Double Vision in Haiti Saves Lives and Helps Ensure a Better Future

By Gretchen Alther
Originally published in Rights Now Spring/Summer 2010

These days, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, leader of the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP) — a UUSC partner organization in Haiti — divides himself between coping with survivors' immediate needs in the aftermath of the devastating January 12 earthquake and ensuring that they can continue to survive once the dust settles.

UUSC has found this kind of double vision — seeing to immediate concerns while also taking the long view — on the part of grassroots leaders in times of crisis, as demonstrated after the 2004 tsunami, the earthquake in Pakistan, and Hurricane Katrina. UUSC has learned that it is precisely in supporting this grassroots leadership that we can reach people quickly and efficiently, ensure that those at risk of being overlooked by massive relief operations are not forgotten, and support a recovery that includes the voices of those groups.

As hundreds of thousands of homeless earthquake survivors flee to the Haitian countryside because they cannot find what they need in the city, the MPP is using its considerable organizing skills and all of its resources to attend to those arriving in rural communities throughout the country, including the areas of Hinche and Papaye in the Central Plateau. The MPP is providing food, water, shelter, and compassion for the displaced, including attending to these basic needs for injured survivors who flooded the hospital in Hinche.

Normally in Haiti, patients get their meals from their families — but many survivors lost their families in the earthquake, and many families were left with nothing. "There is not enough food for them in the hospital, so we are preparing meals and sending them there," reports Jean-Baptiste.

The massive outmigration from Port-au-Prince is severely affecting the rest of the country, which was already struggling to feed itself before the earthquake. People are feeling the effects of food shortages acutely right now, and they will continue to deal with them in the weeks and months ahead. "The urban exodus to the countryside is going to cause terrible hunger in a few months. Food production is our primary concern right now," says Jean-Baptiste. He and the MPP are planning to sow fast-growing beans immediately and are helping rural communities increase crop production while also integrating new families into their villages.

The Lambi Fund of Haiti, another UUSC partner, is also working on a recovery strategy that will help Haiti's rural communities sustain their needs in the mid- and long term. While the earthquake has brought considerable death and destruction to Haiti, the Lambi Fund recognizes that this is a moment to transform what has kept Haitians destitute and hungry for so long. "Within every catastrophe exists a window of opportunity for reframing possibilities, directing future resources in more constructive, sustainable, and healthy ways, and transforming loss into positive renewal," say Lambi Fund leaders.

Through partnerships with organizations like the MPP and Lambi Fund, UUSC is making a difference now in Haiti and will continue to do so in the months and years to come. Following assessment missions to Haiti February 5–13 and March 11–19, UUSC is developing an immediate response strategy for the next six months and framing a long-term response.

To date, UUSC has disbursed funds to the following partner organizations for emergency response:

• The Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP), which is helping people leave the capital, running a shelter in Papaye, providing food for people in the Hinche hospital, and offering food supplements to peasant families taking in earthquake survivors. The MPP is buying food and supplies from local producers where possible to strengthen the local economy.
• The Lambi Fund of Haiti, which is supplying rural community groups to receive earthquake survivors. In many communities, there is an immediate need to double food supplies to ensure that everyone can eat.
• The Platform of Community Organizations of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Zone (COZPAM) in Port-au-Prince and the Regional Coordination of Southeast Organizations (CROSE) in Jacmel are distributing essential items to earthquake survivors in those areas. UUSC is supporting these grassroots partners together with sister organization ActionAid USA.
• MPP is developing jobs for internally displaced persons, focused on soil and watershed conservation.
• The Trauma Resource Institute (TRI) is teaching first responders, community leaders, and earthquake survivors about the biological responses to trauma and ways to positively manage those responses.
• MIT D-Lab is working with other UUSC partners in Haiti to develop simple technologies that can help save time and conserve natural resources.

Gretchen Alther is an associate in UUSC's Rights in Humanitarian Crises Program.