Disaster Responses

Current Emergency, Earthquakes 2010 & 2021

In addition to long-term development programs, EWI also responds to major disasters that occur within Haiti’s borders.

Man Working in just days after the 2010 earthquake. January 2010 (c) Henryka Manes..

Author

Date

Updated

Oct 2024

Talia Farms Program

Disaster Responses

ECONOMY - AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES

Responding to local smallholder families’ expressed needs to gain more agency, access training, and improve the overall agricultural production, EWI is helping organize unaffiliated local farmers into agricultural cooperatives that farmers own and manage.

Two regional cooperatives have been established, and the remaining three will be added when security is restored. The two cooperatives serve 1,400members of participating farming families.

COOPERATIVE #1 – CAMA (Coopérative Agricole de Mare Roseau en Avant).

Mare Roseau is a communal section of the Commune of Ganthier, and is located at about 6,000 feet in the La Selle mountain range.

At CAMA most men are farmers, and most women take care of farm animals and run their homes.

Once established, CAMA members chose to partner with EWI on establishing the Women’s Goat Project. Large farm animals are like savings accounts for the farming families. Women were trained in goat husbandry and took possession of 18 improved-breed goats . Each year the herd size doubles.

Other projects focus on acquiring seeds for planting, continual farmers’ training, and planning for the next steps.

COOPERATIVE #2 – CADET, (Coopérative Agricole pour le Dévéloppement de Toman]

Toman is located at about 3,000 feet in the La Selle mountain range.

At CADET most men raise large farm animals and most women are small-merchants and take care of their homes.

For the past three and a half years, the gang blocks farmers from reaching markets to sell their animals and generate income. Consequently, we have increased our support of the small-merchant women who have now become the main bread winners.

Jointly, we have established a rollover fund so they can access affordable loans. Each year we increase the fund’s capital to grow the number of women who benefit from these loans. The fund is entirely managed by the women and their repayment rate is 93% which, given the circumstances, is excellent. The ‘normal’ repayment rate among these women is 96-98%.

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SHARED KNOWLEDGE

EDUCATION - THE PATRICE LUMUMBA COMMUNITY-BASED SCHOOL

The school that started with 18 pupils in a sublet classroom, today has its own building and educates between 260-300 students from five to sixteen years old. Since the inception of this partnership in 2009, the school and EWI worked jointly on many projects, among them:

Construction, Curriculum, Rainwater Collecting System, School Lunches, books, and so on.

Helped complete the construction of the school building, and provides continuous support to grow the curriculum and the student body.

Civics Course

EWI and the school designed and offer a civics course to teach students their responsibilities as Haitian citizens, and to learn about the main democratic tenets. This is in addition to the national curriculum.

The first ever class president election to promote citizen's responsibility to vote

‍Rainwater Collecting System

EWI funded and the school installed a rainwater collecting system so students, faculty and staff could drink and wash their hands with safe water.

School Lunches

The current catastrophic economic decline resulted in parents’ loss of income so severe they could no longer feed their children three daily meals. EWI and the school responded overnight by establishing a kitchen in the schoolyard that provides 300 daily school lunches to students and staff.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In addition to EWI’s support, the Patrice Lumumba school receives funding from most parents, teachers, local community leaders, and the U.S. Ganthier diaspora. Students whose parents cannot contribute, remain in school to continue their education. This is a truly community-based school.

WOMEN’S LITERACY

EWI initiated a Women’s Literacy program in Ganthier’s communal section of Galette-Chambon. Forty women of all ages participated in this one-year course. Using the Alfalit method, the participating women who couldn’t read or write when the course started, successfully completed it.

As they received their diplomas, many expressed their gratitude, pride and agency in a thank you letter written by hand and addressed to Henryka Manès our Founding Executive Director, who they befriended during her regular visits and classroom participation.

There were many emotional moments during that year – by far the two most salient were when each woman could, for the first time, write her name; the other was when they could write the thank you letter.

Teacher congratulating student on writing her name for the first time, and a thank you note from graduate of EWI literacy one-year course.

Graduating Class - Women's Literacy Program

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ABOUT THE GANTHIER REGION

‍ The Commune of Ganthier and EWI signed a cooperative agreement in the first months of our arrival in 2009. We agreed to prioritize the needs of the local small holder farmers, support the community-based school, and advance women’s equity. These common objectives became the genesis of the Talia Farms Program.

Being close to the capital, the region has been affected by the 2010 earthquake, Hurricane Matthew, Covid, and lately has been overrun by the brutal 400 Mawoso gang.

