The Mercy Corps Blog

Blog Post Posted February 8, 2010, 7:20 pm by Griff Samples

Meeting with Haiti's First Lady

Griff Samples (left), Mercy Corps' technical advisor for our Comfort for Kids program, meets with Elisabeth Préval, Haiti's First Lady. Photo: Mercy Corps

I just met with Elisabeth Préval, Haiti's First Lady, to discuss our Comfort for Kids program. Mrs. Préval is an ardent supporter of the rights and well-being of Haiti's children. Through Comfort for Kids, Mercy Corps is responding to the critical needs of Haiti's youngest earthquake survivors by training local psychologists, teachers and other caregivers to help children move past their trauma to a less fearful and more hopeful future.

We're excited to have had this opportunity to talk with Mrs. Préval and are looking forward to working together to help heal Haiti's children.

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Blog Post Posted February 7, 2010, 5:52 pm by Joy Portella

Watching Jet Li in Haiti

The small town of Mirebalais has been overrun by 16,000 people who fled Port-au-Prince, one hour to the south, after the January 12 earthquake. This out-migration has more than doubled the size of Mirebalais, further straining the resources of an already dirt-poor town.

Today we met some of Mirebalais’ new residents.

The Mercy Corps team visited a small camp of more than 80 people living in what had been a colorful outdoor nightclub. The owner, Rodolphe, opened the club to almost 20 members of his family who traveled from Port-au-Prince after the quake, and then others streamed in.

We talked to Rodophe and another camp leader about a shipment of 60,000 high-energy biscuits we had delivered to the Mirebalais authorities this past week. He confirmed that they had received the right amount of biscuits, and produced a box of them for us to see.

He also showed us a notebook with carefully printed names and information on each of the camp’s residents. He said that the camp had recently been shrinking as people wandered off or returned to Port-au-Prince, but the purported number of residents still wasn’t consistent with the number of people we saw or the amount of stuff in the camp. Our team needs to return and verify the numbers before we provide additional assistance.

The camp visit provided a rare moment of un-interpreted interaction between Haitians and me. (I speak neither French nor Creole.) A group of about 20 teenagers was gathered tightly around a small DVD player with a screen that measured about six inches across. They were transfixed by what appeared to be a martial arts file. “Jackie Chan?” I asked.

Twenty faces turned around and looked at me as if I were crazy. “Jet Li,” several of them responded dismissively. I had to laugh. Rodolphe asked if we had brought any DVDs with us; the tiny DVD player apparently had a limited repertoire.

It’s estimated that more than 500,000 people have left Port-au-Prince, many headed for the areas of the Central Plateau like Mirebalais — places they were born, raised and eventually fled to chase often-elusive opportunities in the big city. Mercy Corps is eager to help these outer areas flourish and support this new population. Our work will help spread the country’s industry and wealth, and decrease the capital’s bloated population.

Like in Port-au-Prince, earthquake survivors in the countryside want jobs and economic opportunities more than anything. This will be our number one priority in the coming months.

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Blog Post Posted February 7, 2010, 2:09 pm by Linda Mason

Displaced and uncertain

Charlene Malebrauche and her three-year-old daughter Sahina, displaced since the earthquake destroyed their house in Port-au-Prince. Photo: Linda Mason/Mercy Corps

One million people are displaced by the earthquake. There are tent encampments throughout the city. In fact, now every open space is now filled with tents — most often just plastic or sheets on poles.

Despite some media reports, there is very little looting and violence. In fact, I am struck by how calm the city is — congested but calm. The city of three million is largely sleeping in the streets. People are too afraid to sleep in their homes, even if they weren’t damaged in the earthquake. They block off streets at night and sleep on mats away from the buildings.

We met Charlene Malebrauche and her two daughters, six-year-old Dahlia and three-year-old Sahina, in one of the tent communities. She and her two daughters were in their small concrete house when the earthquake struck. They rushed out. The whole neighborhood was screaming. Charlene grabbed a few things from her home, including Dahlia’s doll and Sahina’s stuffed bunny.

