We left at 7:30 a.m. yesterday (our typical start time) to head to an orphanage in a rural area two hours outside of Port-au-Prince. Again, like India, the trip is half the adventure. We passed through a long industrial wasteland on the outskirts of PaP. Thus far, I have seen many men working on the rubble by hand trying to remove the steel rebar encapsulated in concrete. It was amazing to watch how long someone would spend with a sledgehammer trying to just free a small piece of steel to resell as scrap. We drove through an area that appears to be the destination for some of it. The setting then became more rural and many of the cars fell away, replaced by animals pulling materials and merchandise.
The orphanage is in the middle of nowhere and seemed about 300 meters above sea level and 3-4 km from the ocean so there were amazing vistas of the sea. It was strange to be in a place for those with so little economic means but yet such an amazing setting and reminded me that if Haiti had not suffered from twenty-five years of political corruption, it could have a thriving tourist industry like the DR.
We got out of the car and a young boy of about three came right over to greet me. I picked him up and it appeared that he wasn’t going to let me put him down and I ended up carrying him around for about fifteen minutes—another example of a child starving for any form of affection. In stark contrast to the other orphanages, this one had an open-air feel with buildings that were like pavilions. It also had an old shipping container that was converted into a medical clinic, which served not just the orphanage but also the surrounding rural community.
There were a number of people (primarily women and children) on line to see the doctor. I noticed one woman with her infant child lying across her lap with his head hanging over in a precarious manner. I have seen this several times now even from adults that work at the orphanages.
We then walked to where the children were having class and played with them for a bit. I figured out a new trick of taking photos of them and then showing them the photos and they were captivated.
We then went into one of the bedrooms and saw a beautiful little girl sitting on a little chair with a pretty dress and a blank stair. Dr. Aronson, asked what was wrong with her, but her caretakers didn’t know. She looked about four and they had never heard her talk. Jane went over to her to try to play with her and get a little reaction. Jane has the most amazing ways with kids and can seemingly cheer up anyone, but she could not get any sort of smile or reaction from this girl that just looked scared. I wondered what might be going on in her head and if she might potentially go through her entire life and never smile which saddened me.
We next went into a small physical therapy room. Several people were crammed into the room, all of them sharing a few mats and receiving treatments at the same time. Many of them seemed to have cerebral palsy and some of the grown children were wearing diapers. Some of them were using tennis balls for their therapy. One child that could only make sounds but could not talked grabbed my hand and made a loud noise smiling and I just let him hold onto me for a while. I then grabbed a few tennis balls and started juggling and got some laughs and cheers from a few of them while others just stared as though oblivious.
I walked out of the room and we began walking down to another building. Jane remarked to Rebecca, the special needs pediatrician, that it was very impressive that the children had that quality of therapy and Rebecca agreed how great it was. They felt positive about what they saw. For me, however, the combination of seeing the kids in the PT room and the girl with the blank stare made me feel horrible.
I asked Rebecca, who is an unbelievably kind person, if it is hard for her to see these things. She said yes but that it gets much easier and told me about how she would go home crying everyday when she first started work, but then got used to accepting some people’s realities. This made me feel more positive about the prospect of continuing to do this work.
On the way back, we only had one car because the other car had to leave early to take one of our colleagues to the airport. So eight of us all managed to fit into an SUV for the two-hour ride back to PaP. I sat in the way back with Rebecca in 95-degree heat on bumpy roads with no AC, but it actually was not a bad ride. We got back to the hotel with a few evening hours free which was the first meaningful amount of free time we’ve had the entire trip and I was able to catch up on some work.
Day 5
I had a meeting planned this morning with one of the directors of Partners in Health (PIH). I was referred to them by the Institute for Urban Design and the director has committed to be a speaker at our June symposium. PIH is a model organization that has worked in Haiti for many years and I learned that Jane actually knew the same director so I invited her to accompany me to the meeting despite the fact that we would be focusing on infrastructure rebuilding and urban planning discussions.
