TIME: The Money We Give to Quake Victims Could Be Better Spent Before Disaster

ccrphaiti.org

website updates: http://ccrphaiti.org/

CCRP TO CREATE AND DISTRIBUTE MENTAL HEALTH GUIDE

CCRP volunteer extrodinare Leslie Schroeder is working overtime to write us a quick reference guide to mental health for the survivors of the earthquake. These guides will be translated into Creole and distributed throughout the camps of Port au Prince and other localities with large refugee populations.

Mental health awareness and care is greatly lacking if not almost non-existent in Haiti and with the undeniable impact of the death of 350 000 Haitians in less than 30 seconds the need for such information is inexpicable.

A trained crisis counselor and Winnipeg based social worker, Leslie has been spending all of her spare time consulting with Haitian diaspora, other professionals, reading books and World Health Organization guidelines and gathering cultural context to meet her self imposed deadline of July 5 and to produce a small concise and simple guide which can help raise awareness of the mental health challenges survivors face.

In a few weeks, she will be getting on a plane and flying down to Port au Prince to see first hand the challenges of the situation and to conduct a feasibility study into training small clusters of youth on basic mental health support so that they can share this expertise with community, family and friends.

It is physically and logistically impossible to address the mental health needs of literally MILLIONS of survivors and we hope that these guides can assist in promoting a culture of community self help and mutual support.

We are looking at total initial project costs of between 2000 and 3000 US dollars which will cover printing and distribution of thousands of copies of our mental health guide. Any help in rasisng these funds, or contributions would be greatly appreciated. Please contact us at ccrphaiti@gmail.com.

OUR FIRST COMMUNITY SCHOOL PROJECT IS OFF THE GROUND!

About 20 kilometers or one rough motorcycle ride into the hills from St Marc, we have contacted and assembled a community based collective to support in the building of their first community school. Approximately 90% of the kids in this area have not gone to school and have no locally based hope for education.

Just over a week ago, we held a community meeting at which were assembled approximately 50 community members (not including those who came late due to world cup). We explained to them the requirements for collaboration and the brilliant community building model set forth by Winnipeg based Haitian school teacher Alix Jean Paul. The community was immediately receptive and has set forth fulfilling their part of the agreed obligations.

They are forming themselves into a legal organization, assigning roles and creating a considerable volunteer base. They are working towards acquiring the land on which the school will be built. They are putting volunteers in place for acquiring and securitizing building materials. They are also organizing the structures and ways in which the teachers will be selected, hired and paid.

This community structure will allow them not only to build a sustainable educational institution but will also provide an experiential base on which they can grow and develop their community in the way that they, as community members see fit. This structure will also allow for a situation in which our school cannot be co-opted for the eventual profit of a few people, but rather can enrich the community for the forseeable future through education and community solidarity.

It is inevitable that the community will be able to fulfill their part of the deal and it is now incumbent of CCRP to fulfill our part. Through grant writing and direct outreach, we are seeking to raise between 35000 and 50000 USD dollars in order to obtain the building materials and expertise necessary to erect the school. Various CCRP members will be working full time filling out government, CIDA and various private foundation grants in order to provide the base resources upon which the school will be established. Any donations earmarked for this project will go 100% towards the building of this school and any help any Canadian community member can offer with fundraising, grants etc…. will be greatly appreciated.

In order to rebuild Haiti –comme il faut- it will be important that opportunities such as education are available outside of the capital region. This way young people will not have to leave their homes to crowd into dangerously built Port au Prince neighbourhoods. In many ways, this very migration was a key factor in the massive death toll of the Jan 12 earthquake. This school in St Marc is hopefully only the beginning of many projects which will help ensure a repeat of the catastrophic death toll does not occur.

Sister Mary update

We returned to visit sister Mary Zinnick at the Matthew 13 house in Port Au Prince. Her operation has expanded admirably. There are currently more than 1200 people living in a tent city in her back yard. She has established a community school with a playground, composting toilets and clean bathroom facilities. She has also made several small business loans and is helping members of her community to reestablish their own economic activity so to sustain themselves once again. A more impressive independent operation cannot be found in Port Au Prince.

