby hospital offer education on overall sexual health, contraceptive pills and injections, condoms and group informational sessions for men and women on the prevention of gender-based violence.

Maude often brings her daughter to the center because she's determined her daughter will avoid the hard life she has had. At 36, Maude is the mother of eight children.

"I have four children with a man I didn't love," Maude says. "He didn't want to use contraception and I didn't know how to protect myself." Maude eventually got married and had four more children with her husband. She and her husband attend CARE-sponsored sessions at the center because they've agreed they do not want to have more children.

Nurse Marie Kencia Dulorme is preparing a vaccine at one of the women's centre setting up by CARE in Leogane to provide reproductive health and referral services.

"My husband participated in numerous session organized by CARE's staff," Maude says. "He is now aware of the risk I run by multiplying pregnancies and has decided to protect me by using condoms."

Maude's daughter attends sessions on teaching her about birth control, prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, as well as classes on preventing gender-based violence. Maude says the classes have relaxed tensions between her and her daughter. Her daughter now understands her worries, she says. And she now has the right words for explaining to her daughter how and why to be cautious.

Maude expresses gratitude for the center, and she is not alone.

"Even when CARE staff is not here, women from Santo who were trained by CARE are inside sharing their knowledge with their peers," says Willio Sainvilus Latagnac, president of the Santo community association. "The community made this space their own and women have their own area where they can discuss their problems, find solutions together, and regain strength."

Learn More >

Donate Now >

Haiti – 2 year anniversary of earthquake

The parents of Léogâne's Mellier community have a long history of banding together to help one another. In the chaos that enveloped Haiti following the departure of the ruling Duvalier family in 1987, a group of parents in Mellier formed the Association of Parents of Mellier (ASPAM), a PTA-like association to make sure their kids' schooling continued without interruption. Soon after, they opened a pre-school and an elementary school so their youngest children didn't have to walk for hours to facilities outside Mellier if they wanted an education.

Modsol, Leogane, one of the community of return where CARE provide people with shelter and latrines. CARE has successfully distributed nearly 2,500 transitional-shelters to families with legal access to a building site, providing these individuals with robust structures that can last from 3- 5 years or until they find a more permanent housing solution.

Léogâne was one of the areas hardest hit by Haiti's devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake. Officials estimate the tremor destroyed 80 to 90 percent of Léogâne's buildings. Among the destroyed buildings there were ASPAM's elementary and pre-schools – along with the homes of most the school's children.

Even in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, when day-to-day survival was itself in doubt for many, parents began work to get their children back in school. For help, ASPAM turned to CARE, which has supported 78 schools since the earthquake, 20 in Léogâne alone.

"CARE was with us from the start," says Ginette Louis Jean, director of the ASPAM pre-school. "CARE provided us with school kits for teachers, students and educational materials for the class direction."

The parents soon re-opened the school in a temporary structure. CARE provided classroom supplies such as benches, blackboards and recreation kits. CARE built latrines, hand wash stations, water purification systems and held regular hygiene promotion sessions. The community pays an attendant to clean the latrines and ensures that the hand wash system is always filled with chlorinated water.

CARE's work with the school goes beyond standard educational curriculum. A CARE-led program in the school teaches children how to make attractive handbags from discarded items like bottle labels and cigarette packs. The kids earn money selling the items at a local market. Though the program includes boys and girls, it was designed in part to teach income-generating skills to at-risk girls; girls who might otherwise turn to prostitution.

Ecole les Abeilles de ASPAM (Bees of ASPAM School), Leogane. CARE Haiti’s Emergency Education Response has helped 20 schools directly affected by the earthquake in Léogâne and 58 indirectly affected schools (serving displaced children) in the areas of Gonaives, Gros Morne, and Jeremie.

CARE also provided members of the school's community with psycho-social counselling to help them cope with the intense trauma of the earthquake and its aftermath.
"The psychosocial sessions have helped us realize that we didn't only need to rebuild our houses, but also our minds," explains Ginette. After some understandably difficult months, the school's 250 students, 138 girls and 112 boys, are much happier now, she says.

Despite the extreme challenges created by the earthquake, ASPAM believes it's a stronger organization now than it was before the earthquake. With 80 percent of its students passing Haiti's standardized tests, ASPAM acquired land to build a secondary school so its graduates have a place to continue their education as they grow.

"We hope CARE can help us expand the school," says Lesly Jean-Baptiste, chairman of ASPAM. "But even if it can't, CARE helped us become much stronger. I'm sure we will find a way."

