October 11, 2008
Haiti Hurricane Disaster Update
From late August until early September, Haiti was rocked
by 4 hurricanes in quick succession. The Haut de St. Marc Valley where Rayjon
has its Community Development Project suffered severe devastation from these
storms. Over 100 people died, 57 homes are totally gone and hundreds are severely
damaged. Gardens and crops are ruined, flooded. There's no actual account of
the numbers of animals who drowned or are missing - eg goats, pigs, donkeys.
Roads are impassable, including the two "Rayjon roads" and all bridges
were either washed away or damaged badly. The road leading to Gilbert shows
several wide, deep crevasses that make access almost impossible.
We have been in frequent contact with our Field Director in Haiti, Dieudonne
Batraville, and she has kept us well abreast of the situation both in our area
and in other parts of Haiti. In our area, both Gilbert and Bertrand were hardest
hit. Bertrand sits at the northernmost edge of our Project area in the Artibonite
Valley where rice growing is a main crop. Bertrand was flooded badly and a sea
of mud still remains everywhere. The Rayjon school was used as a shelter by
both people and animals and is still too fouled to use; clean up is in progress.
Dieudonne says this whole village needs to be "rebuilt" - psychologically
as well as physically. At the Gilbert Dispensary and at our St. Patrick's High
School, over 150 of the people made homeless by the storms were both housed
and fed for almost three weeks - Dieudonne has now sent them home and given
them all supplies enough to start over - supplies like straw sleeping mats,
a cooking pot, food and hygiene kits.
Schools reopened October 6th and Dieudonne has beefed up the daily hot meal
for all students and teachers. Gonaives to the north of St. Marc was devastated
with the flooding beyond anyone's memory and hundreds of people fled to St.
Marc where they are setting up shantytowns. A team of German doctors and nurses,
friends of Dieudonne's, have worked every day in mobile clinics, seeing more
than 150 people each day. Hundreds are sick - malaria and typhoid are showing
up in record numbers and severity - but skin diseases related to the length
of time people spent in the flood waters are causing their own particular kind
of misery. Many are suffering from what we would call post-traumatic stress
disorders - anxiety, generalized fear, rapid heartbeats, dizziness and high
blood pressure.
The Rayjon Board in Sarnia has designated $28,000 in Disaster Relief funds and
has sent this funding to Dieudonne. As well, all RC churches in the Sarnia Deanery
were asked to participate in donating to Haiti's Disaster Relief at a special
weekend collection two weeks ago. A staggering $23,000 was donated, a wonderful
sign of outreach and solidarity. At the annual Rayjon Fall Fair which took place
September 20th, over $3700 was collected for Disaster Relief. This week, from
October 14th-19th, John Barnfield, Debbie Austin, Ben McKillican and John Popiel,
our interim Project Coordinator, will travel to Haiti, visit many of the most
afflicted areas and plan with Dieudonne how best to utilize the funds. On their
return, we will keep you informed on what they saw and future plans.
We always speak of how resilient the Haitian people are - and it's so true.
Dieudonne said that with school starting this past week and people setting up
housekeeping and replanting their gardens again, this will help establish a
sense of normalcy. God bless them all.