Their house collapsed and they are now living under a sheet on poles. They gathered cinder blocks from the debris of fallen buildings and lay them down on the ground so, when it rains, they won’t be sleeping in the mud. In their five-by-eight-foot space sleep Charlene and her husband, Dahlia, Sahina and a friend who has no family.

At least 100 families are living side by side in this one community. When I asked her what she had eaten today, she showed me a corn mush called akasan.

It’s hard to imagine how anyone in the camp survives. No one has work. This is one of the many communities where Mercy Corps has started a cash-for-work program. Every household can designate one member to work, cleaning earthquake debris away from their living space and digging drainage trenches in anticipation of the coming rainy season.

Workers are paid a daily wage. They will use the cash to buy what they need and begin to jump start the local economy. Mercy Corps is following the cash-for-work program with a loan program for individuals and small businesses, particularly outside of Port-au-Prince as more and more people leave the unliveable city for the countryside.

As I talked to Charlene, her two little girls clung to her legs. She said since the earthquake, the children never leave her side. Charlene encourages them to play, but they won’t let Charlene out of her sight.

Dahlia, the six-year-old, has trouble sleeping at night. She is sure the earthquake will come again. She incessantly asks her mother why the earthquake came.

And this is where our Comfort for Kids program is so critical: helping children like Sahina and Dahlia move beyond their fear and uncertainty. Comfort for Kids trains parents, teachers and social workers how to help children process and cope with this tragedy. An entire generation of children has been deeply traumatized by this tragedy.

We are here to help.

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Blog Post Posted February 6, 2010, 7:00 pm by Joy Portella

In Haiti, organization is everything

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve always been a community mobilization skeptic. It’s easy to comprehend the importance of providing people with food, water and shelter in desperate situations, and helping them gain access to skills, training, capital and opportunities so that they can help themselves in the long term.

In contrast, community mobilization has always seemed a little squishy to me. But this week in Haiti, I saw that it can mean the difference between life and death.

Today, several colleagues and I visited a sprawling camp near the airport — a cluster of 2,000 people living in tattered tents. We walked in and were promptly greeted by two of its three main leaders, gentlemen who’d been selected by the camps’ families to organize, lead and protect them.

The camp contains 800 children, they told us, several of whom gathered around us in parade-like fashion as we walked. Like most children in Haiti, they were gorgeous and playful. We were told that a number of kids in the camp were injured in the earthquake — one had had brain surgery and almost immediately been sent back “home” — and the camp had received no food, water or other kinds of assistance.

The camp leaders were very organized and protective. They had just finished compiling names and data on all of the residents — critical information for any organization working to provide aid. There were frequent reports of gangs attacking women and girls, so camp leaders worked in three shifts to guard the camp 24 hours a day. They also advised us than any food aid should be brought in quietly during the day, and it would be stored for a late-night distribution so as not to draw the attention of potential looters.

The camp, despite enormous needs, was calm and orderly, and people seemed well informed. Maybe that doesn’t seem so remarkable. When you grow up in an American culture of scouting leagues, sporting leagues, PTA meetings and church committees, the mobilization of communities might seem a natural state of affairs.

But consider the situation of Port-au-Prince right now: about half of the city is homeless, living in abject poverty, squatting in overcrowded camps with people they often don’t know, and left without consistent access to basics such as food, water or anywhere to go to the bathroom. In an atmosphere like this, it’s easy for chaos to reign.

That’s where community mobilization comes in. As one of my colleagues explained to me, we can’t work in a camp if residents haven’t come together and said, "we want Mercy Corps’ help and we’re going to organize ourselves to get it, whether that’s by providing lists of residents, or maintaining order during distributions, or working to create and maintain child-friendly spaces for Comfort-for-Kids activities."

In short, if communities don’t mobilize, they’re sunk.

