30 July 2010: It’s been 6 months since the goudou goudou hit Haiti. Before 12 January, there was no word for “earthquake” in Haitian Creole; there is now.

I had hoped to jot down my thoughts earlier but it is only now that I have a brief moment to breathe and put to paper the thoughts, ideas and memories that have been rolling around in my mind.

In the frenzy, we chose to forget – at least certain things. But there are constant reminders at every corner, and the thought is just below the surface that maybe, just maybe, it will happen again. 

Frightening memories

I met a friend for lunch. She was in town for a few days – her first days in the city since 12 January, this time with her newborn baby girl. As we sat down, people started to scream and stampede towards the door. Chairs went flying, drinks and food splattered on the floor. It was not a tremor but rather a large truck rumbling by.  We ate our lunch in the car in a supermarket parking lot.

I think we have an obligation to remember, not only to honour those who were taken from us but also to make sure that, to whatever extent possible, we are more prepared for “next time”.  

At the same time we have an obligation and responsibility not to let the memories paralyse us. We need to heal emotionally as well as physically, deal with the distress and move on with our lives.

Finding a balance

Children taking part in Plan's early childhood care and development activities at one of the camps for displaced people

The earthquake forced us to take stock – to think about what we had, what we have lost, what we still have. It forced us to think about priorities and what really matters in life; that life is short and that we need to make the most of it.

Yet at the same time, it is precisely because of this earthquake that people are working long and hard days to make a dent in the face of so much need. It’s balance that we all so desperately seek – a balance all the more important since 12 January.

Making a difference

It’s not easy to convey the real and everyday challenges here. They were numerous before the quake and have only expanded exponentially since. However, amid such challenges we have made progress. 

Plan has been a crucial partner to the Ministry of Education in getting more than 15,000 school kids back in school by providing temporary and now semi-permanent classrooms.  

We have protected more than 26,000 children against major health risks like typhoid, diphtheria, and tetanus. In partnership with the Ministry of Health we have facilitated access to quality healthcare for thousands of people, many of them pregnant women. 

Emotional support

We are one of the leading organisations focusing on emotional and social “reconstruction” needs – creating 30 child-friendly spaces for at least 4,500 children, and training 975 education professionals and 100 youth volunteers in psychosocial support.

I could go on. The point is that Plan is making a difference here and will continue to make a difference despite of and in spite of the delays and challenges – past, present and future.  

Watch a slideshow of Plan’s work in Haiti 

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7 May 2010: I’m perched on a ledge at L’Ecole Frere Clement, one of the schools Plan is supporting in Jacmel, in the South East region of Haiti.  It’s almost noon which means one of the schools using the site is ending classes for the day, and another school will begin in the afternoon. 

Children stream past me in uniforms of blue check or yellow and green, depending on what school they are enrolled in, alternately yelling “bonjour!” or waving shyly; a few bolder ones call out “blan!”  Regardless of their level of French or English, almost all of them smile broadly when passing by trying to figure out what I’m doing there.

Replacing tent classrooms

Today is an exciting day because we are starting construction of the transitional structures that will eventually replace the temporary tents and sunshades Plan has been erecting to serve as temporary classrooms.  Our transitional classrooms are more durable and have been designed to hurricane and earthquake-proof standards.  With the hurricane season starting in June, it is all the more urgent that they are built as quickly as possible. 

Working in partnership with the Ministry of Education (which has approved Plan’s school design) we have identified sites at which we’ll be building these classrooms, and our pilot building at Frere Clement will serve as a model for contractors to follow. 

Breaking ground

Work begins on the classrooms' foundations in Jacmel

Although it’s a scorching 95 degrees, there’s a nervous energy in the air, as the preparation and anticipation from the past month have finally resulted in “breaking ground” today. 

Already a crew at our makeshift wood shop is cutting and assembling the roof truss, and other workers are measuring and staking out the spots where additional classrooms will be built.

