CNS STORY: Dominicans tap into established Haitian networks to funnel aid

A girl carries out her daily chores amid the tents of earthquake survivors in the Santa Teresa area of Petionville, Haiti, Jan. 24. The Haitian government said as many as 1.5 million people were left homeless by the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake. (CNS/Paul Jeffrey)

By David Agren
Catholic News Service

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (CNS) -- A Dominican who coordinates overland relief missions into Haiti says that an ability to tap established church and community networks there has allowed Catholic aid agencies from the Dominican Republic to effectively deliver relief to those left homeless and hungry by the Jan. 12 earthquake that flattened large parts of Port-au-Prince.

Rafael Jimenez, social program coordinator for Jesuit Refugee and Migrant Services, said convoys of at least three large trucks carry relief materials, collected from parishes and social groups around the Dominican Republic, every other day to Port-au-Prince, where the food, water and medicine -- among other things -- are quickly distributed. In comparison, Jimenez says that many of the relief materials sent from far-away countries to Haiti have been stuck at the airport and docks due to poor infrastructure and a lack of established networks in Port-au-Prince.

"The people in the communities (needing help) are the ones doing the work. They themselves are doing the organizing," Jimenez told Catholic News Service after returning from Port-au-Prince Jan. 24.

Even with aid being delivered more freely, "there's still a lot of hunger," he said.

Reports of violence in Port-au-Prince have been common, but Jimenez said the situation has improved for those importing relief materials from the Dominican Republic due to security being beefed up on the main highway and trucks being sent in convoys.

The effective overland deliveries highlighted some of the small successes in the efforts of Dominicans to help their western neighbors -- with whom relations have, at times, not been cordial. It also highlighted the difficulties for the international community in responding to a tragedy that the Haitian government says has claimed more than 150,000 lives and left 3 million injured or homeless.

Tom Price, senior communications manager for the U.S. bishops' Catholic Relief Services, told Catholic News Service Jan. 25 the agency uses the overland route from the Dominican Republic for lighter materials, such as plastic sheeting for temporary shelter and boxed meals for distribution at parishes. He said the agency sends two cargo trucks a day across the border from the Dominican Republic.

For efficiency, larger shipments of food and shelter to tent communities are funneled through Port-au-Prince, Price said.

Rescue efforts in Port-au-Prince -- which was rocked by the magnitude 7 earthquake -- have been called off and efforts are now focused on tending to survivors. The Haitian government unveiled plans for tent cities to house the homeless.

Many of the homeless have started leaving the capital in search of other opportunities, however.

"There's a strong outflow of people toward other parts of Haiti," said Jesuit Father Regino Martinez, director of the Jesuit immigrant aid group, Border Solidarity, in the border town of Dajabon, Dominican Republic. "Port-au-Prince has nothing to offer people."

Father Martinez said Haitians were still crossing the border, although in slightly smaller numbers, in search of medical attention and to also purchase basic necessities at a twice-weekly market.

The Haitians crossing into the Dominican Republic were, for the most part, not planning to stay permanently, said Catholic groups operating in the area.

"There's not a massive displacement of Haitians toward the Dominican Republic," said Wilma Duval Orozco, Caritas director in the Dominican Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana. "There are some cases (of people coming to stay) ... but these have been isolated cases so far."

Some Haitians living abroad have traveled to Haiti to search for relatives. Miami resident and U.S. citizen Lambert Gounod said he planned to travel to Port-au-Prince to see about getting his 79-year-old father a U.S. visa -- although advising his family in Haiti that he was coming was impossible due to a lack of communications. Gounod said the only contact with his father was through a "two-minute call" made from Port-au-Prince with a Catholic missionary's cell phone.

"They don't know that I'm coming," he said after arriving in Santiago, Dominican Republic, with 11 other Haitian expatriates also in search of relatives. "It will be a surprise."

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Contributing to this story was Dennis Sadowski in Washington.

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