The New Dark Age

18 January, 2010 — Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY – Working Together for Haiti

We have made substantial progress this weekend on finalizing logistics to get supplies and critical medical teams into Haiti and now have three points of entry to Haiti: direct to Jacmel via boat from the Dominican Republic, direct to Port-au-Prince over land from the DR, and to points north of PAP and the capital via Cap-Haitian and Santiago, DR (crossing at Dajabon-Ounaminthe).

This report includes progress made on transporting teams and supplies into Haiti, the latest summary assessment for Jacmel from the UN in PAP and details of our headquarters and operations in Santo Domingo.

Jacmel:

BY AIR: We finally have the first team from a partner group landing in Jacmel this afternoon. Karen Carr is traveling with the team coordinated by her organization, Community Coalition for Haiti. After efforts by many to get clearance to land a plane directly in Jacmel, Karen’s team went with plan B and traveled to Santiago, Dominican Republic. From there they crossed the border at Dajabon-Ouanaminthe and spent the night in Pignon. From Pignon they will fly with the Missionary Aviation Fellowship (MAF). They should arrive mid-afternoon and will be met by KONPAY’s Joe Duplan and Guerda Lexima of Fondasyon Limyè Lavi who met with local authorities and the MINUSTAH in Jacmel to prepare for the team’s arrival. The team will be provided with security and Joe and Guerda will coordinate their intervention on the ground.

BY SEA: On Sunday we received two excellent connections for sending supplies and emergency teams to Jacmel by boat. Through Nestor Sanchez at The Nature Conservancy in Santo Domingo we were able to connect with Marino Jose, heading up efforts to ship supplies to Jacmel for the Dominican Republic Red Cross. He has a first load going to Jacmel on a DR Navy ship this morning. He will be able to take our supplies to Guerda and Joe in Jacmel, and may also be able to transport medical teams.

A second contact was made with Cristina Thomen with Defense Civil who was already on a boat at the Cabo Rojos port in Pedernales on Sunday. She has a first load of supplies going into Jacmel this morning as well. Joe is working to coordinate getting the MINUSTAH troops to the port to meet the boat for offloading. Through Cristina we should be able to rent this boat for future trips to transport supplies and more medical personnel into Jacmel. Special thanks to Sarah Cool from Beyond Borders for being the point person following up both of these boats.

UN Rapid Assessment of the city of Jacmel performed on Friday:
10 – 15% of buildings collapsed
Approximately 7,000 displaced
150 confirmed dead and body collection underway
380 wounded
Main hospital destroyed but still receiving patients
Three camps and two smaller ones already created by families without homes

World Food Program and UNICEF carried out the assessments and the Canadian military are now there doing reconnaissance. UNICEF will prepare a more detailed report and share with the UN. Right now World Food Program and UNICEF have depleted the supplies in their warehouses with food distribution so the UN thinks our approach by sea is wise. MINUSTAH is protecting the people living in camps. Structural engineers are assessing the road to Jacmel and MINUSTAH is working to open the road with their teams and the engineers. The International Federation of the Red Cross is putting in place a field hospital in Jacmel.

Port-au-Prince:

BY LAND: Thanks to fate, Demeter Russamov of the Ananda Margra Universal Relief Team/AMURT’s motorcycle ran out of gas on Friday in front of the home of the owner of a major trucking company in Port-au-Prince. Apolinar was anxious to get supplies into Port-au-Prince, especially medical supplies. He will be able to send the first trucks to Santo Domingo today to pick up much needed supplies.

During coordination meetings at the United Nations’ headquarters yesterday, Amber Munger from KONPAY learned that groups like ours and the ones we are working with to coordinate rapid response will not be able to get absolutely critical supplies from the UN or the warehouses of the major agencies in PAP (including World Vision, Catholic Relief Services and others). They encouraged us to pursue our own over land shipments of supplies.

Port-au-Prince is still not ready to receive volunteer teams. There are doctors on the ground but no supplies for them to work with and there are already massive shortages of food and water. Our strategy for PAP is to bring in supplies to support the work of people already there and encourage the evacuation of the city while preparing clinics in the countryside to handle the exodus.

