The long road to recovery in Haiti: Some close-ups
Wednesday, July 28, 2010

In northern Haiti, members of a community-based group began a feeding program for those displaced by the January 12 earthquake. In the southern coastal city of Jacmel, a group of disaster survivors banded together and moved onto the grounds of a local church. And in Port-au-Prince, a woman who gave birth to her infant son twelve days after the quake wondered what she would do next.

The feeding program in Petite Riviere continues, though with fewer numbers. Photo: Catianne Tijerina/ACT

By Chris Herlinger

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – In northern Haiti, members of a community-based group began a feeding program for those displaced by the January 12 earthquake. In the southern coastal city of Jacmel, a group of disaster survivors banded together and moved onto the grounds of a local church. And in Port-au-Prince, a woman who gave birth to her infant son twelve days after the quake wondered what she would do next.

These were some of the Haitians I met in January and February, immediately after the disaster, and it seemed appropriate to try to find them when I recently returned to Haiti and perhaps measure some of the changes in Haiti during the intervening months.

How are they doing? What are they doing? What are their plans for the future? Here is an update, based on recent travels in Haiti.

1) In Petite Riviere, in the northern department of Artibonite, community members with ties to local ACT Alliance partners, including long-time Church World Service partner Service Chretien d'Haiti, continue a feeding program based at several local radio stations, an important source of information, solidarity and community support in rural Haiti.

However, the feeding program has been cut back both because only a portion of those  who initially moved from Port-au-Prince -– estimates ranged from as high as 8,000 to as low as 3,000 -– now remain in Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite. Many have returned to the capital, where accessing humanitarian aid (such as cash-for-work programs) is easier and where many family members remained after the quake.

In February, about 500 meals were served daily at the community-based sites; now the program in Petite Riviere, has been cut back to two or three times a week.

On the day I recently revisited Radio Family, one of the local radio stations, community members involved in the program said lowered numbers of participants were one reason the program was scaled back. The other reason was that it was simply difficult to sustain community support at the same levels, especially given Petite Riviere's own long-term struggles with securing enough food for many of its residents.

"We're in great need of food here," said Sama Odmarc, a teacher and journalist.

Odmarc and others explained that the region, a rice-growing area, has had problems for years, including the importation of rice from the United States, which has put pressure on local producers. Farmers have also faced problems in securing credit to buy basics such as fertilizer. And credit itself is too costly. "Before they (farmers) harvest, they have to pay back their loans," said retired agronomist Nicolas Altidor. Not enough has been done, he said, to diversify crops, something that is needed, as the local diet – centered on rice, corn meal, sweet potatoes and millet – is not sufficient in protein.

Among the things needed in Petite Riviere, Altidor said, is support for farmers in the form of fertilizer and reasonable credit. Without these things, pressures will continue to drive people out of rural areas and into already-too-crowded Port-au-Prince. "People don't really want to stay in Port-au-Prince," he said. "But there's still a feeling that you can make money there, unlike here in the provinces."

2) In the southern coastal city of Jacmel, work by ACT Alliance member Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe and local partners has kept several displacement camps open and running, with noticeable efforts underway to repair and rebuild homes. Less noticeable: smaller, initial efforts to assist so-called members of groupes solidarités, or solidarity groups, who did not want to move into displacement camps.

One of the solidarity groups had been staying in and around the grounds of Jacmel's Wesleyan Methodist Church, with initial support from local ACT partners. When I saw the grounds in February, the tarps and canvas being used looked tattered and ragged, and the area itself seemed disorderly, at least compared to the more formally organized displacement camps. But when I saw it recently, the church grounds looked more orderly; classes were being held in a school tent, and nicer tents (provided by local Jacmel authorities) had replaced the older, worn-out material to protect residents from the elements.

Still, much about the community's life together remained unsettled.

Community leader Francilaire Jeudi of Jacmel. "It's been hard to keep up," he said about maintaining his local community solidarity group. Photo: Catianne Tijerina/ACT

Francilaire Jeudi, one of the community members, told me that the numbers of those staying at the site had dropped from 400 to 150, with some deciding they would rather go it alone, returning to their homes or going to other areas.

"It's been hard to keep up," he said about maintaining the community solidarity group, in part because, as is often the case during relief operations, food assistance in the initial "emergency phase" had ended. (A July 11 report by the Toronto-based Globe and Mail also said the community had splintered into different factions, with some from the splinter group unhappy with the solidarity community's leadership. Those dissatisfied eventually left the church grounds and are now living down the street at another site.)

Jeudi stressed that the school classes were for the wider community, and that 15 children from the solidarity community living on the church grounds were attending classes.

Jeudi said long-term concerns remained, including worries about food and the need for jobs; some in the solidarity community had received cash-for-work assistance, but others had not and were just barely getting by.

He was among those still looking for a job. "I have to work," Jeudi said.

3) In the Belair neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, I tried to find Marie Sylsalve. She had given birth to her son, McAnley, 12 days after the earthquake, having failed to find her husband, Andre. The couple's home was destroyed and Sylsalve presumed her husband was killed in the quake; she saw a wall fall on him. When I met her in late January, Sylsalve, who had worked as a vendor and was living at a displacement site in the Belair neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, was thinking about how best to support herself, her infant son and three other children.

The displacement site, supported with humanitarian assistance from the ACT Alliance, had a long association with the Brazilian organization Viva Rio, which in turn had received support from ACT members in Port-au-Prince, including Norwegian Church Aid.

When I visited recently, the tent area where Sylsalve and others lived was gone; Viva Rio staffer Berdine Edmond said that 400 families, including presumably Sylsalve and her children, had stayed through April 10, almost three months to the day after the quake.

Viva Rio told the families it needed to reclaim the space, including for its programs for children. "Most have returned to where they lived before or have moved to other camps," Edmond said, noting that cooperation and trust between the temporary residents and the ACT-supported NGO was, and remained, good, with Vivo Rio always making clear that staying on its grounds was to be temporary. But the relationships formed between residents and Viva Rio were not temporary: Many of the one-time residents are still enrolled, for example, in Viva Rio's pediatric health program – a program whose participants have included, among others, Marie Sylsalve and her son, McAnley.

This is the fourth of a series of stories by CWS staffer Chris Herlinger focusing on the first six months of ACT Alliance recovery work in Haiti.

How to help

Contributions to support recovery work in Haiti may be made online or by phone (800.297.1516), or may be sent to your denomination or to Church World Service, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515. 

  Church World Service is a member of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of churches and agencies engaged in development, humanitarian assistance and advocacy.

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526, jdragin@gis.net

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