Jan. 122011 marked the one-year anniversary of the magnitude-7.0 earthquake that devastated Haiti claiming more than 250000 lives toppling countless residences and commercial structures and leaving an estimated 1.5 million Haitians homeless. In less than 40 seconds much of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince was destroyed. Now more than 365 days later the damage is still fresh. Vast unsanitary tent camps and year-old piles of rubble serve as constant reminders not only of the disastrous event but also of the overwhelming road to recovery ahead.
The International Federation of the Red Cross estimated that the earthquake had affected 3 million people nearly one-third of the country’s population. The international community and private aid organizations pledged billions in donations to the relief effort but reconstruction has been slow moving. An estimated 95 percent of rubble is yet to be cleared and 1 million displaced Haitians remain living in temporary encampments. Haiti’s reconstruction has been impeded and its troubles compounded by crippling political instability hurricane-induced floods ongoing social unrest and a cholera epidemic that has killed at least 3600 since October 2010.
In the days following the earthquake with the death toll estimates climbing the world rushed to help. Many involved in the humanitarian effort vowed not only to rebuild Haiti but to “build back better seeing the earthquake reconstruction effort as an opportunity to pull the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere out of up out of the pattern of volatility and underdevelopment that have scarred it for decades. While international donors initially pledged nearly $10 billion toward a long-term reconstruction effort, only $1.2 billion has been disbursed to specific reconstruction projects and a perceived lack of progress in the country causes donor confidence and interest to wane.
An impressive response to the tragedy was launched in the U.S., with record-setting text-athons, Twitter campaigns and calls to action from political leaders and celebrities. The disaster spurred a torrent of individual donations in addition to large pledges made by foreign nations. At Pepperdine, the University Church of Christ raised over $11,000 for Healing Hands International, a Church of Christ disaster relief organization. The law school sent the funds it raised from its weeklong Share the Love charity event to World Vision for Haiti. Undergraduate students transferred funds from their meal cards to the U.N. World Food Program.
But progress reports released by NGOs and aid agencies in the past few weeks indicate that Haiti is going to need more than the promise of aid dollars to rebuild.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged $1.15 billion for reconstruction in 2010, but the disbursement of these funds has been delayed until 2011, with only one-tenth of that spent. The delay is a result of bureaucratic blockages aimed at ensuring the aid provided to Haiti will not be misused or stolen. Transparency International ranked Haiti near the bottom of its world corruption index in 2010, ranked 146 out of 178 countries. Meanwhile, the Haitian government is weakened, as citizens turn instead to NGOs for needs ranging from water to education. Even before the earthquake, Haiti was home to more NGOs per capita than any other country.
When released, the U.S. aid would enter Haiti through the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), a coordinating body for recovery efforts in Haiti co-chaired by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who was named U.N. special envoy to Haiti in 2009.
In a recent Oxfam International briefing paper, the organization describes a lack of coordination between NGOs and a lack of effort on the part of the Haitian government to take control of reconstruction.
An IHRC report titled Haiti One Year Later” outlines the recovery efforts to date and priorities for 2011 noting the progress made in the harshest of conditions.
“One year after the earthquake we can certainly say that we’ve made progress despite the setbacks of a threatening hurricane season and a devastating cholera outbreak said Clinton, IHRC co-chair.
UNICEF released a report calling the relief efforts extraordinary but noted that children continue to be deprived of clean water, basic sanitation, healthcare, education and disease protection. Thirty-eight percent of the Haitian population is 14 or younger.
The Disaster Accountability Project (DAP) released a report examining the efficiency and transparency of 196 aid organizations working in Haiti. The report indicated that nearly half of the donated funds remain in the bank accounts of relief groups, a fact that does not correspond with the urgency communicated in their campaigns.
Success in such an unsound environment, and with such a large-scale disaster, is difficult to measure. While the signs of a sluggish recovery process are cause for despondency for some onlookers, they are, for others, a reality check and reminder of the difficulty but necessary task ahead.