Learn More >

Donate Now >

June 6, 2011
Stories and photos by Mildrède Béliard, CARE Haiti

On the road to Carrefour, nothing has changed. At the entrance to the town, you see the market where fruit and vegetable waste is rotting and where traders stand with their feet in water.>

You may not notice it but the town has been facing a resurgence of the cholera epidemic, which reappeared here just under two weeks ago. This morning, a 12 year old boy died. He was one of two people carried on the backs of other residents of the site to a Cholera Treatment Center (CTC). He did not make it. He was living near the camp Bel Air 3. He had been ill since the previous afternoon, but his mother refused to admit that he had cholera until camp residents, trained and sensitized by CARE, realized he was suffering from the disease.

In the car taking us to Lycée Louis Joseph Janvier, which houses more than 1,200 people, the cell phone of Naomie Marcelin, one of CARE's health promotion activities supervisors, does not stop ringing. She is told that three cases have been identified in a site that had not previously been affected by cholera.

"Last week we distributed aquatabs in sites where we work already. We have also offered HTH solutions (concentrated chlorine) to disinfect the tents where there is a risk of cholera," says Naomi. "During the week we plan to deliver oral rehydration salts (ORS) to households."

Naomie is dismayed about the death of the young boy . To avoid a similar situation, she plans to propose the installation of oral rehydration posts (ORP) on sites in remote areas. "The boy died of dehydration. If people had been able to rehydrate him before taking him to the CTC, he would have survived," she explains.

At Lycée Louis Joseph Janvier, CARE teams are ready! They have posters and leaflets to explain key practices to prevent the spread of the cholera epidemic to representatives of a number of other local camps.

Around 20 people are present. Some are members of mothers' or youth clubs created by CARE WASH and Health teams to serve as peer educators.

Brice Sodlon is a voodoo priest who performs at Lycée Louis Joseph Janvier: "It is essential to learn, especially if you are a leader in your community. My family lives in this camp. My friends live in this camp. It is a duty for me to learn how to protect them from this disease," said Brice. "CARE can't stop. CARE does not have the right to stop. If CARE had run this training at the start of the crisis at Grand'Anse, I am sure all these voodoo priests would not have been killed by the people who were accusing them of causing the disease," he says.

Like other participants at the training, Brice knows the essential actions to take to protect himself against cholera: wash hands regularly, treat drinking or cooking water, cook food well, wash fruit and vegetables thoroughly with chlorinated water, treat human waste. Simple actions that save lives.

The cholera outbreak, which had decreased a few months ago, returned in force two weeks ago, affecting areas in which it had not previously been seen. CARE has started training and awareness sessions in camps, and also plans to distribute hygiene kits, water purification tablets, oral rehydration salts and concentrated chlorine solutions.

On Saturday, May 4, CARE donated sanitation equipment – wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, trash cans – to Carrefour City Hall, which had organized activities to mark International Environment Day. These materials will be used to clean camps and public areas to avoid the worst.

Béatrice Jean-Louis and Magdala Saint-Ange, CARE staff members, holding a training session on cholera prevention at Lycée Louis Joseph Janvier, an IDP camp housing approximately 1,200 people. The cholera outbreak hits Carrefour where more than a thousand people are hospitalized.

Brice Sodlon, a voodoo priest in Carrefour, participating in the training session

A CARE mother's club member showing to the group how to use purification tablets to clean water at the training session.

• Read more about CARE's work in Haiti
• CARE scales up activities to respond to resurgence of cholera
• Donate now to help CARE respond to emergencies and fight poverty worldwide
  

Story and photo by Marie-Eve Bertrand, CARE Haiti
November 11, 2010

Yveline walks up to me with a nice smile, but I can tell she is reserved. As we walk into her parent's house, I notice that all of her family's belongings are stored on the table, on the higher cupboards or shelters.

"When Tomas approached, CARE staff brought a speakerphone to the community and told us to get prepared. We stored our things and, therefore, did not lose too much," Yveline says. "The rain and water filled the streets and our house." She shows me the mark on the wall, indicating the water level: three feet high.

Yveline is one of the 333 children that CARE sends to school here in Gonaïves. She has been in the project for six years and is really thankful for the help her family gets from CARE. She is smart and caring.

"My dream is to be a doctor because I want to help my community and other people who are disadvantaged. I know it is a lot of work, but thanks to CARE's generous donors, I have been able to concentrate on my studies," Yveline tells me. "My family supports me, and I know that one day I will do good work."

