A Helping Hand
Irish charities on the ground in Haiti
By Melissa Turtinen
Originally published in The Irish Emigrant on Jan. 18, 2010
Buildings crushed and smashed together, hospitals leveled, houses destroyed. A capital left in ruins and hundreds of thousands of people unaccounted for, many buried under a horrific landscape of fallen concrete and twisted steel.
That was the scene after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated impoverished Haiti on Jan. 12.
The earthquake was a cruel blow to an already crippled nation. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with over 80 percent of its people living below the poverty line. The nation has consistently struggled with political unrest and brutal natural disasters – but the massive destruction of life and infrastructure from last week’s earthquake will be remarkably difficult to overcome.
The most powerful earthquake recorded in over two centuries in Haiti struck just ten miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital, just before 5 p.m. last Tuesday.
The first 72 hours were the most critical to recover those who could be saved but with debris filled roads and the lack of infrastructure, it was an overwhelming task. Stunned Haitians clawed through rubble with their bare hands. Medical centers were destroyed. Bodies lined the streets while others were buried in mass graves. Hardly anyone was able to contact loved ones to know if they were alive.
Thirty-year-old Haitian native Daler Jean-Louis, who has lived in Boston since 1999, just returned to the US from Haiti two weeks ago and has a number of relatives who have died or have been unaccounted for.
“I have family and friends in Port-au-Prince,” he told The Irish Emigrant. “Some of them are alright, some are wounded and some are dead. I have two cousins that are dead, my grandmother hasn’t been heard from and my aunt has a broken leg. It’s just awful.
“It is a major catastrophe. Pretty much all the houses are destroyed and there are aftershocks happening. I would go back there now to help if I could but people can’t get in and there is little food, water or shelter.”
All over the world, nations have rallied to send help to Haiti. Scores of non-profit organizations, who continue to request badly needed donations, have gathered supplies and people together in the relief effort, but the struggle to get the supplies to the suffering was a daunting challenge.
Several Irish-American non-profit organizations are reaching out to their communities looking for monetary donations to help the Haitians in this devastating time.
Concern Worldwide, founded in Ireland in 1968, has had a team in Haiti since Hurricane Gordon in 1994. Concern helps with emergency relief, community development and disaster prevention. Now the organization has been thrust onto the frontlines of one of the worst natural disasters in recent memory.
Concern is represented in three areas in Haiti – La Gonave, Central Plateau and Port-au-Prince and their immediate response to the earthquake was to get food, water, fuel, medicine and shelter to the people affected. Concern also helped with the search and rescue efforts to reach those trapped and stranded by the earthquake and are continuously assessing the situation in order to respond in the best possible fashion.
“Because we’ve been there so long we have an advantage in having local knowledge, local eyes and ears,” Concern Worldwide’s Communication Officer Joop Koopman told The Irish Emigrant. “[We were able to] quickly assess the damage and determine what the biggest needs will be.”
Communication has been difficult and, at time of going to press, 29 of their staff members were still unaccounted for. On Friday, they were hoping to establish a connection with their emergency coordinator in Haiti, Dominic McSorley – originally from Belfast but living and working for Concern in New York.
“He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth and last Monday,” said Koopman. “We had a little reception for him honoring him for his commitment to humanitarian work. Little did we know two days later he’d be doing precisely that.”
Elke Leiael, who began working in Haiti a few months ago, sent a few text messages to Concern updating them on the initial situation. The reports, unsurprisingly, were awful.
“She told us it was very grim with dead bodies piled up in houses and on the streets,” said Koopman. “They are covered up in plastic sheets, rugs or not covered at all. Through [Friday] at least they were still experiencing some considerable aftershocks [and that’s a] danger for the collapse of structures. People are camping in the streets with no beds, no chairs, nothing. They’re selling water in plastic bags.
“Our biggest challenge is to establish that contact, that solid pipeline of supplies [food, water, medicine, shelter and sanitation],” added Koopman. “We’re busy raising money and putting out appeals. We’re counting on the generosity of people to help us.”
Concern has received spontaneous donations of goods, clothes and blankets. The main need, however, is money. No matter how small the amount, dollars and cents are or paramount importance in affording any charity the flexibility to react successfully to what is still a fluid situation on the ground.
“We are saying to people, if you want to help give us money,” Koopman said.
Another Irish-American non-profit – GOAL USA, the American arm of the charity established in Dublin in 1977 – is also working feverishly to help the people of Haiti. GOAL has teams on the scene and over the coming weeks, they will be providing life saving assistance for some of those in greatest need.
GOAL is looking to enlist civil engineers, doctors, nurses, logisticians and accountants that have experience working in third world conditions. GOAL has pledged an initial $362,000 and is also pleading for financial donations so they can continue their work effectively.
To donate to Concern visit their website at www.concernUSA.org/HaitiAppeal or call 1-800-59-Concern or 212-557-8000. Donations can be made to GOAL USA via their website at www.goalusa.org or by calling 212-831-7420.
