News from Mousson in Haiti about Earthquake Survivors 27 Jan 10
ORE Haiti Earthquake Relief
Camp-Perrin, 27 January 2010
Dear Friends,
First of all, thank you for your generous support and the concern you have expressed during the past 10 days. Thank you also for your patience waiting for news from Haiti.
I can feel your love, and believe me this is as a great a help as your donations. It is difficult to put in words what is going on… so I’ll start with the bare facts of the funding status.
This is where we stand today in regards to the total amount of donations:
| Network for Good | $ 18,898.35 |
| Paypal | $25,729.20 |
| Other | $7,380 |
| Direct Bank wire transfer: | $14,563.16 |
| Total: | $66,570.71 |
This is what has been done so far thanks to you:
A total of 726 people were evacuated from Port-au-Prince
After organizing the first evacuation on January 16th, bringing back 130 people, four more trips were organized between the 17th and the 20th January. A total of 726 people were evacuated from Port-au-Prince – though this figure is still an estimate, as babies and toddlers were not counted, so we are now collecting the final number which will be higher.
Refugee camp in Leogane after the town was virtually demolished
Each trip was an odyssey. The team going into the stricken capital, Daniel, Ploma, Wilson, Ruben, Willio, Manes, Edoine, all came back recounting their horror and disbelief at what they had seen. First on the road driving in as soon as they came to Morne Tapion, a mountain pass, they saw that whole sections of the road had crumbled away and deep holes had been ripped in the asphalt, with trenches along the sides. They were the first to report the devastation of the towns of Petit-Goave and Leogane, on the road to Port-au-Prince. They kept repeating ‘Leogane is no more, it has been flattened!’ We later learnt that the epicenter of the earthquake was indeed at Leogane.
Devastation and death in Port-au-Prince
The rubble in Port-au-Prince
Their stories of driving through Port-au-Prince were all tales of devastation and death. The smell of it, the bodies lining the streets, and later bodies being piled up. Always the smell, telling of bodies decomposing under the crushed houses. Even when the dead had been removed from the streets, the ones trapped inside the collapsed buildings made their presence known. Among our team of ‘rescuers’ there were some who just couldn’t bear to return…
Neighbourhoods set up their camps, 'tent cities', using whatever they could find to erect a home with a minimum of privacy... Solidarity and sharing became the rule of law.
But, by the 18th, new stories were being told… about the resilience of the people. They had set-up their camps, the ‘tent cities’. Everyone was collecting all the scraps they could find to erect some kind of a ‘home’, a place to live with a minimum of decency, to protect their privacy… Bed sheets, any piece of material became a wall, a roof, to make a separation. Solidarity and sharing became the rule of law.
The role of our team was to search for family members of anxious parents, relatives, about whom they had had no news, and to bring them back to Camp Perrin. Also to invite survivors from various neighborhoods to leave Port-au-Prince and join their families and friends in the countryside. The news about the evacuation program rapidly spread by word of mouth: homeless people congregated and waited patiently for the next ride. We set up a meeting point and the trucks and buses stopped there, collecting and bringing back an average of 120 people per trip. By the 18th, we had three vehicles involved, because so many persons had been expressing their wishes to leave Port-au-Prince.
Reaching Camp-Perrin, the drivers would stop at the request of the passengers at our gates (at O.R.E.), announcing their arrival with loud ‘klaxon’ (horn beeping), often dropping of a few people, but above all just stopping by to say thank you… cheering and clapping! Then they were greeted by ecstatic relatives, kissing, hugging, each other, crying together.
They told us their tales, that same evening, the next day and the day after… All the displaced people showed the signs of trauma, all hesitating to enter a house, first checking to see if it was made of concrete. If it was, they wouldn’t go further than the porch, and that was where they slept during the first few nights, and for some that is still where they sleep, a week later. After oversleeping well into late morning, a rare feast for them… then they began to have a different look on their faces, realizing that they were miraculously alive, feeling so grateful and thankful to God. Often they become thoughtful, remembering their losses, the sisters, brothers, cousins, friends.
Many had returned to their families, and their families welcomed in their friends and neighbors from Port-au-Prince. No one wanted to join a refugee camp. The traditional hospitality was in place and no one refused to accommodate a guest!
However, the situation of people still staying in Port-au-Prince is very critical for many – especially those who are not on the main aid circuits, and are not receiving the help they need. We were directly solicited for help through Makil, our ‘messenger’ for O.R.E. in Port-au-Prince: to help three camps in the badly hit in neighborhood of Turgeau, which is close by his base (his former home).
