Konbit Pou Ayiti

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.

KONPAY’s Joe Duplan submitted an official damage report for our immediate region (Jacmel and its environs) reporting: 34 dead, 1 disappearance, 17 wounded, 8975 damaged homes out which 2697 destroyed, with 978 families in temporary shelter.

Yesterday I sat down with a young woman named Lovely who participates in KONPAY’s Youth for the Development of Cyvadier (JDS) project to talk about the community’s biggest problem right now: hunger. There have been two food distributions since the storms began on August 25. CROSE, a Haitian-run regional organization for the environment based in Jacmel, distributed rice and beans that originated at USAID. The food was enough to last the average Haitian household about one week. KONPAY distributed local corn meal with beans and oil that could be used for three to five days, depending on the number of people eating in the household.

I say household as opposed to family, because the group arranged around the daily meal is frequently much larger than the family who sleeps in the house. At Lovely’s there are usually eleven people who eat together. Before the storms they would eat one meal each day for six days, and on the seventh day there would be no food at all. They weren’t hungry all the time, but it was still difficult. Now there is no food in their house at all. The KONPAY food was distributed early last week and has already been finished.

Thank you to all those who have responded so generously to our emergency appeal. You made it possible for us to act quickly in a time of great need. It is not too late to send a donation – our emergency response is focusing on two great priorities: food and education. In addition to food distribution we will be working with communities to replant fields. Schools are now preparing to open more than a month late, on October 6. KONPAY is visiting area schools to assess needs and assisting families with the tuition expenses for children.

Along with this letter you will find our ambitious vision for rebuilding the Jacmel region stronger than it was before these storms. If you can help with emergency relief or with our efforts to create sustainable solutions, please don’t hesitate to act today!

Thank you in advance,

Melinda Miles