Through thick and thin, we have supported each other and doggedly continue our cooperation, finding solutions to the challenges we encounter. It has been fifteen years of close friendship, and mutual trust and respect

‍Tragically, at this time the town of Ganthier and much of the region is under the occupation of the 400 Mawoso gang. All schools and institutions are closed. Almost all of the town of Ganthier (about 25,000 people) are in hiding, scared and hungry. See Disaster Relief section for more information.

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CURRENT EMERGENCY

As You Celebrate – You can Also Help!

Sunday, July 21st, 2024, at 3:00 AM the 400 Mawoso gang viciously attacked the town of Ganthier.

All anyone could do is grab one’s children and run as fast and as far as possible. Once the town emptied, gang members went from house to house, looted it and burned it.

Residents formed clusters of groups that spread widely over the region. They live in hiding, are scared, and hungry. Food is the most critical need.

As most of you know, our teams are made of local residents – and are now among those who had to flee.

Despite the risks and danger - and thanks to our local teams who are among the refugees - we have been able to organize food deliveries. Each food package contains rice, beans, and cooking oil. One package costs $16 dollars and enables a family of six people to eat for 8-10 days.

To avoid at all cost the dire consequences of persistent hunger such as chronic diseases or children’s stunted mental and physical development, we do what we can to make the food deliveries on a regular schedule.

In America, this is a time of celebration with our family and friends. Would you, kindly, consider to help providing a basic food package to one family that has been uprooted, lives in fear, and experiences hunger. Any amount would be deeply appreciated.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, mèsi anpil.‍

Residents of Ganthier who fled - in hiding, at an abandoned and unfinished building 9.10.24

Pregnant woman and her husband receiving their food package. EWI second food distribution, September 2024. " (c) EWI

Ganthier in habitants in hiding-food distribution 9-11-24

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2021 EARTHQUAKE - NIPPES

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the southwestern region of Haiti on August 14th, 2021. The epicenter of the quake was located in the Nippes Department, but affected a large swath of the region. More than 2,400 people were killed, 12,200 were injured, and more than 137,000 buildings were destroyed.

We were contacted by Michel Simon, one the country’s foremost experts in the fishing industry, who works closely with the local fishermen. Fishing is the region’s primary economic sector and employs the men who fish and the women who sell the fish. The fishermen requested help in rebuilding the under-the-sea fish attracters so they could immediately resume fishing and start generating income.

Fishermen stringing sea buoys. They will signal where attracters are placed and will anchor

Fishermen Building the weights to keep the attracter moored

A big fish caught in Petite Riviere de Nippes

We cooperated and helped to quickly rebuild the two systems they requested.

COVID

During the height of the COVID pandemic, the Mare Roseau communities requested public access to water so children and adults could regularly wash their hands. Jointly we installed hand washing stations throughout the region. Parents learned and then trained their children how to properly wash their hands, which helped preventing virus’s spread.

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2010 EARTHQUAKE - PORT - AU-PRINCE

On January 12th, 2010, a 7 - magnigude earthquake hit Haiti’s capital, its surrounding areas, and Jacmel. The results were devastating, close to 300,000 dead, another 300,000 injured, and 1,5 million homeless.

We temporarily reduced our activities in Ganthier and rushed to the Bernard Mevs Hospital, Haiti’s premiere surgical and trauma center, located in Port-au-Prince. Following our initial hospital visit and consultation with the medical staff, we devised the following activities:

Within hours, we set-up an outdoor kitchen in a safe place and provided daily lunches to all patients, their families, and the staff.
Renovated a wing of the hospital and installed a physical rehabilitation center to treat recent amputees and the seriously wounded. Brought a senior trauma and rehabilitation team from Israel to train hospital staff.
Brought in regular short term U.S. doctors and nurses to help alleviate the hospital teams’ workload.
Provided equipment surgeons requested and brought a US team to train local doctors in its proper use.
Donated an ambulance to safely transport the wounded.
Focused sharply on wounded children and recent amputees as many had no families left; ensured they had places to go, and provided transportation.
Secured tents as patients were too traumatized to enter any building, thus had to lie on the ground. All patients were housed in tents.
As medicine and medical supplies were in extremely short supply, we assured daily rounds to distribution centers to obtain them.

Working so closely with the Bernard Mevs medical and support staff made clear how outstanding their expertise and dedication were during these excruciatingly trying times. It was an honor to work by their side.

What made this major emergency response possible (which included so much more, like providing food to three orphanages, installing a water pump in a devastated area, etc.) was a major grant from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), donations from our loyal and first time donors, logistical support from SOUTHCOM which transported needed equipment for free, and our volunteers. We are forever deeply grateful for this extraordinary generosity.