In the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Port-a-Piment, Haiti

On: October 14, 2016May 21, 2019 By: potapiman

October 14th, 2016.- Ten (10) days after Hurricane Matthew made landfall on the southwestern peninsula of Haiti, the situation on the ground continues to be worrisome. Only a trickle of relief efforts is beginning to reach the area. The cholera epidemic and need for potable water continue to be the major problems facing the commune of Port-a-Piment. The mayor, Mr. Raymond Pierre-Louis, told us that as of last weekend, 48 patients had died at the hospital following the hurricane. From the Konbit Pou Potapiman members on the ground, we are slowly getting a clearer picture of the extent of the devastation. So far:

In the first section of the commune (around Cavalier), 340 homes have been totally destroyed, 54 people dead.
In both sections of the commune (Balai and Paricot) crops, trees and animals have been wiped out
Town of Port-a-Piment – over 90% of homes damaged or destroyed…
In addition, the hospital in Port-a-Piment is overwhelmed with wounded and people coming from all the surrounding areas suffering from Cholera.

Our efforts include interviews on radio stations to inform the world of what is going on, meeting with different organizations in the Diaspora to coordinate relief efforts for the peninsula, and the collection of funds through www.gofundme.com/ 2twyaxph or the PayPal option at www.portapiment.com

An action plan is being drawn jointly with members of KPP on the ground. We plan to revitalize the Paskoma valley so that crops could be harvested in a short period of time. Meetings are being conducted with the representative of the Agriculture Department to assess the needs for rapid intervention. Also, members of KPP have identified the overall sanitation of the town as a priority where KPP should intervene to help in this emergency. Materials such as wheelbarrows, shovels have been ordered, to be shipped to Port a Piment to start the cleaning process over the 21 streets of the town. In collaboration with “Men nan Men organization”, medical supplies such as Diarrix will be distributed in the villages most affected by the cholera epidemic. Diarrix is a product that has proven to be very effective in stopping diarrhea. Its use will allow the patient enough time to reach the hospital for treatment.

Our liaison in Port-au-Prince, Dr Ernst Joseph is spearheading our efforts to provide clean water. KPP has secured a solar powered water filter as a gift from the“Men nan Men”” organization. Two young men from Port-a-Piment have already traveled to Port-au-Prince to be trained in the upkeep of the system. We expect the filter to be fully functional by next week. We will continue our search for a larger system as we move forward.

Although communications with our peers are very scarce, due to the damage that the phone system suffered during the passage of Hurricane Matthew, we will keep you informed of our progress. We thank all you who have already contributed to our relief efforts. The cause is noble. Your help is needed and please continue to invite friends to contribute.

Haitians are desperate for help. But they don’t want it from the American Red Cross.

On: October 13, 2016May 16, 2019 By: potapiman

(Source:https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/haitians-are-desperate-for-help-but-they-dont-want-it-from-the-american-red-cross/?hpid=hp_no-name_hp-in-the-news:page/in-the-news)

By Peter Holley October 13 at 6:16 AM
A week after Hurricane Matthew ravages Haiti, relief slowly on the horizon Play Video1:57
Haiti is still reeling from Category 4 Hurricane Matthew, which killed hundreds of people and left thousands more without their homes. (Victoria Walker, Joshua Partlow/The Washington Post)
As Hurricane Matthew churned toward Haiti at full force last week, France Francois knew she was powerless to stop the impending natural disaster.

But with time running out, the 30-year-old Haitian American thought she might be able to help the island nation avoid the man-made disaster that she expected to follow.

Before the storm struck, Francois, a former development worker in Haiti, turned to Facebook and composed a list explaining how people could help the hurricane-ravaged country.

Her first instruction: “Don’t give to the American Red Cross.”

Instead, she wrote, people should send money to “Haitian-led” organizations and “not your missionaries and useless college kids.”

“We wanted to highlight the fact that there are local organizations on the ground that can mobilize quickly and more effectively than an organization parachuting in from Washington or Europe,” the Miami resident said in an interview from Panama, where she was visiting when the storm struck. “Organizations like that take time and resources away from the people who are suffering.”

