Google Map of IRD Activities in Haiti

This is just a few of the villages and sites where IRD is working.


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Leading in Leogane

By Melissa Price, Communications Officer

Port-au-Prince, Haiti -- The IRD field team traveled to Leogane on Tuesday for an initial infrastructure assessment and our third shelter distribution. Joining us for the assessment were two engineers, who were able to share with us the structural reasons why homes and buildings were destroyed in the earthquake and how we can help the local citizens to rebuild stronger. As part of the assessment, we also conducted interviews with local residents in order to learn more about their needs and desires as they look to the future. We talked with them about their earthquake experiences, their current situations for food and shelter, and whether they plan to stay in Leogane. Here are a few of their stories:

A mother and daughter along Rue de la Croix let us know that they have been living next to their house since the earthquake. All four members of their family survived, but they have no shelter, no food, no money, and no services other than a few international doctors in town. They are relying completely on the international community for help. They would like to stay in town if there are plans to reconstruct and bring the city back.

The owner of a small sundries shop indicated he was also very interested in staying in the Leogane city center. He said that he’s just waiting to see what happens. He’s not sure what exactly he’s waiting on, but he’s just waiting.

Directly across from the sundries shop, a family of five lost their home and is now living down the street in the main city square. They all survived and would like to move back to their property if there are plans to rebuild the city. But they do not have the means to rebuild their home or their lives on their own. They need outside support.

At a major intersection in the city center, the local florist and two workers, both family, died in the earthquake. However, the local pharmacist survived, three workers at a law office survived, and all the children at the kindergarten survived unharmed. These businesses would all like to rebuild and reopen, but no one has heard any plans for reconstruction. According to the locals, IRD has been the first NGO to interview people about future plans.

While in Leogane, the team also had a chance to meet with Mayor Santos Alexis, who said his town is “leaning on IRD.” As Adam said in a previous post, Leogane has experienced 90 percent destruction and 100 percent of the population has been affected. IRD is working closely with the Mayor to determine priority sites for reconstruction, including homes, businesses, and historical community centers. Leogane has such a rich heritage, having been home to ancient royalty and modern revolutionaries, and IRD hopes to preserve the history of Leogane and its people.

Following Tuesday’s infrastructure assessment, the field team held its third shelter distribution for the people of Leogane. You can read a detailed description of shelter distributions in Adam’s last blog post. There are days and days of preparation that go into this three hour event—everything from acquiring the donated shelter materials and cutting the large rolls of plastic sheeting into family size pieces to identifying those beneficiaries who are in the most need and organizing the trucks and security to bring the materials to the individuals.

Tuesday’s distribution went very smoothly, despite a short delay in the beginning because of heavy traffic that held up our four truckloads of supplies. You can see a few photos of the distribution here, and below is a short video clip of some beneficiaries making their way through the line. You may notice that the beneficiaries are separated into small groups of men and women. This is part of the strategic planning in order to protect the women and ensure they are not harmed by any men who might get aggressive while waiting in line. We were able to provide emergency shelter materials to 1,000 families in Leogane on Tuesday. This makes a total of 2,000 families or 16,000 individuals that have received shelter from IRD. And we have plans to distribute materials for an additional 1,500 families in the coming weeks.

In addition to shelter and infrastructure needs, IRD is helping with sanitation needs in Leogane. You can read more about our sanitation program here.

And don’t forget to check out http://www.ird.org/ for the latest news, information, and photos. You can also follow the field team on Twitter @ird_relief, or become a fan of “International Relief and Development” on Facebook.

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Anatomy of a Village Shelter Distribution

By Adam Koons, IRD Haiti Emergency Team Leader and IRD Director of Relief

The rains are coming and people are living in tattered, porous semi-covered structures of salvaged cloth, bit of plastic, sticks, wood, metal and whatever. Our priority is to provide protection in the form of “emergency shelter.” Ultimately we will be helping families build “transitional shelter” that should suffice for several years while the rebuild their own homes. For the moment, there is no time for that. It will come later. Since they already have “structures” of sorts, we are providing families with very high quality and strong plastic sheeting with which to cover their shacks. Each sheet is really quite large, about 15 feet by 6 feet, and each family get two sheets, to use, for the moment as they see fit. Later, with the additional lumber and other materials we will supply instructions for how to construct a well-designed and spacious structure. For now, against the rain, the priority is providing the plastic sheets.

Eventually we will provide support to over 3500 households. We are distributing it to 500 families at a time, or about 4000 people. We already distributed to the first 500 families recently. I am sure it is obvious that this is extremely more difficult and complex than it might sound.

