Our hearts have been very heavy with the tragedy happening in the southern regions of Haiti after Hurricane Matthew stormed through. With the support of your donations and donations from our local Haitian community, Fabienne Deplat, our Director of Operations, and members from her church were able to go to the Les Cayes area of Haiti and provide a distribution of necessity kits. This is Fabienne's personal account of her trip.
Fabienne preparing supplies for the trip
I thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to go help in the city of Les Cayes, specifically in a place called Saint Jean. I tried to prepare my heart and mind ahead of time, I knew the trip would not be easy.
After several days of preparation, a team from my church and I left Port au Prince. We sat for 3 hours in heavy rain. After several more hours of waiting in a traffic jam, we took the highway. We were warned ahead of time of the robbery that was happening to large trucks headed to the south full of supplies. It was dark and late, but contrary to what was said, or by the grace of God, no one attacked the car. We safely arrived in the space we were to sleep and had to unload the truck to safely store the supplies away. People in the area already suspected that we had come to help and had supplies with us. We settled in, ate some food, and began preparing the kits for the children first. We finished our preparation that night around 1 am.
Bags of rice separated for the necessity kits
Little girls from the church helping the team load everything up
We awoke very early the next morning, eagerly ready to begin the day and achieve our goal. After several calls and waiting, another truck arrived with policemen to accompany us on the journey to Saint Jean.
On the road we began to see the extent of damage. Almost all of the trees were destroyed and the ones remaining were bare. The schools and churches were left roofless, and there were almost no houses to be seen. After over an hour drive we arrived to Saint Jean to begin the distribution.
A church along the road that lost its roof
Our team had prepared 250 small voucher cards. Our plan was to distribute the voucher cards to people first and they would then take the voucher to the location to pick up the necessity kits. Unfortunately there was a large crowd waiting already. We decided for our safety to go to the police station to have police assist us in distributing the vouchers. With the large volume of people in the crowd, we decided we must prioritize pregnant women, the elderly, and then women with children.
It was so hard for me to see so many hands extended out asking me for the card. I had to decide so quickly who I would give the cards to.
The crowd waiting for voucher cards
Then distribution begin. We immediately saw the packages would not be enough, there were too many people. So we started dividing the packages into two to be able to reach more people.
Distribution from the truck
The day was long and tiring, but the fact of seeing so many people just like me in such misery was even harder. I do not know what tomorrow will bring for them, because all their resources are destroyed, banana trees and coconut trees. Food kits and bags of water will not come every day and will eventually run out.
The team separating the bags to create more kits
Clothing donated from the church community
I left the Saint Jean community with a troubled heart. As we were driving away it was still raining on these people, people who had just lost everything. What will these people do once the distribution stops? Maybe come to Port au Prince, but the misery here is already hard.
For me the experience was good, but my heart is heavy thinking of the future, their future. I strongly encourage Haitian residents of areas that were not affected to contribute what they can to these people. We can collect what we have, we can plant trees, we can help them stand again because their well-being, is our well-being.
I encourage our friends abroad to continue supporting organizations on-ground that are bringing relief. I encourage our customers to keep purchasing from Haiti because when you buy from Haiti you’re supporting us. Purchasing from Haiti allows those with jobs to be able to send money and help to their family and friends that are suffering in the south. Your purchases from Haiti allow us to support one another.
Finally I must say that I am grateful because in my lifetime 2 natural disasters have hit my country. I tell God thank you that they have not hit me directly. It is also motivates me to go and see these people. I want to thank all of those who contributed in one way or another allowing us to go and help. Thank you to those abroad that contributed money for us to buy what was needed. Thank you to my church community for giving money, clothes, and food. And thank you to those who pray for us and members of our team to stay strong and determined.
The team of volunteers that facilitated the distribution
The road of relief, rebuilding, and recovery is a long and complicated one. We thank you for standing with us and our Haitian community during this time of suffering for many! At Haiti Design Co we have decided to support families suffering in three main areas-
Please click on the photo above to learn more and donate to area of your choice. And for our Haitian community, kenbe fèm! Nap kanpe ak ou!
Je remercie le Seigneur de m’avoir donné la possibilité d’aller faire une distribution dans la ville des Cayes, plus précisément dans une localité appelée Saint Jean du Sud. Après plusieurs jours de préparatifs, une équipe de mon eglise et moi ont laissé Port- au - Prince a 3 Heures de l'après midi, sous une forte pluie. Après plusieurs heures d’attentes dans une embouteillage, on a pris la route nationale. Contrairement à ce que l’on disait, ou je dois dire merci a Dieu, personne n’a attaqué la voiture, bien qu’il était déjà très tard. On est arrivé dans l'espace on l’on devait dormir a 9hrs du soir.
Et la il fallait décharger le camion et mettre tous les paquets en sécurité parce que déjà les gens de la zone suspectait qu’on apportait de l’aide. Apres le debarquement , tout le monde a ete prendre un bain, manger et finalement faire des petits paquets pour les enfants. Le lendemain très tôt on s’est réveillé, prêt à atteindre notre objectif. Après plusieurs appels, finalement un autre camion est venu accompagné de quelques policiers et la encore on devait embarque ce camion et prendre la route pour la destination de Saint Jean.Sur la route on allait commencer à constater l’ampleur des dégâts, il y a presque pas d’arbres au du moins ce qui en restait n’avait pas de fleurs ou de branches. Les écoles, les églises sans toiture, il y avait presque pas de maisons. Après une heure de route on est arrivé à Saint Jean pour la faire la distribution. Notre équipe avait préparé des cartes pour 250 personnes mais malheureusement c’etait une foule qui nous attendait pas 250 personnes. Après un temps nous avons décidé d’aller remettre les cartes au commissariat accompagné de policiers bien entendu. Vu l'immensité de la foule, on a priorisé les femmes enceintes, les vieillards et les femmes. C'était très dure de voir tous ses mains allongé devant moi et décider dans un peu de temps a qui donner la carte. Puis on a commence la distribution, evidemment on a du diviser les paquets en deux pour pouvoir donner a un maximun de personnes. Cette journée a été longue , et fatigante mais le fait de voir des gens comme moi dans une telle misère était encore plus dure. Je ne sais ce que demain sera fait pour eux, parce que toutes leurs ressources sont détruites, les bananiers les cocotiers. Les kits alimentaires et les sachets d’eau ne viendront pas tous les jours et vont être cesse sou peu.J’ai laissé la communauté de Saint Jean avec le coeur en peine , parce qu’il pleuvait encore….
Que vont faire ces gens quand il plus de distribution, venir à Port au Prince peut être venir a Port -au Prince où il y a déjà de la misere. Pour moi l'expérience a été bonne mais mon coeur est lourd en pensant à l’avenir, à leur avenir. J’encourage les habitants des zones qui ne sont pas touchés a contribué à leur niveau, nous pouvons collecter ce que nous avons, nous pouvons planter des arbres, nous pouvons les aider à relever, parce que leur bien être , est aussi notre bien être.
Pour terminer je dois dire que je suis reconnaissante parce que de mon vivant 2 catastrophes naturels ont touché mon pays et Dieu merci j’ai pas été atteint directement. C’est qui m’a motivé d'ailleurs d’aller voir ces gens. Je tiens à remercier tout ceux qui ont contribué d’une manière ou d’une autre pour cette visite soit en donnant de l’argent, des habits, de la nourriture , ceux qui ont pries pour nous, et les membres de notre équipe se sont montrés forts et déterminés.