After almost one week here, I’m amazed that Haiti is holding itself together. And make no mistake, it’s not any military force or humanitarian organization or government that’s doing it. This country is still intact because its people are gentle, resilient souls who have — dare I say it — mobilized to save themselves.

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Blog Post Posted February 6, 2010, 8:26 am by Linda Mason

What the Haitian people still have

In one tent, a little five-year-old girl was clutching her old plastic doll. It was missing an arm and a leg and most of its hair, but it was obviously very precious to her. Photo: Linda Mason/Mercy Corps

It has meant a lot to me to be back here in Haiti. I had spent some time here 15 years ago and just fell in love with the culture, people, and their artistic and spiritual life.

It’s astounding to me to see how much of that warm culture still shines through during this horrific crisis. It’s a very gentle culture. I have walked deep into the vast tent encampments where people are living in almost unimaginable conditions with literally nothing, and these encampments are calm and people are welcoming. Perhaps that is part of their great problem — they may be too passive and too used to living with nothing and expecting nothing.

About a million people in Port au Prince are living under a sheet or piece of plastic on poles. Inside their tent, they have a few belongings that they were able to grab from their home/hut or things they have found on the street: scraps of cloth, a blanket, maybe a pot and plate. They exist on a piece of bread or a bit of corn or rice mush.

In another tent, a young man who had been a university student had his engineering books. He had a stool in his tent. He sat on the dirt floor and his books had the place of honor on the stool. Photo: Linda Mason/Mercy Corps

It’s touching to see what things people have clutched onto. In one tent, a little five-year-old girl was clutching her old plastic doll. It was missing an arm and a leg and most of its hair, but it was obviously very precious to her. In another tent, a young man who had been a university student had his engineering books. He had a stool in his tent. He sat on the dirt floor and his books had the place of honor on the stool.

While I was talking to a couple of mothers, I spied a little seven-year-old girl huddled by a tent pole, poring over some scraps of paper. When I asked her what she was doing, she showed me a few torn pages from a school workbook. She was sitting alone reading and reading these few pages. I asked her if she wanted to read me some, and she proudly started to read slowly running her finger underneath the words.

I am always thinking of my children when I see these children. Children have such innate curiosity and will to learn and connect. I am very happy that we are focusing much of our efforts on the children in this crisis.

If we can help parents and teachers help their children adjust and become secure again, we will be making a difference in how their lives unfold.

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Blog Post Posted February 5, 2010, 8:59 pm by Kody Leonard

Find Mercy Corps in Haiti on Google Maps

Google updated their maps on Haiti shortly after the earthquake struck. You can see the destruction and camps all over the city. Gene Kunze, who arrived very early in the response, has been gathering Global Positioning System (GPS) data for various sites where we have been working, giving us an opportunity to share some important locations through Google Maps.

To get started, go to http://maps.google.com and search for "Haiti." At the top of the list you'll see "Haiti Disaster Response Map." Clicking this will reveal some important data about the earthquake. I highly recommend checking "IDP Staging Areas" to see the large camps around Port-au-Prince. Zoom in to yellow areas to see the all the tents being set up. Also check "Haiti Damage Assessment" and click on the gray dots to see a decription of each damaged building. You'll never get through them all.

Below are some other points in interest, including points taken from Gene's work. Just copy the GPS coordinates and paste them into the search field in Google Maps.

National Palace: 18.543283,-72.338811
Not only is the collapse visible, but notice all the tents around the palace.

Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport: 18.576337,-72.294969
The long lines of cars make getting in and out of the airport and UN compound a long, slow journey.

American Embassy: 18.563842,-72.249237
People are waiting in endless lines in attempts to get passage to the United States. I feel sorry for them standing out in the open without cover from the scorching sun.

A Mercy Corps cash-for-work site: 18.567242,-72.24618
This is just one of several.

A Mercy Corps water and sanitation (WASH) program site: 18.5604719819, -72.2938379413
Hospital site partnered with MERLIN.

