Please give generously to the MCLC. Friends and family from PAP are coming on boats everyday. There is a 20% increase in population of Lagonav already and the boats keep coming in. Many of my neighbors were already struggling to feed their children something, anything, once a day. Now the burden even greater.
The world will be contributing to the major rescue organizations and as usual the people in the bay, on Lagonav, will be forgotten and suffering without the media to send out their call. After the hurricanes we recieved generous donations to rebuild half the homes that went down during the hurricane, and the others remain to this day in leaking homes. Our staff on the ground will get your donation to the neediest people here to rebuild before the raining season arrives, keep them from starvation in the coming weeks and months, and help pay for funerals (that we hope will be minimal) of their children and loved ones in PAP .
Mail-in Donation Form
Earthquake news, daily updates and video clips from John Engle in PAP.
Posted in: Updates.
Abner: Several of us at the Matènwa Community school took it upon ourselves to assemble information. Eligène, Balaguel, Afelene, Abner, Benaja , Robert, Tomann , Ezner, Feronel epi Roseline, began to meet together and go off to gather information in the following communities the second day after the earthquake. These communities all have damaged homes and their populations are suffering from hunger because of the rise in food prices and the rise in the number of mouths to feed.
1-Bwanwa
2-Nan Tè wouj
3- Lotore
4- Mòn Ranmye
5- Plezans
6-Nan Kafè
7-Zèb Ginen
8-Nan Iske
9-Gransous
10-Matènwa
11-Masikren
12-Plenn Mapou
13-Gwomapou
14-Nan Mango
15- Fontina
This is important information to diseminate. I think everyone should know that all of Lagonav is in need in some way or another. At our school alone we serve more than 260 students and staff from our school. In addition, we have been serving a hundred people who are not our students.
There are lots of communities that have expressed confidence in us that we will be funneling any assistance you want to send to them through us. We want you to know that
MCLC is ready, able, and eager to help in anyway, for the people of Lagonav, anywhere on the island. Lots of people here have been worried because even if the state has relief resources for Lagonav, it is hard for people who are not living in the port towns to receive it unless grassroots organizations in our mountains are directly implicated in the process.
An empty sack can’t stand up.
Sauveur Jean Abner
Chris: I am confident that we can begin to rebuild sturdier homes. The homes we built after the 2008 hurricanes have no structural damage aside from some superficial cracks. With an average of $1200 per home we can rebuild and reinforce the homes that are now unsafe and crumbling. We are feeding who we can, but people need cash for work jobs. We want to start providing cash so these families can help themselves. Please assist in whatever way you can.
Posted in: Updates.
These photos were takne by Abner. These are only two examples of homes damaged by the earthquake in the small village of Plezans. Homes are desperately in need of repair for soon the rainy season will come with wind and rain.
Official Assessment
The vice-delege, Esper Feno, and the Red Cross President, Estirerne Felolet, both confirmed the following numbers for the commune of Anse-a-Galets (north-eastern part of the island).
Ø Houses damaged: 4,649
Ø Houses destroyed: 1,312
Ø People injured: 98 (this includes Lagonavians living in PaP)
Ø People dead: 107 (these were Lagonavians living in PaP)
Ø People relocated: 8,862
No figures from the Pointe-a-Raquette commune were available yet. However, it was felt that the same numbers would be applicable to this commune. If this is the case, we’d be looking at some 12-16,000 displaced on La Gonave. Compared to the total number of inhabitants, this could be an increase of 15-20%, which is significant.
Today at 3.00pm there was going to be a PLATFORM meeting on the island. All development actors working on LG are members of this platform. Info was going to be shared and an attempt was going to be made to work up a collective response.
The U.S. Army had landed in the Wesleyan Hospital since 25 Jan 2010 and was treating the patients there with their medical team. They’d also organised a small distribution of dry food stuffs. This was announced, and according to beneficiaries quite chaotic. There’s talk of scarcity of food stuffs and inflation. For example: cooking oil +33%, rice and beans +50-75%.
According to the mayors and the Red Cross the greatest needs are currently:
Psycho social support
Medical treatment and medicines
Food
Water
Shelter
Posted in: Updates.
Vana’s 1st grade. 
Millienne’s 2nd grade.
Robert’s 5th grade.
Delsonn’s 7th grade.
Ben: A lot pf people are afraid of entering into their houses to do their work. They are all sitting outside. A lot of teachers at other schools feel that they are too distrubed to work with the children so schools are still closed. There are other teachers who believe that the children are not yet ready to learn again. Some Lagonavians see us as non patriotic, that we are not showing enough remorse for all the people that have perished. They feel we should stay closed for a month or two instead of opening so quickly. A few people in Matènwa feel this too, but most of this criticsm comes from people outside of our community. Parents are sending their children to school because they believe in us. Others are sending them because they have nothing to give their kids and know that the kids will be fed at by us. We have been teaching about volcanoes and earthquakes in all of our classes. Each child was asked to explain their experience of the quake and several of our children drew and wrote about their experiences. We will try to send those to you. We feel that we should be open so that families do not feel like this is the end of the world.
Abner and I have also been going around to some of the churches, explaining what an earthquake is and why some places were more damaged than others. We are spreading information that we heard on the radio, on the internet and from books that are in our library. We also went to the churches to head off rumors, because several people said that Americans and China were shooting bombs under Haiti so they could take control of Haiti. They were the ones shooting things under the ocean so they could come in mass to Haiti, so that they could make it appear that Haiti had a problem and then come in and control it better. We had to talk to the people so they could believe it was a real earthquake and that they did not need to believe that people created this. Other people explained it as something that God was doing to punish sinners, and that it was fulfilling a prophecy, another portion felt it was truly a natural disaster.
Chris: It is clear that people need time to discuss and process the earthquakes and all the after shocks. They need a venue for sharing their stories and knowledge with each other. We are informally spreading information and presently forming a plan to have children share their stories with other children across the island and on the mainland.
Posted in: Updates.
The irony of it all. The MCLC is a model community that encourages people to grow their own food and buy local food, avoiding imported rice. Yesterday, one of our staff brought back 8 large sacks of Haitian rice and some cooking oil from St Marc. The staff was content and I too was pleased to hear this. This can cover the school breakfast program for both Matènwa elementary schools for a month. What was distressing was that this is all he found in the large port town of St Marc on the mainland. There was no corn meal nor millet to buy. The depots on Lagonav did not have any sacks of food to buy either. There was more food in the market than last week, but still not enough given the amount of people. Benaja states, “Even though the eastern half of the island was hit harder by the quake than the western half in terms of physical damage, it is always the western half (referred to as “anba lagonav”) that suffers more in terms of food. They have manioc and sweet potatoes in the ground. That might last two weeks.” In the face of starvation, never say never. Continue reading →
Posted in: Updates.
