Here is the translation of this article from AyiboPost - which I just translated (translation will be up soon)
https://ayibopost.com/les-autorites...umanitaire-cest-plus-facile-a-dire-qua-faire/
The Authorites
Want to direct
Humanitarian Aid
That is easier said than done
By Wildore Mérancourt
Several places are still inaccessible and the state is absent in many of the areas in need.
Two days after the strong earthquake on Saturday, several zones in the south remain cut off from the rest of the county and the Haitian state which wants to be the exclusive organizer of aid has no idea of the exact extent of the damage.
“No one has been to Fonds Cochone, a town in Roseau in the department of Grand’Anse” testified the mayor of the city of Jérémie, Claude Harry Milord, in a telephone interview this Monday.
So it is difficult to make an assessment of needs. “Areas of the second and third communal level are inaccessible due to lack of transport” continues Milord. “Things become complicated at Corail, Pestel, and Beaumont” says the town councilor. “They need to be rescued urgently. They have no water, no medicine, no food. They are sleeping under the stars.
Meanwhile, another catastrophe is brewing. “They have just announced a storm, but the people can not go to the temporary shelters as they are made of concrete.” Added Claude Harry Milord.
The toll from the cataclysm has risen to almost 1300 dead, according to a provisional count. And days after, several zones remain cut off from the world, inaccessible by car because of multiple rockslides. The State wants to direct the rescue efforts but it seems not to have the means to accomplish its goals
“We discourage those Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) who want to go by themselves on the ground.” said Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in an interview granted to AyiboPost in the diplomatic room in the Toussaint Louverture Airport, as he returned from his trip around the affected areas on Sunday afternoon.
“We wish to have a co-ordinated effort” continued the head of government. “Soon we will put in place entities composed of both public and private sectors to direct the aid for the reconstruction.”
The bulk of the interventions in the south are taking place by airplane or helicopter. A test convoy went to cross Martissant yesterday but donor institution remain cautious due to the danger of this route. »
“We are going to make a particular effort to clear Martissant, on the way out of Port-au-Prince,” promised Ariel Henry. “We have heard that the bandits want to make a truce but what we want is to make Maritssant passable so that people can cross the route in safety in a permanent manner.
The authorities want to avoid duplication and the wasting of hundreds of millions of dollars as happened after the earthquake of 2010 when the NGOs bypassed the local government to intervene directly.
According to information from Roberto Cavada, one plane and two aid helicopters coming from the Dominican Republic had to wait more than 4 hours yesterday before being able to land, because of long procedures. “The State is unable to manage the aid because it has no operating framework at this level”, analyzed the sociologist Wenchel Jean Baptiste.
If the aid has to pass through the State, it will take time to reach the population, not to mention the risks of it being diverted, “ added the director of Caramed, a hospital in Les Cayes. “The NGOs ought to intervene directly. That way will save time.”
The scene was meant to be ordinary. On her descent from the plane at the airport in Jérémie yesterday, August 15, the star, Sarodj Bertin, contemplated the surrounding greenery, the imperturbable passers-by, and the expanse of the sea that that so inspired the poets of the “city”.
This idyllic panorama would would be up ended by urgency. “As we got a little closer to the city, I started to see collapsed buildings.” Andat that hospital Saint-Antoine, the real post catastrophe. “I saw the wounded just pulled from the rubble.”.
Very quickly the quasi-absence of the State is felt in Jérémie. “There is a problem of co-ordination” remarked Carel Pedre. The radio host accompanied Bertin and recommended that she go to Jérémie while current efforts are concentrated much more in Les Cayes.
Contrary to the procedure recommended by the government, Pedre and Sarodj made contact with a local journalist who redirects them to the local hospital. When they arrive at the centre, they hand out well-received serum pouches and syringes, even if the staff requests gas and antibiotics.
“The State ought to co-ordinate the request so that one knows the needs on the ground”, Carle Pedre analysizes, “Co-ordinating aid is good, but it also requires transparency.”
The United States is contributing to the rescue efforts. Sixty Coast Guard employees and and a helicopter are involved in the back and forth flights between Port-au-Prince and the South to evacuate the wounded and transport medicine and medical material, in collaboration with the Haitian authorities.
At 5 in the afternoon on August 15, the aircraft had had three descents to Jérémie and Miragoane. Fifteen wounded patients in critical condition were transported to Port-au-Prince. Nine doctors were taken to Jérémie . And more than 1,000 pound of medical material had been delivered there.
“Two more helicopters should arrive in the country and by Monday, August 16th, they will be in Les Cayes where we are told there are 37 wounded patients in critical condition who need to be evacuated “ David Steele, a liaison officer for the US Coast Guard told AyiboPost.
Steele had worked in Puerto Rico after the devastating Hurricane Maria, and also in the Bahamas after Tropical Storm Matthew. “The extent of the wounds are more serious that those I have seen in previous interventions” he testified.
The calls for help are being raised from various parts of the South. Three members of the family of Lucienne Raphael, 66 and, were participating in a Baptism at the Immaculate Church “Les Anglais”. The building collapsed and they were all killed. Several cadavers are still under the debris
“Aftershocks are being felt from time to time so we are sleeping in the streets,” noted Raphael. “We have no shelter to avoid the storm that is coming. There is some noise that authorities are coming but we have so far received nothing.”
At Aquin, a town located between the south and Nippes, aid is slow in arriving as it is other small towns. “The largest part of the damages have been in the city of Rosemina built after the earthquake” reported Biltonn Bosse, a psychologist and teacher in the community. “The people in this underprivileged area find themselves in a dangerous situation. They are mourning many deaths.”
A humanitarian convoy passed Marissant yesterday to go to the South. “It did not stop at Aquin” Said Bossé sadly who explained that the mayor of the area seemed unable to do anything at all to help the people who were in distress after their houses had collapsed.
Tropical Storm Grace should not spare the country so beset with catastrophes, on the edge of the assassination of the president, Jovenel Moise a month ago. The forecasts predict its passage over several cities of the nation. While Prime Minister Henri fears the destructive potential of the cyclone, electoral preoccupations are still on his list of priorities.
“Elections are a must and we are headed there with or without an earthquake,” said Henry , who goes on to acknowledge “in a very clear manner “ that “ we do not have an electoral calendar.”
Translated by Elizabeth Eames Roebling
