As Annie reported yesterday, Heifer Haiti provided more than 400 relief packages to families affected by Hurricane Sandy.
Help Heifer provide emergency relief in times of great need by donating to our Disaster Rehabilitation Fund.
Editor’s note: The following update on Heifer Haiti’s Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts comes from Heifer Haiti Country Director Hervil Cherubin.
Today Heifer International’s Haiti country office team will be distributing emergency help to 400 families affected by Huricane Sandy. Each one will receive a kit (bag), containing rice, corn, sugar, milk, beans, flour and cooking oil. The distribution will be in Solon (a community in Saint Louis du Sud) where Heifer Haiti has a rabbit project and various communities in Les Cayes where the office is located.
Some of the kits will be distributed to a group of people with handicaps (many as consequences of the 2010 quake) in collaboration with the Haiti office for the Integration of the Handicap in Society. It is worth mentioning that being handicapped here in Haiti is very complicated and stigmatized. We will be helping 100 families.
Photo by Jason Woods, Heifer International
At 2:30 p.m. we will go to a very poor community named Sous Roche, which is close to the ocean and a river, to help 150 families. These people were hit hard by the storm because of their location. Their houses were flooded. Later we will go to small communities (Pelerin and Fond Fred) to distribute kits to 50 families each.
Tomorrow morning we will go to Solon to distribute kits to 100 families. This community was devastated by the storm. Many houses were flooded and crops destroyed. It is very sad to see all these plantain and pigeon bean plantations completely wiped out by the water.
All these activities are in coordination with the local emergency committee, Centre d’Operation d’Urgence (COU), on which Heifer is a sitting member. They work with partners to assist different communities. The communities Heifer Haiti is helping today and tomorrow have not yet received any help.
We started the process yesterday morning after receiving emergency funds from Heifer International headquarters. Yesterday afternoon we bought the goods, and with the help of some volunteers we put together the kits. We stopped at midnight, and this morning we started again to get them ready by noon.
These are the first of our emergency assistance plans. We will also assist many of our beneficiaries who lost their animals and crops with replacements and seed for the next planting season. These activities will happen in the coming days as things get back to some kind of normalcy.
Our Heifer Haiti colleagues and participants need your continued help. Please consider donating to our Disaster Rehabilitation Fund so we can provide the best assistance possible.
With the immediate aftermath from Hurricane Sandy passing for Haiti, the longterm effects on the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere begin to sink in.
Photo by Bryan Clifton, courtesy of Heifer International.
The two greatest concerns now: food shortages and cholera.
According to this BBC story, more than 70 percent of crops, including staples like bananas, plantains and maize, were destroyed in southern Haiti.
In a country with 80 percent of the population below the poverty line, a 40.6 percent unemployment rate and 18.9 percent of children under 5 years underweight, this is extraordinarily bad news.
Heifer Haiti project families were not exempt from the storm’s path. Hundreds of animals were killed or remain unaccounted for, including 361 goats, 183 fowl and 91 sheep. There was significant crop damage, one fishing boat was lost and nearly 300 homes in project communities were damaged and another 42 destroyed.
Floods and unsanitary conditions will probably worsen the cholera epidemic that has already claimed the lives of more than 7,500 people since 2010. Haiti has the second-lowest life expectancy (62.51 years) outside the African continent, so an increase in cholera cases will only further devastate this island nation.
Unlike the United States, where Sandy’s victims can look to government, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state and local officials for help, as well as churches, community organizations and aid groups, Heifer’s Haitian project families depend on the generosity of Heifer donors to help them rebuild and recover.
Photo by Bryan Clifton, courtesy of Heifer International.
More assessments are needed to fully understand Sandy’s impact on Haiti and on Heifer project families, but the need is already apparent—families need help getting back on their feet, restocking livestock and replanting fields. Only through a dependable diet, income and assets can they begin to rebuild their and their family’s future—ensuring medical care against cholera, that their kids remain in school and they build back better and stronger against the next storm threat.
Heifer International has a Disaster Management Fund to provide life-supporting aid in the wake of a natural disaster or event. Families in Haiti need this help now.
You can contribute to Heifer’s Disaster Management Fund here. Our friends and neighbors in the Northeast need and are getting help. Let’s be sure that families in Haiti have the same chance for a better future.
Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, used under Creative Commons.
We have another update regarding the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy from Heifer Haiti Field Technician Ludger Badette:
Heifer Haiti staff examined the damage in the Saut Mathurine area where houses were built/rebuilt in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. People in that area said the houses that resisted the damage from Hurricane Sandy were those built by Heifer International. During the hurricane, those who lived in houses that were destroyed or damaged took refuge in the houses built by Heifer. People there remain grateful for this project.
The building and repair of homes in Haiti were part of Heifer Haiti’s From the Ground Up umbrella project that set out to rehabilitate the rural livelihoods of 12,000 families.
Photos courtesy of Heifer International.
Hundreds of animals and thousands of dollars in crops are among the losses to suffered by Heifer International project participants in Haiti after Tropical Storm Sandy passed near the island nation late last week. Hurricane Sandy, which is now a Category 1 hurricane slamming into the East Coast of the United States, has caused 51 deaths in Haiti, mainly due to flooding after heavy rains.
Heifer International’s Haiti country staff continue to assess damage to projects after several days of steady rain. Heifer Haiti Country Director Hervil Cherubin reports that 611 animals have been killed or are unaccounted for following the storm, including 361 goats, 183 fowl, and 91 sheep. In addition, project participants suffered $435,972 in crop damage and the loss of one fishing boat. Some 289 homes in project communities have been damaged, and 42 houses destroyed. “It has been four or five days since we saw the sun,” said Cherubin. “Better days are in front of us.”
Rivers in Haiti remain out of their banks, and many roads are still impassable, with the southern part of the country most severely affected. Heifer Haiti staff will continue to provide updated assessments and recommendations for response. Go here to get a general overview of Tropical Storm Sandy’s effects on Haiti.
Click here to give to Heifer’s Disaster Rehabilitation Fund
Heifer International’s Haiti country office remains closed on Friday as the country recovers from the rains and flooding caused by Hurricane Sandy. Country Director Hervil Cherubin reports that the situation near Heifer’s office in Les Cayes remains fragile, and rain continues.
Image courtesy of NASA
Heifer’s office was minimally affected by the storm. The sign in front of the building was blown away and neighborhood trees were downed, but no Heifer employees were injured. Assessment of Haiti projects remains difficult due to the water still covering some roads. Heifer International will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.
Photo by mdpNY, used under Creative Commons license.
Heifer International’s Haiti country office remains closed today after Hurricane Sandy passed near the island country, dumping several inches of rain. The storm, which has been upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, is expected to produce a total of 6 to 12 inches of rain across Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Earlier in the year, a number of Heifer International project participants’ livestock were killed and a breeding center was damaged when Tropical Storm Isaac struck Haiti in August.
Hervil Cherubin, the country director of Heifer Haiti, relates reports that many crops have been destroyed in the area near Heifer’s office in Les Cayes, and rivers are overflowing. Transportation is very difficult and project activities this week are not possible.
No harm to Heifer project participants has currently been reported, but Heifer Haiti staff is evaluating the situation and will share more information as it becomes available.