Local Haiti aid update

posted on: Jan 24 2010 9:20 by The Reporter. Viewed 637 times.


Last week you heard about three brave heroes who went to Haiti to rescue family members.  Wilner, a teacher at the DREAM Center; Iyvette, a nurse who left her own two young children to rescue others; and Silvia, a mother who knew that her son was in a school that collapsed, but was not sure if he was dead or alive.  Here�s what�s happened since they left.

January 14th
Wilner, Iyvette, and Silvia have been gone for five hours.   The international news is showing just how devastating it is.  What was I thinking? Why did I support and encourage them to go? Oh my God, did i just make a big mistake? Please, please, please, God let them be OK.
Within 6 hours of arriving into Haiti, Wilner miraculously gets a phone call out to me at my home in Cabarete, but the news is not good. They had to separate. He has decided to stay in his home town and help pull out family members and strangers from a three story building that was flattened. It is very difficult to find transport he explains and so it was better to send the two women on their own. My God.  Not even 24 hours after they left and they have been separated.  What was I thinking ?

 January 15th   
�THINK POSITIVE�   Stay busy. Get ready for Sunday�s fundraiser in Cabarete Coffee Company. They will be OK.

January 16th
Five pm. Wilner is back in Santo Domingo.  �This is what I saw,� he starts out. �Patricia. Malo, muy malo. I never saw so many children in the streets with no parents. They are everywhere. Injured, crying, hungry.  We are a nation of orphans.  I had to come back to gather more help I must go back.� Wilner had lost touch completely with Iyvette, but had heard from Silvia. Silvia had been reunited with her son, Watson, in an emotional event.  Still, it was bitter sweet.  Although Watson�s life had been spared, his 16-year-old roommate who had been next to him had been crushed to death.

January 17th
Fifty-one people came to our Sunday fundraiser for Haiti.  People are bringing in supplies. Everyone I know has brought something to someone: whether it has been to school or to our shop or to other organizations, everyone is helping.  We now know that small search and rescue teams are working and should be encouraged.  
Dr. Bob and Crossroad�s crew heads off in a caravan tonight.  Maya, Dr Bob�s daughter, eats brunch at the coffee shop, and then prepares for her trip across the boarder.  She is my daughter�s teacher at the ISS and a long time friend.  More heroes! These small groups are reaching an entirely different group of people and they are effectively getting supplies to hordes of starving people.

January 18th
My birthday. Wilner is back and already preparing for his second trip. We have not heard from Iyvette.   We keep hearing about Hotel Montana on the news and all of her family lives just a 5 minute walk away from there.  Why did I let her go?  She has a special foster child and her own children to look after. I fear we will never see her again.

January 19th
Silvia calls again.  She is at the border with Watson, but they can not get back into the DR. They are going to have to try some other ways to get into the country.  They are running out of food and money.  Still no word from Iyvette.
More donations are coming in.  People that I do not even know are coming by the coffee shop and bringing donations.  The school is calling and bringing donations.  Emails are coming in.
Seven pm.  Iyvette has arrived back in Cabarete.  She is traumatized.  She has not eaten and cannot eat. She had to pass by Port Au Prince two time to get to her village. �Dead bodies everywhere. So many dead so many bodies,� she says.  She has lost family members and she did what she could. She is not the same as she was six days ago, but she is back and she is safe.

January 20th
More donations.  Preparing for Wilner�s trip.  People without jobs are giving, poor people are giving, children are giving.  Can the generosity catch up with the need?
No news from Silvia.

January 21st
Seven pm. We brought over eight carloads of supplies to Wilner�s house, Wilner gets a phone call while we are at Supermercardo La Rosa. It is a call from Silivia.  They are in Santo Domingo.  They will be home tomorrow. Everyone has made it back!  And yet, I feel the same worry as I did a week ago.

January 22nd
Eight am. Wilner has left.  He has over 200,000 pesos worth of supplies and money to get what he needs done with his church group.  Nine am.  His bus has broken down in Puerto Plata.  Stay tuned.
Every Haitian living in the DR has been effected.  Everyone has a friend or loved one either missing, killed, or traumatized. It seems most of us foreigners who live here also have a story to tell. Four-year-old Suleika from the 3 Mariposa Montessori Pre-school left on January 6th for a much needed operation. Last we heard, she was in a hospital in Port Au Prince recovering.  That was four days before the earthquake.  We�re still waiting.
Thank you Adscene for letting us share our stories of hope.  Help is still needed. Stay tuned to hear about Wilners second trip. we are trying to find word on 4 year olds.  Please STAND WITH HAITI and help the Mariposa Foundation raise $10,000 US for Partners in Health by going to: http://act.pih.org/page/outreach/view/haitiearthquake/mariposa

written by Patricia Suriel

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