Hope Rising from the Ashes — Letters from Port-au-Prince
Driving through the city with the sun beating down and the smoke and dust blurring my vision, I am soaked in sweat and still the goosebumps rise over my skin. It is as if the souls of those still buried under the rubble are coursing through my veins, reaching for the sun, yearning to be free. I carry them with me as I ride through this broken city, but I can’t let them out, I am so afraid that they will take me with them to a place where I will no longer be able to serve, my mind is numb but my skin is crawling with loss. This morning I returned to Mon Nazar for the ...
Essence: An Insider's Guide To Donating To Haiti
By Alexandra Phanor-Faury, Essence, February 2, 2010 Many of us have been moved by the heartbreaking images and stories out of Haiti following the earth-shattering quake and have donated money and goods. There have been so many non-profits accepting donations for Haiti, it can be overwhelming trying to figure out what organizations are credible and which ones will put our dollars to work in Haiti now. The many reports of relief aid still piled up at the airport not making its way to those in need makes donating even that more confusing. Nevertheless, we know that there ...
Fear Slows Relief Efforts in PAP
To our dear friends and supporters who have been so present through this difficult time. I feel like I have a wall of love and protection around me knowing that you are all holding Haiti in your thoughts and prayers. I apologize for not having written for the past few days, it is partly that life here is so hectic and fast paced and partly because I find that writing about the situation brings all my emotions to the surface and brings me to a vulnerable space that can be rather overwhelming. That said, I so want to be able to share with all of you what we are experie...
Phone Calls to Haiti
Dear Friends, I apologize for my silence over the last week or so. I am just too devastated to be able to write anything coherent. Kevin is recovering from malaria and is now able to spend more of a day off the couch than on it. We are trying to keep in touch and do what we can from the US. I finally got through to Haiti by phone last night for the first time. Estimable Francius Dauphin, aka Jhonny, the mayor of Borgne, reports that people from Borgne who had been living in Port au Prince are starting to return to their families in the countryside. The ...
Kouraj Cheri: Update from PAP
This afternoon, feeling helpless, we decided to take a van down to Champs de Mars (the area around the palace) to look for people needing medical care to bring to Matthew 25, the guesthouse where we are staying which has been transformed into a field hospital. Since we arrived in Port-au-Prince everyone has told us that you cannot go into the area around the palace because of violence and insecurity. I was in awe as we walked into downtown, among the flattened buildings, in the shadow of the fallen palace, amongst the swarms of displaced people there was calm and ...
Vanity Fair: The Light That Will Heal Haiti
By Nell Scovell in Vanity Fair, January 19, 2010 Sasha Kramer buried an amputated leg in Haiti yesterday. Exeter-bred with a Stanford Ph. D. , Sasha is an ecologist and human rights worker who has been living in Haiti for years as co-founder of SOIL, a non-profit organization focusing on sanitation. That work has been put on hold. As Sasha wrote on January 15th: “In one night our world changed in Haiti.” Based in Cap Haitian, where damage was minimal, Sasha headed to Port-Au-Prince the day after the quake. She is now blogging about relief efforts, offering a person...
Earthquake Update
Apologies if these upcoming posts seem unpolished…that is because they are…we barely have time to write and internet is patchy so I will do what I can to get out information but I don’t promise eloquence. Love to you all and know that we are safe and taking precautions. Last night we (myself, Cat Laine, Paul Namphy, Wisnel Jolissaint, Lisius Orel and Baudeler Magloire) arrived in Port-au-Prince just before sunset. As we came into the city with our truck piled full of water, gas, shovels and food we got a flat tire. The news reports of looting have been so ...
SOIL Earthquake Response
I am writing to you tonight with a heavy heart. In one night our world changed in Haiti. When the earthquake struck I was at the SOIL house in Cap Haitien with a group of students from the University of Miami, Florida International University and Notre Dame. We were incredibly lucky in Cap-Haitien and although the whole city shook, there was no major damage. As soon as the phones went dead I began to worry about Port-au-Prince. One of the students had a blackberry and we were able to get the news that the earthquake was very serious and centered around the capital...
San Francisco Bay View: One Year Ago the City Collapsed
By Sasha Kramer, San Francisco Bay View, January 12, 2011 One year ago this morning millions of Haitians rose to greet the cool January sunshine. They walked the streets of Port au Prince, on their way to work, through the damp corridors of the capital. The National Palace towered over Champs Mars and the bells of the National Cathedral greeted the market women who gathered long before sunrise. Thousands of mothers kissed their children goodbye for the day and hundreds of schools throughout the capital echoed with the voices of students eager to learn after the Christmas ...
The New York Times: A Most Meaningful Gift Idea by Nicholas D. Kristof
By Nicholas D. Kristof, New York Times December 23, 2009 Are the kids demanding the latest murder-and-mayhem video game? Do your loved ones have all the neckties/bottles of perfume/sweaters that can be used in a lifetime? Tired of celebrating spiritual holidays with crass commercialism? If so, then perhaps it’s time to try a different kind of gift. After all, nothing says “happy holidays” like donating in Aunt Tilda’s name to build a composting toilet in Haiti or to deworm kids in Kenya. And a deworming pill will never be regifted! This time of year I’m ...