Unfortunately, the director showed up to our hotel an hour late, due to an all-too-often occurrence in PaP—traffic. The combination of all of the people that have arrived and that so many roads are closed off or slowed down by debris has made tardiness a regular occurrence. So I had to reschedule the meeting to tomorrow morning.
We then decided to go back to the La Maison orphanage for a second visit. Out of all of the places we visited, Jane decided that La Maison was the best fit to work with WWO, and wanted to visit one more time to assess the kids in a classroom environment.
WWO has instituted a “Granny Program” in orphanages in Bulgaria with great success. They hire impoverished local women whose children are already grown, and then put them through an extensive program of teaching them how to care for the children and the specific needs of orphans. They then hire them to care for the children. It provides much-needed care for the orphans and a much-needed job for the women. Jane decided after her first visit that this program would be the best route of getting started in Haiti. The only problem is that in Haiti, the average life expectancy is forty-nine years and only 4% of the population reaches the age of sixty-five. So instead we will be supplementing the Grannies with "Jeune Grand Meres" and recruiting young women (and perhaps some men) to be “Grannies.”
As we were walking into La Maison, I developed a strange feeling of not wanting to be there. After four days, I had felt like I had seen enough children with problems for this trip. We sat in on class while the kids (six year olds) repeated passages from the bible, repeated a poem, and drew some shapes. They were all beautiful, happy and healthy looking. After “class” was over, I played with them for a while and broke out my camera trick to great success and had a great time.
We then went back to the baby tent. Jane had convinced a company to donate 100 baby carriers that look like the Baby Bjorn. We brought one down to give them a demonstration (the staff had never seen anything like it) so that we can send them more. The babies were once again all sitting on the concrete floor but it didn’t bother me this time. I guess because they seemed ok and were just sleeping and hanging out and a few seemed to be having fun (see below).
Upon leaving Jane mentioned that she felt positive about her decision to work with La Maison, and I felt great to have my final orphanage visit a happy one with no sad moments.
I dropped off my colleagues, switched non-profit hats and then went to meet with the director of The Inter-University Institute for Research and Development (INURED) a group that has some similarities to the IfUD but more broad. We are trying to recruit them to participate in the symposium we are holding in partnership with the UN at Cooper Union in June. I also wanted to get more educated on the rebuilding effort.
In short, the rebuilding of Haiti cannot consist of just replacing buildings, roads and some infrastructure. The country has been in a downward spiral for a long time and the rebuilding poses a great opportunity to transform Haiti into an economically sustainable economy. Prior to the earthquake, 80% of the population lived in abject poverty, malnourishment was widespread, only 2% of people graduated from high school, and the country was rapidly running out of trees. These items have all gotten worse obviously as the result of the earthquake. (Nearly all the schools in Haiti are still closed...)
Because the government here is corrupt, the work of taking care of people and planning for the future falls primarily on NGOs. There are hundreds of them that are doing good work and trying to make Haiti a better place but there is little coordination. But given that so much money has flowed into the country to both the government and NGOs, all eyes are on Haiti to make sure that it’s put to good use.
I met today with a man that started http://www.haitiaidwatchdog.org/ to monitor all aid. My general feeling from INURED was that Haiti is welcoming input from the U.S. for smart urban planning and I think that IfUD can have a meaningful impact here.
On the way home from my last meeting, I noticed a woman in the street that was completely naked. Nobody seemed to pay much attention to her and my driver didn’t seem to think anything of it. While it seemed so strange to me I guess it’s not a strange thing to see in these extreme conditions. After being here for five days I guess it wasn’t all that shocking to me either.
I really didn’t know what to expect from this trip. Many of the things I did and saw I’m just beginning to process days later. I can’t say the trip was particularly fun but it was incredibly enlightening. I think there is something positive that comes from going through the uncomfortable process of witnessing human suffering. Seneca said “Practice what you fear, whether a simulation in your mind or in real-life.” (This is actually the basis of stoicism.)