Tonight we had an interview with Wired magazine about the Geographic Information System (GIS) work to see how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are using the technology in Haiti. The UN has been encouraging organizations to provide coordinates of activities to reduce duplication of work and open information to everyone for assessment. The use of GIS in this response is unlike any other implementation we've ever done.

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Blog Post Posted February 5, 2010, 6:19 pm by Linda Mason

"Moments of the Haitian spirit breaking through"

It’s a shock to look at Port-au-Prince from the airplane. As I looked out over the city it looked like a series of children’s sand castles remaining on a beach after a long day — some were standing but many had crumbled into the sand.

The airport feels like a military installation. The U.S. military has set up their tent encampment right off the tarmac. The airport is full of military and cargo planes and helicopters. As you climb out of the plane down onto the tarmac, you see armed soldiers everywhere — all polite and friendly. It does not feel like a war zone, but rather the extensive presence of military — both U.S. troops and UN peacekeepers — creates some order and calm in a very chaotic situation.

I am picked up at the airport by Sean Collins, logistics and security, and Su’ad Jarbarwi, distribution officer. As we make our way to the Mercy Corps office through congested and slow traffic, they point out crumbled buildings right next the totally intact buildings. It is clear that much of the destruction is due to very poor building materials and poor building codes.

The death count from this earthquake in Haiti is now 200,000 and still climbing. The death toll from the 1989 earthquake in California, which was stronger, was 45.

Along the road, I see not only crumbled buildings but also small market stands everywhere. People are selling vegetables, fruits, wash tubs, sneakers. Despite the enormous tragedy, this is an enterprising and resilient culture. There are small tent settlements everywhere. Many families now have no home and those with homes are too frightened to sleep in them. Over a million people are displaced.

I also see sights that surprise me — bougainvillea everywhere, some streets where houses stand intact with gardens. I saw a young couple walking holding hands. Amidst this massive destruction, there are already moments of the Haitian spirit breaking through.

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Blog Post Posted February 5, 2010, 11:19 am by Paul Souders

How can we help people in Haiti? (A short presentation for elementary school kids)

Last week I spoke about Haiti with 2nd through 5th graders at Willamette Primary School in West Linn, Oregon. We had a great discussion about Haiti's unique historical situation, the role poverty and governance play in disaster relief, and the relief to development cycle. These are complicated themes we talk about a lot here at Mercy Corps, and we tend to kind of take them for granted. It was a fun — and challenging — endeavor to distill these tricky subjects into a 45 minute curriculum for eight-year-olds.

Moreover, I'm no educator. I spend most of my day staring at a computer monitor, and when I do give the rare presentation, it's always to a room full of grownups; so I wondered if my usual strategies would work for kids. Lucky for me, my "usual strategies" are kind of loose-limbed. My only preparation is to know what I'm talking about, and to make about a dozen slides with (mostly) pictures, and a few lines of text. I always have an agenda but never an outline or notes.

Text on slides is intended to reinforce the agenda: usually ideas I want everyone to hold onto. Photos are props for discussion, e.g. "tell me what these people are doing" or "how are these two photos different?"

So by design I gave a slightly different talk to each class, one that evolved organically around questions kids asked, or themes we pursued collectively. Afterward, I wrote up my experience as "speaker's notes."

My presentation is embedded on this web page, and is publicly available on Google Docs (You can view my notes in the by opening the presentation in another window and choosing Actions > Speaker's notes.

If you're an educator (or just need to explain Haiti, development, global poverty, and Mercy Corps to someone in under 45 minutes!), you're welcome to use this presentation. And if you have feedback or suggestions for improvement, please leave a comment below.

