Update and overview of the work in Haiti

The AMURT Haiti team, experienced in similar situations, was already on the ground when the earthquake struck Haiti, in Port-Au-Prince and in the Northwest of Arbonite. Our team’s response was immediate and had great impact, based on its Emergency Management Response Plan, developed jointly with the community of Gonaives in the days and weeks after the 2008 disasters, in the face of countless displacements, communication problems and challenges. In the first seven days after the disaster, AMURT & AMURTEL supported more than 15 thousand residents, providing mobile medical clinics, hot soup kitchens and food distribution every day. The first actions consisted of transferring food, medical services, water and non-food goods from the large humanitarian aid organizations to the smaller community groups that are better positioned, to facilitate the effective distribution of the goods. The goods transported by truck arrived last Saturday, through the Dominican Republic. The initial intervention was directed at those most affected by the earthquake, transporting the injured and necessary supplies to the hospitals, and assisting the residents of the slums of Boudon, Cite O’Kay and Cite Jereme.

CONTINUATION OF THE RELIEF

Food

For many years AMURT-Haiti has been one of the main collaborators of the World Food Program, providing emergency food and development projects linked to “food for work,” both in Port au Prince and in the Northwest of Arbonite. On January 20 the two agencies signed an open emergency management contract, which authorizes AMURT and AMURTEL to distribute food to their collaborators on site. AMURT and AMURTEL have already begun their first food distribution campaign, initially giving priority to orphanages, refugee camps, slums, local charity groups and community organizations. During the first week, the distribution will include 15 tons of rice, beans, canned food and oil, for approximately 20,000 residents of the areas of Boudon, Cite O’Kay and Cite Jereme. This action will increase over the coming weeks and will include the population of these areas, which is 40,000 people. AMURT and AMURTEL are also preparing their local partners in the areas of Delmas and Boudon to gradually increase this distribution and include 60,000 people per month, over a period of 3 months. The goal of the NGO is the transition from emergency food distribution to a “food for work” program during the 3-month intervention period.

Medical aid

AMURT-Haiti has been providing medical aid through mobile clinics to the communities of the Boudon valley, assisting the most isolated and devastated areas. In Delmas, AMURT & AMURTEL are working in collaboration with the local community teams, giving logistical help as needed, transporting medicines and patients and assisting the medical volunteers who are beginning to arrive in large numbers. On January 24, our first AMURT & AMURTEL medical team will arrive to provide help through mobile clinics in the areas of Delmas and Boudon. The teams will serve shifts of one or two weeks. In the coming weeks, AMURT & AMURTEL will continue to increase the support given to their local teams, to ensure that the aid arrives on time, that it is directed to those who need it most and that no one is left without medical assistance.

Ecological Sustainability

Alongside the emergency aid, AMURT-Haiti is maintaining and strengthening sustainable development solutions to Haiti’s historic and challenging problems. In this regard, in collaboration with its long-standing partners “Trees, Water, People,” AMURT and AMURTEL will bring in more than 300 ecological stoves, which are a low-cost, sustainable stove solution that uses wood shavings and twigs. AMURT and AMURTEL are starting a course on the use of these stoves for the communities in Boudon and Delmas, thus helping to mitigate the environmental impact of the disaster. The stoves will allow the local communities to run mass canteens for the most vulnerable neighboring groups – children, the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities.

Community

The greatest strength of AMURT-Haiti has always been development, training and communication with local leaders and organizations. AMURT and AMURTEL have made an effort to continue this work by verifying daily needs and capacities, organizing forums in the communities and implementing strategies for decision-making that are efficient, systematic and comprehensive. Our community volunteers have been covering the affected areas near our two bases in Boudon and Delmas, identifying the leading organizations and trying to coordinate the food distribution programs under way. As soon as some stability is established on the ground, the next phase – expected to begin in two weeks – will be the start of regional coordination councils that will keep in contact with the local communities. The aim of this process is to fill the gaps in communication and coordination inherent in large-scale disaster response and to prepare the implementation of a sustainable recovery phase supported by the local community.

Education

Currently, AMURTEL is running two Ananda Marga schools with more than 200 students in each school. One school operates in the border town of Anse a Pitre and the other in Bourdon, Port au Prince. Both have drinking water and food. One of the buildings also functions as a communication center. The staff and volunteers of the AMURT school in Bourdon are distributing cooked food and are also running a temporary hospital that has already treated more than 1,000 patients.

Recovery

AMURT and AMURTEL will continue to align immediate and long-term efforts with human rights within a framework of empowering local communities, self-determination and building leadership capacity. With its long-term partners, AMURT has begun to plan sustainable long-term programs focusing on strengthening strategies of decentralization, sustainability and self-reliance of the communities, so critical to Haiti’s future.