Cap-Haitien to Points North:

Peter Haas of the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group is now in Cap-Haitien and will be coordinating the transport of supplies to Port-au-Prince from there. The first convoy arrived Saturday night with fuel and equipment, supplies to help the efforts underway. In addition, Peter can assist us in coordinating teams crossing the border at Ouanaminthe-Dajabon, provide them with housing in Cap-Haitien and then deploy them to points north of Port-au-Prince from there.

Right now we need to start a spreadsheet of places where medical teams can be deployed in the next few days. Clinics and hospitals north of PAP need to be assessed by people on the ground so we can send an appropriate team with the necessary supplies they need to be effective. We are mainly focused on basic health care and emergency triage, and are referring surgeons to Partners In Health and the Cap-Haitien Health Network. We will coordinate with both PIH and Cap Health as we begin mobilizing and deploying teams. Anne Sosin, formerly with BAI and VIDWA, is going to arrive in Haiti this week with PIH and will be our point person for coordination. Peter Haas put us in contact with Dr. Ted Kaplan from Cap Health.

We are also following up a shipping contact from AIDG that might be able to help us get money and supplies into Cap-Haitien to be coordinated at a warehouse Peter is currently setting up.

Santo Domingo Coordination:

Through a very helpful contact at FUNGLODE in Dominican Republic, KONPAY secured an office space where we can set up a headquarters in Santo Domingo to coordinate our volunteers and supply shipments from there. Asuncion Sanz has arranged for our team to work out of the FUNGLODE office with communication and transportation support. We will be embedded in the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic, which is coordinating response from FUNGLODE’s offices as well. They will be able to assist us with contacts at the UN base in Jimani to assist us crossing the Jimani-Malpasse border.

An AMURT volunteer team lead by Peter Meadow is already on the ground in Santo Domingo and will be joined by Beyond Borders’ Anna Dioguardi and her partner Steven Moyano this afternoon. This team will begin to buy supplies critically needed in Jacmel and PAP to put on trucks and boats.

Reed Lindsay of the Honor and Respect Foundation connected us to the Atlantic Packaging Company in Santo Domingo which has been collecting supplies to ship into Haiti the last several days. Atlantic Packaging will allow us to use their facilities to receive, organize and pack our supplies onto trucks to go to PAP and to the wharf for departure to Jacmel. We are extremely thankful to Hye Young Lee for coordinating this for us with her close friends at Atlantic Packaging.

Gathering and Getting Supplies into Haiti:

Several volunteers are currently following up interesting leads and appealing to companies for donations for the people on the ground. We are using an excellent medical supply wish list provided by the Haitian Professionals of Philadelphia, and from the ground we have highlighted several other key items to the donation list including: work gloves, tents, LED head lamps, walkie talkies, water purification filters and tablets, 3M particulate filter respirators, work masks and eye protection.

Amy Fotta has been volunteering through KONPAY and is in touch with Food for the Poor. They will be shipping supplies into Haiti on Royal Caribbean Cruise ships when they dock at the Labadee port. We hope to be able to help them transport supplies over land to PAP from the north and then to aid in distribution on the ground in PAP.

We are very close to securing some amazing material donations such as tarps, ropes and other necessities for some of the millions of Haitians sleeping outdoors right now. As it began to rain last night, five days after the earthquake, we were reminded of the sheer urgency of needs on the ground. It has been frustrating to see the days slipping by while we struggled to set up this response, but we are pleased to report that the points of entry have been established and the coordination is in place to begin mobilizing human and material resources into Haiti.

Coordinating and Collaborating

Since the earthquake, KONPAY has been a leader in building a coordinated response and encouraging collaboration. We are working with many small and mid-size NGOs with decades of Haiti experience to make a rapid and strategic intervention. Our long-term strategies are all similar in that we support the Haitian people and work to empower them to determine their future.

This collaboration is allowing us to pool resources and track down every offer of generosity we can, and we have already moved mountains through the web of interconnected people with love for Haiti in their hearts. Three points of entry into Haiti; land, sea and air routes for transport; headquarters in Santo Domingo; amazing teams of selfless individuals on the ground in Haiti; and diligent professionals and volunteers – all working together to support Haiti now.

Please make a donation to KONPAY to support ongoing efforts at:
http://www.razoo.com/story/Haiti-Earthquake-Emergency-Relief-Campaign

This report prepared by:
Melinda Miles
Executive Director
Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY
www.konpay.org
413-923-8345