Aftershocks

After two nights of unnerving aftershocks measuring 4.7 on the r-scale, we are noticing heightened levels of fear and anxiety about potential future quakes. With the aftershocks and also several recent nights of torrential downpours, it seems we are all sleeping very little and very lightly.

Normally, the Child Protection team meets every morning at 8am to plan and coordinate the day in one of the rooms of our AMURT-Amsai school. Today, however, no one was even remotely considering to to meet indoors, so we held the days' meetings and work sessions outside in the tents. Although this school seems to be structurally sound, the memory of the quake is still very raw and the fear runs deep.

With the ensuing rainy season, I catch myself at moments in thought-paralysis because I can't imagine what is going to happen to everyone living in these very vulnerable camps with little protective shelter.

I am so deeply touched by and thankful for the outpouring of support from all of you. I learned that just last night the youth of Newtown Quaker Meeting held a successful lasagna dinner fundraiser, and over the last weeks Friends Select School has held so many activities and fundraisers to support the work we are doing in Haiti.

These two special communities and the Quaker community at large has given me so much strength, inspiration, and grounding. Much love and peace.

Espas Zanmi Timoun

This has been an action-packed week. We are trying to open several Child Friendly Spaces simultaneously, so every day we are running between camps. Each camp has its unique personality. On Monday, Haitians returned to work from a couple days of mourning and fasting. We are gradually building up our capacity as a team here at AMURT, as we have taken on several new people to meet the growing needs. Our Child Protection team now has a core group of about 12 people.

So, how are we setting up these Child-Friendly Spaces?

First, with our partner organizations (funders) I visit each potential camp and try to locate a space. One of our animators works with the local community leaders or camp committee to reserve the space and explain the intentions of use. Our engineer also evaluates the space and plans the construction. In some camps, we are going to put up 2-4 tents, but in other spaces we are building semi-permanent structures with 2x4s and tarps.

Our next step is identifying childcare "monitors". In effect, we are looking for dynamic, loving teachers but technically they do not have experience as teachers. I went out with our new Protection team members to explain to the committees the type of people that they should choose. From the committees' recommendations, we interviewed potential candidates and invited the selected ones to a training.

Meanwhile, our team speaks to the camp about selecting children for participation in these spaces. The hardest pill to swallow is that some of these sites are so large that we will not be able to serve even a fraction of the children, so selection criteria are formulated by the committee. The most vulnerable children are prioritized. Two of the camps that we are working with, however, are small enough for us to serve everyone in several shifts. On average we will have about 450 children at each site.

Construction of the sites is very satisfying yet unpredictable. One of our partner organizations was supposed to provide tents a while back, and due to unknown reasons we still have not received them. We hire camp residents to clear the land as all of these spaces are unsuitable in their present condition. On Wednesday afternoon, the most serendipitous thing happened when we were all meeting with the Seneas Camp committee about clearing the land of huge tree roots and garbage debris. We estimated Cash for Work for 10 people, 3 days. As we were chatting, a bulldozer rumbles down the hill. Dharma whistles it to stop and speaks with the driver. Two phone calls later, and the bulldozer begins clearing the land turning three days of work into just two hours. We are that much closer to a site! Now, usually things don’t move quite that fast.

As we are working on the sites, the team has also been organizing a two-day training here at our base for all of the “monitors”. We are going over the concept of a Child-Friendly Space (Espas Zanmi Timoun) and also co-creating lesson plans for different age groups that involve educational, creative and psychosocial activities. The goal is to infuse the curriculum with loving and healing child-centered and experiential activities. The training started this morning and over 125 people have come. After the next two days, we will have a better sense of the people to make a final selection for the “monitors.”
Our first site will open on Monday. The speed at which we want to roll these out is getting faster and faster. The balance between speed and quality is ever present in my mind, but at this point the need is so great that we must push hard.

:-) Smiles all around

Days like today make me fall in love all over.

Day of Mourning

Around the city, Haitians have gathered at churches, in camps and on street sides to pray, chant, and dance. For the first time in a month, we are taking some time to remember and reflect.

This last week has been insanely busy. We have started constructing the first of our 10 child-friendly spaces (CFSs), and as of this morning, we are ready to begin 3 more on Monday. We are working closely with the community leaders in each IDP camp to identify appropriate space, assess chidren's needs and find potential childcare providers. The biggest challenge in setting up these CFSs is finding space. The camps are obviously very crowded, so a lot of preparation will be needed to clear a clean, healing space to set up tents.

Each CFS will serve anywhere from 250-500 children, aged 5-12. The CFSs will provide an opportunity for children to restore some normalcy to their lives through educational play. We will sing, dance, paint, do yoga, play sports, etc! The community will lead each CFS with our support. Some figures indicate that there are over 300,000 displaced children, and with the coming rainy season there will be even more. Although 10 CFSs only scratch the surface, I'm hoping to learn and create structures and systems to make the process easily replicable.

This morning I had an inspiring meeting with the local committee leaders in the camp of Bureau de Mines. Three of our AMURT animators (a Haitian term used for Community Organizers) talked with the local committee leaders and together we identified all of the needs to get this project started by Monday. Since I don't speak Creole yet, we communicated in a funky melange of English, French, Spanish and Creole. It worked and now we are on our way.

I think of my FSS and IHS students often when I walk around the camps and see children the same age. One of my advisees gave me a beautiful dragonfly pin the day before I came to Haiti, and it reminds me how interconnected we all are and in uncertain times, we must fly fearlessly.

One Wish for my Birthday

I walked through the Petionville Club today. It was a country club until 3 weeks ago, and now it is the refuge for over 80,000 displaced people. The makeshift homes built out of sticks, tarps and blankets are barely able to withstand strong wind much less the anticipated rains of the upcoming hurricane season. Many organizations are working in this camp, including a strong presence of the US military, yet there are so many severe problems. I am concerned by the lack of coordination between agencies. We are beginning to talk with several communities within these larger camps in and around Delmas and Boudon. They are eager for us to provide the materials needed for child-friendly spaces, and we are gaining so much support with funders. We had an overwhelming turnout of 70 childcare providers here for a training on integrated educational and healing methodologies, and they will in turn train others at these camps. Tarps, ropes, wood, supplies have been ordered and we are ready to start building!

Spending my birthday in Port-au-Prince has been one of the biggest gifts of my life. I am thankful for everything I have learned here from my co-volunteers, Haitians and foreigners, and the spirit of determination and hope radiates ever luminously in a city that is covered in dust and debris. I have one wish for my birthday... of course you can guess what it is!

Long time since I've had internet access.  I am working with a great team of volunteers and professionals at AMURT.  We are concentrating on working on child protection services for children who are the most vulnerable--in the refugee camps.  We are hoping to get a child healing and educational space set up soon!  Working on a proposal for funding.  The big NGOs have lots of money but no contacts on the ground.  AMURT has an amazing and blossoming group of Haitians that are strategizing and envisioning short to long term plans.  In the coming days we are going to form some great partnerships to start implementing our plans.

I would write more, but I can't!  Electricity is in and out and this is taking forever.

Loads of love to you all.