Haiti Dispatch: Listening to Locals
As I arrived in Port-au-Prince just before the one month anniversary of the earthquake, I was surprised by the sense of normalcy in the streets. At first glance, it seemed like people everywhere were going about their business, the tap-taps loaded down with passengers and goods, the timachann (small merchants) lining the sidewalks and crowding the intersections with their baskets of fruits and vegetables. Of course, this was all happening against a never-ending backdrop of rubble and destroyed buildings, some of them with signs announcing that there were still dead bodies inside, but it was happening nonetheless. Once I thought about it for a second, it occurred to me I shouldn’t be all that shocked that the residents of the capital city were going on with their lives. Perhaps because life is a struggle for the majority of Haitians on a good day, here it was only a month after one of the most devastating natural disasters of our times, and in some ways, life in Port-au-Prince was a lot like I remembered it from the last time I was there.
That initial feeling quickly gave way to the realization that those who were hustling were doing so because they had no choice. Not only had almost everyone I spoke to either lost family members or friends, and likely their house, but invariably they said that they had no adequate shelter, and weren’t getting enough to eat. Most of those on the streets were doing what they always did: trying to survive.
I heard story after story of the losses people have endured, as well as amazing stories of survival. Most people’s stories are some combination of the two. Take my friend, Getro Nelio, for instance. Getro was in his family’s apartment building when the earthquake struck, and the building collapsed. Somehow he was relatively unscathed, and quickly set about locating his father who had also been in the building. But when he found him, he saw that although he was still alive, his head had been crushed by debris and he was surely going to die. Getro then decided to leave his father so that he could help others. He ended up pulling 22 others out of the wreckage alive. And now, he and his surviving family members are in the middle of the soccer stadium, struggling to find enough to eat and getting soaked every time it rains.
As is the case after many natural disasters, there has been some discussion about how humanitarian aid can be better administered. Unfortunately – based on what I saw and heard from those I spoke to – it seems that it has been business as usual for the most part. The distribution of aid still seems totally uncoordinated between the many organizations working in the country, and as mentioned above, the majority of survivors still lack even minimal shelter or enough food and water. Based on what we were hearing, most of the outside organizations still continue to operate without consulting Haitian community leaders, organizers, and average people. Honestly, this boggles the mind.
It seems that the first thing that should be done in this type of situation would be to call together community and neighborhood leaders from throughout the city and ask them how best to approach getting things to people on the ground, and how to do so in a culturally sensitive, respectful way. For the most part, at the very local level, Haitians are already doing this with what minimal resources they have since no one can count on outside help. I saw Haitian-led initiatives by APROSIFA and by a consortium of Haitian social organizations that are working in ways that are smart, efficient, and for those receiving help – dignified. They are happening on a very small scale, but if the NGOs and others bringing aid would consider – first, listening to their ideas, and second, working together with them – food, water, and shelter would be getting to where it is most needed.
Granted, this is a disaster of historic scale in a place that was already in a precarious situation and even the best possible scenario for distribution of emergency aid would have problems. I’m not saying I have the answers to the complex question of how best to approach this. But it does seem that if the international community is serious about wanting to help Haiti, the best place to start would be to listen to Haitians. This is true right now when people are still in desperate need of basic emergency relief like shelter and food. And it will be absolutely crucial in the coming months and years as the country rebuilds.
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