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Blog Post Posted February 4, 2010, 6:48 pm by Joy Portella

Struggling with a post-earthquake birthday party

Natalie Duverson, a 32-year-old teacher and mom, discusses her concerns at today's Comfort for Kids training in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Photo: Joy Portella/Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps’ first Comfort for Kids training took place in a less-than-spectacular setting, but that didn’t detract from its success. Approximately 40 nurses, teachers, day care providers and others gathered under a tent atop a crumbling construction site to learn about how they can help children overcome trauma.

Griffen Samples, our head of Comfort for Kids, led the session alongside a Haitian psychologist and professor named Albert Seide. What they heard from participants was tragic but not surprising: children in Haiti are afraid. They're afraid to be alone, afraid of loud noises, afraid of another earthquake. Many adults share these anxieties, plus they fear going hungry.

Many participants were worried about their own children or the children they care for. They had become clingy, some said. They cry a lot, and want to be with their mothers all the time. Several had taken to sleeping with their parents like babies. Participants seemed calmed by the assurance that these behaviors are normal in the aftermath of a disaster.

Many participants didn’t know how to proceed with life “as normal” after the earthquake. One participant, Natalie Duverson, is a 32-year-old teacher and mom. She explained that her daughter’s birthday is coming up and the little girl wants some kind of celebration, even if it’s just drinking soda pop and sharing birthday wishes.

Natalie wavered: How could they celebrate in the wake of a national tragedy? She seemed relieved to hear that a birthday celebration — something joyful but not over the top — would likely provide much-needed emotional relief for the whole family.

Today was the first of what we anticipate will be many more trainings for the parents, teachers and caregivers of Haiti. We’ll also run community activities — plays, concerts, drum circles, dances — that will help lighten the load of both children and adults. And our Comfort for Kids activities workbook should be in kid’s hands in the coming months.

Together, these efforts are a recipe for the emotional recovery of Haiti’s children. “Before this training, I thought I knew for sure how to deal with my kids after the earthquake, but it wasn’t working and they just became more agitated,” explained Natalie. “Now I’ve learned there are better ways.”

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Blog Post Posted February 4, 2010, 3:30 pm by Greg Tuke

Some of the best of what we humans do

Every morning I wake up, grab a cup of hot tea, then read a newspaper filled with stories about some of the worst of what we as humans do. And then I get to spend my workday hearing about some of the best.

When I tell people where I work, the most common response is “Wow, how great of you that you are doing such wonderful humanitarian work!” But the truth is, this does not feel like some noble sacrifice or burden. It is a blast. Nearly every day something happens that deeply inspires me — and yesterday was no exception.

Ahmed Abed, a taxi driver in Iraq, inspired our staff by refusing payment for driving Iraqi youth to a blood bank to donate blood for bomb survivors. Photo: Mercy Corps Iraq

When I'm not traveling in the Middle East to meet with the youth leaders Mercy Corps is working with, I sit in our small Seattle office and talk away on my computer with youth and staff we work with around the world. Yesterday, a little kid — no more than eight years old — walked into our office with his mom, unannounced, and told us he just raised $2,500 to help kids in Haiti. Not only that, but he wants to know how he can help more.

Like I said, deeply inspiring.

And just his morning, I received a photo of Ahmed Abed, an Iraqi taxi driver who recently refused to accept two days of wages for driving dozens of youth leaders we work with in Iraq to a blood bank in Wassit, Iraq, so they could give blood for the first time. “I want to participate in this humanitarian campaign and this is the one thing I can give to help the people,” he said.

Because we work in some of the toughest places around the world, we run into unusual problems daily. Today Mohammed, a local Iraqi staffer, told us that he likely will not be able to travel to Scotland for our first international youth summit next month (where youth from the Middle East, United States and United Kingdom will gather) because he can’t get into Baghdad safely to get a visa. They just had their fourth terrorist attack in Baghdad this week, killing dozens more earlier this week.

Instead, we will plan today how we will do a live video conference between the youth in Iraq and the youth that will travel to Scotland next month. Violence might keep Mohammed from traveling to the summit, but it can’t keep the summit from traveling to Mohammed and the youth leaders in Iraq!

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