Expert support

Jack Ryan, the architect who produced the school design for Plan, is overseeing the project and working for the next 2 weeks with local builders in Jacmel, to ensure design specifications are followed and construction crews obtain the skills necessary to build the right way, to avoid reoccurrences of the destruction that followed the earthquake. 

Building materials include mostly wood, which is much more flexible yet sturdy in the event of natural disasters, and lightweight corrugated roofing painted white to minimise heat gain, with concrete being used only for the foundations of the school. 

Throughout the next few months, Plan will continue working with the Ministry, various schools, partner organisations, teachers, and parents to ensure children have safe and secure classrooms in which to learn, play, and be kids again.

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6 April 2010: Although my 3 weeks in Haiti has passed very quickly, much activity has taken place in that amount of time! 

For starters, I was involved in preparations leading up to the re-opening of schools in Haiti by 5 April, which the Haitian government had strongly been urging.  Many schools in the south-east around Jacmel were already back in session before then, using large tents provided by Plan. 

For other schools, especially those around the earthquake-affected area of Croix-des-Bouquets, right outside of Port-au-Prince, resuming classes on 5 April was somewhat of an unrealistic goal, given the physical conditions of the region. 

Back to school campaign

However, Plan is still preparing the groundwork to get children back in to school as soon as possible, including launching our ’Back to School’ campaign aimed at educators, parents, and students. 

Our primary message is that education is now more important than ever, not only in providing learning opportunities but also to ensure children have a safe and secure place in which they can re-establish normal routines and continue recovering from the psychological distress experienced in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Plan support

Hanna (left) with participants on Plan's cash for work scheme

On my last day in Haiti, I visited one of the schools near Croix-des-Bouquets that Plan will be supporting with temporary classrooms.  The school was hit hard by the earthquake; one block of classrooms was completely destroyed and the rest are too damaged to use. 

In order for children to resume their classes as soon as possible, they need access to a safe place where they can feel comfortable and confident to learn. Teachers and other school personnel need safe spaces too, as well as access to the basic equipment and materials they need to work effectively.

Temporary schools

Before the classrooms can be put in place, the site for the temporary school must first be cleared. Rubble has to be removed and separate latrines for girls and boys must be dug. I went to visit the team of parents and community members who are working as part of Plan’s cash for work programme to prepare the school site.

Men and women from the local community were working together to ready the space so that their children can go back to school.  Although this school didn’t open its doors on 5 April, Plan is working with partners including the Ministry of Education, teachers, parents and community members to ensure that when it does, children will have a safe and secure space to continue their education.

View pictures of Plan's education work.

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29 March 2010: It’s hard to believe I’ve been in Haiti for over 2 weeks now and am coming to the end of my temporary assignment here. In supporting the education portfolio for Plan Haiti I’ve seen the amazing amount of work already done to ensure children can return to school in early April.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been working with education authorities, facilitating town hall meetings for school directors and inspectors to come together and express their concerns and needs. 

Great demand

Last week in Croix-des-Bouquets we anticipated about 50 participants and were surprised as over 70 directors and inspectors attended! Every available chair in the office was packed into the room, with several directors standing in the doorway and Plan staff perched on top of desks at the front of the room.

Boys studying in a school tent provided by Plan

The session was conducted mostly in Creole, which proved challenging. Still, it was clear the needs and concerns are plentiful: the need for temporary schools where school buildings have been destroyed or damaged; how to get parents and children to overcome the fears and anxieties they developed and to encourage them to send their children back to school; how to encourage teachers to come back to work and to offer them the psychosocial support they need as well as training on how to handle the psychosocial needs of their students; what to do about the camps that are settled on school grounds; and how to pay teachers’ salaries in light of the increased economic struggles.

