Zanmi Lakay

It has been very difficult for me to finish our report and re-visit our experiences in Haiti from January and February, to put together words and photographs showing what we did and what it was like. When people ask us how our trip was, the answer is elusive or short…it was bad, but we do what we can. I keep saying that Haiti was bad on a good day, but if you’ve never been to Haiti then it’s hard to understand. The devastation after the January 12th earthquake that measured 7.0 at 4:53 pm was so widespread and the needs so great that at first I was saying it was unbelievable…but it was reality and it affected millions of people. And it’s very important that we tell you what we did and how we used your generous contributions.

During our weeks in Haiti right after the earthquake, we accomplished many things overlapping and collaborating with other organizations and local communities, working with children and families, and doing whatever we could with the resources available. Zanmi Lakay received an amazing amount of help mostly in the form of useful funds that we gave out to assist so many people with immediate needs of food and supplies, for rebuilding, to restart business, for artisans to continue their work, to buy and order art in Jacmel and Croix de Bouquet, to sponsor Jacmel’s Silent Artist Procession, and to fund field trips, fetes, and activities for children.

We brought in 50 wind-up solar flashlight radios that you can plug a cell phone into thanks to Eton in Palo Alto. These were a huge hit especially with people in the camps, but everyone (doctors, artists, kids, journalists, co-workers) loved them and we could have used more. We delivered over 150 pounds of medical supplies to makeshift clinics, Hospitals in Cité Soleil and Jacmel, and to families. Dr. Max, who grew up with Guy, works at a hospital, clinic, and was out helping people on his own after the earthquake and we brought him a laptop, huge First-Aid suitcase, and supplies. For the children and families living at Lafanmi Selavi and the teens we sponsor living on and off the streets we gave out 50 Care Bags, some of the flashlights, clothing, daily needs, candles, medical supplies, and bought hundreds of pounds of food.

The facilitation of the food drops from G.O. Ministries via the volunteer pilots through the then run Canadian military secured Jacmel Airport was an amazing experience and feat and was the saving grace for ACFFC and their community. One day we received three calls for planeloads of food, and the airport staff was shocked when they found out we were storing and distributing it ourselves. That’s just how we roll! This connection was also how our 60 tents came into Haiti.

Seeing children busy and happy and creating was the most beautiful thing, and to see that they were able to experience moments of pure joy. They were very brave as photographers going out into their communities to work through their feelings and tell stories with a camera. It was great to see them receive attention when their friends and families viewed their photos in the slideshows. Some beautiful art was painted in the murals at ACFFC, and the children have continued to paint the inner and outer walls all while making hundreds of pieces of paper maché art. The young men of Trézo wrote songs about the earthquake, and have been in two music videos (both already on the blog).

All of this and more and much of it can be better understood visually through the photographs. Please take a look at the galleries below and feel free to contact us and share our news and give us feedback.  Contributions are still needed, and we are committed to establishing a Community/Resource Center as a safe place to continue helping children.

Although the Cité Soleil markets were bustling (I finally got a chance to see how the clay mud cakes were being made), there was a shortage of money, supplies, and resources. Many buildings and living structures had collapsed and people were living in the streets under tarps, and we also came upon an area where an NGO had set up a tent encampment. The United Nations were stationed throughout Cité Soleil, and at one point Jean Ristil told me to grab my camera because of a commotion. The soldiers called for back up and walked through the tiny streets with their guns drawn ready for action, but the arguments led to dialogue with a neighborhood leader and there was no violence. Jean told me that the presence of a blan photographer probably helped the situation…but who knows for sure.

We visited our friends in Cité Soleil to bring donations – the wind up solar flashlight radios were the most appreciated – and to have a short Photography Workshop with children in Jean Ristil’s Fondasyon KoleZepol. This was our second Workshop with these kids and their first introduction to digital cameras. We gave them prints from their work with us last June, and also had them talk about their new images to the class and visitors using a laptop.  Our theme for the Photography Workshop was Healing Haiti, and the children took their assignment very seriously with two of them going all the way downtown to photography the National Palace and government buildings that had collapsed. While others took to the streets of their own neighborhoods photographing the devastation. At the end of our Workshop, Jean organized a small fete with a drummer and singers (these women volunteer with the kids and their own children are in the program) and we passed out candy and drinks. Zanmi Lakay donated funds to make purchases in the Cité Soleil markets so each child and staff member could go home with a bag of rice, beans, oil, candles, and other necessities.

President Preval designated Friday Feb. 12-14 a weekend of prayer and all businesses were closed. We drove back to Port-au-Prince on that Friday (lucky we bought gas Thursday afternoon), and the road over the mountain from Jacmel was much better although still only one lane in some places. An especially dangerous curve had a crack with a drop off of over 14”.  Further down the road almost at Carrefour we had to stop and pull the car over because the street was filled with hundreds of people chanting and praying.  Coming into Port-au-Prince I began to notice the word Jesus spray-painted on the front of buildings, houses, doors, and gates.  Holy Trinity is one of my favorite churches, and we also buy crafts at their shop that we can’t get anywhere else. When we saw before our eyes the complete collapse of the beautiful church it was almost too much to bear. The historical sculptures, paintings, and murals were bent and crumbled and we noticed that someone had begun to put the small pieces of rubble from the murals into color-coded piles. The National Cathedral was even more devastating. It was strange that the churches we visited, including Sacre Coeur, still had a standing crucifix while the main structures were collapsed, and always someone walking by praying to Jesus.  In Croix-des-Bouquets, children were varnishing recycled metal crucifixes. Down at Champs de Mars in front of the National Palace, in lieu of the cancellation of Kanaval, the tent encampment had grown and the streets were filled with people singing, dancing, and praying in solidarity while all around them the buildings were crushed and live wires hung to the ground.

