June 18, 2010

Haiti Emergency Relief Fund supports local food production in Port au Prince

Mange Lakay Selavi – Haitian Food for Haitian Lives

The January 12 earthquake brought the already urgent need for investment and prioritizing of local food production in Haiti into intense focus. HERF is now funding an exciting project developed by The Aristide Foundation for Democracy in cooperation with Men Ansanm (Hands Together), and an association of 150 farmers in La Plaine, in the Port-au-Prince area.

This region was once a productive agricultural area, but has been rapidly urbanizing. Since the quake, even larger numbers of people have moved there. This project meets a critical need – not only to produce food that can directly supply local markets and support families growing food, but also to increase the amount of productive land.

Using the Mandalla agricultural structure (formed by nine concentric circles in which cultivation areas are set up around a circular reservoir), farmers are creating an integrated agricultural system on the grounds of the UniFA (University of the Aristide Foundation). In addition to feeding their own families, farmers will be selling fish and agricultural projects in local markets.

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On January 12, Haiti was hit by its first large earthquake in 240 years. Over 230,000 people may have died and three million have been left homeless.

Haiti’s grassroots movement – including labor unions, women’s groups, educators and human rights activists, support committees for political prisoners, and agricultural cooperatives – are funneling needed aid to those most hit by the earthquake. They are doing what they can – with the most limited of funds – to make a difference. Please take this chance to lend them your support.

Since its inception in March 2004, the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund has given concrete aid to Haiti’s democratic movement as they attempted to survive the brutal coup against their democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and to rebuild shattered development projects. We urge you to contribute generously, not only for this immediate crisis, but in order to support the long-run development of human rights, sustainable agriculture and economic justice in Haiti.

All donations to the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund will be forwarded to our partners on the ground to help them rebuild what has been destroyed.

In the days immediately following the earthquake, we sent a truckload of medical supplies to the Aristide Foundation For Democracy, which has become a center for medical relief work in the Port-au-Prince area. Thousands of people sought refuge in the Foundation right after the earthquake, and – with your support – the organizers there have been able to provide food, water and medical care for those in need.

From the moment the earthquake hit, we facilitated the travel of teams of nurses and doctors to the Port-au-Prince area. In less than a month, we helped send 11 medical teams from across the United States. Now, this number has risen to 30. These medical teams have brought with them hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medicines and medical supplies.

Using our networks within Haiti, we insured that medical supplies and personnel reached communities that had not received any aid. For example, HERF sponsored a team of doctors to open a day clinic in Bel Air. They treated people who could not find a place in the lines for medical attention at the General Hospital. HERF also bought and distributed more than 100 gallons of fresh drinking water in Bel Air.

We are now funding a mobile health clinic that has been set up within the Aristide Foundation. This clinic has already treated thousands of patients since it was established in early March.

We have supported a series of neighborhood committees organized by grass roots activists in Port-au-Prince. These committees have been housing the homeless, providing food and water for those who have never seen any U.S. military or UN aid. Neighbors helping neighbors, Haitians helping Haitians, activists helping to sustain their local areas.

We have provided funds to a series of women’s groups at the center of the grassroots relief effort. The Women of Camp Mesiane, one of the internal refugee camps dotting Port-au-Prince, received funding for food and medical supplies, as well as for activities to commemorate International Women’s Day on March 8th. We have supported a women’s organizing project in Les Cayes, an area hit by the earthquake but ignored by most relief efforts. Many survivors have ended up in Les Cayes, needing water, food and medicine. Working through the Progressive Women of Les Cayes, we have assisted these efforts.

We have maintained our support for the work of the Aristide Foundation by funding its mobile schools project. * We have continued our support for the work of the Aristide Foundation by funding its mobile schools project. This project has given employment to 102 high school and college graduates who serve as teachers and and also helped build shelters in four refugee camps in order to hold classes. Children have been able to attend classes while living under desperate conditions in the refugee camps. This has been a source of pride and hope for the children and their families. To learn more about this project, go to http://aristidefoundationfordemocracy.org.

We have aided other schools in the Port-au-Prince area, including SOPUDEP a school that serves the poorest children in the Petionville community, on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. Your aid has helped educators reach out with aid to their students and their families, many of whom have experienced incalculable losses. We provided funds for a generator for SOPUDEP, which allowed the school to maintain its critical work as a center for relief. We have provided on-going support for this school, and its administrators, who have been able to provide aid to ravaged communities near the school. In particular, SOPUDEP has sustained the people of Mourne Lazare, a poor community in Port-au-Prince that has been all but ignored by relief efforts. For more details about SOPUDEP and its remarkable work since the earthquake, please visit their site at: http://www.sopudep.org.

We have provided support for the Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH), who opened up their union hall to community residents, giving them shelter and sustenance in the wake of the disastrous quake.

We have funded Shoulder to Shoulder, a community group in Cite Soleil, the poorest neighborhood in Port-au-Prince. With these funds, organizers purchased a generator for a cyber café, providing a way for residents in Cite Soleil to communicate with friends and family in the days following the quake. Shoulder to Shoulder has also helped to house children in Cite Soleil who have been orphaned as a result of the quake.

We have provided funds for tarps in the Port-au-Prince area, Leogane and Jacmel. People continue to sleep outside, either because their homes are destroyed or because of continuing after-shocks. As the rainy season begins in Haiti, the on-going crisis of sanitation, health and shelter is at the center of grassroots organizing campaigns and relief efforts.

Our aid goes directly into the hands of Haitians. We give aid, not charity; we respect the people of Haiti and honor their commitment to lead the rebuilding of their society in the wake of this disaster. We have worked to support Haiti for the past six years, not just for the past few weeks. We will continue our work long after Haiti has dropped from the front pages. We hope that you will be there with us. We appreciate every penny, every dime, every dollar.

Since the earthquake the Aristide Foundation for Democracy (AFD) and the Medical School of the Foundation have been receiving large numbers of refugees and treating the wounded. Approximately 4000 people are now sheltering in the dormitories of the Medical School. Getting food, water and medicine for them remains a daily challenge. Foundation staff, together with a group of 53 doctors(Cuban and Haitian) attached to the Foundation, have been providing emergency medical care to the injured. The AFD has mobilized over 250 young people from the area to help distribute food and water, treat the wounded and maintain calm. In the coming week we plan to send mobile clinics out into some of the larger refugee encampments in the city. We are working to serve where possible as a bridge between the larger relief effort and the vast network of organizations, neighborhood groups and people who make up the popular movement, to whom we remain closely bonded, and for whom the continued presence of the Aristide Foundation is a symbol of hope.

We are grateful for the financial support of the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund.

Organizing Mobile Schools
An estimated 90% of the schools in Port-au-Prince were destroyed in the earthquake. Tens of thousands of children are living in refugee camps and will be at least for the next several months. To offer organized activities, contact with caring adults, and some continuation of basic schooling AFD is launching a Mobile Schools project. We’ve recruited 50 high school and college graduates to serve as teachers, and are now coordinating with families and organizing committees in two refugee camps to build shelters where classes can be held.

Classes—three hours a day, five days a week—began at the first site on February 22. A second site is due to open next week. As funds become available we hope to expand this project to other sites. This project is being funded by the Haiti Emergency Relief Fund and we are very grateful for their solidarity and support.

Haiti Emergency Relief Fund supports local food production in Port au Prince

HERF fundraising flyer from November 16, 2006