I asked her about cholera and the situation in Gonaïves. She tells me about what they have learned so far through CARE's prevention training."Cholera is an illness that is treatable and preventable. People need to wash their hands, disinfect their house if someone is sick and give them rehydration salts. And we need to make sure that we should not abandon those who are sick. They need help!"

She adds, "Cholera should not kill so many people. The problem is that we have little sanitation infrastructure, and now with Tomas' flooding it is even worse. We have very poor land management. We cut too many trees with no plans, and did not pay attention to our natural resources. Now, it is our infrastructure that is missing. We do not have enough gutters, and we do not care enough for our environment." "

When looking at her, you see that she does care for her neighbors. She is volunteering with CARE – attending meetings and training. She wants to make a difference in her world.

We walked outside of her parent's house, and jumped on stones to avoid stepping in the mud that covers their yard. The streets are filled with waste and mud. But, Yveline is off, helping spread information on how to prevent cholera.

Once she's gone, I can't help wonder how many out young Yvelines did not have the chance to go to school, live their dreams and build a better life for themselves and their communities.

• Read more blogs from Haiti
• Find out more about CARE's emergency response work in Haiti
• Donate to help CARE's emergency relief and poverty-fighting work in Haiti and 71 other countries around the world

Story and photo by Marie-Eve Bertrand, CARE Haiti
November 11, 2010

The sun is shining, dogs are barking and the wind is blowing. This could be a normal day in Gonaïves. But it's not. Streets are empty, kids are not in school and mothers are concerned.

As I was with a community volunteers team, we were training women on how to purify the water they sell with bleach that CARE is providing them. A woman showed up. Wearing a mask, she was scared to approach me, scared to touch anyone.

Our team then visited an area called Descoteaux. This part of Gonaïves was flooded by Hurricane Tomas a few days ago. Now mud and garbage are covering streets. We stopped at Rosette Noël's house situated in a zone where CARE's volunteers and staff have distributed aid. A little girl is looking at us. Suddenly, another one joins her, then a grandma, a dad, two teenagers and a mom. Rosette is the mother of many kids she tells me. Her family includes her sister, her brother, and many siblings. I tried to get an exact figure. I don't think she knew.

Rosette tells me that when Tomas struck, they did not have enough time to gather their belongings. I could tell this was true by looking at the clothes and miscelleous household items drying on the brick wall between the houses.

"There was mud everywhere," she says. "We sought refuge with our neighbors. In this neighbourhood, we take care of one another. But what concerns me now is that my niece was sick yesterday. And now it is my sister. They are resting in bed, and we give them rehydration salts and clean them. We do what we hear on the radio messages." CARE's public information campaign via radio instructing Haitians on how best avoid and prevent cholera has reached at least 200,000 people to date. I am glad Rosette has hear them.

When I asked her why she was not taking them to the hospital, she turns her head. She is concerned about the fact that the hospitals are already over capacity and that the staff does have the ability to take care of her loved ones.

"We know that some people were left on the streets because they were sick. I don't want that to happen to my family. We can take care of them. I am afraid that they will get more sick in the hospital," Rosette explains. "Family is everything."

Her youngest looks at me. She is gorgeous and smiling. Her eyes are full of life and joy. I just wish I could do something to help them. But they know what to do.

"CARE helped us a lot. They came here to tell us how to protect ourselves before Tomas, and then after [explaines how to help]avoid being sick. We received soap bars and aquatabs," Rosette says.

As I leave the house, they wave goodbye to me. The grandma tells me to take good care and to stay healthy. These people are generous, and I am so proud I got to meet them.

• Read more blogs from Haiti
• Find out more about CARE's emergency response work in Haiti
• Donate to help CARE's emergency relief and poverty-fighting work in Haiti and 71 other countries around the world

by Dr. Franck Geneus, CARE health manager in Haiti
November 10, 2010

The situation here in Artibonite is all but reassuring. You can feel the angriness rising slowly but surely. In Raboto, it was reported that the dead were being abandoned in the streets. Hospitals are already at capacity with patients infected with diarrhea. Others who are infected are being discharged or discouraged not to go to the hospital in the first place. The police have assigned a car that transports infected people both dead and alive. This car is not being disinfected.

Protests in the streets were reported by the press. The fear of illness is everywhere. The sick are not adequately being taken care of and are seen as pests. Babies have been abandoned. Those that have children in schools are thinking of keeping them at home.

