OperationGetDone.org: Streamlining Disaster Relief

Field Updates

February 28th, 2010 - "Mudslides in Cap Haitien"

"Several days after the food distribution, I heard that there was an earthquake in Cap Haitien and that it had collapsed an elementary school. Word travels fast in Haiti and soon the streets were filled with people walking to the Western edge of the city to see what had happened to the school. The entire block was roped off by Chilean UN military personnel.

As it turned out, it was actually a mudslide that had collapsed the backside of the school. Four eight year-old's were killed. I had heard about some rocks that were in danger of falling down the hills surrounding the city, but I didn't take the rumors seriously. That night we had a meeting with twenty of our members at the Roi Christophe Hotel.

I asked our group if anyone had any definitive information on dangerously-positioned boulders in the area, especially on the hills bordering the Southern section of the city near the hospital. No one had any definitive information, so I organized a meeting for all ANYEL members the following morning to walk up the hill and take a look for ourselves. Sure enough, after walking fifteen minutes up steep muddy paths we found a boulder approximately 300 cubic feet sitting on a very steep and muddy slope with no significant vegetation left to stop it from rolling through the huts on the hill all the way down to the hospital below.

There was already a group of about ten men taking turns with two sledge hammers and wedges breaking apart the rock bit by bit. We spoke to them and they stated that they had not received the pay that they were promised but that they were working to destroy the rock because they felt it was an important thing to do for their city. They also stated that they were desperately hungry and some of them hadn't eaten in a day or two and were dehydrated.

I sent two of our members down to the market with money to buy enough food and water for everyone and created a chain gang to assist them carrying away the chipped-away bits of rock. After working for a while, I made my way back down the hill and spoke to Georgemain Prophete, the Governmental Delegate of the Northern Department of Haiti to explain the situation and ask for assistance. I communicated my idea of bringing a jackhammer and generator up to the rock to destroy it faster and he immediately offered the municipality's jackhammer and said had a friend with a powerful-enough generator.

We woke up early the following morning and borrowed a pick-up truck to gather the equipment. The generator was enormous and weighed probably 400 pounds and bringing it up the hill was very good exercise, but the jackhammer was a help and the workers appreciated the show of their government's assistance. Our organization again fed the workers and the rock was completely destroyed by the next morning.

I spent the next few days creating a proposal to the regional Director of the World Food Programme for the creation of a very specific group of Non-Goverment Organization's-- NGO's that concentrate on food distribution in Northern Haiti. The premise of the proposal was that increased coordination and communication between food distribution NGO's would improve both efficiency and transparency, getting food to more people and making theft more difficult. The Director read my proposal and told me that he loved the idea and in fact Delegate Prophete and him had come up with the exact idea several weeks before and were in the process of implementation.

They were also being assisted by the incredibly efficient and determined Angeline Chartier, a 25 year-old woman from Northern France who has been doing governmental consulting work in Cap Haitien for about three months now. I was very pleased to hear that they were working on the project."




	Field Updates February 28th, 2010 - "Mudslides in Cap Haitien" "Several days after the food distribution, I heard that there was an earthquake in Cap Haitien and that it had collapsed an elementary school. Word travels fast in Haiti and soon the streets were filled with people walking to the Western edge of the city to see what had happened to the school. The entire block was roped off by Chilean UN military personnel. As it turned out, it was actually a mudslide that had collapsed the backside of the school. Four eight year-old's were killed. I had heard about some rocks that were in danger of falling down the hills surrounding the city, but I didn't take the rumors seriously. That night we had a meeting with twenty of our members at the Roi Christophe Hotel. I asked our group if anyone had any definitive information on dangerously-positioned boulders in the area, especially on the hills bordering the Southern section of the city near the hospital. No one had any definitive information, so I organized a meeting for all ANYEL members the following morning to walk up the hill and take a look for ourselves. Sure enough, after walking fifteen minutes up steep muddy paths we found a boulder approximately 300 cubic feet sitting on a very steep and muddy slope with no significant vegetation left to stop it from rolling through the huts on the hill all the way down to the hospital below. There was already a group of about ten men taking turns with two sledge hammers and wedges breaking apart the rock bit by bit. We spoke to them and they stated that they had not received the pay that they were promised but that they were working to destroy the rock because they felt it was an important thing to do for their city. They also stated that they were desperately hungry and some of them hadn't eaten in a day or two and were dehydrated. I sent two of our members down to the market with money to buy enough food and water for everyone and created a chain gang to assist them carrying away the chipped-away bits of rock. After working for a while, I made my way back down the hill and spoke to Georgemain Prophete, the Governmental Delegate of the Northern Department of Haiti to explain the situation and ask for assistance. I communicated my idea of bringing a jackhammer and generator up to the rock to destroy it faster and he immediately offered the municipality's jackhammer and said had a friend with a powerful-enough generator. We woke up early the following morning and borrowed a pick-up truck to gather the equipment. The generator was enormous and weighed probably 400 pounds and bringing it up the hill was very good exercise, but the jackhammer was a help and the workers appreciated the show of their government's assistance. Our organization again fed the workers and the rock was completely destroyed by the next morning. I spent the next few days creating a proposal to the regional Director of the World Food Programme for the creation of a very specific group of Non-Goverment Organization's-- NGO's that concentrate on food distribution in Northern Haiti. The premise of the proposal was that increased coordination and communication between food distribution NGO's would improve both efficiency and transparency, getting food to more people and making theft more difficult. The Director read my proposal and told me that he loved the idea and in fact Delegate Prophete and him had come up with the exact idea several weeks before and were in the process of implementation. They were also being assisted by the incredibly efficient and determined Angeline Chartier, a 25 year-old woman from Northern France who has been doing governmental consulting work in Cap Haitien for about three months now. I was very pleased to hear that they were working on the project."
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