Just Off the Helicopter from Haiti

Friday, 12 March 2010 07:49

Four women from World Care - Lisa Hopper, Krista Kinnard, Elise Harper, and Holly Romero, left for Haiti February 4 with a few goals in mind for the next four days. They wanted to check up on their orphanage in Haiti that World Care has supported for about seven years.  As a supplier, they also wanted to see how their food and supply shipments from Tucson were being distributed to Haitians, so they documented the process and the once-in-a-lifetime trip.   

They set up camp on the United Nations base, where they lived in tents with other aid organizations from around the world.  They connected with a friend from the orphanage, Hector, who drove them around as their chauffeur through the devasted country. 

I talked to Krista Kinnard, a University of Arizona student and first time traveler to aid a country with disaster relief.  She helped me sort through the chaos of Haiti and shared her experiences with me.  Listen to to her describe what she witnessed.

  *Still photos in the video taken by Krista Kinnard

The Orphanage Survived

World Care has supported one orphanage among the many in Haiti for the past seven years or so, and part of the reason they took the trip was to check up on the children.  Fortunately, Kinnard said, the orphanage was on top of a hill and was not damaged by the quake.  Two more children have come to the orphanage since the disaster because they lost their families in the earthquake.

On top of the rubble, Haitians dig for copper piping, metal, or anything worth any value.  Kinnard explained that Haitians are so desperate for money that they're taking pieces from the building structures to sell.  They're even picking at buildings still standing.  Kinnard experienced the dangers of this firsthand. 

She was standing near a two-story building, when suddenly there was a huge noise, people were running and screaming, and dust was shooting out the bottom floor.  She thinks the second story collapsed.  I asked her whether she thought the Haitians knew the extent of damage they were doing to the buildings. 

"It might be that they don't know or it might be that they just don't care," she said.  "When you have nothing, you're willing to risk a lot to go in and make a little bit."     

Survival of the fittest is the approach Haitians have taken to get their food and supplies.  The trucks pull up, Haitians crowd around, and the strongest and fastest get more than they need.  They leave the weakest and slowest in the dust with nothing.  This is what the "distribution process" has been like at times, without there actually being any process. 

Haitians use their overabundance of food and supplies to either store or to sell.  

Recently, with the help of the military and other security figures, distribution has become more orderly and fair.  The most efficient system Kinnard has seen is the ticket system.  Everyone gets a ticket and then they turn the ticket in for a certain amount of food and supplies, so everyone gets the same. 

Kinnard said that tons of countries and militaries were in Haiti, helping with medicine, security, supplies, distribution, logistics, government, construction and whatever else they could.

"Everyone is working together to make sure the people of Haiti are getting what they need," she said.

As the women were getting ready to leave Haiti, another organization nearby asked for the World Care's tent they had brought.  The people had said they were working with a family with a very sick daughter who hadn't received a tent yet. The women from World Care handed their tent over right away, for the better purposes of helping a family in need.  It's that attitude that makes it so easy for the whole world to work together, Kinnard explained.

 
View The Flight Path to Haiti in a larger map

Look at more pictures from the women's trip to Haiti.

Find out more about how the UA has helped with Haiti relief, and what Tucsonans and World Care have done to help Haiti from home.

Written by Nikki Helms You are reading Just Off the Helicopter from Haiti articles