Blog
Update from Haiti, and an appeal for help
Posted by Jeff Cavanaugh on Monday, January 18, 2010
Here is a brief update on AIDG activities in Haiti.
As a company, Geek Housecalls, Inc. has been supporting AIDG since 2007. They have been on the ground in Haiti for several years so they know how to get things done inexpensively and effectively.
"We have established an operations center in Cap-Haïtien with our
partner SOIL to serve as a hub for coordinating volunteer efforts and
supplies coming into the country, especially those coming in through
the port of Cap-Haïtien and the Dominican Republic (one of the few
open routes into Haiti these days). Our presence in the north, away
from the destruction zone, has allowed our communication and logistic
abilities to continue relatively intact, which has been extremely
useful in coordinating efforts on the ground with other partners and
aid groups.
"As an immediate priority, we are recruiting and mobilizing teams of
engineers and other technical experts to directly support relief
efforts of key partners. As I write this, we are preparing to send our
first teams of engineers into Haiti to support the medical response
efforts of Partners in Health, an organization that, as we previously
noted, is having a significant impact here. We are particularly
interested at this moment in placing French or Creole speaking civil
and structural engineers. If you are, or know, an engineer that might
be interested in volunteering in Haiti, please send a resume or CV to
helphaiti@aidg.org .
"AIDG will also be helping to coordinate the distribution of a large
number of cookstoves in affected areas. Even before this week's
disaster, AIDG was in discussions with several leading stove groups
(including Prakti Design, WorldStove, and Trees Water People), and in
fact had been planning to host these groups at a conference in
Cap-Haïtien next week to strengthen our collaboration in Haiti. Our
focus has obviously shifted in the past couple days, and the group is
now mobilizing very quickly to bring in as many stoves as possible,
while at the same time developing local manufacturing capacity.
"Aside from these immediate response priorities, we are also already
hard at work developing a longer term strategy for supporting
reconstruction efforts in Haiti, including a collaboration with our
friends Architecture for Humanity to promote the development of low
cost earthquake resistant housing. More details on this will follow in
the coming weeks.
"As you can imagine, we have all available hands on deck right now to
support the response in Haiti. But WE NEED YOUR HELP to make sure we
have the resources to continue these efforts. These next weeks are
critical for us and for Haiti, and we are asking you to make a
donation, whatever you can, to support our work here. Every dollar
helps, and every dollar will have an immediate and direct impact in
the wake of this tragedy."
You can make a secure donation online here:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=14192
Or if you'd like to mail us a check, you can send it to the following
address:
AIDG
P.O. Box 104
Weston, MA 02493
Here is some AIDG media coverage from this week that you will
find interesting:
AIDG's Catherine Laine, interviewed live from Haiti by Boing Boing's
Xeni Jardin
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/15/haiti-earthquake-upd.html
"Flawed Building Likely a Big Element"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/world/americas/14construction.html
"Haiti devastation exposes shoddy construction"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8460042.stm
Don't forget to follow us on Twitter to get all the latest updates:
http://twitter.com/aidg