There is however, a considerable downside. Many of the foreign organizations that were originally helping her fail to see the immediacy of her need and many are no longer forthcoming with their support. She tells us that World Vision showed up some weeks ago promising support but she had not heard from them since. She tells us that Catholic Relief Services have also withdrawn support, at least for the time being. Matthew 13 house is in dire need of material resource support. Sister Mary says that feeding the people living with her is a dicey proposition at best and she is unable to provide for them in the manner that is required. She needs money, she needs food and she needs other resources as well.

We are therefore taking up her cause and are responding two fold. First off, we are attempting to find her support here in Haiti. We will, as we are able to locate them (once again a dicey proposition) be approaching the various large organizations in an attempt to procure for her the material resources required to meet the immediate needs of her community. We are trying to find the Haiti headquarters of organizations such as the Red Cross and Oxfam, even, once again, World Vision to try and bring to bear some of the already existing resources that have been allocated for relief. In our eyes, she is doing so much that she should be entitled to such help. Secondly, we will be reaching out directly to North American communities for donations which we will be channeling directly, in whole, to Sister Mary. If you are able to help and wish to make a donation directly to Sister Mary please contact us by email at ccrphaiti@gmail.org. Next time we visit we will be compiling a list of needs for her organization and any help YOU can be in obtaining these resources will be greatly appreciated. This is NOT the same as Red Cross donations, here, your money and resources will have a direct, crucial impact in helping this community to recover from the devastation of the Jan 12 earthquake. Any donations will be brought to bear within less than two weeks of donation date.

Haitian Organization

There are many barriers to successfully working as a foreign NGO in Haiti, some of which are due to not having an obvious local organizational and legal infrastructure to conduct business in the country. There is also the future potential for problems in accessing funds that were raised in Canada, if the organizational structure and the majority of the board of the CCRP are not in country, as will temporarily be the case at the end of this year.

To overcome these barriers and to ensure that all work in Haiti is clearly Haitian-led, the CCRP is currently in the process of establishing a Haitian non-profit that will be responsible for all of the CCRP’s Haitian activities, and will be directed by a board constituted of a Haitian majority.

The creation of this organization will be a big step in our work in Haiti, as the mandate of the organization will then be recognized by the Haitian government, and the accountability of the organization will officially be in the hands of the Haitian people who are working with the CCRP.

Getting Around

Travelling in this country is like nothing we have ever experienced before. Slow and difficult does not even begin to explain it. Getting anywhere is a chore. There are numerous was of traveling about the city and countryside, all which are inconsistent and unreliable if you do not have your own means of transportation. You can hop on the back of a motor bike or an unmarked rundown van or car which are used as taxis. Public transit vehicles are called Tap-Taps, they are small Toyota pick-up trucks with benches built on to either side of the box that people rush to claim a spot in, cramming in and sitting on each other’s laps along busy streets. Some Tap-Taps are similarly appointed larger trucks which would otherwise be used for hauling. Tap-Taps do not run on any specific schedule, but follow a specific route (marked in paint on their doors) that would lead you to an area where you could access another after a bit of a walk. These vehicles are all rundown and creaky, threatening to fall apart as they navigate the numerous holes and cracks in the road, expelling black exhaust as they go. Getting around this way is highly time consuming. It took us six hours to get to a bank that was actually working, walking long distances down dirty streets in the blistering heat and hopping in various taxis and tap-taps.

To get across the country from one city to another you hop on one of these forms of transport making your way slowly across the city with long waits for the next vehicle to arrive, or walking long distances to the next route one travels. You make your way across the crowed rubble strewn city to the edges of places like Cite de Soleil where old school busses wait to transport you from one place to another. The busses wait there till they are full, with 3 people to a single bench seat. Cramped, hot and sweaty, you travel across the county with windows down so you can breathe, the bus zooming by slower vehicles constantly honking the horn to let other vehicles and pedestrians know they are barreling through. When it rains, you put up the window, unless of course the window is broken, in which case you sit and smile while rain whips you in the face. Entertainment is provided by onboard vendors, inevitably of personal grooming supplies and supplements, who banter ceaselessly in Creole, only sometimes gaining enough of passenger’s attentions to illicit a response. A day’s travel in country without a private vehicle is hard work.