Food for families in refugee camps in Port-au-Prince
Truck being loaded at ORE with food supplies for Port-au-Prince
There is a real urgency to help people in Port-au-Prince find food. Food is still available in Camp-Perrin although prices have increased dramatically. But it is available fairly abundantly, specially the local staple foods. So a plan was formed to help those communities who were isolated and desperate in Port-au-Prince. This effort is starting with our first delivery tomorrow. The last four days we’ve been busy preparing the corn grit and corn flour; buying and packaging the rice, locally grown beans, selecting yams and avocados.
Yams to be sent to refugees in the camps in Port-au-Prince
Among the workers involved with this, are many faces from the Port-au-Prince exodus, who are already integrated in the work force, lending a hand to help the ones left behind in the capital. The food will be sent to 160 families (based on an average of 5 persons per family). The rations sent should last two weeks. They consist of 7.5 kg of rice, 2.5 kg of corn grits, 2,5 kg of beans, together with a quantity of yams and avocados.
Corn grits for refugees being prepared at ORE
In Camp-Perrin we are offering food to the following groups: to the hospital of St Anne, to 26 kids who are all survivors from a orphanage which was destroyed in Port-au-Prince who were evacuated and are now staying in a church in Camp-Perrin – because the supplies they came with have run out and there is no support yet from their parish. Also a latest group of 11 refugees whose friends in Camp-Perrin could not host them as they already have 10 relatives recently returned from Port-au-Prince staying in their house.
26 kids, survivors from a orphanage which was destroyed in Port-au-Prince
Looking after the orphans from Port-au-Prince
Our relief program is in fact part of a larger combined effort, involving the community and many other entities. So far, all together we’ve been able to do the following:
- A total of some 1,500 people were evacuated from Port-au-Prince by other institutions: the local community bank (CAPOSAC), an agricultural mechanization workshop (AECP) and individual business initiatives.
- We have also secured the collaboration of the Ministry of Health through services provided at the small hospital in Camp-Perrin, Sainte Anne – with a capacity of 20 beds, a laboratory for basic tests, and with dressing facilities. A requisition for emergency supplies from the regional general hospital in Les Cayes was processed the same day it was submitted. (Les Cayes is the regional capital, 20 km from Camp-Perrin). To date, 4 patients were hospitalized, one was transferred to Cayes for further treatment and one died, and about 35 were treated for minor wounds.
Evacuees receive medical attention at the local hospital
Evacuees recovering at the local hospital
- The Les Cayes Rotary Club is also providing medicine as well as clothing. This is great boon as most refugees came with only the clothes they were wearing on the day of the earthquake.
- The Minustah, UN mission in Haiti, is still in the planning stages as their coordination is on a very large scale. But we have submitted a request for tents and lodging infrastructures if we have to set-up camps later, as the flow of refugees coming into the area grows.
All the survivors have a story to tell and I marvel at their resilience. And I want to share with you their expressions of gratitude. They have experienced such relief, being helped to escape… to escape the weight of the horror, the discomfort, having to sleeping outside, with no access to basic necessities, fearing every noise, terrified again and again by each of the repeated aftershocks.
The last group to arrive in Camp-Perrin had no ties to anywhere in Haiti apart from Port-au-Prince. But Port-au-Prince was utterly unbearable, so they called a friend, Smith, in Camp-Perrin and told him ‘we are coming!’ They set out walking, and eventually got a ride on a truck only to have it break down on the way. It was getting dark and they were stuck in the countryside. They had no idea where they were, and even the name of the village didn’t mean anything to them. As they said, ‘we had no idea what to expect from the provinces.’ But they found hospitality, they were welcomed in to spend that night at a nuns’ home. Food and beds were provided for all 13 of them. But they were determined to reach Camp-Perrin. With no more money, they called their friend again. Smith could not offer them a place to stay, as he himself had escaped Port-au-Prince with 5 of his siblings, returning to his own family, now all living their small very overcrowded home. So when we received his request for help, we sent for them – and arranged for them to be guests at the EFACAP school… and one tiny four-month old baby, Anne Coralie, has such a beautiful smile that she has already conquered the hearts of neighboring well-wishers.
Their thanks are all for you… who have made this relief possible, who are making it possible for more relief to be offered during this uncertain period, lifting from their minds the worry of the basic necessities: health, food, shelter, clothing.
