(Yvonne Schaffler)
The author made in April of the year with Sonia Pierre, Director of dominikohaitianischen women based organization MUDHA, and project partner of the Women's Solidarity, to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) to Léogâne (Haiti) to a solidarity and research tour . The following is their trip report.
more photos of Yvonne Schaffler on emlaak.org Insufficient tent cities, rain, lack of security and called on people
Now that Chile and China, the earth shook, silenced voices who suspects that the disaster in Haiti made a pact with the devil. dare Haitian voodoo priestess again to hold their ceremonies and that's good, because the needs of the population is large emotional support.
The situation in Port au Prince and the earthquake-affected area is still very precarious. The injuries of the victims, although mostly healed, but there is still unmet medical need, such as in physical therapy. The most acute problem of population is the housing situation. According to the Red Cross at the beginning of March 2010 for the first half of the estimated 1.3 million homeless, has found a shelter. Many of the buildings are destroyed so far, that the question of a further reference to the earthquake is not. The remains are rubble with outstanding iron bars.
with the forces at the end
tents are scarce in Haiti, like many other things. Many of those affected have roofs made of bed sheets that offer before falling water masses little protection. At many places in the tent cities have formed. Only some of it is served by international organizations. These are among others facing the problem that they both protect the residents from abuse and the prevailing social order must be respected.
The longer lasting state of emergency, the more violent is the climate in the camps. Robbery and assault, sexual attacks on women and children, prostitution and the demand for anesthesia, for example by taking alcohol, too. Since many families and single mothers cope with the situation and take any view, so does the number of abandoned elderly and children. In many tent cities, there is a lack of sanitation, which is why its inhabitants are forced to empty their bowels within it.
The removal of waste and the supply of water is not always guaranteed that the hygiene conditions have deteriorated further and diarrhea, skin diseases, parasitic Diseases and other diseases of poverty pander. The increase in heavy rain turned the eroded and arid soils of the dry season in rushing torrents. This clot after the end of the rain to mud, which turns the sun within a short time in dusty earth. The rising steam from the ground gives the air a hazy humidity, which makes easy control.
Lack of security
This is where the burning sun the tents for most of the day uninhabitable, everyday life takes place primarily outdoors, which leads among other things, that their mothers sleeping children must always carry with you. There is a lack Rückzugsmöglichkeiten und vor allem an Sicherheit. Viele Gegenden werden von marodierenden Banden kontrolliert, gegen die auch die zahlreichen von den USA stationierten Soldaten nichts ausrichten können. Man fragt sich daher nach dem Zweck der massiven Militärpräsenz, wo das primäre Problem doch eine humanitäre Katastrophe ist und nicht Krieg. Man vermutet, dass dahinter vor allem politische Interessen stehen, dass die Soldaten gekommen sind, um zu bleiben.
Astronomische Preise
Das derzeitige haitianische Preisniveau kennt niemand. Tatsache ist allerdings, dass es weit über jenem der Nachbarnation Dominikanische Republik liegt. Sonia Pierre, Leiterin der in der Dominikanischen Republik ansässigen Frauenbasisorganisation MUDHA (Movimiento de Mujeres Dominico-Haitianas), zieht es daher vor, den Großteil der für den Katastropheneinsatz benötigten Nahrungsmittel in der Dominikanischen Republik einzukaufen und diese wöchentlich in einer bis zu zehnstündigen Reise über die Grenze nach Haiti zu transportieren.
MUDHA leistete in den vergangenen Monaten humanitäre Hilfe in stark betroffenen Orten wie Léogâne, Tigueve, Petit Guave, Gran Goave und Martissan. In Kooperation mit MOSCTHA (El Movimiento Socio-Cultural de los Trabajadores Haitianos) und zahlreichen VolontärInnen aus Europa und der Dominikanischen Republik verteilt MUDHA Nahrungsmittel, Wasser, Hygiene-Kits, Zelte und Matratzen, und stellt medizinische und psychosoziale Betreuung der Opfer zur Verfügung.
Die Aktivitäten von MUDHA
In Léogâne, dem am stärksten betroffenen Gebiet, betreut MUDHA mit Hilfe von VolontärInnen seit 16. Jänner des Jahres ein Camp, das Kinder und Jugendliche eines eingestürzten Waisenhauses beherbergt. Viele davon sind nicht Waisen im eigentlichen Sinn, sondern wurden von ihren Eltern aufgrund des ökonomischen Drucks zurückgelassen. Das wenige Personal, das seit dem Erdbeben noch zur Verfügung steht, schafft es nicht, sich um die Basisbedürfnisse der Kinder zu kümmern. MUDHA versorgt das Camp mit Zelten, Matratzen und Nahrungsmitteln.
Des Weiteren kümmert sich the organization to the psychosocial well-being of children and young people by organizing activities such as painting, singing and dancing, playing football, dominoes and card games. The children and young people receive regular English class to get used to daily hygiene as well as the wearing of shoes and clean clothes to later have a better chance of working. To the resumption of school teaching is not to think for the time being. In their work the volunteers who sometimes seems as if they were two steps to the front and make a return. Shoes that the children were attracted to the morning are often sold in the afternoon - and by the officials the orphanage. They both tried to find a solution for this, and in terms of dealing with young people who have proven to be violent.
An orphan camp for the whole shaft
neighbors in the camp is a policy of open door. So young and women are invited from the environment in workshops on sex education, hygiene, behavior during pregnancy or for the production of detergents, soap, shampoo, etc. attend. You will later receive access to microcredit. The distribution of condoms to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and family planning. The good relations with the neighbors Camp also provides a higher level of security as protection against break-ins do not provide the thin skins of the tent.
What the survivors - apart from the circumstances described - particularly strained, is the fact that during the earthquake destroyed cemeteries and thus torn from their graves were the Ancestors. The more than 300,000 people killed by the earthquake could be buried properly in a few cases and found its end in unmarked mass graves. The earthquake is to slavery, revolutions, dictatorships, and hurricanes as the temporary end of a chain of traumatic events.
On early recovery is not to think simply because of the lack of infrastructure. Haiti is thus dependent on foreign aid, even if most of the acute physical injuries of the survivors now healed.
This article appears in the next issue of the journal WOMEN SOLIDARITY .
