1.    Housing refugees on our compound and farm. We are helping to find housing for many locally.
2.    We are providing food, water, clothing and shoes for many of the refugees.
3.    Medical care has been sought out in hospitals throughout Haiti for many injured people.
4.    We are receiving containers for food and supplies on our property and at the local port. They are then distributed primarily to the needy in the Port-au-Prince area but also in the Gonaives area.
5.   We are collaborating with other relief agencies, primarily the Judsonia church of Christ (Arkansas) and with Healing Hands International as they bring us food and supplies. We are providing them a committee of the best leaders to help make local decisions regarding priorities.
6.    Micro-loan teaching has been intensified with the goal of bringing as many refugees and other qualified persons into the program to help reestablish independence.
7.     Many displaced children are being temporarily placed in local schools until more permanent solutions can be found.
8.    A large medical team March 4-March 12, 2010  will travel to help with immediate care and to help in planning future curative and preventive strategies.

Life has once again changed dramatically for all in Haiti in the past month. We have all seen the very worst on TV, and I cannot really add anything about the suffering that is seen on the media.

Life in Gonaives

Many refugees. Phone service is still bad – call 10-15 times à get through once. Therefore, numbers, places they are staying, etc., is incomplete. Estimates of 100-200,000 have returned to the area to live with the relatives.

Pacius has concentrated primarily to this point on ministering to injured acquaintances from Port au Prince – mostly the Delmas church members. He has taken them to any area hospitals where they could get help. About 8 were taken to Milo (outside of Cap Haitien). HCDP medical team associate and nurse practitioners (DeeAnn Martin) just got back from working in the “MASH” type hospital for several days – US physicians and nurses are aiding to the best of the abilities, but the suffering still is great.

More than 20 injured are being ministered to in the Gonaives area, also. Our team is taking dressings, antibiotics and medical supplies for them. However, unknown scores more are in the area that we anticipate seeing.

Wonderful and exhausting efforts are being made by the Judsonia church of Christ and by Healing Hands to get aid to Gonaives. Containers received there will be trucked to a secure warehouse in Port au Prince for distribution. We anticipate arrival of the first container of medical supplies within days (the Miami ship yard has been clogged with so many ships trying to get out). Another container of food and hygiene supplies is coming from the Dominican Republic.

Trusted leaders from the Port au Prince and Gonaives area are meeting regularly and thoughtfully planning and deciding on issues relating to relief. This has not been a job for a single person (to avoid integrity breaches).

CLEAN WATER – training on how to use solar purification of water (“SODIS” method) was part of the training film produced by HCDP associate, Oneal Tankersley has been quite helpful. Water filters will soon arrive provided by Healing Hands. Global Samaritan is providing a solar powered high volume (55 gallons/hour) water purification apparatus (using table salt for chlorination) that Lee Fouts will bring to Gonaives with our team in March. Plans are being made by Healing Hands to bring a well drilling team to drill wells where refugees are concentrated. HCDP will be a major collaborator in that project as it materializes.

MICROLOANS – training sessions with people from Port au Prince have already begun. I was initially concerned about the portability of skills and training from the rural Poteau and Gonaives market areas to the big city of Port au Prince. However, as you watch the tent cities, the same markets and trades are involved there. Training is mandatory for success, and the Ti Marche Chretien ("Christian Small Market") team is committed to the process to ensure refugee and other PaP citizens succeeding for the short term as well as the long term. Training trainers is a big challenge, but the members of the Poteau church have been doing that for a few years and are committed to continuing their good work to as many communities as possible.

MARCH WORK TEAM – 50 persons will travel to Gonaives on March 4-March 12, 2010. 10 persons, many from Houston, will join farmer Hervey Madden (Beedeville, AR farmer) to continue to restore the farm which suffered from the 2008 hurricane. A front-end loader will be assembled, and much of the silt will be removed, and the farm land will be restored for planting. A water cistern and pipe for drip irrigation will be installed. A nursery will be built to house the reforestation program. Trees will be planted on the bare Bayonaisse mountain hillside as we begin our partnership with that village as we kick-off this long-term and important project.  Small latrines will be constructed and demonstrated that can be copied throughout the area in this time of increasing need for improved hygiene and disease prevention. New solar powered video projectors will allow showing of many of the educational videos produced and edited by Oneal Tankersley. Five doctors, three senior medical students, two advanced nurse practitioners, three dentists, an optometrist, pharmacist, nursing instructors and student nurses, and a group of experienced assistants will render medical aid.


 
David E. Smith, MD
Haiti Christian Development Project 
www.hcdp.net