The number of new cholera cases have increased to 15 per day up from 3-5 cases before the hurricane struck. In the Hospital of Marmelade, over 200 cases have been reported since the beginning of the epidemic on October 20. Dead bodies are not being properly disposed of. Support staff are reluctant to come into contact with them because they don't have appropriate protective outfits.

CARE is supporting communities where we have our presence by providing early detection and management of cases; medically assisting rehydration; and conducting proper evacuation of cases. CARE's main focus is in helping facilities use proper hygiene and sanitation. CARE was approached by the Ministry of Education, for example, to clean a school which was flooded near a cemetery where bodies were wrongly disposed of. The cases are increasing and it wouldn't be a surprise if we see a boom in the epidemic in the coming days.

• Read more blogs from Haiti
• Find out more about our emergency response work in Haiti
• Donate to help CARE's emergency relief and poverty-fighting work in Haiti and 71 other countries around the world

by Marie-Eve Bertrand, CARE Haiti Emergency Team

09:00, Nov. 6, 2010

Saturday was a busy day for CARE's team. I spent the day with CARE teams on their field visit to Léogâne. When we arrived in the downtown area, I was shocked by the level and the strength of water in the streets. The Rouyonne River had overflowed. Once again. And it has washed away a substantial part of downtown.

People are walking in the knee-deep water filled with garbage, human waste, bugs, and what else...

Women and men were cleaning their houses or shelters, removing the mud and trying to make it look clean. Truth is, I am concerned that a broomstick is not enough to sanitize a place that was filled with filthy water.

Yet, amazingly, not everyone we met was in despair. Indy, a young women living with her mom, was cleaning their little brick house. Her mom was telling me it was enough, it had to stop. She was cleaning her clothes as Indy was removing the muddy water from the one room they use as a kitchen, living room, dining room and bed room. Indy was smiling to me, and I asked her if she was upset. She said, "No ... What would it change?"

(Indy cleaning her house in Léogâne after Hurricane Tomas flooded the town. Photo: Marie-Eve Bertrand/CARE)

I stopped to visit the family living in CARE's first temporary shelter. I remember meeting her this summer, as she was just about to move in. It would have been great to meet her in a better situation. She lost everything but her family in January. This time, their belongings were pilled up, the mattress was wet, the walls were dirty, and her ti-moun (child) was hungry.

She looked at the sky and said: "This is an act of God, what else can I say? But it's enough. I want fresh food for my kids, I don't want them to be sick. There are very few latrines here. People do their things in bags and throw them in the canal. It was always like that. Now the canal is overflowing."

(Read more about CARE's work helping survivors have a sturdy roof over their heads and a strong foundation to rebuild their lives. Photo: Marie-Eve Bertrand/CARE)

Yes, it is. And I saw those bags floating around. Filled with human waste. While kids were playing around ...

Cholera, of course, is on the mind of everyone, including the CARE staff. Sunday, our CARE team distributed help to 9500 beneficiaries in Léôgane. We gave them aquatabs, Hygiene kits or BP5 (high energy biscuits) based on their needs. The response is done in partnerships with the other NGO's on the ground.

In Bino Lester, a grandma walked up to me. Her crops had flooded. She was frustrated. Enough, she said. This has to stop. Even the strong people of Haiti have their limits.

Tomorrow, I head to Gonaïves, where a CARE team will continue distributions and raise awareness of health risks such as cholera. The flooding was quite serious there. I might see another smile like Indy's. But given the triple-dose of disaster in Haiti these days, it would not surprise me if I did not.

• Read more blogs from Haiti
• Find out more about CARE's emergency response work in Haiti
• Donate to help CARE's emergency relief and poverty-fighting work in Haiti and 71 other countries around the world

by Marie-Eve Bertrand, CARE Haiti Emergency Team

06:00, Nov. 5, 2010

I woke up to dark grey clouds. There is no sun in Port-au-Prince today. It was pretty quiet first thing this morning as the storm was 'stopped' by the mountains, but then suddenly, it was as if someone opened the tap. It is loud now... very loud! The rain sounds as if you're standing next to a waterfall. For a moment I thought we would be okay. Now I am really concerned about our staff and friends living in camps or shelters. You don't want to be outside at this time...

Yesterday the staff and people in our neighbourhood were getting ready for the storm - packing up food, water supplies. I was at the market yesterday and you could tell that people were nervous. Everyone was filling up their baskets, talking loud, moving fast ...

