Concern Blogs

A soccer stadium just four months ago, this tent settlement at Place de la Paix in Port-au-Prince is now home to 8,000 people.

By Mark Jafar – Vice President of Corporate Communications at MTV Networks – for Concern Worldwide

Walk around the edges of the sunken tent settlement at Place de la Paix in Port-au-Prince, and it’s nearly impossible to tell that this was a soccer stadium just four months ago.

The grass is gone entirely, replaced by bare earth and debris.  There are no goal nets or benches, just shelters made of tarp, cardboard, and rusted scraps of sheet metal.

And where kids and adults once gathered to watch soccer matches or to kick a ball across the field, an estimated 8,000 displaced people are now living in shocking, unsanitary, overcrowded conditions, often with nothing but a few pieces of plastic sheeting to shelter them from the rains, which are heavy this time of year. Read the rest of this entry »

Concern paves the way for the newly built settlement in Tabarre Issa, which can accomodate more than 500 families. Photo: Haiti, Concern Worldwide

By Mark Jafar – Vice President of Corporate Communications at MTV Networks. Mark is currently visiting Concern’s emergency operation in Haiti.

Bourdon Valley, Port-au-Prince – Tucked into the hills that rise above central Port-au-Prince lies Bourdon Valley, an enclave of beautiful, verdant forest flanked by the eastern suburbs of Delmas and Canape Vert.

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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.

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Child is treated for malnutrition at Concern's stabilization unit. Photo: Ed Kenney, Concern Worldwide

We know that distributions are only part of the answer and in our focus group discussions, women made it clear: jobs are a priority and work is seen as freedom. ‘If you work, you can have a house and not depend on others … you can eat regularly … Without work you are still a slave,’ said one. Read the rest of this entry »

82nd Airborne provide security at a distribution in the Place de la Paix camp. Photo: Tom Dobbins, Concern Worldwide.

I have just spent the day visiting Concern’s emergency team in the poorest areas of Port-au-Prince. It was a long, hot day—but it was a great day.  I feel very energized and excited about what we have been able to achieve in the past few weeks, and also excited to be able to tell you how  your support is allowing us to make a real and immediate difference here.

We have a great team of more than 250 staff now working in Port-au-Prince; 230 of them are Haitian, and we are recruiting more every day.

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Supporters of Concern Worldwide Michael Londra, Susan Finucane (Concern worker), Patty Mulvihill McMenamin and Kathy Adler attended a pre-event celebratory reception for the 2010 Women of Concern Brigid Awards. All proceeds will go to Concern's relief efforts in Haiti.

I was obliged to return to base in New York last week in order to fulfil my role as Program Officer. It was a difficult decision to make as I felt like I was abandoning the team and the people in need in Haiti, but our programs in other fields beckon, and sadly, time waits for no man. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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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 »