I also feel very positive about my associations with WWO and IfUD. Jane works tirelessly. I’ve never met anyone so dedicated to their cause. She is also incredibly smart. And witnessing these philanthropic efforts make thoughtful, concrete changes make me feel great as well
I’m very happy to be going back to NY tomorrow.
The orphanage is in the middle of nowhere and seemed about 300 meters above sea level and 3-4 km from the ocean so there were amazing vistas of the sea. It was strange to be in a place for those with so little economic means but yet such an amazing setting and reminded me that if Haiti had not suffered from twenty-five years of political corruption, it could have a thriving tourist industry like the DR.
We got out of the car and a young boy of about three came right over to greet me. I picked him up and it appeared that he wasn’t going to let me put him down and I ended up carrying him around for about fifteen minutes—another example of a child starving for any form of affection. In stark contrast to the other orphanages, this one had an open-air feel with buildings that were like pavilions. It also had an old shipping container that was converted into a medical clinic, which served not just the orphanage but also the surrounding rural community.
There were a number of people (primarily women and children) on line to see the doctor. I noticed one woman with her infant child lying across her lap with his head hanging over in a precarious manner. I have seen this several times now even from adults that work at the orphanages.
We then walked to where the children were having class and played with them for a bit. I figured out a new trick of taking photos of them and then showing them the photos and they were captivated.
We then went into one of the bedrooms and saw a beautiful little girl sitting on a little chair with a pretty dress and a blank stair. Dr. Aronson, asked what was wrong with her, but her caretakers didn’t know. She looked about four and they had never heard her talk. Jane went over to her to try to play with her and get a little reaction. Jane has the most amazing ways with kids and can seemingly cheer up anyone, but she could not get any sort of smile or reaction from this girl that just looked scared. I wondered what might be going on in her head and if she might potentially go through her entire life and never smile which saddened me.
We next went into a small physical therapy room. Several people were crammed into the room, all of them sharing a few mats and receiving treatments at the same time. Many of them seemed to have cerebral palsy and some of the grown children were wearing diapers. Some of them were using tennis balls for their therapy. One child that could only make sounds but could not talked grabbed my hand and made a loud noise smiling and I just let him hold onto me for a while. I then grabbed a few tennis balls and started juggling and got some laughs and cheers from a few of them while others just stared as though oblivious.
I walked out of the room and we began walking down to another building. Jane remarked to Rebecca, the special needs pediatrician, that it was very impressive that the children had that quality of therapy and Rebecca agreed how great it was. They felt positive about what they saw. For me, however, the combination of seeing the kids in the PT room and the girl with the blank stare made me feel horrible.
I asked Rebecca, who is an unbelievably kind person, if it is hard for her to see these things. She said yes but that it gets much easier and told me about how she would go home crying everyday when she first started work, but then got used to accepting some people’s realities. This made me feel more positive about the prospect of continuing to do this work.
On the way back, we only had one car because the other car had to leave early to take one of our colleagues to the airport. So eight of us all managed to fit into an SUV for the two-hour ride back to PaP. I sat in the way back with Rebecca in 95-degree heat on bumpy roads with no AC, but it actually was not a bad ride. We got back to the hotel with a few evening hours free which was the first meaningful amount of free time we’ve had the entire trip and I was able to catch up on some work.
Day 5
I had a meeting planned this morning with one of the directors of Partners in Health (PIH). I was referred to them by the Institute for Urban Design and the director has committed to be a speaker at our June symposium. PIH is a model organization that has worked in Haiti for many years and I learned that Jane actually knew the same director so I invited her to accompany me to the meeting despite the fact that we would be focusing on infrastructure rebuilding and urban planning discussions.
Unfortunately, the director showed up to our hotel an hour late, due to an all-too-often occurrence in PaP—traffic. The combination of all of the people that have arrived and that so many roads are closed off or slowed down by debris has made tardiness a regular occurrence. So I had to reschedule the meeting to tomorrow morning.