Usually the market it's pretty relaxed, but yesterday everything changed. People were in the streets, the traffic was heavier much sooner as everyone tried to get home to their families, and the businesses closed much earlier.

People were asking: "Why this? Why us? Why again?"

The rain is getting harder. The wind hasn't picked up yet, but if this gets worse, I can only imagine how bad it will be for the people in the camps.

• Read more blogs from Haiti
• Find out more about CARE's emergency response work in Haiti
• Donate to help CARE's emergency relief and poverty-fighting work in Haiti and 71 other countries around the world

Sharing the stories of Haitians struggling in the aftermath of January's earthquake is a crucial part of CARE's work to help heal and rebuild the nation. The woman who leads the effort to bring that information to the world could easily write volumes about her own life.

By Sabine Wilke

March 2010

Standing in the middle of the dusty parking lot surrounded by huge trucks, you find yourself right in hustle and bustle of the logistics center supporting CARE's emergency response. Planes are roaring over the site every couple of minutes – Port-au-Prince's airport is only a couple of blocks away from the warehouse. And there is another particularity to this location: "We're right in the middle of the red zone," says Geoffroy Larde from the CARE logistics team. The warehouse borders on Cité Soleil, the infamous slum that has been neglected for years and has experienced severe damage from the January 12 earthquake.

High in the hills above Léogâne, near the epicenter of the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, the signs of both devastation and courage are everywhere.

by Rick Perera, CARE Media Officer in Haiti

Friday, February 26, 2010

The studio at Radio Francisque FM is a tiny affair, but buzzes with activity. DJ Bernard Felusma works the audio board, headset glued to his ears as he spins his two-hour morning show, Recréation 10-12. The sounds are upbeat: Creole hits, hip-hop, and easily recognized international stars.

Womens Radio Network, www.womensradionetwork.com, has launched a fundraiser for CARE for Haiti.

It involves an online art auction and ongoing sales of women's art through an online art booth located at: http://www.fine-art-on-demand.com/Partners/nonprofits/womensradio.htm

Womens Radio Network does not take any fees for this great program. The other sponsors and artists have donated siginificant amounts of time, energy and hard money to make this new idea work. Buy some great art by great women artists, and 65-100 percent of your purchase goes to helping survivors of Haiti's January 12 earthquake through CARE for Haiti.

Learn more about CARE for Haiti at www.careforhaiti.org.

by Rick Perera, CARE Media Officer in Haiti

Monday, March 17, 2010

I love watching the humming machine of the Haiti relief effort in action. CARE has more than doubled our local staff since the January 12 earthquake, and the well-oiled supply chain is cranking along. Our huge new warehouse buzzes with workers loading and unloading, trucks rolling in and out. It's a sight to see.

by Sabine Wilke, CARE Media Officer in Haiti

Monday, March 8, 2010

Her first life was that of a teacher at a nurse's training school in Port-au-Prince, teaching skills to make sure that women have a healthy delivery. Today, Carline Morney spends her days in and around the earthquake-stricken capital of Haiti, helping expecting and young mothers to cope with the difficult situation. She is one of more than 70 new CARE staff members who have been hired in addition to the existing team to ensure a timely and efficient emergency response.

by Rick Perera, CARE Media Officer in Haiti

Monday, March 1, 2010

We're watching from Haiti with shock and sadness as the news comes from Chile: another merciless earthquake, more powerful than ever. So soon after the devastation here in and around Port-au-Prince. (Was that only a few weeks ago? It feels like an eternity.)

by Anne Larrass, CARE in Haiti's Information Management Officer

Friday, February 12, 2010

"Mèsi Bondye paske ou bann lavi ankò"

It is 6 p.m. and the sun has just set, leaving behind a gentle trail of pink and orange. We are on our way back to the office, driving on a road that takes us past the now very common picture of broken homes and mountains of rubble of Port-au-Prince.

Today is the last day of three days of official mourning, which explains the thousands of Haitians we've encountered on the streets chanting hymns and calling out slogans of hope and gratitude.

by Anne Larass, CARE in Haiti's Information Management Officer

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

"Ne bloquez pas, ne bloquez pas!" a CARE distribution coordinator calls out to the giggling crowd of women and girls who have been lining up since 5:30 a.m. to receive their rice.

With no easy way to carry the 50 kg bags, women and girls are dropping them every few steps, laughing and shaking their heads at the comedy of the situation.