Plan’s education strategy

Saintil Brice, Plan’s national education advisor, presented Plan’s strategy for supporting the Ministry of Education to respond to these needs, including the provision of transitional structures and teaching materials; training teachers and school directors on psychosocial support and emergency preparedness, as well as on key issues such as gender, school-based violence, health and hygiene promotion, and disability.

I presented Plan’s integrated strategy to support early childhood development that includes education, child protection and health — to target pre-school children and children aged 0-3, and provide support to pre-school teachers, parents, women’s groups and caregivers.

Supporting the government

The needs of the school directors are immense and multi-faceted. Plan’s role is not to serve as a substitute for the government but rather to support the government and to work with national and international organisations to respond to these needs in a coordinated and effective way. 

Although Plan alone can’t resolve all the problems facing the education system, we are committed to working together in partnerships to ensure children get the education they deserve.

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16 March 2010: There are children everywhere.  A group of rambunctious boys are playing soccer. A dance class is just getting underway while music class students belt out a tune on their recorders.  Some children are quietly drawing, hunched over their drawings while others play tag while blowing enthusiastically into their little plastic whistles.  

I am at one of Plan’s newly established child-friendly spaces, visiting with some of my colleagues. Among the flurry of activity, I feel a little tug on my bag.  I look down and see a sweet little round face with innocent eyes looking up at me.  I kneel down to talk with her.  “Hi sweetheart, how are you?” I ask in Creole.  

With shy words uttered in not more than a whisper, she says: “I want to tell you my name.”
At the age of 5, she could sense that something important was going on. She wanted to be part of it.  She wanted to be recognised. She wanted to be acknowledged.  She wanted to be heard.

Helping children to speak out

My moment with this little one is representative of what is happening on a higher level with the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) consultative process currently ongoing in Haiti. In the flurry of the urgency to design a plan for the reconstruction of Haiti, Plan wants to make sure the decision-makers hear the voices of children and youth when they decide what will be done to rebuild the country and how it will happen.  

Even more than that, decision-makers must not only hear but listen to and validate these young Haitians’ views, opinions, and wishes for the new Haiti. 

Plan action

There is a lot of activity this week around the PDNA with various actors lobbying the Haitian government and donors alike to include the interests and needs of key groups of people in Haitian society – people who are often excluded from decision-making circles.  

Today through Wednesday there is a technical conference in the Dominican Republic.  A roundtable discussion on ‘The Child/Youth Perspective in the Reconstruction of Haiti’ will take place on 18 March in Miami, with a consultation between civil society and the government in Port-au-Prince on 19 March.  Plan is participating in these events to ensure that the voices of Haitian children and youth are kept on the agenda and in the plan.

This is all leading up to the grand finale on 31 March when the final PDNA framework will be presented to donors at a conference in New York.

Courage

It took a lot of courage for that little girl to come up to me and assert herself like that.  But she did it and she captivated us with her quiet song that followed.  Now it is up to us to do the same - to seize and keep the attention of the decision-makers in Haiti and the international community, and to make Haiti’s children and youth a priority in the rebuilding of the nation.

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13 March 2010:  I am sitting with my cup of Haitian coffee, my cat curled up on my lap, thinking back to 12 January. 

Unlike 13 January, I woke up fairly rested this morning.  I slept on a mattress last night in a house that was not shaking as opposed to my car, which shook constantly the night of 12 January.  

It’s been 2 months since the quake.  Sometimes it seems like a lifetime ago but the frequent dreams, jitteriness at the slightest unexpected movement or sound, and my instant ‘escape route analysis’ upon entering any building reminds me that it was not that long ago.

In love with Haiti

I fell in love with this country 9 years ago, but I feel that the earthquake has cheated me in some way – cheated me of friends,  memories, small but valued accomplishments over the years, and, to some degree, hope for the future.

Over the years I have been asked on numerous occasions: “Are you not afraid of living in Haiti, especially violence-ridden Port-au-Prince?  Haiti must be such a scary place to live.” My response has always been a resounding “no” - that Haiti’s reputation as a lawless land of violent people is a gross misrepresentation of this nation and its people.

