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.

According to World Bank President Robert Zoellick, Haiti suffered $1 billion in damages. However, United Nations agencies requested only $107 million in emergency hurricane relief. So far only 40% of this amount has been pledged by UN member states. The World Food Program estimated that 500,000 people have been left homeless and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 2.3 million Haitians are desperately in need of food aid.

The first deaths from famine occurred in a place called Baie d’Orange. Baie d’Orange is a large area in the commune of Belle Anse, which is part of the southeast department. It lies to the east of Jacmel, along the coast and in the mountains. The area is not far but it is very difficult to reach and therefore was not visited by food distribution teams after the hurricanes. When I read the news about the deaths there, the KONPAY team moved as quickly as possible to respond to the crisis.

Our U.S. Coordinator, Elise Hansen, quickly checked through our remaining hurricane relief funds and earmarked a generous $5,000 donation from Ms. Connie Gamm in Wichita, Kansas to buy food to distribute immediately. It was already Friday night and too late to go to the bank here in Jacmel, and Saturday was the holiday for the Vodou spirit Gede. As a result we couldn’t even access money from Western Union sooner than Monday. But we couldn’t ignore the urgency of people dying that very day from hunger, in a place we knew we could get to. So we gathered every penny of personal and KONPAY money we could find in the safe and our pockets, and bought hundreds of dollars worth of food. KONPAY staff Guypson Catalis and Joe Duplan headed out to Marigot to charter a boat to take the Baie d’Orange the very next morning, and planned a trip to the market to buy some first phase food to deliver, including spaghetti, rice, oil and milk for children suffering from malnutrition.

On their first visit, Guypson and Joe arrived by boat in the village on the coast but did not climb into the more desperate community in the mountains above. One week later, Guypson was able to return via truck and hike with a local guide to visit the homes of those most directly and deeply affected by the famine. He returned to the office late Sunday night after visiting there, looking more tired and sad than I have seen him before. This is what he told me:

When we arrived we were at a Medecins San Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) tent on the mountaintop to treat the sickest of the children and elderly. But they built the tent right out on the top of the mountain, and the sun shines on it all day making the children even sicker. When I visited there was no MSF staff there and no food had been distributed in the last few days. I learned that there had been politics at play in the distribution of food. Some people were able to get food more than once, while others never received any. The biggest problem is the distance from the distribution point to the homes of those most in need.

The children who live in the mountains are dying of malnutrition. It was so hard to see them like that, their stomachs all big and hard, their hair turning orange. To get to the worst areas you have to climb a mountain and then down a mountain again, because the people live in the valley. Their houses are along the hillsides here and there. You walk along under the trees and when you think you’ve gone in a circle and are about to come out in the same place, another house appears.

Here the water is very dirty. I saw women washing the laundry in water that looked like it was filled with mud. The children are dying, like this boy whose bones are all showing (photo at right). It was so hard to be there, seeing the people living and dying this way.

Guypson took a lot of photos of the area. Some, like the one below, show how barren the land is. There are very few trees on the hillsides and the only things that grow are food for livestock. Down below, the people’s houses are under avocado and orange trees, but there are no breadfruit trees or other food. We decided to ask the local Haitian authorities if there was any way they could assist us with the transportation of the food we are preparing to deliver to the community. We have two 4x4 vehicles, but neither is appropriate for this kind of distribution. The response was shocking - they would not lend us any vehicle to help deliver the desperately needed food. We pooled more money to rent a truck yesterday, and Joe is distributed the food in Baie d'Orange today. The food was purchased from local farmers as possible, and supplemented with cooking oil and other necessities.

This strategy will only help people for a short time, and the need is long-term. We will be using another generous donation, from Fr. Bill Leonard at St Judes in Waltham, Massachusetts, to quickly pursue three goals:

1. To plant moringa seedlings and sweet potatoes in a community garden/orchard. Both will produce food in two and half months.
2. To bring a small group of community members to the Youth for the Development of Cyvadier (JDS) tree nursery to receive training in how to build and maintain a tree nusery, and work with them to start a nursery on site with the community garden in Baie d’Orange.
3. Purchase livestock such as chickens, pigs and cows. Distribute the animals to families in need with the condition that they donate one of the offspring to another family in the community once the animals are mature.

Haiti KONPAY is committed to building sustainable solutions. We are individuals like you, who feel compelled to respond to the crisis here in Haiti, and we thank you for your support. It is your generosity that made it possible for us to spring into action in response to the famine in our region. It is your donation today that can bring the hope of long-lasting solutions to more people in Jacmel and throughout Haiti. Please give generously if you can! Click here to donate - Thank you!