By Melanie Brooks, CARE International Media Officer in Haiti

Friday, February 12, 2010

While professional rescue teams used heavy equipment to pull people from the rubble, Jacques Wylens' father, Jacques Wilkens, used a sledgehammer and his bare hands in a desperate effort to free his son from the coffin of what was once their home. Next to where two-year-old Jacques lie trapped and crying under the rubble were his dead grandparents.

by Melanie Brooks, CARE International Media Officer in Haiti

Saturday, February 7, 2010

Night falls, and one by one, the candles flicker on in the camps – tiny pinpricks of light in a city clad in darkness. As the sun retreats, the muffled cries begin. And the women creep deeper into their flimsy shelters of bed sheets and plastic tarps, praying for the morning to come.

Excerpted from a note to CARE staff
by Jonathan Mitchell, CARE International's Emergency Response Director

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Dear Colleagues,

A week ago, I returned from a joint visit to Haiti together with CARE USA regional director, Peter Buijs. Peter and I visited Haiti to understand the situation first-hand and offer support and guidance to CARE's response to the extensive humanitarian suffering caused by the January 12 earthquake. Peter stayed-on in Haiti for an additional week while country director Sophie Perez was traveling.

Story by Rick Perera, CARE Media Officer in Haiti

Saturday, February 6, 2010

In earthquake-ravaged Haiti, where broken bones and open wounds far outnumber doctors, people have grown accustomed to long waits for medical attention. But many who turn up at Saurel Saintie's mud-brick home have waited longer than most. These patients have traveled five hours or more along a rutted, dirt road -- aboard battered old buses, in backs of trucks or perched by threes and fours on motorbikes – to escape the ruined capital, Port-au-Prince. Many have gone weeks without having their injuries attended to.

Story by Rick Perera, CARE Media Officer in Haiti

Friday, February 5, 2010

Woose Gammanuel Ulysse wipes his runny nose, as he hides behind his mother's skirts. The five-year-old has been wheezing and coughing since the terrible events of January 12, when his world collapsed around him. The boy was trapped for an hour an a half under the rubble of his uncle's house in Port-au-Prince, says mother Tulia.

by Elizabeth Babister, CARE Senior Shelter Advisor

Friday, February 5, 2010

In the mornings, as the little tent circle of staff in the garden of CARE's office wakes up our most precious items here the small padlocks for locking the tents. A token gesture towards security since anyone could cut through the fabric, but with the garden busy with CARE staff this would be noticed immediately. We are relieved from the inconvenience of staying with our possessions while I work. Many of the camps in the city are congested with people, strangers to each other situated in the same place by necessity because open land is so scarce. There are no locks or fences between families. CARE will be supporting community leaders to organise committees in order to empower families to work for their recovery as community.

by Rick Perera, CARE's Emergency Media Officer in Haiti

Friday, February 5, 2010

This will be my last blog entry from Haiti – but certainly not the last about Haiti, a country that has worked its way into my heart. I leave tomorrow on a special charter flight for aid workers.

by Rick Perera, CARE Emergency Media Officer in Haiti

February 1, 2010

We're all starting to feel a little safer, and more relaxed – though that's a relative term, of course. We've noticed that there have not been aftershocks in a week or so. The mass distribution of rice that got underway yesterday has gone smoothly so far – a huge relief since many survivors have had nothing to eat since the quake. Of course it will take a long time to reach everyone in need, but the system is working well so far.

by Rick Perera, CARE Emergency Media Officer in Haiti

Saturday, January 30, 2010

I've just returned from one of the most heartbreaking visits of my two weeks here: to meet the family of Dr. Franck Geneus, CARE's gentle, dedicated health program director. Their homes destroyed, his extended family of 30 is packed into Franck's brother's tiny house and yard -- from the littlest niece, five-month-old Joelle, to grandmother Inosie, who says she's 94.

by Abby Maxman, country director, CARE Ethiopia and former country director for CARE International in Haiti

Taken from a longer piece written by Abby to her CARE colleagues on January 14, 2010

As we all reel with grief and concern in the aftermath of the horrific and massive earthquake that struck near Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince on January 12, I am drawn back to my own personal and professional relationship with the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. As a humanitarian and development professional for more than 20 years, I try to unpack its troubled history, fast forwarding to this week's events, and rewinding again to my own experience as country director of CARE International in Haiti from 2004-2006.

