Debriefing conversations
Sorry for the delay in posting to the blog. Life and my day job (Rector at Old St. Andrew's Church) seem to get in the way. That said, I've spent several hours in the past couple of days talking with Jim Doucette, On-Ground Coordinator of Team 2, Lauren Lyons, who haled that spot on Team 3, and Dr. David Walker & nurse Vic Tolentino who were at the Clinic with us under the auspices of the United Haitian American Society and Yale-New Haven Hospital. All extraordinary people to whom we owe thanks and praise.
I come away with new insights and stark impressions. Perhaps the most compelling is that the Haitian people in and around the neighborhood of École le Bon Samaritain (Waney) in Carrefour are becoming more and more desperate. Food is the biggest problem. Jim says 90% of the people who come to the Clinic need food.
The way the Clinic is set up makes it difficult to separate those seeking medical care and those who need food. I know this sounds like a simple problem to solve (hungry people come from the left, those needing medical care come from the right) but it's not. Trust me, our volunteers have done all they can to provide medical and humanitarian care. I've come to see that our relief efforts have gotten much bigger than any of us ever imagined.
We just cannot sustain providing food for larger and larger crowds of people at the Clinic. We have neither the food nor the basic security for our volunteers. All of those with whom I spoke said we need to identify where else in Carrefour are there food distribution centers? What we need to do is give hungry people a map showing them how to get to where the food is.
The large NGOs (AmeriCares, the Marines, et al) have the capacity and know-how to distribute food to large numbers of people. The nut is that Port-au-Prince has received the bulk of foreign and NGO aid and Carrefour has been left the poor cousin. In a word, unacceptable! I come away from these debriefings understanding that the Red Cross is bogged down in red tape and bureaucracy. They "promised" to help us 3 weeks ago but we haven't seen them. Likewise, AmeriCares came one afternoon over two weeks ago but never returned. Even the Marines told Lauren they were mapping out where Medical outlets were and they'd come and find us. Nope!
I can only hope that the Marines and professional international relief agencies reaches our corner of Carrefour soon. Thank God we were able to be on the ground with Clinic and humanitarian aid 8 days after the quake and for most of the past 4 weeks. But we just can no longer meet the growing need.
On the other hand, I've learned that the German Red Cross has occupied the "football" stadium in Carrefour. Good. Médecins sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) and the International Medical Corps (IMC) are also in Carrefour. Moreover, the Adventist Hospital (I think that's the name) is open in some capacity. The latter is the place to which our doctors have been referring patients they cannot treat. This is also the hospital where the X-ray machine donated by Fijifilm to Stamford Hospital will be housed.
Meanwhile, 30+ days out, the picture of what is happening in Haiti and among those who seek to help is becoming even more vivid (NYT article today). The which calls me to say, the Old St. Andrew's/Good Samaritan Rebuilding Project struggles to understand how best we can serve the people of Waney in Carrefour and make plans to rebuild École le Bon Samaritain. We want our children back.
Tomorrow afternoon the Coordinators of this effort will gather to discuss all of this. We need a strategy for moving ahead. We need to figure out what we can and cannot do. And then, we need some operational plans about how to achieve our goals. Please send us your good spirit and keep us in your prayers as we try to figure out what to do in the coming weeks and months. And, of course, with that, don't for a moment let the Haitian people out of your mind in this time of great need.
The photos on this post come come with thanks to N., Jim Doucette, and Patty Jorquera.
I come away with new insights and stark impressions. Perhaps the most compelling is that the Haitian people in and around the neighborhood of École le Bon Samaritain (Waney) in Carrefour are becoming more and more desperate. Food is the biggest problem. Jim says 90% of the people who come to the Clinic need food.
We just cannot sustain providing food for larger and larger crowds of people at the Clinic. We have neither the food nor the basic security for our volunteers. All of those with whom I spoke said we need to identify where else in Carrefour are there food distribution centers? What we need to do is give hungry people a map showing them how to get to where the food is.
I can only hope that the Marines and professional international relief agencies reaches our corner of Carrefour soon. Thank God we were able to be on the ground with Clinic and humanitarian aid 8 days after the quake and for most of the past 4 weeks. But we just can no longer meet the growing need.
Meanwhile, 30+ days out, the picture of what is happening in Haiti and among those who seek to help is becoming even more vivid (NYT article today). The which calls me to say, the Old St. Andrew's/Good Samaritan Rebuilding Project struggles to understand how best we can serve the people of Waney in Carrefour and make plans to rebuild École le Bon Samaritain. We want our children back.
The photos on this post come come with thanks to N., Jim Doucette, and Patty Jorquera.
No comments:
Post a Comment