Miguel Samper's blog

Boats, horses, motorcycles ... and lots of mud. Watch how Mercy Corps staff travel in the rugged and remote Darién region of Colombia.

Traveling in the department of Choco, Colombia, is not easy. This is a look at how Mercy Corps' staff get around when traveling to visit beneficiaries in this remote part of the country.

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Here is a video about Mercy Corps distributing comfort kits to 300 children.

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Marie Ginette, a certified nurse, watched her house crumble following the earthquake. Now she’s participating in Mercy Corps’ cash-for-work program, and as a participant she automatically received one of the plastic sheets. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

Last Thursday in the early morning hours it rained heavily here in Port-au-Prince. I slept right through it, but later when I was talking to a local Mercy Corps staff member, she told me the rain woke her up. “My heart hurt” at the sound of it, she said. She knew the rain meant serious problems for many of the earthquake survivors who still lack adequate shelter from the rain.

That same day we went to the Truitier neighborhood in Tabarre to see the distribution of plastic sheeting that will protect families from the rain. This week we went back to Truitier to find and photograph people that had set up their sheets. We spoke with 28 year-old Marie Ginette Fils Aimee.

Marie Ginette, a certified nurse, watched her house crumble following the earthquake. Now she’s participating in Mercy Corps’ cash-for-work program, and as a participant she automatically received one of the plastic sheets.

Marie Ginette and her good friend Darline, also a cash-for-work participant and plastic sheeting recipient, collaborated together and set up their houses directly next to each other, sharing one support wall. With the help of her brother and father, Marie Ginette was able to get her sheet up in one day. She says there is great comfort in knowing that her family, including her mother, father, and brother, can now sleep under the sheeting and will be sheltered from the rain.

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Images of the cash-for-work pay day at Impasse Dorcé. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

Last Friday was pay day. After putting in five days of work clearing debris and repairing basic infrastructure, 119 participants in Mercy Corps’ cash-for-work program here in Port-au-Prince patiently lined up at Impasse Dorcé and waited their turn to get paid.

Mercy Corps’ local microfinance partner, FONKOZE, helped with the money distribution. The 119 workers are divided into seven teams, each with a team leader, and they approached the FONKOZE staff one team at a time. The leader handed over a sheet of paper with all the team members’ names on it, and then one by one names were called out and the workers stepped forward.

Because many people lost their national ID cards in the earthquake, Mercy Corps distributes vouchers to the workers the day before as a way of keeping track of who is being paid. The vouchers look a bit like a credit card and have a unique number that corresponds to each worker. They also have a small hologram on them to prevent replication. The worker hands in this voucher, sign their name and then they are handed an envelope with their money.

The workers are paid 180 Gourdes, or roughly US $4.50, a day. This figure is the standard minimum wage set by the Haitian government.

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Today I visited a daycare where Mercy Corps' Comfort for Kids program is helping dozens of young earthquake survivors to celebrate their lives and friends again. Here's a video I took that shows just how amazing the spirit of these games and this music really is.

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Here's a video from my visit to one of Mercy Corps' cash-for-work sites today.

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