Ed was in Haiti on the two-year anniversary of the earthquake that devastated the country’s capital and surrounding areas on January 12, 2010. A member of Concern Worldwide’s Emergency Response Team to Haiti, Ed reflects on what is different on the ground two years later.
Kethlyne St. Previl, 40, is beaming. She is talking about her Concern-supported business selling food in a kiosk on the main access road into Tabarre Issa. Her table is piled high with a bounty of Haitian street food – small fried pastries, plantains, meat patties, chicken, hot dogs. “Business is very, very good,” she announces, smiling broadly. Then she looks at some of the Concern team gathered around and adds, “And these are some of my best customers!” Laughter all around. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the first houses completed at Concern site, Tabarre Issa in Haiti. Photo: Ed Kenney, Concern Worldwide
Since I arrived in Haiti three days after the January 12th earthquake, I have spent nearly four months on the ground there. Part of my time was spent working in my normal capacity as a Communications Officer, shooting video, writing reports and case studies, and liaising with journalists and photographers.
I also spent two months on the front lines of Concern’s emergency response as part of the distribution team, bringing tents, essential relief supplies and supplementary nutrition rations to communities throughout Port-au-Prince, as well as our rural operation areas, Saut d’Eau and La Gonave.
I recently returned to Haiti for a week to report on the progress of Concern’s work. It was extremely satisfying to see Concern’s country program shifting much of its energy and resources from the initial emergency response phase to the next crucial stage of Haiti’s recovery – transitional shelter. Read the rest of this entry »
60 year-old Camila Avril sits outside her newly erected tent with daughter Lucienne Dorci, 34 and granddaughters Dudmicah Aladin, 6 months, and Esdrac Dorci, 17.
“The house jumped!” 60 year-old Camila Avril is describing what happened to her home on January 12, the day of the earthquake that devastated parts of Haiti.
Since then, she and the members of her household pictured here have been sleeping in the crudely fenced yard of a neighbor.
Magdala Teracine (center) and family in their home in Boliman Brandt camp, Port-au-Prince. Photo: Ed Kenney, Concern Worldwide
In her black skirt and prim white top, Magdala Teracine, 31, looks as though she is dressed for a day at the office. A few weeks ago, in a different reality, that’s exactly where this school secretary would have been.
This morning however, she sits in a home built out of metal and wood scraps, sheets, plastic bags and discarded plastic shipping panels. Read the rest of this entry »
Patients at Wesleyan Hospital on the island of La Gonâve lie on outdoor beds, both by choice and because of overcrowding. Photo: Ed Kenney, Concern Worldwide.
There are thousands of families who have fled the mainland to the small island La Gonâve, just 20 kilometers off Haiti’s northwestern coast, and their numbers are growing. In a place where the supply of food and clean water for the normal population is uncertain at the best of times, and where the hurricane season is four short months away, the challenge for organizations like Concern is immediate and massive. Read the rest of this entry »
Jeaninie Mascelin and son Valner Valbuen at Wesleyan Hospital, La Gonave.
We visited Wesleyan Hospital, largest on the island, and La Gonâve’s dilemma was brought home in one family’s story. We saw a very thin older woman lying motionless, expressionless on a bed in the middle of the hospital courtyard.
Posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 10:57 am
Brian Tabben consults with La Gonave Vice Delegate Esper Feno on the island of La Gonave.
We arrived at the port of Anse-a-Galets, La Gonâve’s largest town, and nothing seemed amiss. Boys were still fishing off the pier, roughhousing and mugging for visitors, and islanders were slowly trickling into the dockside with their bundles to wait for the main Port-au-Prince ferry, still a couple of hours away. Read the rest of this entry »
Concern's Assistant Country Director Brian Tabben (r) and La Gonave Water Program Manager Hugues Nevelus (l) arrive on La Gonave to conduct an assessment.
The road from Port-au-Prince to Cariesse, where ferry boats depart mainland Haiti for the island of La Gonave is smooth and uncongested, bracketed by the sea to the east, and farmland and the dramatic Matheux mountains to the west.
In Haiti: the earthquake is everywhere. This is why, on one recent morning, Concern sent an assessment mission to La Gonave. Read the rest of this entry »
“Karibuni” from Tanzania, (which means “Welcome to all of you!” in Swahili). In this video clip, Concern’s child-to-child hygiene and sanitation club of Kigarama Primary School in Tanzania’s Ngara District does – to my ears anyway – a pitch perfect rendition of “Karibuni” in song.
Posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Women in Tonkolili, Sierra Leone test out a new pump supported by Concern Worldwide
“How ‘de body?” – is the standard greeting in Krio, the lingua franca of Sierra Leone. Anyone who has been to Sierra Leone has almost certainly been initiated into the vibrant language of Krio upon hearing this phrase. And the standard answer is “‘De body fine!” Read the rest of this entry »