Friday, January 22, 2010

One of our staff members in Haiti reports on the bleak living conditions for people displaced by the earthquake:

Shelter is makeshift. A subject of common prayer: "We hope that rain does not fall!" The big majority of the shelters set up so far assure essentially a symbolic role of limitation of territory guaranteeing a minimum of security and of intimacy. That means that the existing shelters do not protect against anything at all, if that would be wind, sun, cold, heat and even less against rain.

by Rick Perera, CARE Emergency Media Officer in Haiti

Monday, January 25, 2010

You can handle a lot if you keep busy, but watch out when you get a chance to stop and think. On a long drive last night I had a talk with an exhausted CARE driver, and felt for a moment what it must be like to be Haitian.

by Rick Perera, Emergency Media Officer in Haiti

Saturday, January 24, 2009

"I can't describe how frightened I was," recalls Joanie Estin, remembering that terrible day barely a week ago when her world fell apart. "We've lived through a lot in Haiti, but this is the first time anything like this ever happened."

But Joanie doesn't look scared. Sad, yes – but resolute, confident, and committed. Every inch the Girl Scout. "I always keep a cool head, because otherwise you won't be able to help other people," she says calmly.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

You might expect to see Wilner Ulysse helping a little old lady cross the street. That's the classic image of a dutiful Scout. But Wilner, age 23, has a much more important good deed for today.

by Loetitia Raymond

Thursday, January 21, 2010

At the fragile moment in time when a life enters the world, when a child leaves the warm, protective cocoon of her mother's womb, one gesture can change everything. It can transform what could have been a happy occasion into the saddest of all.

by Steve Hollingworth, CARE USA COO and EVP, Global Operations

Wednesday, January 21, 2010

I received an e-mail today that I deeply appreciated. It also made me proud to be a part of CARE!!

by Patrick Solomon, CARE USA SVP, Global Support Services

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Yesterday, the CARE staff went to the Place Saint Pierre in Pétion-ville extremely close to the CARE office to do pre-work for today's distribution of hygiene kits. The team did an assessment and registration process to identify pregnant and elderly women to make sure they were recipients of the distribution. Today, the team ensured that these women were given priority in the distribution process.

by Patrick Solomon, CARE USA SVP, Global Support Services

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

On Wednesday, January 20, 2009, CNN's Wolf Blitzer interviewed Steve Hollingworth, CARE USA's chief operating officer and Executive vice president of global operations. The interview was aired on CNN's The Situation Room. Check back for video.

Here is the transcript:

by Steve Hollingworth, CARE USA COO and EVP, Global Operations

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

I wanted to say a few words about our staff here in Haiti.

by CARE staff in Haiti

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

A 6.1-magnitude aftershock rocked Haiti around 6:00 a.m. local time this morning, only eight days after the earthquake destroyed the capital city, leaving tens of thousands dead and injured and many more homeless.

CARE's emergency response team send the following by text messages (SMS) and e-mail:

by Rick Perera, emergency media officer in Haiti

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

This entry is a small collection of photos of senior staff inspecting damage in the hard-hit Delmas section of Port-au-Prince.

by Rick Perera, emergency media officer in Haiti

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

CARE Haiti staff held a moment of silence Monday in memory of their own lost family members and for their country.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

It's obvious that people here are still in grave shock. You can see in the grim faces as people try to pick up the pieces that they are in desperate need. Everywhere we go, we see hand-painted signs on bed sheets pleading for help, asking for medicine for children or letting people know bodies are there.

by Loetitia Raymond, emergency media officer in Haiti

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Depuis une semaine des centaines de camps de fortunes ont tristement fleuri le parterre des trottoirs de Port-au-Prince et de ses environs. Sans logement et sans aucune source de revenu pour la plupart, les sinistrés ont besoin de l’aide internationale pour survivre. Depuis mon arrivée dans les bureaux de CARE Haïti, transformé en camp de fortune pour certains des employés qui ont perdu leur maison, je découvre une équipe admirablement engagée et mobilisée, alors que bon nombre d’entre eux ont perdu leur habitation, parfois des membres de leur famille. De 7h du matin à 22h pour certains, 7j sur 7, chacun tente de faire face à l’envergure des besoins pour mettre en place l’aide à la population.

by Patrick Solomon, CARE USA SVP, Global Support Services

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Patrick Solomon and Steve Hollingworth, CARE's COO and EVP for Global Operations, spent the day with in the hart-hit town of Léogâne, southwest of Port-au-Prince, where CARE distributed water bladders, jerrycans and hygiene kits to 135,000 people.

by Steve Hollingworth, CARE USA COO and EVP, Global Operations

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

11:00 a.m.

