Haiti's story

Volunteers at Dunnville’s Calvary Pentecostal Church pack medical supplies in preparation for a week-long mission to Dominican Republic. See their story in part 2 of Dunnville's efforts in Haiti. ⓒ Allison Smith 2010


Last week, I had the incredibly honourable, interesting and daunting task of telling the story of people who were involved in some aspect of helping Haitian citizens after the earthquake that destroyed their country January 12. I and another reporter at the Dunnville Chronicle took on writing five stories within one. The experience had a big enough impact on me that I decided I most definitely wanted to post my contribution to my blog. 
I, like many others, have been quite removed from the travesty that is happening a world away from us. Seeing the odd commercial on TV appealing to people here to adopt children for $1 a day in the poorest countries of the world simply in no way prepares you to hear the stories of people directly involved in the efforts to help those people who are so much in need right now, and who will be for decades to come. I got to talk to a volunteer paramedic who walked through crowds and crowds of people screaming in pain. She said there was no rhyme or reason to who was helped because there were just so many of them. The ones who are healthy are fending off looters, desperate themselves, from taking what little the earthquake has left untouched. She spoke of people following her asking if she had forgotten about them, using a scalpel and razor blade to perform amputations and helping another doctor pull muscles and bones fractured by collapsing buildings back into place. 
When I asked her how she stayed sane as a fellow human being in that situation, she replied she stayed calm out of necessity. "It's your job, so you do it. You pull yourself together and off you go."
I was shocked at how matter-of-factly this 21-year-old talked about her experience. There are lesser people including myself who simply would not have had the fortitude to keep it together. I told her people like her are picking up after the mess our developed countries have made, before the earthquake happened and the efforts to send relief in cash and people started to flow. Millions of people across the world have donated to the effort. But like many problems, the poverty in developed countries is complex and many-sided. I don't pretend to understand it or know all the solutions. But we developed countries have to realize the disparity between us and the people in Haiti can't be ignored anymore. Our resolve has to endure beyond the charity telethons, media coverage and initial hype. It disturbs me that in 2010 there are still countless numbers of our fellow human beings who are considered "non people," with no rights to the justice, education and healthcare/other services essential to us and every civilized society. Our mindset as a society and global culture must dramatically shift not just about this one disaster in this one country but about the many that happen around the world every day. 
The words of Dr. Reza Kazemi ring in my mind.

Dr. Kazemi said long-term change needs to happen in third world countries and that the “tragedy” is that though there is much attention given to the nation now, “we just don’t learn. Our heart bleeds, we open our hearts, we give what we can, the news reports these poor people are having their legs and arms amputated…our approach is based on our bleeding hearts for the moment, not long term.” Citizens of developed countries must make better choices in the long term, he said, looking at their “effect on the environment and the effect on people. People give with one hand, buy a t-shirt made by a Haitian sweatshop, and they take away that help with the other hand. They contribute to the poverty in Haiti.”

What one hand giveth, the other taketh away. Imagine how early in life these people find that out and how jaded and hopeless they become waiting to live, or die, at the behest of forces they cannot control. Before talking to the many people I've spoken to about their experiences, I thought I knew what it felt like to feel hopeless at times. Their relaying of what they went through and the things they saw made me at least get an outsider's view of what 'hopeless' really is.
 Since the initial earthquake January 12, Haiti has also been through an aftershock, setting back further the rebuild of a country that already has so much devastation and hopelessness burdening its shoulders. Canada and the United Nations are calling on developed nations to forgive the country's $1 billion foreign debt. 
UN trade body calls for write-off of Haiti's debt
Flaherty wants creditors to forgive Haiti's debt


This quote is from a UK paper called the Telegraph. See the full article here.

Jean-Max Bellerive told an emergency meeting of ministers in Montreal, including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that the "colossal" effort would take "at least five to 10 years."   

He said: "The people of Haiti will need more and more and more in order to complete the reconstruction. What we're looking for is a long-term commitment. Haiti needs the massive support of its partners in the international community in the medium and long term." Responding to criticism that the Haitian government had been almost invisible during relief efforts he said it was working in "precarious conditions". 

"We are fully conscious that the prime responsibility for our future lies in the hands of the Haitian government and the Haitian people." 

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: "It was not an exaggeration to say that at least 10 years of hard work awaits the world in Haiti. 

