It’s a Friday afternoon, sardines and rice have just been served from the office kitchen, hot water finally made an appearance [...]]]> People line up to receive food bags filled with lentils, soy, fortified bulgur and vegetable oil provided by USAID’s Food For Peace program at the Petionville Golf Club in Haiti. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo/CRS

It’s a Friday afternoon, sardines and rice have just been served from the office kitchen, hot water finally made an appearance (some of us have been pouring Starbucks instant packets into cold water), and so it seemed the perfect time to drop a line to say hello!

I hope all is well with you. I know many of you are in touch with the updates here on a regular basis, but I had to write to say thank you for all of the support you are providing from across the United States—it goes such a long way here, especially when the clock runs late and the emotions grow weary.

It is just over two weeks since the earthquake struck and the emergency operation here is in a solid rhythm. You would be proud of the staff who have been deployed from all parts of the country and the CRS world, bringing their expertise and ability to see a path to recovery amid the piles of debris.

Still, it’s hard to feel elated when people are weighed down with heavy hearts. The needs are enormous. While roads are starting to clear and relief is reaching hundreds of thousands of people, the toppled buildings, sprawling camps and tented homes set up on the roadside at sundown are sobering reminders of the long road ahead. Fears loom about the oncoming rainy season and the critical needs for emergency shelter and sanitation. Many Haitians describe the difficulty of grieving for their loved ones when they are without the means to perform burial rituals. Our Haitian colleagues perform to the best of their ability despite many having lost immediate family members and seen all that they own transformed into debris. It’s not uncommon to receive a blank stare when asking a work-related question, a quick reminder that some of the people our colleagues loved more than anything in the world are no longer here.

The Catholic Relief Services Haiti staff returned to work this week. All have received food and shelter relief, as well as counseling and medical care. A clinic is set up under tents on the grounds of our offices here in Port-au-Prince, and staff—with their family members—have the opportunity to sit with a doctor, a nurse and a counselor, to be heard and cared for, and relieved of some of their pain.

•Distribution of food to 264,200 people, and non-food items to 25,000 people.

•Provision of medical care and treatment to a total of 4,126 people, and hygiene kits to 10,000 people.

•Support of medical materials and supplies, volunteer doctors and nurses, food, water and other support to                 expand emergency medical care at St. Francois de Sales Hospital.

•Establishment of three functioning operating rooms—conducting an average of 12 severe surgical cases       per day—as well as a laboratory, X-ray room and blood bank at St. Francois de Sales Hospital.

•Resumption of health care at 12 highly populated areas in Port-au-Prince and Leogane.

•Launching of public health campaign carried out through megaphone and radio.

•Installation of four water storage and purification units in various areas of the city, and water and sanitation             assessments in another 14 locations.

•Creation of designs to build a latrine at St. Francois de Sales Hospital, and an initial strategy for drainage,             showers and sanitation at camps and temporary settlements.

•Guidelines for sanitation and hygiene kits.

•Initial standards and guidelines for emergency shelter kits and transitional shelters, technical standards for assessing habitability of buildings, and standards for debris-cleaning and cash-for-work activities.

It is going to be a long road to recovery, and our teams of water engineers, architects, doctors, logisticians, counselors and managers are mapping out the transitional and long-term programming that fits with the needs and context for people to rebuild their lives. We’ll be sure to share those updates and stories with you.

In the meantime, thank you for making this possible and please keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers.

A saying is popular in Haiti that you can hear on the streets and in camps:

“Nou bite men nou pap tonbe. We may stumble but we will not fall.”

Indeed, with your support, few things have rung so true.

Sincerely,

Caroline (to view the letter in its entirety, please go to crs.org.)