Dyron Daughrity, associate professor of religion, sees the situation in Haiti as a reminder of an individual’s limitations in bringing change to the world.
At Pepperdine we have students with wonderful ideas of wanting to change the world Daughrity said. What Haiti has shown us is that we can’t change the world. We can’t even change a small island that has an earthquake. Here is literally our next-door neighbor and we— the third-most populated country in the world and the wealthiest country in the world— can’t do a thing to help Haiti.”
Daughrity stresses that while individuals cannot fix situations like the one in Haiti they can get involved on a relational level and make a difference for one person one family or one small community.
“Be humble. Realize that you can’t change Haiti Daughrity advises. All you can do is form relationships and do as much as you can where you’re planted.”
The Pepperdine professor knows just how difficult the relief efforts in and around Port-au-Prince have been. While serving as a pulpit minister at a church in Calgary Alberta he befriended a young Haitian youth minister named Ricot Leon. Leon and his wife moved to just outside of Port-au-Prince in 2008 where they’ve served as missionaries since. After the earthquake struck Leon’s role changed dramatically.
“He went from being a church planter supported by a Canadian congregation to being a physician psychotherapist rubble remover trash man mortician— basically any job you can think of in a crisis of survival— in just a few seconds Daughrity said.
The magnitude of the devastation caused by the earthquake was too much for Leon’s Canadian wife, Mandy. Traumatized by the rampant anguish and death, she returned to Canada for a period of time, while Ricot Leon remained and did what he could to help his community. While the situation and standard of living in Port-au-Prince have not dramatically improved, Mandy Leon has since returned and adjusted to life in post-earthquake Haiti.
She had to mentally adjust herself to the reality that Haiti is going to be a mess for a long time said Daughrity. It’s clearly not turning around any time soon.”
Some Pepperdine students have participated in relief efforts themselves.
Junior Marshele Danner has made two trips to Haiti first in 2008 and again in July 2010 gaining a picture of what the country was like both before and after the earthquake. Danner stresses that while Haiti’s poverty has always been visible the atmosphere was substantially different after the earthquake. On her first visit to the Port-au-Prince area Danner noted the tropical beauty of the country and wondered how it hadn’t been turned into a tourist destination. On her second visit seven months after the earthquake she noted its post-apocalyptic feel.
“Going afterwards everything was just broken and abandoned Dann
er said. It was scorching hot and people were just sitting in the rubble with nothing but the debris and concrete stacks that surrounded them.”
Danner made both trips to bring supplies to a missionary contact of hers Sue Witt who operates an orphanage near Port-au-Prince. Now in her 70s Witt moved to Haiti to become an English teacher after the death of her husband. While her work is always changing she is dedicated to the children of Haiti using her Social Security money to fund the housing of orphaned children and the establishment of education programs and returning to the U.S. once a year to file her taxes. On Danner’s second trip she presented Sue with supplies and money raised by students in Pepperdine’s international program in Switzerland.
Having seen the desolation and the relief efforts firsthand Danner is not surprised by the slow pace of reconstruction noting that Haiti’s problems predate Jan. 12 2010.
“When that country is already damaged and something like this happens it’s hard to know where to begin she said. It was inevitable that it was going to take forever.”
Danner recommends that donors provide aid to smaller organizations rather than large NGOs who have been accused in some cases of misusing funds.
“If you are going to donate your money or your time do it on a smaller level Danner said. I think a lot of the smaller organizations are more highly effective. People underestimate the value of individual impacts.”
Danner said what Haiti needs most is “continual prayer.” In many ways Haiti is worse off than ever before. The country currently deals with a disputed run-off presidential election. Public health is in jeopardy as cholera has infected hundreds of thousands in rural areas. Analysts continue to call for a change in reconstruction strategies moving forward.
Speaking on the anniversary of the earthquake President Obama called for the international community to fulfill its pledges of aid and told the people of Haiti that they have “an enduring partner in the United States” as they work to rebuild their broken nation.