How to Go to Haiti'
Maybe should have titled the post, “When to Go to Haiti” because though it sounds like workers are still struggling to find survivors and treat victims, aid organizations emphatically do not want me rushing in on the next boat from the DR.
According to the comments in this Mercy Corp blog post by Global Emergency Operations director Randy Martin, dozens of concerned folks, some with pretty impressive qualifications, are anxious to get over there and help.
The outpouring is heartening. But as a later Mercy Corp post clarifies, “Mercy Corps does not send volunteers to our programs overseas, even in emergencies. Our staff is made up of paid professionals, and we hire people locally.”
It’s frustrating to see offers of help refused, but though I’ve never worked in disaster response, it seems there’s sound reasoning behind not taking hoards of well-intentioned yet untrained volunteers to the site of a large-scale natural disaster.
According to the Center for International Disaster Information:
The Center receives thousands of calls each year expressing the same desire to volunteer for international disaster relief assignments. The reality is that volunteers without disaster relief experience are generally not selected for relief assignments. Candidates with the greatest chance of being selected have fluency in the language of the disaster-stricken area, prior disaster relief experience, and expertise in technical fields such as medicine, communications, logistics, or water/sanitation engineering. In many cases, these professionals are already available in-country.
My first thought when I heard about the quake was, most definitely, “how do I get to Haiti?” I was ready to empty my admittedly sparse bank account and set out to lift concrete walls off starving children in Port-au-Prince.
But then I imagined myself in Haiti. Unlike many of the commenters on the Mercy Corp blog, I’ve never been to Haiti, have no disaster relief training and do not speak Haitian Creole—or French for that matter. All I’ve got are my fortune at not having lost everything in a 7.0 earthquake, my relative stamina and health, and my good intentions. No small contribution, but probably better that food, water and resources available in the country go to victims rather than those traveling to help.
It’s also worth mentioning that I won’t be collecting dry goods, clothing and toiletries to send to Haiti. According to this article by David Case in GlobalPost, sorting through care packages sent after the 2004 tsunami was an organizational nightmare for aid workers and victims.
In an effort to help, people shipped boxes, often following the instructions of local television news programs. And so in Aceh, Indonesia amid the trauma, hunger and devastation, care packages piled up containing everything from pajamas and teddy bears to birth control pills and Bibles — a hodgepodge impossible to sort through. There were boxes filled with half-used ointments and prescription drugs, as if do-gooders had cleaned out their medicine cabinets. And some unscrupulous corporations — exploiting tax write-offs for soon-to-be-expired pharmaceuticals — apparently shipped whatever had been lying around the warehouse for too long.
I still plan to go to Haiti, but not until the country stabilizes somewhat and there’s need for the relatively unskilled and untrained. Right now I’m assuming this will be once NGOs have established rebuild or reconstruction projects there. It also makes sense to wait until media coverage (and cash donations) has dropped off. Until then, I’ll follow the news closely, donate money when I can, and study Haitian Creole.
Guidestar has info on nonprofit operations and can help you figure out where to send the bucks.