Konbit Pou Ayiti

It has been a week and a half since the first reported deaths from starvation here in post-hurricane Haiti. Although most of the world has moved on from the tragic stories of the four powerful storms that thrashed Haiti in August and September, Haitians certainly have not. In Gonaives, people are still living on the roofs of homes that are covered in mud. In the south and southeast, hunger that was once a part of daily life is now becoming famine as people struggle and fail to rebuild lives that were already fragile before the storms.

It was really raining in Cayes-Jacmel while I sat in the parking lot, waiting for nineteen-year old Nisley to get two x-rays. In the morning, as we were pulling out of my driveway onto the Route de Cyvadier, we collided with Nisley on his motorcycle. At the end of the driveway there is always a crowd of men, and this is for three reasons: first, there is a lottery place on the corner. Second, there is a wall low enough to sit on and watch the traffic going by. Third, there is a public water fountain across the street. It is always difficult to pull onto the road there, and the crowd of idle spectators makes it even harder to see if anyone is coming.

IN THIS REPORT:
- World Bank President Visits Haiti and Says Debt Could be Cancelled by Mid-2009
- Indian Police Join UN Peacekeeping Mission
- Haiti's Environmental Crisis
- MSF Denounces Inefficient Emergency Response in Gonaïves
- UN Envoy to Haiti Warns that Ignoring Plight of Haitians Could Lead to Social Unrest
- UN Security Council Extends Mandate of Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti
- US Conference of Catholic Bishops Calls for Temporary Protective Status for Haitians
- New York Times Editorial: Grant Temporary Protective Status to Haitians in the US

World Bank President Visits Haiti and Says Debt Could be Cancelled by Mid-2009:

17 September 2008: Letter of Appreciation to those responsible for KONPAY, Headquarters in Cyvadier
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

We who live in the village of Oban take our hats off to acknowledge the humanitarian gesture KONPAY made for the people of Oban. Your humanitarian gesture made all of us understand what kind of people run KONPAY; competent people who really comprehend the situation.

The flooding is happening again tonight. It is only 6:25pm, but it has been dark here along the coast near Jacmel, Haiti since 4pm. It started raining heavily in the early afternoon, in time for the kids to go out and run around in it for a half an hour. Before it began, the thunder rolled across the sky, bouncing off the mountains.

It has been a week since I returned to Haiti, and today the ocean is perfect and calm. But here in the Jacmel region, you can see the wounds left by the recent string of bad weather – two hurricanes and two powerful tropical storms in a three-week period. There are fields filled with water and broken plantain trees. There are landslides across the roads in the mountains, and rivers have broken through the streets along the coast. The ocean has been brown since I arrived and there is a new sound at the Cyvadier Bay and in many locations throughout the coastal plain – it is the sound of rushing water, still pouring down out of Haiti’s saturated mountains.

Friends,
We just received this updated report from Joe Duplan, of Haiti KONPAY, who has been on the ground and was in Jacmel when the first hurricane (Gustav) hit last week. We have heard responses from some of you, and we thank you for your generosity. As you may have heard, the situation in the country remains dire and the death count has now exceeded 500. Below Joe's brief summary of the damages to the Jacmel region is the latest report from the New York Times about the situation in Gonaives.

REBUILD A VILLAGE

Haiti is the country in this region that is least able to weather a storm of any size. Even just a hard rain can result in death and destruction. Over the last week, two major storms hit Haiti. Hurricane Gustav was a Category Two hurricane when it made ground in Jacmel, bringing ninety mile per hour winds and pounding rain to the area. At the beginning of this week, Hurricane Hanna took a second swipe at the island, leaving the towns of Gonaives and Les Cayes underwater.