Matthew 25 News

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I've been getting email updates directly from Vivian at Matthew 25 House:

Don Lafont, and Lynn Blair-Anton, the members of our volunteer mobile clinic, left yesterday. It was difficult to see them go. Every day for two weeks, they packed up needed medical supplies in a tub, bags, and boxes and went work in various areas throughout the city. No one was ever turned away.

We had a fresh medical team that arrived from New Jersey. They had planned to work in a different area of the country where a large influx of patients was expected to be evacuated from the U.S. Comfort hospital ship. That did not occur, and we were fortunate because the field hospital here was shorthanded. The first day they split up into two teams. One group went to an orphanage. Like others in Haiti, as well as families, most children in orphanages sleep outside on the ground. The doctors were able to at least check them over, provide antibiotics where needed, and give them vitamins. Again, the need for tents is urgent! We still have not received the promised vinyl sheeting to at least cover the tops of the sheet tents.

Since then the team has worked in the field hospital of Matthew 25. Julie Morrison, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and a member of the New Jersey team, has been invaluable in helping the amputees. Julie has been able to rewrap stumps so that they will eventually be able to hold a prosthesis, and also has been working with each patient so that they learn exercises particular to their new disability that will strengthen their muscles. Before her arrival they would just be lying down. She has them up and walking. At first they were really afraid, in pain and not used to their body’s new imbalance, but after three days they can walk on their crutches for more than 300 feet, and also climb up a step. It seems strange to refer to someone who has lost one or more limbs as “fortunate”, but the fact that those here are already learning to cope, to wrap their own stumps in the particular way necessary for accepting a prosthetic makes them so much more fortunate than the hundreds and hundreds of others.

Something that happened the day before yesterday made me and many others very angry about the arrogance of the United States government. The day before yesterday several thousand Haitians arrived at the U.S. embassy because (as we heard it) there was a rumor that travel visas were being issued. The embassy response was to blockade not only the embassy compound, but the whole road that fronts it. This region of the metro area of the city has three main “trunk” roads. The embassy is located on one of these. To close it off for something like that was a terrible thing to do to the people having to function in this vital area. I needed to go out to buy supplies, and had to turn around after almost two hours in traffic, advancing less than a mile. Pat had started out to pick up the medical supply order for three clinics, and he too, could get nowhere, and had to turn back.

What did this embassy decision tie up? The airport road, the UN headquarters, the entrance to the staging area for all relief supplies arriving via the airport, the location of the UN "clusters" that oversee distribution of relief supplies, and the city’s best equipped children’s hospital, not to mention the medical personnel traveling from place to place, demolition trucks, and regular city traffic.

The embassy compound itself reminds one of a huge, multi storied bunker, with its surrounding "green zone" fenced in and walled off. It is reported to be the third largest U.S. embassy in the world. What right did our embassy have to bring to a stand-still the aid efforts of an entire city? From what I understand, there was no security threat, just a lot of people.

DIFFICULT TO MANEUVER THROUGH THE MAZE OF LARGE AID ORGANIZATION

It's difficult to be here, and to witness how small a voice the Haitians have when dealing with the large aid organizations. I can walk into any place clad as I am in my white skin, and speaking my American accented English, and ask for help. I may not immediately get it, but I am welcomed and someone at least listens to what I have to say, and attempts to redirect me to the proper channel. Not so the Haitians, unless they are, what is termed "connected", either to an aid organization, to a member of the Haitian elite who does have the connections, or if they arrive with (white, no particular area of expertise, just trying to help) me.

Aside from the medical teams, the people staying here are leaders of what has formally become known as the Haitian Response Coalition. Matthew 25 was able to in turn, provide them with a spot on our ground for their tents, bathroom facilities, meals, and a clean, safe center of operations. They have identified community leaders to aid in a fair distribution of food; provide secure spaces to set up mobile clinics, and water distribution sites. Most of the water for the camps is distributed by tank trucks that look like oil delivery trucks. This is not a new method here, but one that has always been part of the country’s water distribution. Tank trucks drive through the streets usually playing some taped tune similar to ice cream vendors in the United States. Since the earthquake, whenever possible, Pure Water for Haiti chlorinates the water in the tanks as they are being filled.

The coalition did not have a name at first, but were a loose partnership of Beyond Borders, Amert, and Konpay. Their focus was to bring immediate help where it was needed: water, food, emergency medical attention, transportation. They’ve expanded now, and their focus is to assist those non- connected Haitians to have a stronger voice in their own future. We are all so grateful for their unflagging energy, expertise, and assistance.

— Mail-out from Matthew 25 House