But ask me that same question now and my answer will be different.  Not because of anything to do with violence or insecurity, but rather because on 12 January the Haitian ground shook so violently that it claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and decimated cities and neighbourhoods in a matter of seconds.

And then I think back on my week and I start to think differently about things.  The seeds of hope start to sprout again; seeds that have always been there but that were buried under the rubble of 12 January.

Laughing faces

I remember the little faces of children like Davka, Jos, Josique, Fabienne, Tracy and the others in the child-friendly spaces I have visited in the past few days.  Children being children - laughing, playing, resting, recovering, thanks to the work Plan is doing to help them overcome all they have seen, heard, and felt these past 2 months.

I remember the kind and proud faces of Gracia, Jezila, and Darlene – women working hard alongside men in cash-for-work projects Plan is implementing in Jacmel and Croix-des-Bouquets.  Not only are these projects about economic recovery and disaster risk reduction, but they are equally about participation – about empowering women and men to participate in recovery activities in their communities and contribute to overall recovery of the country.

I am instantly reminded of why we do what we do and how important it is. 

Impressive colleagues

I think of my new colleagues – tired beyond belief from working endless days to provide relief to their fellow brothers and sisters.  Many of them have lost so much but have given so much in the last 2 months. 

My revived sense of encouragement and drive is fueled by the resilience of the Haitian people and their strength to rise above this.  And rise they will.

By the time I finish my coffee, my spirits have lifted.  I feel a renewed sense of commitment to the children of Haiti, to my colleagues and to this country.  As the Haitian proverb says ‘Men anpil, chay pa lou’ (with many hands the load is not heavy).  Together we will rebuild this beautiful nation.  As the t-shirts being worn by numerous people in the streets of Haiti today announce, “together we will get there”. 

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11 March 2010: My last full day in Haiti is spent in Jacmel, one of the towns hardest hit by the quake. The road takes us through Port-au-Prince and the chaos of the street markets, past the flattened Presidential Palace (which, Plan Haiti staff tell me, is now a symbol of a destroyed country) and along narrow roads where even the smallest houses betray the impact of 12 January.
 
This landscape is almost impossible to describe, with rubble everywhere and houses at cockeyed angles. Tented villages spring up at random, some with strong canopies, others with flimsy sheets. The road is just about winning its battle against daily landslides - but what will happen when the rains come?
 
We visit the Jacmel staff in their small tent, squatting in the yard of our fellow non-governmental organisation, Caritas. Plan’s office is a write-off. 

New classrooms

Then off to see more cash for work schemes and the 10 new temporary classrooms which Plan is erecting in the grounds of the secondary school. The original building looks fine to the naked eye but is riven with structural faults and will have to be totally rebuilt, according to the engineer from England who has been hired to help us.
 
It is easier to work in Jacmel than Port-au-Prince, he says. No-one there has yet agreed which land can be used to build the temporary classrooms. The authorities are saying they want all the schools open in early April but no one is sure whether this is possible.
 
The school looks over Jacmel harbour with its newly built wharf, courtesy of the Canadian armed forces. There are no ships in sight but later this month 3 large barges, full of materials to erect sturdy interim homes and other buildings, are expected to dock.
 
Everyone we talk to is pinning a lot on the arrival of the 3 barges. Sourcing the material to build temporary structures capable of withstanding the level of expected wind and rain is, we are advised, impossible from within Haiti.

Child-friendly space

A child-friendly space in Jacmel

Finally, before we set off for home we visit a very lively safe space for children. Built by Plan and its partners in a small field just off an improvised camp, it has a rich variety of activities underway: drawing, music classes, football, and board games. There is a lot of noise and laughter. It reminds me how resilient children can be. There are also health facilities on site, with lines of women and children waiting patiently for inoculations, and space for one-to-one counselling.
 