Officials from a dozen countries, the United Nations, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund attended the talks to discuss the aid effort and make initial rebuilding plans. 

They looked at whether to relocate the capital Port-au-Prince away from its present site. Around 235,000 survivors have already fled the blighted city. 

The Montreal talks were expected to lay the groundwork for a full-fledged donors conference in the coming weeks at which pledges of money for reconstruction will be made.  

Haiti was already the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and groups including Oxfam and The World Council of Churches called on ministers to immediately cancel its full $890 million (£550 million) international debt. 

They also asked for delivery on the IMF's previous pledge to turn a $100 million (£62 million) interest-free loan to into a grant.

This is the sensible thing to do, and would be the first of many steps in rebuilding what many say is a country that must be built better than it was before the earthquake hit if it has any hope at all.

Dunnville's efforts in Haiti, Part 1

(Find this article online at the Dunnville Chronicle)

BY ALLISON SMITH

The earthquake that rocked Haiti January 12 is being felt a world away, in the hearts and minds of Dunnville residents rising to the challenge of providing relief to the bereaved, severely injured and displaced.

While a local paramedic arrives home from the ravaged region this week, a team of 20 from Calvary Pentecostal Church prepares to arrive in Haiti. Haiti Water for Life plans to deliver much-needed medical supplies, while local businesses do their part at home.

Deanna Oosterhoff is part of a GlobalMedic relief team from Ontario bringing aid and supplies to Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, as thousands of Haitians fled the area after the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit the region January 12. GlobalMedic also brought 30 water purification units to the area.

GlobalMedic co-ordinates volunteer disaster response teams made up of paramedics, firefighters and police officers. The 21-year-old, who works at Dunnville’s Marish Greenhouses, first met a recruiter for the organization while attending Niagara College. Eventually, she took training and grew excited to be part of a mission.

The GlobalMedic team were the first responders to arrive. Jane said last week Deanna was to arrive home over the weekend, and doctors from across the world would take over in Haiti where GlobalMedic left off.

“They go in very quickly and get there before all the other (agencies),” said Deanna’s mother Jane, a resident of Wainfleet who said she’s “proud” of the Niagara College graduate.

Oosterhoff returned to Canada about 2 a.m. Monday January 25. She said she was glad to have made a difference in the disaster area.

“People have to fend for themselves…there is no real justice system,” Deanna said, adding 300 criminals housed in a prison there had escaped and gone back to Cite Soleil. Looting is a common problem and Haitians are using vigilante justice to protect themselves, she said. Deanna spent time travelling throughout the ravaged area with a doctor, and worked in a hospital where hundreds of people were camped outside waiting for healthcare for the first several days.

 “There were people everywhere. We’d be walking along and people would be following us, saying, ‘Come see’ and ‘Did you forget about me?’ There was no rhyme or reason to who you go to (to give care). Hundreds of people needed amputations. There were enough doctors but not enough equipment and turnaround time was so long because the equipment we were using had to be sterilized. We were doing amputations with nothing but a scalpel and a razor blade, no anesthetic, no freezing, no nothing.”

Deanna got a disturbing introduction her first day as she walked out of her tent to see the dead bodies of two people who had been shot. More dead bodies littered the streets and rubble, and many survivors presented nasty injuries and resulting infections such as gangrene as a result of buildings collapsing. Though 200 people a day needed medical treatment, there were only resources available to treat 10, she said. Deanna told stories of pulling muscles back into place, standing at patient’s feet while the doctor stood at their head.

Asked how she kept calm she said she was told upon entering the Dominican that that “was the last day of normal. We were there to help…you can’t really feel their pain because then we would also be in pain. We had to be calm for them. As long as we’re positive, they can still be positive. If we get negative, they lose all hope. It’s your job, so you do it…you pull yourself together and off you go.”
Not that Deanna didn’t feel emotional seeing people in pain. “You pray for strength,” she said, admitting the situation was nothing short of “chaos.”

Chaos was a good word to describe the Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince, where hundreds of Haitian Canadians attempting to come back to Canada were stuck outside and not being let in, some for as long as seven days.

Jane has learned an important lesson first-hand from her daughter’s experience. While Deanna will come home feeling she has made a difference, the relief efforts in Haiti and the long journey to come for the residents there is “all about getting people to help themselves.”