Some of these photos were taken from a car while on the road, but it gives you a good idea of what it’s like. While in Jacmel, we spent some time at Pinchinat, the largest tent encampment in the city located on the main soccer field.  Some of our artist friends were living in tents with their families, as were some of the ACFFC kids, and we also found old friends while walking through the maze of temporary shelters. People were cooking meals together, latrines were being built, and eventually the Venezuelans came in with larger tents and even some cots. No one was or is happy with the situation. Eventually small markets began to spring up, aid organizations brought in water and supplies, and we even saw a brothel tent at Pinchinat. We encountered mild violence, once taking a young girl to the police station because of an argument that caused a small mob scene. Throughout our travels and along the roads from Port-au-Prince through Leogane and Jacmel, tent encampments were everywhere with the range of temporarily shelters made from sheets, curtains, cardboard, corrugated metal, banana leaves, sticks, tarps, prefab tents, and then some seriously professional looking tent communities.  The floors for most are dirt or mud from the rains, there is no privacy, some families are required to eat and sleep with others, and they don’t know how long they will have to live in these places.

We spent much of our time working in Jacmel with artists, with young adults in our programs, but mostly with the 60-80 children of Art Creation Foundation for Children (ACFFC). Because there was no school happening after the earthquake, we knew a top priority was to create activities for the kids, and we made a lot of plans. The children were all busy making art, mostly paper maché birds at that time. We got about half of them started on a serious digital Photography Workshop giving out eight assignments while sharing cameras, but each student was able to do some reshooting and work on their own. We also took a bunch of students on a field trip to the beach and the river past Marigot, passing yet another funeral procession, and our fete at the end included a slideshow and tent giveaway (see Blog Update #4 for more info).  The work of the students from ACFFC was published in the New York Times Lens Blog (see Feb. 18th post). We planned the Mural Project with the kids painting the walls of their Foundation building – each using a piece of the wall to create whatever they wanted, and they totally jammed and it now reflects the colorful and imaginative essence of ACFFC. As all of this was happening, we were trying to get supplies. The large NGO’s said our organizations were too small to help or supplies weren’t in yet or had some excuse for not providing tents and food, so we became resourceful, worked under the radar, and figured out things ourselves. Judy Hoffman, president of ACFFC, got a connection from Amerijet to G.O Ministries who were buying food and supplies in the Dominican Republic and volunteer pilots were flying it in to Haiti. We were the recipients of thousands of pounds of food that was distributed to children and families and staff of ACFFC, young adults we work with directly, and artisans and their families. It was amazing. This is also how our 60 tents arrived. We’d get a call from Judy with the first name of a pilot and the tail number of his plane, and then had about 40 minutes to find a truck and get to the small Jacmel airport. Some of the pilots asked us if we could take them on a tour so they could see the people and the city – we brought them to downtown Jacmel, Pinchinat, and to ACFFC, and it was a highlight of their work in Haiti to be able to meet the children they were helping.

Zanmi Lakay sponsored an amazing event in Jacmel on February 7, 2010 – The Silent Artists Procession. Because of the earthquake, the annual festive Kanaval parades were cancelled, yet the people of Jacmel needed an event to honor their town and the victims of the tragedy. I mentioned this in an earlier post, and here are the photographs. Hundreds of people including Artisans from G-27 (an organization of 27 paper maché troupes), a funeral band, children from ACFFC, Jacmel’s mayor, and townspeople joined in and lined the streets. Everything was a black and white theme including painted faces, black head and armbands, and the banners. The artists carried their masks instead of wearing them. The silent crowd wove its way through the town passing many collapsed buildings ending about 2 ½ hours later at the Jacmel Cemetery where we buried all of the banners and black strips of cloth in a grave. It was beautiful way to pay tribute.

When we drove into downtown Jacmel the first thing we saw was the completely collapsed gas station. One of the hardest hit neighborhoods was the historical area and some of my favorite buildings were marked with a red check meaning they were condemned. Rubble from the main building collapse at Hotel Cyvadier was being crushed by men with simple tools and transported with wheelbarrows, and this was the case all over. When we went to give hundreds of pounds of medical supplies to the Jacmel Hospital, we saw the condemned church across the street and met the priest who had set up tents for his parishioners in an empty lot. Walking through the Jacmel Cemetery, we found a woman praying to the Baron cross who wouldn’t let us photograph her, but after she left (and told us not to follow) her ceremonial flame continued to burn. We were invited to a special Vodou ceremony where beautiful Mambos danced and prayed and sang for Haiti, and Danballa and other loa made appearances. Many organizations and countries were contributing aid in various ways, and we came upon Spanish drivers napping along their large convoy of supplies and Save the Children dispersing blankets. We ran into many memorial services with full funeral bands. Although Kanaval was cancelled, paper maché artists still had work to display yet much that was ruined in the earthquake. Zanmi Lakay gave out a lot of supplies and funds to these artists and their families.

Our photography students in Haiti (pre and post earthquake) will be represented in an exhibition by the Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery along with art from children at ACFFC in Jacmel and work from amazing photographer Maggie Steber. Please come to the opening and enjoy some beautiful photography during an evening to help children in Haiti.