Amidst the chaos, the corruption and the inability to make progress in many areas, support is being provided and work is getting done. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the world’s leading Jewish humanitarian assistance organization, is proud to be using its expertise to bring ongoing relief to the people of Haiti in their time of need. JDC has offered non-sectarian aid to victims of natural and man-made disasters in more than 60 countries.
In Haiti, JDC is addressing the physical and psychological rehabilitation needs of those most devastated by the disaster. They’re working to provide essential services while building local capacity to provide rehabilitation interventions in the coming years.
Our first site visit: a displaced persons camp, Peguy-Ville Camp where JDC has funded a water tank and a temporary school with four classes together with Prodev Foundation. This effort helped to ensure that hundreds of thousands of quake victims have clean drinking water, minimizing the spread of disease and death.
We met with the staff and community leaders about the challenges facing displaced persons.
Some 2,000 displaced children in Port-Au-Prince who would otherwise have no educational framework are studying in tent schools offering a quality curriculum and employment for local teachers and university students.
Notice where this girl below is pointing to on the map?
~Gideon Herscher / American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Haiti
JDC is partnering with the Prodev Foundation, a local Haitian NGO that focuses on education and development, to fund the operation of 10 temporary schools for displaced children in Port-au-Prince. The schools – “Kay Timoun” (Children's Haven in Creole) – will provide free education to 2,000 children, ages 6-14.
We visited Fondwa, a rural town south of Leogane located 37 miles south and a two hour drive outside of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Fondwa is a very mountainous region at almost 3,000 feet. It has an area of approx. 18 square miles and has a population of 8,000 inhabitants and another 40,000 people supported in surrounding communities. It's located near the epicenter of the earthquake between Leogane and Jacmel.
The Association of Peasants Fondwa (APF) is a grassroots organization that has worked with the peasants of Fondwa, Haiti since 1988. APF's goal is to help farmers, create better conditions, provide micro financing, educate children, provide water and healthcare.
Father Joseph is the founder of APF.
This is also the site for the potential JDC school rebuilding project.
Members of our group help to remove rubble from the site of Fondwa’s former school.
Our group brought school supplies and toys to donate to the children of Fondwa.
Tikkun Olam is a Hebrew phrase that means, "repairing the world." It’s a primary mission of the Jewish people for social action and the pursuit of social justice, and is connected with human responsibility for fixing what is wrong with the world.
Some achievements of APF that were destroyed in the earthquake in Fondwa: * APF Business Center * University of Fondwa * House of the Sisters of Saint Anthony of Fondwa * Orphanage Fondwa * Cooperative Savings and Credit Fondwa * APF Health Center * Collection of water sources and tanks * A community radio station.
Below is the former location of Fondwa's two-story school for 700 children K-12. No children were inside the building during the earthquake. Prior to APF’s creation, children attended classes outdoors near the church or were sent to schools much further away in Leogane - a coastal city at the epicenter of the earthquake that was catastrophically affected, with 80-90% of buildings damaged.
Our group brought school supplies and toys to donate to the children of Fondwa.
Rendering of plans for potential new school in Fondwa. Notice how it points out methods to reduce seismic load.
JDC supported Heart to Heart International in implementing immediate emergency medical care services, and providing medical equipment and much-needed services to victims within days of the earthquake. In light of challenges facing Heart to Heart on the ground, JDC also funded the purchase of four vehicles to transport teams of doctors, nurses, and other material assistance to isolated locations where fewer initial relief efforts have been focused.
We heard from a Haitian mason who was one of 900 construction workers receiving training in a collaborative partnership between ORT and JDC in anti-seismic construction techniques to secure homes and buildings against future natural disasters.
JDC purchased five fully equipped and outfitted ambulances to transport patients to the various hospitals and medical clinics within Port-Au-Prince and Haiti’s Central Plateau and the Artibonite Valley.
With the JDC logo displayed on the ambulances, they are operated and maintained by Partners in Health’s local office.
Ambulance dedication to Partners in Health at the airport.
JDC, together with Magen David Adom and Israel’s Tel HaShomer hospital, has launched a comprehensive rehabilitation center for amputees in Haiti’s largest hospital, Hospital Universite D’etat D’Haiti (HUEH). Services for over 2,000 new amputees are scarce in Haiti, and the necessity of this service is clear.
JDC-funded rehabilitation center at HUEH where patients are fitted for a prosthetics and undergo intensive physical therapy for six weeks.
Gideon Herscher has worked at JDC for almost a decade. He had been in Haiti for five weeks, as the sole JDC Representative in Haiti, prior to our group’s arrival. It is beyond words to describe the incredible work Gideon has accomplished for the Haitian people so desperately in need of assistance while representing the concern and generosity of tens of thousands of Jews across the globe.
Tikkun Olam is a Hebrew phrase that means, "repairing the world." It’s a primary mission of the Jewish people for social action and the pursuit of social justice, and is connected with human responsibility for fixing what is wrong with the world.
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