We then decided to go back to the La Maison orphanage for a second visit. Out of all of the places we visited, Jane decided that La Maison was the best fit to work with WWO, and wanted to visit one more time to assess the kids in a classroom environment.
WWO has instituted a “Granny Program” in orphanages in Bulgaria with great success. They hire impoverished local women whose children are already grown, and then put them through an extensive program of teaching them how to care for the children and the specific needs of orphans. They then hire them to care for the children. It provides much-needed care for the orphans and a much-needed job for the women. Jane decided after her first visit that this program would be the best route of getting started in Haiti. The only problem is that in Haiti, the average life expectancy is forty-nine years and only 4% of the population reaches the age of sixty-five. So instead we will be supplementing the Grannies with "Jeune Grand Meres" and recruiting young women (and perhaps some men) to be “Grannies.”
As we were walking into La Maison, I developed a strange feeling of not wanting to be there. After four days, I had felt like I had seen enough children with problems for this trip. We sat in on class while the kids (six year olds) repeated passages from the bible, repeated a poem, and drew some shapes. They were all beautiful, happy and healthy looking. After “class” was over, I played with them for a while and broke out my camera trick to great success and had a great time.
We then went back to the baby tent. Jane had convinced a company to donate 100 baby carriers that look like the Baby Bjorn. We brought one down to give them a demonstration (the staff had never seen anything like it) so that we can send them more. The babies were once again all sitting on the concrete floor but it didn’t bother me this time. I guess because they seemed ok and were just sleeping and hanging out and a few seemed to be having fun (see below).
Upon leaving Jane mentioned that she felt positive about her decision to work with La Maison, and I felt great to have my final orphanage visit a happy one with no sad moments.
I dropped off my colleagues, switched non-profit hats and then went to meet with the director of The Inter-University Institute for Research and Development (INURED) a group that has some similarities to the IfUD but more broad. We are trying to recruit them to participate in the symposium we are holding in partnership with the UN at Cooper Union in June. I also wanted to get more educated on the rebuilding effort.
In short, the rebuilding of Haiti cannot consist of just replacing buildings, roads and some infrastructure. The country has been in a downward spiral for a long time and the rebuilding poses a great opportunity to transform Haiti into an economically sustainable economy. Prior to the earthquake, 80% of the population lived in abject poverty, malnourishment was widespread, only 2% of people graduated from high school, and the country was rapidly running out of trees. These items have all gotten worse obviously as the result of the earthquake. (Nearly all the schools in Haiti are still closed...)
Because the government here is corrupt, the work of taking care of people and planning for the future falls primarily on NGOs. There are hundreds of them that are doing good work and trying to make Haiti a better place but there is little coordination. But given that so much money has flowed into the country to both the government and NGOs, all eyes are on Haiti to make sure that it’s put to good use.
I met today with a man that started http://www.haitiaidwatchdog.org/ to monitor all aid. My general feeling from INURED was that Haiti is welcoming input from the U.S. for smart urban planning and I think that IfUD can have a meaningful impact here.
On the way home from my last meeting, I noticed a woman in the street that was completely naked. Nobody seemed to pay much attention to her and my driver didn’t seem to think anything of it. While it seemed so strange to me I guess it’s not a strange thing to see in these extreme conditions. After being here for five days I guess it wasn’t all that shocking to me either.
I really didn’t know what to expect from this trip. Many of the things I did and saw I’m just beginning to process days later. I can’t say the trip was particularly fun but it was incredibly enlightening. I think there is something positive that comes from going through the uncomfortable process of witnessing human suffering. Seneca said “Practice what you fear, whether a simulation in your mind or in real-life.” (This is actually the basis of stoicism.)
I also feel very positive about my associations with WWO and IfUD. Jane works tirelessly. I’ve never met anyone so dedicated to their cause. She is also incredibly smart. And witnessing these philanthropic efforts make thoughtful, concrete changes make me feel great as well
I’m very happy to be going back to NY tomorrow.
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