At 2am the rain started pouring in the Mission of Hope Camp, where most people sleep in shelters constructed from bedsheets and sticks. Six hundred people crowded into a shed already serving as a church and recovery room for injured people, trying to get out of the rain. With so many people crowded into such a small space, nobody could sleep. Everyone got wet and babies were crying; it was one of those nights when you just lose hope. Then, at 5am, the people started singing, using their voices to send up a strong prayer. In that moment I learned that the one thing the earthquake cannot take from the Haitian people is their spirit.
During my five weeks in Haiti working as a freelance volunteer, I attempted to fill the gaps between the big relief organizations and the people in the field.
I tried to coordinate delivery of food and supplies for shelters to those camps. I mapped the locations of camps and shared my information with any organizations in the area that could help. I also spent time just being with the people in those dirty, swampy camps, so they would know that someone cared.
I traveled between hundreds of camps, mostly in the Leogan and Grand Goave area, where the earthquake originated. I was working with some small NGOs, the World Food Program, UNICEF, local organizations and freelance volunteers like myself. In some places like Leogan and Grang goave, all schools, orphanages and hospitals were collapsed, and the only places that were offering medic care were field hospitals operated by the American military, the Canadian military and groups of private volunteers.
Meanwhile, the overwhelming presence of thousands of American and Canadian soldiers, U.N people and thousands of NGOS (non-governmental organizations) flooded the small island of Haiti. Port-Au-Prince airport had hundreds of tents, with thousands of aid workers, hundreds of laptops, faxes and copy machines. These were all supported by two huge generators that could have easily supplied the electricity of an average city. However, even with all this international support, nothing was moving forward to help these people! There were hundreds of new S.U.Vs driving over every road and still, six weeks after the quake, most Haitian people were still sleeping under the stars with only bed sheets as covers and getting wet on a daily basis. The lack of impact being made by the U.N. and other big relief organizations bordered on a crime against humanity!
I spent many nights sleeping in the camps in Haiti and driving between them on a motorbike while U.N. employees stayed at their base, claiming it was not safe for them to venture out after 5pm. Many U.N. officials have never even been in a camp after dark. When employees do leave their base, it is only to go from one meeting to another. They were not in the field helping the people that were in need.
Some organizations working in Haiti only handle coordination; their employees stay in expensive hotels, eat and drink well, and spend all their time on their laptops. I feel that 95 percent of monetary donations are going to unnecessary salaries, the purchase of new SUVs and logistics expenditures.
I know for sure that even with all the logistic difficulties transferring aid into the island and the local corruptions, the international aid failed once again. I have worked in other disaster areas, such as Sri Lanka after the tsunami, and run into similar situations of wasting resources and time. However, the reality in Haiti crossed all limits.
Tal Ben-Mordechai lives in Santa Cruz. In late February he returned from five weeks volunteering in Haiti.