Yves-Lyze and her children who escaped against all odds
A special thanks to you from Yves-Lyze and her 3 kids (1, 4 and 6 years old) who survived against all odds, their home at the second floor crumbling around them and under their feet, escaping through their bathroom window to the roof of the next door house. She is mourning the loss of her sister-in-law who lived a floor below. Thanks from a fragile Ludgie who had gone to live with her aunt, who had 4 daughters and a son, to attend business school; sadly, Ludgie is now the sole survivor of that household.
Thanks also from Joane who had to search for her 5 year-old in the rubble, pulling out many bodies who looked the same age as her son, digging with her bare hands, going through every pile of bodies in her street, until she finally discovered him alive. Now, one day after arriving in Camp Perrin, they are sleeping soundly, despite their recent memories. Joane said: ‘We, the survivors all became strong in an instant, we ignored the horror we were seeing, we were filled with a sudden surge of energy, looking for our loved ones. I never knew I had that strength inside me.’
Evacuees recovering in Camp Perrin
Peace and tranquillity far from the horrors of Port-au-Prince
Thanks from Marie Michele, Josie, Mirline, Melissa, Kenley, Osner, Sherline, Tatoune, Viviane, Magalie, Astride, Dieuseul, Islande, Claudine, Patricia, Samantha, Jonel, Sedene, Valencia, Nadine, Sergo, Carole, Schecania, Emeraude, Rita, Alourdes, Odette, Romual, Jordany, Manoucheka… and so many more…
Thank you all and God bless!
Dr Mousson Pierre Finnigan
Directeur Général ORE
(509) 3758 7565
click here to download a pdf version of this letter
Themocracy
It is wonderful to read this very moving, yet so very real account of such a major tragedy… and to feel that the help being given is making a big difference, person by person, in a practical way. There is nothing impersonal about this kind of relief effort, the help is going directly to those in need.
Clearly, real and effective help is being given by people who understand the needs of the earthquake victims and the conditions on the ground. There is no “learning curve” for this effort on the part of ORE. Your work providing shelter and food is essential and provides immediate relief to those you are able to reach and who are able to reach you. God bless and God speed.
I’ve just read Mousson’s moving tho’ harrowing report. Hearing of people’s response is inspiring. Impossible to really imagine, but her account speaks eloquently of what conditions are like. Her postings are so real that I feel that many would like to read them if they only knew of their existence. Disasters soon disappear from the media, while the real story and tragedy continues to unfold. And it’s good to know that help given goes straight to the people who need it.
YOU LIVE OUTSIDE HAITI AND WANT TO HELP with Haiti’s relief efforts but don’t know how? Here’s a suggestion – get art donations or any donations in kind and host a fund-raising party or have a friend with a big house host it. Donate the funds raised from the sales to a Haitian grass-roots organization – they needs the funds as much as the international organizations and it’s more direct and person to person, not anonymous. My personal choice is http://www.oreworld.org. I’m having two such fund raisers this Sunday.
Mousson’s letter is a wonderful document to read to your guests and get them interested in Haiti and in ORE’s relief efforts. Let’s not keep it for ourselves, let’s share it with our friends and neighbors. This is the kind of words that will move people to give.
Mousson and friends, your letters are just so powerful and wonderful. I love the transparency and the way you guys work. It just think is great that Haitian products are feeding the hungry in PaP. God Bless you!
In this tragedy is comforting to see how we as human being make an effort to help each other.
This event requires a continous effort supported by love.
A refuge…those are the words that struck me. Away from the nightmare of Port-au-Prince. The hugs, the gratitude that came from those rescued to the caregivers providing this safe haven at Camp Perrin. We all want to help. Let’s keep helping. They’ll need us for a long time to come. Remember the Joni Mitchell song? “And the circle is unbroken…life goes on and on and on in the circle game.” We receive, we give…Our turn to help now. Let’s keep giving, our time, funds, love… Love experienced in action.
Nothing is more important after a trauma such as an earthquake than feeling personally and compassionately cared for. You are providing an example that is heart warming and that should receive all possible support.
Mostly I had only heard over the years through media about the lawlessness, crime and danger in Port-au-Prince. It’s definitely heartwarming to hear first hand accounts of the height love and cooperation springing up like a fountain from the hearts of those in the midst of such tragedy. “Bed sheets, any piece of material became a wall, a roof, to make a separation. Solidarity and sharing became the rule of law.” How can we not support this effort?
Thank you for your good work, I was so glad I was able to donate to an organization that had it’s roots in the country, and is working for long term help for the people of Haiti.