First the preparatory work. From thousands of families, ten of thousands actually, how do we chose 500? We have already selected a set of villages to work in. In those our Haitian field staff asked local government leaders to select the 500 most vulnerable, i.e. poorest and in worst need, households, to start. To those households our staff gave vouchers, little squares of color coded and numbered paper. We had to tell the community members again and again and again and again that there would be many other distributions; that this was just the first; that just about everyone would eventually receive the plastic. This process only took two full days time of five staff members.

The staff also needed to select a central location within walking distance to all the villages: a specific spot that was safe and where access and process could be “controlled.” Then there was security. This is essential. With many thousands who are desperate for assistance and only hundreds receiving it, there is always the threat of “problems,” “disturbances,” or much worse – use your imagination. Or check the news reports, since this frustration-based “agitation” happens all the time. And it is perfectly understandable. So, as much as NGOs like IRD and others try to avoid and distance ourselves from direct military association, in this case we could not afford to. Through the UN, our security was arranged with the Canadian Military.

Then there is the transport. And the cutting. The plastic had to get from the UN warehouse (it was donated by the US government, by way of the UN) to our warehouse, for which we needed to request and schedule one of the tremendously overworked and overscheduled UN trucks. The plastic comes in big rolls, not sheets. At our warehouse, we had to arrange for a bunch of workers with scissors to spend two full days measuring and cutting it into sheets. Then we needed to find – a very difficult task right now – and hire and negotiate a private truck large enough for the 1000 sheets of plastic, to load and carry it from our warehouse in Port-au-Prince to the delivery site in Leogane. Only 20 miles away, but with traffic, and poor roads, three to fours hours distant. Hard to imagine but that much plastic sheeting, for only 500 families, mostly filled a large 30 foot long truck. But maybe it was because there were also 500 rolls of duct tape!

Day of the planned distribution. The truck arrived at the warehouse late for the pickup, and then arrived in Leogane three hours late. But that was actually irrelevant. Because the distribution had to be postponed to the next day anyway. We were told that due to a communications misunderstanding there were no security forces available to assist us. So, clearly it was a no-go. So, back to the villages to let everyone know about the one day delay. Already hundreds had lined up waiting at the distribution site.

Next day. Actual distribution day. The truck full of plastic (and its owner and assistant) had stayed overnight at the Canadian Military base, for protection against looting. And we paid for a second day for the truck. After the drive from Port-au-Prince our various Haitian and international staff all met at the Canadian base to collect our escort for the 20 minute dirt road drive to the abandoned school which was serving as the distribution site. Our security detail consisted of 35 soldiers and two trucks.

There were dozens of people in the school yard and many hundreds waiting outside the gate, significantly more than had vouchers. Possibly thousands. Word travels instantly (actually since the previous days when the vouchers had been distributed), and the arrival of a big truck and military escort is not the best way to keep a secret. The Canadians expertly helped remove the people inside, organize the lines. They set up controls that would allow only voucher holders into the line.

Inside the school yard as we started unloading the truck to prepare, a touch of panic set in. We found that the plastic had been rolled in sets of ten. And they were huge. We had to find a large empty area and start as quickly as possible separating out sets of two sheets from the rolls. Remember, there were 1000 sheets, i.e. 100 boxes that had to be unrolled and re-separated. And the temperature was now about 90 degrees. And dusty.

The Canadians started letting voucher holders through the long roped control-way they had set up. Most of the family representatives that arrived to claim the plastic were women. Many of them older women. Invariably the huge, folded plastic sheets went onto their heads, and then we handed them one roll of duct tape also. Some received the goods silently and stoically. Some, mostly the younger women, smiled. And some meekly and quietly in Creole said “merci” or “merci an pil,” thank you very much. And they exited the school yard, walked down the street controlled and guarded by the Canadians, and off to their villages.

And, not unexpectedly, the process was not perfect. The fortunately sharp eyes of the Canadians, and our own staff, started catching counterfeit vouchers, even with the correct shade of green heavy stock paper. We even somehow found some already-used-and-collected vouchers resurfacing. (Our next set of vouchers will be much more difficult to duplicate, with more carefully controlled code numbers, names and signatures, and logos – we’ll see what happens). Again and again and again we, and the Canadian soldiers – every one of them was French speaking, to the credit of the Canadian military planning – had to explain to the masses of non-recipients that there would be other distributions and other opportunities soon again. That our goal, and the goal of the other aid agencies, was to provide every single household in need with the supplies and assistance they needed, but a little patience, as difficult as that was, was needed.

Almost three hours later the truck was empty. We were all totally exhausted, thirsty, soaked with sweat and covered with a thick layer of dust, and happy to be finished, and starting to feel a bit satisfied that we had helped so many families. But with so many more to go. And there was a huge pile of 100 large empty carton next to the truck. What to do with them? No problem at all. Sadly, but understandably, the cartons were in huge demand for the semi-protection. As soon as the school gates were re-opened, there was a mad rush to get the boxes.