Patrick Solomon, CARE's SVP for Global Support Services, and I are traveling with a CARE convoy to distribute water bladders, jerrycans and hygiene kits to 135,000 people staying in an areas southwest of Port-au-Prince in a town called Léogâne. We have 21 staff moving out in four SUVs and a large truck. There is lots of apprehension in the car about keeping together through the extremely congested traffic. The trip should take around two hours.

by Rick Perera, CARE's emergency media officer in Haiti
January 18, 2009

Its name, Hôpital La Paix, means Peace — but this massively overflowing hospital is anything but peaceful. The largest medical facility still standing in devastated Port au Prince, La Paix is beyond overflowing with critically injured people.

by Steve Hollingworth, CARE USA COO and EVP, Global Operations

Sunday, January 17, 2010

11:30 a.m.

I am traveling to Port-au-Prince with my colleagues. One expert will assess overall staff well-being and how we provide support for folks in Haiti and those coming to help. The other is a technology expert, who will be in charge of improving communications; he will install a VSAT system for our use. Cell phone and satellite phones are working better, and e-mails are getting through.

by Rick Perera, emergency media officer in Haiti

Sunday, January 17, 2010

If charity begins at home, CARE is in the right place. Just outside our Haiti headquarters, many hundreds, perhaps thousands — no one has counted them — of newly homeless people are camped out in the main square of Pétionville, a near suburb of Port-au-Prince. They wait patiently in the hot sun, but their desperation grows by the hour. At night, groups of people can be heard clapping and chanting. Some have hung banners, painted on bedsheets, with messages like "We need help!" in English and Creole.

by Rick Perera, emergency media coordinator in Haiti

Sunday, January 17, 2010

I keep hearing the same question from journalists: why isn't aid getting to these desperate people faster? The answer is: aid workers are moving as fast as they can, but the conditions are grim. Haiti has never seen a catastrophe of this magnitude in modern times; it was already desperately poor to begin with; and in the aftermath of so many disasters in recent years, the people and infrastructure were utterly unprepared to cope.

by Rick Perera, emergency media coordinator in Haiti

Saturday, January 16, 2010

I'm with a convoy of three CARE vehicles carrying water purification supplies form the airport to three different points of distribution. In order to avoid the risk of mobs trying to take materials, we're using ordinary SUVs — Toyota Land Cruisers — and piling the materials low enough so they can be covered and out of view from the windows.

by Rick Perera, emergency media coordinator in Haiti

I am near the airport at the U.N. security base. CARE's country director in Haiti, Sophie Perez, and our emergency response leader, David Gazashvili, are here meeting with the heads of all the relief agencies. We are coordinating how best to get help to those in urgent need.

To field workers in Haiti:

Bresma orphanage children need to be rescued.Here are the directions to two of the houses where the children will be. Time is of the essence.

by Rick Perera, emergency media coordinator in Haiti

We're crossing the border at Jimeni, between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Things are moving fairly quickly, at least on the Dominican Republic side. We're seeing supplies crossing the border including search and explore teams with dogs, many large tanker trucks with water, backhoes and other construction equipment, mobile kitchens from the Dominican Republic, and many journalists.

by Rick Perera, emergency media coordinator in Haiti

A group of CARE staff and journalists – 12 of us in all, landed in the city of Puerto Plata in the northern coast of the Dominican Republic early this afternoon. We were welcomed as tourists by a steel drum band, scantily clad dancers and free cocktails. It was a surreal experience.

by Hauke Hoops, regional emergency coordinator in Haiti

This is one of the biggest disasters I’ve ever seen, and it is a huge logistical challenge. Everything has to come in by plane or boat, but the port is destroyed. The airport is overstretched, overcrowded with flights.

by Hauke Hoops, regional emergency coordinator in Haiti

Hauke Hoops, CARE’s Regional Emergency Coordinator, flew from Panama to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, just after midnight Jan. 13. We reached him at the airport in Santo Domingo Jan. 13 at 6 a.m. local time, as he was preparing to board a humanitarian flight to Port-au-Prince.

as told by Sophie Perez, CARE's Country Director in Haiti

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Sophie was in the CARE office in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit at about 5 p.m. local time January 12, 2010.
We reached her by phone at 6.30 a.m. local time the following morning.