The Betty Black Blog

Jamaicans have opened up our hearts and our wallets to help Haiti. Our minds have turned from our own woes with the realisation that, just a stone’s throw away, is a neighbour who makes our problems look insignificant. We text, we write cheques and we drop supplies at ODPEM. But then we watch CNN, etc. and hear about American soldiers on the ground, what the American Red Cross is doing or, once in a while,  mention of Doctors without Borders and a few other international organisations. This is not surprising as it is to be expected that US based news agencies would report news relevant to the US first.

What we really want to know is how have we been helping our neighbours? An old Jamaican proverb states “we likkle but we tallawah!” and this has proven true. I’ve gathered together various news articles relating to Jamaica on the ground in Haiti.

JDF photo

The day after the earthquake our PM,  Leader of the Opposition and the Director General of ODPEM, along with a JDF contingent arrived in Haiti. The JDF contingent remained in Haiti and has been joined by additional JDF personnel as well as soldiers from other Caribbean countries at our base at the Port-au-Prince International Airport. By the first weekend Food for the Poor had landed ten containers of supplies at Cap-Haïtien to the north. On Friday and Saturday our Government was able to airlift out many Jamaicans who had been resident in Haiti using planes which had carried in supplies, soldiers and medical personnel. If you are aware of any Jamaican in Haiti who has not yet been accounted for call ODPEM at 886-1849.

We heard on Friday that the American Armed Forces in charge of the airport were turning back other planes giving preference to their own armed services. This included, among others, a plane carrying the CARICOM Secretary General and several Caribbean Prime Ministers. What many of us did not hear is that this plane also carried Digicel staff and equipment on the way to try and get communications back up. Communications are extremely important in any disaster. Despite the delay they were able to have their network 70% operational by the following Monday. Digicel customers can donate J$25 by texting HELP to 162. LIME customers can text the word HAITI to 444-HELP (444-4357) to donate J$50. From the 20th JPSCo linesmen, on 15 day rotation, have been helping to restore power to some areas.

These articles appeared in the Sunday Observer and the Sunday Gleaner five days after the earthquake giving an account up to that point. That same day the Director General of ODPEM spoke, already thinking of a long term plan and the US Secretary of State stopped off on her way home from Haiti to meet with the PM.

The JDF soldiers have a base established at the airport, Camp Restore Comfort to collect, hold and disburse our donations. They also travel with our medical teams and provide security for the Food for the Poor missions.

Our doctors and other medical personnel have been working in ten day rotation at three facilities in or near Port-au-Prince. People in the medical and health fields who wish to volunteer in Haiti can call the Ministry of Health at 1-888-ONE LOVE (1-888-663-5683), Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:00pm.

Here are a few newspaper reports covering our medical personnel there:
The Gleaner – Too Big a Task
The Gleaner -  Thank God for Him
The Observer – J’can Medics Save Lives
The Observer – Amputations Save Haitian Lives
The Observer – Heartbreak and Hope

We even found something to smile about in the middle of tragedy as we followed an appeal by a grandmother to bring home her granddaughter born in Haiti of Jamaican parents. On Sunday last, January 27th, we were happy to hear that the teenager had landed safely in Jamaica. We can also read the detailed account from a Gleaner journalist who had been there  in Part One and Part Two of his article.

Haiti is still recovering and will take, according to the experts, a full ten years to be rebuilt. At this point their most pressing needs are still water, food and medical supplies but down the road they are going to need houses, built properly this time like Jamaican houses. They will need a proper infrastructure which unfortunately they have never had. While we cry for water in the middle of Jamaica’s worst drought in twenty years we need to realise that only 45% of Haiti has ever had any kind of water supply and even that is incredibly polluted. They will need schools and hospitals and they will need orphanages, our hearts bleed to think of how many orphanages they will need.

Food for the Poor was started almost thirty years ago by concerned Christian Jamaicans living in Florida who wanted to help their less fortunate brothers and sisters at home. A few years later they expanded their relief work to the region’s most needy country, Haiti. The organisation now serves 17 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America and has grown to become the largest international relief organisation in the United States. It also has one of the lowest overhead costs (less than 3%) of any Charity in the world. Since the earthquake Food for the Poor has sent 300 containers of supplies. But they have been in Haiti for twenty five years. Before the catastrophe they had completed over 400 projects in Haiti and had another 220 under way.  They currently operate five orphanages through their Angels of Hope programme. They will need to build more. They have built over 8,000 single family homes in Haiti, they will need to build more. More than 95% of these homes, built with expertise from Jamaica and Florida, withstood the quake.

Nothing is too small so please help the people of Haiti by donating to Food for the Poor or other recognised charity.

The Digicel sponsored “Rise Again” featuring Shaggy, Sean Paul and others is now available for download on iTunes for US$0.99, all of which goes to the Digicel Relief Fund.

The people of Haiti will need the help of their Caribbean neighbours for a very long time,  let’s not forget them again as they have been forgotten for centuries.

Read more about Jamaica at Jamaica-Allspice.com