For us the only thing left to do, back at the office, after cleaning up a bit, was to diagnose the process, find any weaknesses, discuss together what we could improve and do better next time. And then, plan our “next time” as soon as possible. And there would be many more.

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Back to Normal Life?

By Adam Koons, Director of Relief, International Relief and Development

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- On the streets of Port-au-Prince, everyone who has a few tomatoes to sell, or books of matches, or even cups of flavored shaved ice, is trying to sell them. The streets are alive and bustling with commerce. It sometimes seems like everyone is trying to sell something to everyone else. In tiny little quantities, that do not require much money, enough for today, or the moment. Spilling over into the street. Clogging the already traffic-jammed streets . To those of us who have spent time here before (I lived in Haiti for four years), it seems so very normal………….almost.
Look a little closer and the façade is ruined. Behind, or nearby, or down the street, you will see crushed and ruined buildings. Businesses and homes. A great many of them in which people died. Some have not yet been extracted.

And look again a bit further beyond the commerce, a few feet further back into the chaos. We can see that many people have erected their “temporary” shelters there. They are now living just off the curb, beyond their micro street businesses, in open-sided structures that are lucky to have something partially resembling a roof.

Everyone on the street has most likely recently lost family or friends. So how can they be out talking, and negotiating, and arguing, and sometimes laughing? How can they be acting so normal? Well, what choice do they have really? They have to live, somehow. And so they have to continue doing whatever business they can do. Yes they are still in shock. But that will not change their need for survival. They must continue, and to some extent they must push aside the recent past and focus on the present and the future, and that results in the street scene we see.

And it is truly remarkable, the forced resilience. Even in the teeming shanty-filled soccer stadium we visited in the ground-zero town of Leogane, where IRD is working. Walking along the shadowy three foot wide alleys between the rows of shelters we see tiny little piles of onions, or bouillon cubes, or soap for sale. There is even a solar powered cell phone recharging business.
Watching the street life, and the shanty-settlement life carefully, there is something else.

What’s wrong with this picture? It’s nice to see the kids playing around, and smiling, and trying to cope. But that’s it, there are so many children around. They are not in school. In Leogane all of the schools were destroyed. At the moment, since survival is foremost in the actions of all, there is little capacity, or attention, or ability to address this critical issue. Simultaneous to all of our other activities in water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter, and agriculture, IRD intends to help rebuild the schools of Leogane. We have the technical skills and capacity, and we now need the financial resources to do so.

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Ground Zero -- Leogane

By Adam Koons, Director of Relief, International Relief and Development

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Today we traveled outside of Port-au-Prince and into ground zero. The town, and district, of Leogane, with about 150,000 residents was closest to the earthquake’s epicenter. And it showed. Although, estimates we had heard of 90% destruction were easily visible, the mayor told us that 100% of the population were affected, since even those few whose homes were not destroyed were afraid to enter their still standing and damaged houses. The entire population was sleeping outside, in makeshift shelters of plastic and cloth, in spontaneous settlements within and outside the town center. The police were sitting outside of a damaged police station. When we found the mayor he was camped outside his broken house. Our visit was a “rapid assessment” to understand the emergency needs, gaps, and the types of activities that IRD would be best suited to provide. The mayor, in short, told us they need virtually everything because the population had lost virtually everything.

In one settlement we visited of around 230 families we met a group of young men who immediately approached our vehicle when we arrived. They explained that they were the self-appointed, volunteer, security committee, formed because even in such areas insecurity and theft are a huge problem and far beyond the capacity of the local police. Both the desperation of the population, which has caused mass looting and crime, and the escape of an estimated 4000 prisoners from the earthquake-damaged central prison, has made such community protection a necessity. It was a perfect opportunity for our IRD team to hand out a number of the wonderful solar charged Sunlight Solar Bogo-Light flashlights we were carrying just for such occasions. The flashlights will improve the group’s ability to patrol at night and thereby the settlement’s security. By working closely with the maker of the lights, that were donated, we ultimately hope to distribute thousands of them soon.

Another settlement we visited completely filled the town football stadium with tiny shelter built shoulder to shoulder. We met a few young men who were making wooden frames for additional shelters. They told us they were salvaging the materials from the destroyed homes in town. And amidst it all, we found children playing, as we often do…. and of course, begging us to take their picture, which, of course, we did. One young boy of about five had a home-made kite of salvaged plastic and recovered string. His kite was aloft about 500!

On the way back to Port-au-Prince, after passing a US Marine helicopter landing site and encampment (the helicopters had been passing low and loud overhead all day), we got another sense of the force that leveled an entire town. We came upon a mile long crevasse in the side of the highway that we estimated to be maybe 15 feet deep.

We have chosen Leogane as one of the primary IRD disaster response sites for our activities that we hope will include water repair, sanitation and latrines, shelter, and perhaps agriculture. So, we will return soon.

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