As we get ready to leave I meet a 5-year-old girl who is here with her brother. She is a lovely little girl, quite serious at first but softens as she gets more confidence speaking to strangers. She offers to sing a little song and breaks out into a little dance just for us. It is a tiny moment of charm in a landscape which is especially harsh and unforgiving after the earthquake. And a reminder of why Plan does what it does.

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8 March 2010: Cash for work programmes often don’t get the sort of profile in disasters that traditional food distribution and building shelters can command. But today my meeting with Jesusla, a 62-year-old Haitian woman, earning US$5 a day as part of a ditch clearing operation, emphasised the value of programmes like this.

Appropriately on International Women’s Day, I come across Jesusla wielding a hoe and clearing away debris as part of a mixed team working on the outskirts of Croix-des-Bouquets. In the distance is an unofficial tented village where she lives with many internally displaced people from as far afield as Port-au-Prince and beyond. The tents are a chaotic fragile tapestry of sheets and pieces of material - just about bearable in good weather but unlikely to withstand the rainy season, which is fast approaching.

Protecting vital paths

And then there is the problem of the path which connects this site to Croix-des-Bouquets and beyond. Plan’s cash for work programme with its emphasis on practical strategies to reduce local flooding can at least mitigate the effects of the next threat after the earthquake: very heavy rain. Without such programmes the path would soon be a morass of mud and dirt, traipsed into the tents and adding to the risk of illness. With it there is a good chance it will be passable.

Plan’s cash for work programmes provide valuable funds for individuals and families. Over a 2 week period a member of the team can earn US$50, a lot of money in Haiti.

Helping thousands take action

The work is being spearheaded by a remarkable man, Marshall Ashley, a 67-year-old former US academic, who has spent over 3 decades working full time in development. His enthusiasm is infectious and he knows how to scale up an operation. Marshall has worked for almost everyone in the sector and tells me proudly that he will soon have over 60 “cash for work” teams in action, clearing rubble and lots of similar tasks.

He has hopes of 100 teams soon which would mean over 2,000 Haitians would have cash in their pockets as well the dignity of doing useful work. I doubt if Marshall ever thinks about retiring from work like this. He has lived in Haiti for many years and cares deeply for the people, even more so after the terrible earthquake.

Dreams of a better Haiti

For Jesusla, this programme means like Marshall, she can dream of a better Haiti. She wants to open a soap making business with her cash.

I once heard the former President of Ireland Mary Robinson describe “work” as being “love made concrete”, that it was the strongest evidence society valued people and wanted them to be able to contribute to their own welfare. If you had met Jesusla and the other members of the ditch clearing team today, you would have no doubt she was right.

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7 March 2010: The crowd has been gathering from first light on the outskirts of the local basketball stadium, clutching the all important blue ticket which will let them enter to pick up the package of basics I have used as the title for this blog.

It is well-organised by Plan and the local municipality: 10 ticket holders at a time rush across the tarmac and collect these prized possessions, repacking them as they go to make them more portable. A frail old lady, old enough to be a granny many times over, is struggling with the weight of the rice bag until her grandchildren come to the rescue and hustle her out of the stadium.

I think what a life…queuing for hours often in the heat (though it is cooler today) for what should be a “given” - the right to simple food and a basic health kit. Outside the queue is mercifully getting smaller though not with out the odd flash of temper as the UN police politely deal with the few interlopers without a ticket.

Influx of displaced people

We are in the town of Belladere a few kilometres over the Dominican Republic (DR) border. This is the town that “Papa Doc” Duvalier built to impress their neighbours about the quality of life and architecture in Haiti. It is with the odd exception down at heel and tired looking now with roads of a much lower quality than in the DR.

This area is now coping with a big influx of displaced people from further inside Haiti. Port-au-Prince is a couple of hours away. This distribution of food, with funds from Plan, is just about the first one in the town. The mayor and local authorities are there to say thank you as the 5 lorries from San Juan in the DR are being unloaded, bag by bag, sack by sack.

