Assessment Team Lands in Haiti

UUSC's assessment team is currently in Haiti. The team is meeting UUSC partners and working with them to develop a mid- and long-term response to the devastation caused by the January 12 earthquake. The team includes Martha Thompson, manager of UUSC's Rights in Humanitarian Crises Program, and Wendy Flick, who has strong relationships with Haitian organizations following many years of working there. On Tuesday, February 9, the team spent time with one of our partners working just outside Port-au-Prince.

"Everyday Heroes" Leading Recovery Efforts

© Ruth Fremson/New York Times 

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"We're not asking for charity — people have a right to get this assistance. And they should get it with dignity. Relief organizations should not be throwing sacks of food off trucks and leaving the old people to be pushed aside as stronger people grab stuff. We are human beings and this food should be delivered to us with dignity. That is why we began distributing food in the areas where we have worked — we know how to do it the right way," Jean Robert explained to us.

Robert is the leader of the Platform of Community Organizations of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Zone (COZPAM), a UUSC partner organization providing relief in Mariani and Carrefour, two outlying areas of Port-au-Prince. He has been organizing Haitians to assert and defend their rights for years, through extremely violent times and through persistent poverty.

COZPAM is a coalition of 12 grassroots organizations from the slums of Port-au-Prince. Immediately after the earthquake, COZPAM began organizing volunteer rescue and relief teams at the community level. While it took several days for international food relief to reach Mariani and Carrefour, COZPAM and other Haitian-led groups had already set up tent camps, found food and water, and tended to survivors' medical needs.

UUSC and ActionAid USA have partnered to make sure COZPAM can continue to provide relief with dignity to survivors in Mariani and Carrefour. We are providing COZPAM with food and essential nonfood items (like cooking pots and sanitary supplies) to distribute to survivors in six camps. We are also making sure COZPAM has funds to keep its relief operation going.

Robert is tireless. He talked with us in the late afternoon after we had already visited several survivors in two COZPAM-supported camps. He showed us the list of 104 community volunteers he organized to offer grief and trauma support. He explained in great detail the problems of food delivery and how to make it work better. He emphasized the importance of Haitians organizing to help Haitians.

Robert described the everyday problems of lack of food, water, and sanitation in the tent camps with the conviction and authority borne of direct experience: he himself lives in one. Robert lost his house in the earthquake. As our conversation continued, we found out that he lost much more than his house; he also lost his wife. And yet, incredibly, he is leading his organization with hope and strength and a driving compassion for the survivors of the earthquake.

Robert left our meeting to take care of his eight-year-old daughter. His entire face lit up when he talked about her. He is one of the everyday heroes we have met here — a shining light among the misery that surrounds us.