Working Near the Quake Epicenter
CRWRC Newsroom | April 26, 2010
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Masson, Haiti -- The people he met looked stunned and hardly able to move when Jozias Joosse arrived in Haiti a few days after the January 12 earthquake and visited the Leogane area, which was its epicenter. Leogane, a town about 20 miles southeast of Port-au-Prince, the country's capital, was almost totally leveled. Riding through the town, visitors see mostly piles of rubble. It looks as if a huge bomb had been dropped and destroyed the community. Nearly every concrete structure was destroyed in Leogane. It is estimated that 20,000 to 30,000 people died. Joosse, who was hired by the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee to work as water and sanitation specialist in the devastated area, says that he couldn’t get to work on those needs right away. First, he tried to help the Haitians get on their feet and then to slowly start the work of cleaning up after the 7.0 earthquake. Joosse officially works for ZOA Refugee Care in the Netherlands "The people were sitting under trees when I came," says Joosse, taking a break recently from his relief work. "I realized right away that they needed much more from us than tools. It was important: People needed a hand and a shoulder and to be able talk about all that was missing." Joosse was among the first contingent of CRWRC international relief workers to visit the area, but since many others have visited to assess damage and to set a course for how CRWRC will undertake its relief and redevelopment work in this area. Instead of working directly in Leogane, they are drilling wells, putting in latrines and helping to build or rebuild houses in a few villages outside Leogane. Early on, CRWRC workers distributed food and handed out tarps to people affected by the earthquake.
By now, after surveying the area to determine needs, CRWRC has begun construction on hundreds of transitional shelters for Haiti earthquake survivors. Work will soon begin on permanent homes to replace those severely damaged or destroyed by the disaster. "The transitional shelters are earthquake and hurricane resistant and will provide safe housing for the next months and years," said Ken Little, CRWRC senior relief project manager, in a CRWRC news story. The homes come at a critical time as thousands of earthquake survivors live in temporary shelters constructed of tarps, bed sheets and lumber. As hurricane season approaches, the transitional shelters will provide protection from the elements.
One morning in mid-April, George and Toni Fernhout, CRWRC international relief managers from Canada, sat down for a several-hour meeting with a committee of community development officials in the village of Masson. They went over a range of issues, since CRWRC’s mission is to work closely with communities hit by a disaster and makes it a priority to discuss how the agency can work hand-in-hand with local people to, in this case, restore water, sanitation and provide shelter. "I want you to know that we want to impact the entire population," said George Fernhout. "We are working for all of the people in this area. We need your participation." During the meeting, they spoke of problems that had arisen in food distribution, the issue of how many latrines had been built and how many new wells drilled, and the criteria CRWRC would use in assessing damage to homes. Some will have to be torn down, others repaired and still others – about 450 out of 1,000 – replaced. A town of about 6,000 people, Masson and its outskirts still remained full of tent communities at the time of this meeting. People were waiting to start helping fix or build their homes. Others were too frightened, since tremors have continued to roll through the area, to return to their intact homes. Besides Masson, CRWRC is working in Macombe, Luitor, and Flon, where an office to help coordinate relief efforts has been located. "The area was still quaking when we arrived here," says Toni Fernhout. She and her husband are seasoned IRMs. They are called upon in times of major devastation to help survey the needs of the area, to hire local people for staff, and to then sort through the best ways in which CRWRC can help. "My first thought was that everything would be down. I heard about the vast and horrific damage. But it was wonderful to see some houses here and there still up … This earthquake affected everyone, the rich, the middle class, and the poor." One memory that sticks with her is of the day she stopped at a building that looked destroyed and was shocked to see that the people inside were running a bakery. They had cleared rubble, repaired their ovens, and were turning out bread. “They didn’t throw up their hands. I saw it as an awesome testimony of resilience and belief and faith in God that he would provide for them,” she says. George and Toni Fernhout decided to work as volunteers for CRWRC after they retired. Toni was former principal of Edmonton Christian School. George worked for Alberta Social Services and Mental Health.
At the meeting, held under the hot sun but shaded by a few trees, George Fernhout explained to the committee from Masson that CRWRC would be bringing in wheelbarrows to use to help clear rubble. It also was bringing in modular-style housing. "We want you to know that funding for this phase is time-limited," says George Fernhout. "We need to begin quickly and place the houses very quickly. I know that it won’t be easy to do this as quickly as we’d like. We also want you to know that these are transitional homes and the owner can make it bigger and better on his own if he so chooses." Prior to the meeting, the Fernhouts had worked with local people and others to assess the damage to every home in the area and planned to paint certain colors on the front of each home to signify the condition that they were in. Representatives of the village had many questions to ask and requests to make. They said they appreciated that Jozias Joosse had overseen the drilling of wells and placement of latrines. But they would like more wells and latrines placed throughout the area, they said. George Fernhout answered, saying that CRWRC resources are limited and that they will have to discuss this. Joosse said that the wells they have drilled are bringing up clean, drinkable water. A problem that he has come across, he said, is that people who had water pumps and lived along the nearby shore of the Caribbean Sea are finding that their water is filled with salt. “We need to wait and see if the salt disappears from their water,” he said. Joanel Toussaint, a member of the committee working with the CRWRC, says that more wells and latrines would be nice. Regardless, if any more wells are drilled our latrines built, the people of Masson deeply appreciate CRWRC’s work. "They are very much welcome in our community. They are doing a good job. In general, there are few small details that we need to work out. But we thank CRWRC and think it is doing a wonderful thing for us." George Fernhout told the people at the meeting that CRWRC would help to demonstrate how to build the modular housing and would distribute and loan some tools to people working on their homes. Afterward George Fernhout told a CRWRC video team that was there to chronicle the work: “I have found that the pace of life is slower here, the timetable slower and making decisions comes slow. I’ve also found that the Haitian people are patient and have a sense of humor and a willingness to listen to explanations.” To support CRWRC's on-going eathquake response in Haiti, donate online: US | Canada Checks, marked "Haiti Earthquake 2010" can be sent to: CRWRC-US CRWRC-Canada —Chris Meehan, CRC Communications photos by Christina de Jong, CRWRC Communications |