It is good to see this support for the families of Belladere. Although on Haitian soil, it has been organised by the Plan DR team who are taking responsibility for work in this area. That gives the Plan Haiti team more time to focus on the devastated programme units much closer to Port-au-Prince.

Unsung heroes

During my short visit to 3 Plan programme units in the DR, I have had the chance to say thank you to the dozen or so staff from Plan DR who went into Haiti right from the start. Stories of people coming in on their holidays and volunteering to set off for Port-au-Prince are common. And it is not just the technical advisers and the specialists in development. Most of the DR team have been involved in some way or another - including the unsung heroes like the drivers who were in Port-au-Prince and Jacmel at the height of the aftershocks.

We have a lunch and a ceremony to present these wonderfully committed people with a certificate to mark their work in Haiti. The drivers get the biggest cheer. I make a speech about Plan and its future but the words appear redundant. Anyone in the room will have seen the future of Plan and know it works.

Great people make great organisations and in the DR team we are lucky to have so many of them.

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1 March 2010: When I first in arrived in Haiti nearly two weeks ago, I was told that one of the biggest safety concerns would be the road to Jacmel from Port-au-Prince. Once the rains came, mudslides could make it impassable and therefore dangerous to anyone caught on the other side. 

Plan Haiti has an office in Jacmel, a port city in the southwest region that before the quake was known for its quaint French colonial architecture and lively arts scene. I’d watched Plan’s video footage of thousands of family tents from Plan Dominican Republic coming to shore, just days after, because the town was so badly damaged and the people were cut off from the support and supplies coming through Port-au-Prince.

A visit to Plan's tents

On Friday, I found out that Marc-Antoine Lefedor, Plan Haiti’s Information Communication Technology Manager was going to Jacmel the next day to check how things were going for his team. I asked if I could tag along. I knew it would be my last chance before leaving next week, and I wanted to see exactly what had happened to those tents. 

Saturday was a clear, blue-sky day, and I gave no thought to the rain. And even though the straight road leading to the mountain was fissured and lifted up in places, I felt safe. The road was long and winding but it was well paved. We passed through the town of Leogane, the quake’s epicenter, and there were so many people shopping for fruits, vegetables, and bric-a-brac on the sides of the street, we had to honk our way through. It was market day.

Bored children: school needed

Plan tents in Jacmel

At some point, I looked back from the mountain and saw the wide green plain below stretching out to the sea. Meanwhile, on the sides of the road, were people getting on with the business of living. Many were just walking alone. There were many fruit stands along the way, with mandarins, limes, mangos, and grapefruit for sale, usually from baskets set on the ground. I passed many children, who without school, looked very bored.

After about three hours, along with all the colorful tap-taps and speeding motorbikes with a least two people riding precariously on board, we arrived. I saw how in Jacmel, unlike Port-au-Prince and Croix-des-Bouquets, there were no sprawling tent camps. The red and beige tents that Plan had delivered were slightly sun-bleached, but they were neatly organized in long rows, on the town’s streets and in the parks and plazas.

Marc-Antoine arranged for me to go to a child-friendly center in Jacmel, which was on a street lined with our tents. A big group of girls and boys of all ages gathered there to meet me, so I could take their photographs, and maybe talk about life after the quake. The first question they had for me was: “What is your name?” And since the name Heidi sounds a lot like Haiti when it’s pronounced in French, we all started off with a good giggle. 

Waiting for rain

We never got to my questions about what it's like to live in a tent with their parents who are constantly worrying about the rains and making ends meet. Instead, after I took some photographs, I turned my camera around. Watching them see themselves on the LCD screen made us all howl with laughter. And for that moment — before the rain fell hard later that night and the road back to Port-au-Prince was almost impassable — we were in a child-friendly space, together, taking a break from the world.

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