(Sean’s American cousin)
Thank you OREWorld and all of your volunteers for helping the people of Haiti. I am thinking of you and so glad you are getting the help you need from someone like Mousson Pierre who knows the country well and needs of the people. It has broken my heart to see the devasation, but inspired me and given me hope, as well to see the perserverance and tenacity of the survivors. Haiti will continue to need help for years to come, if there is anything else I can do besides send a few American dollars, please don’t hesitate to ask. I am so thankful for your efforts and support your foundation. Thank God, for the Peace and Tranquility far away from the horrors of Port Au Prince, as you final picture shows. God Bless Haiti, Love, Your Friend, Margo
Our hearts go out to you all. We see and read about the massive loss of life and destruction in Haiti and want to help. To have you there on the ground, to receive first-hand news and to be kept in touch brings us closer to the wonderful efforts that are being made. You are an inspiration to us all, thank you.
Mousson,
It is very moving to read about the earthquake relief efforts the team at ORE is making in the face of this devastating disaster. You have given a human face to the suffering and the efforts to help. I have forwarded your newsletter to several friends and hope they respond….
God bless you for your work …Miriam
To my dear Mousson and all of the wonderful giving people at ORE, I check your web site and this blog eagerly everyday for news. Your accounts are so moving in the way they tell the many stories, blow by blow as they happened. It feels so intimate. I almost feel like I am there. Despite all the tremendous horror and loss, the joy you describe of the grafefullness of the refugees arriving to sanctuary in country-side of Camp Perrin brings tears to my ears and puts hope in my heart. I wish I could do more than just send funds. Will keep the word going about ORE. God bless you all and much much love, Andi
Mousson. Thank you for taking the time to write this. Sean told me he is planning a trip in Feb. I will not join him on that one since I am in UK. Hope to make it in March. Camp Perrin is looking like heaven, not only to the refugees, but to all of us watching from the outside. The love shines through!
Take care of yourself.
Love
Diana
The Floridians are all running around today and tomorrow hoping to ship 2.5 Tons of clothes, bedding, healthcare items and hygiene items to ORE. The items will go out on a DC-3 flown by Mission Flights. Most of the items have been collected by various charities. When we go out to purchase items and folks hear what it is for, we keep getting big discounts or contributions of items. A tourist shop that recently closed just gave hundreds of brand new shirts. What a wonderful privilege it is to be able to help such a wonderful organization.
Dear Ray, thank you for telling me about the generosity and the spontaneous reaction of people to want to contribute at every level. It so great, your dedication, from all of you to make this possible. Your insistence is what we need to keep us from lowering our arms when we see the magnitude of the task ahead.
We will keep at it, one step at a time, bringing some solace to the people who from one minute to the next saw their whole life turn upside down and cannot even start thinking about a future.
much love, Mousson
Mousson,
My heart, thoughts, and prayers are with you and all the citizens of Haiti. You are not forgotten here in the Pacific Northwest. I’m getting the word out about ORE to as many people as I can. Thank God for the internet. Keep writing sister and we will keep spreading the word!
May the Lord keep showering His Grace!…..Jim F.
Chère Mousson,
Je remercie Internet, grâce à lui, j’ai enfin de vos nouvelles. J’ai vécu ce séisme en ne cessant de penser à vous (toi, Edoine et tout le peuple Haïtien) cependant j’avais une grande confiance, car je savais que vous n’étiez pas seule à lutter. Quelle joie de lire ces témoignages pleins d’amour. Toujours aussi nulle en anglais, je n’ai pas compris message audio, mais j’ai juste écouter le son de ta voix. Bonne continuation et bon courage. Je vous embrasse. Jocelyne.
Dear Mousson, Thanks so much for helping all the people of Port-au-Prince. I am so glad for your update, and your continued hard work. I knew you would not forget the Haitians, that are left there devastated, long after everyone else is gone. Again, thanks for all your hard work, getting, the people to your countryside, and providing them, with food, shelter, medical attention, and support. God Bless Haiti, Your Friend, Margo M. and, I am sending a few more American dollars… Love and Peace.
Jocelyne, Quelle bonne surprise de te retrouver. Nous allons bien, Edoine et moi. Nos zones n’ont pas ete touchees. Naturellement, nous avons tous ete affectes par les consequences du seisme. Nous continuons nos efforts pour aider autant que possible directement quelques familles. Merci de tes bonnes pensees. Je transmettrai de tes nouvelles a Edoine. J’espere qu’on aura l’occasion de se revoir.