[The Red Cross had $500 million in Haitian relief money, but it built just 6 houses]

In recent days, her post has been shared thousands of times — in part, she believes, because it tapped into a growing consensus among Haitians and Haitian Americans that the American Red Cross can no longer be trusted to effectively manage humanitarian efforts in the Caribbean nation.

Those feelings have been bolstered by a widely circulated investigation by NPR and ProPublica, which found that the Red Cross grossly mismanaged its response to Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the Western Hemisphere.

A Red Cross spokeswoman said the organization has raised $3.3 million “in designated donations and pledges for Hurricane Matthew.”

“We do not know if calls to avoid donating to RC have damaged our fundraising efforts, but we are concerned that it could hurt our fundraising, as well as that of other international aid agencies, which would be a tragedy for Haiti,” Suzy DeFrancis said.
Published last year, the NPR and ProPublica investigation found that, despite collecting nearly a half-billion dollars in donations, the Red Cross managed to construct just six permanent homes.

Over the weekend, NPR and ProPublica’s investigation — and subsequent articles about its findings — were resurrected on social media, where they attracted the attention of celebrities, journalists and potential donors.

In response, Gail McGovern, the president and CEO of the American Red Cross, published a lengthy blog post on Huffington Post that acknowledged the “persistent myths circulating online” about the American Red Cross response to the 2010 earthquake. She blamed those myths on “the misleading headline of a story written by ProPublica and NPR in 2015,” which, she added, is again making the rounds “in the wake of this latest disaster.”

“It creates the false impression that the only thing the American Red Cross did with $488M in donor money was to build six homes — when, in fact, we have funded 100 different humanitarian aid projects in Haiti,” McGovern wrote.

“It would be a shame if myths circulated online by people who want to help Haiti, actually end up hurting relief efforts,” she added

Hurricane Matthew toll in Haiti rises to 1,000, dead buried in mass graves

On: October 11, 2016May 21, 2019 By: potapiman

Adults hold children receiving treatment for cholera after Hurricane Matthew in the Hospital of Port-a-Piment, Haiti, on Sunday. Reuters

Haiti started burying some of its dead in mass graves in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, a government official said on Sunday, as cholera spread in the devastated southwest and the death toll from the storm rose to 1,000 people.

The powerful hurricane, the fiercest Caribbean storm in nearly a decade, slammed into Haiti on Tuesday with 145 mile-per-hour (233 kph) winds and torrential rains that left 1.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.

A Reuters tally of numbers from local officials showed that 1,000 people were killed by the storm in Haiti, which has a population of about 10 million and is the poorest country in the Americas.

The official death toll from the central civil protection agency is 336, a slower count because officials must visit each village to confirm the numbers.

Authorities had to start burying the dead in mass graves in Jeremie because the bodies were starting to decompose, said Kedner Frenel, the most senior central government official in the Grand’Anse region on Haiti’s western peninsula.

Great concern about cholera spreading

Frenel said 522 people were killed in Grand’Anse alone. A tally of deaths reported by mayors from 15 of 18 municipalities in Sud Department on the south side of the peninsula showed 386 people there. In the rest of the country, 92 people were killed, the same tally showed.

Frenel said there was great concern about cholera spreading, and that authorities were focused on getting water, food and medication to the thousands of people living in shelters.

Cholera causes severe diarrhea and can kill within hours if untreated. It is spread through contaminated water and has a short incubation period, which leads to rapid outbreaks.

Government teams fanned out across the hard-hit southwestern tip of the country over the weekend to repair treatment centers and reach the epicenter of one outbreak.

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https://portapiment.com/how-to-help/relief-for-port-a-piment-haiti-2/

S.O.S pour Port-à-Piment, Haiti

On: October 7, 2016May 21, 2019 By: potapiman

07/10/2016.-Apres le cyclone Mathieu, la situation des résidents de la commune de Port-a-Piment va de mal en pis. Nous avons appris que l’Hôpital de Référence de Port-a-Piment regorge de blessés, de patients atteints de choléra. En plus de tout cela, l’enceinte sert de refuge à des centaines de gens démunis. Voyons ce que nous dit le quotidien haïtien le Nouvelliste: Prière de taper sur le lien ci-dessous:

http://lenouvelliste.com/lenouvelliste/article/164059/

Month: October 2016