Haiti Trip Report Interview with Francoise Briet

March 2011

CFTC: When were you in Haiti?

Francoise Briet: I was there for two weeks from January 19 to February 3, 2011.

What was the purpose of the trip?

Francoise Briet: It was my first monitoring trip and I was visiting our local partners. I met with the partners about specific projects, and was able to get a better understanding of their structure and programs. For example, CFTC is building a girls’ dorm at the House of Hope Orphanage in Gressier, and so during my trip I met with the building company to go over contracts and final plans. It was a very successful trip.

CFTC: Can you describe what impact visiting Haiti for the first time had on you?

Francoise Briet: Before I can talk about what I enjoyed, I have to talk about the shock. Port-au-Prince was really a shock. The city was not in great shape before the earthquake and that disaster has made the problems worse: 80% of the city is slums. The streets are just rubble and it is a very unsafe city to walk in. There is waste and garbage everywhere, and it is shocking that the cholera epidemic is not worse based on the devastation I saw.

The tent camps were also a shock to see. They are chaotic, with little to no space between tents and they are located right beside the highways. The tent camps in Port-au-Prince are very crowded, but it was the tent camps outside of Port-au-Prince that were surprising. I didn’t expect to see tent camps set up in the middle of nowhere between villages. It was surprising to see so many people living in such areas, without shelter or resources.

 

CFTC: What was it like in the rural areas you visited?

Francoise Briet: It was different than the cities; it seemed like a much more sustainable way to live. It seemed like an easier way to live, still difficult but not as difficult as life in one of the urban centres.

CFTC: You met with other NGOs while you were there. What is your sense of how the NGOs have handled the situation in Haiti?

Francoise Briet: In my opinion, there appears to be disconnect between what the NGOs have achieved, what donors expect and believe, and the reality on the ground. When I first arrived in Haiti, I kept asking myself “where are the NGOs?” It took me some time to realize that the needs are so huge, they could not be addressed completely in what is a relatively short period of time. The primary needs (food, water, shelter) have been the main focus over the past year. But, progress has been delayed by the emergence of cholera, another natural disaster (Hurricane Tomas), and the social unrest we saw during and after the elections.

People need to understand the scope of the impact of the earthquake: in 47 seconds, almost 200,000 houses collapsed or were badly damaged, including 80% of schools in Port-au-Prince and 60% in other affected areas. Haiti lost an estimated 120% of their 2009 GDP, bringing to a halt the economic and social advances that were beginning to emerge.

Over the past year, there were great humanitarian and relief programs put in place but the visibility of their positive impact on the ground is diluted by the magnitude of the task and the degree of devastation.

In the six weeks immediately after the earthquake, the World Food Program delivered food to some four million Haitians (40% of the entire Haitian population). They continue to provide food assistance to about two million people. Plus, 1.1 million children receive daily meals through the National Schools Feeding Program.

These are concrete programs that are making an essential difference, but they are not programs that you easily see in terms of impact on the ground.

Over the past four to five months, the humanitarian and relief NGOs have aggressively participated in the management of the cholera epidemic and we are finally seeing a significant decrease of the number of new cases at the national level.

But we are now transitioning from a humanitarian situation to a more long-term primary health care situation. As a result, humanitarian and relief NGOs are slowly pulling out of Haiti because the needs are not “humanitarian focused” anymore.

They are hoping the government will step in when they pull out. Unfortunately, this has not happened yet. There is no strong political infrastructure, no physical infrastructure and more importantly, no efficient administrative or financial links between all the stakeholders involved.

With the rainy season starting in less than two months, we’ll see what happens with cholera epidemiology. The Haitian ministry of health and international agencies may need to adjust their official projections of the cholera epidemic, their proposed interventions and financial support.

FB: I met with all of our partners, and it was a great experience to see how the projects that Canadian Feed The Children supports are run in person. I went to International Child Care (ICC) at Grace Children’s Hospital and met with the children who are treated there. I visited our partner, Organisation de la Mission Evangelique Salem (OMES), and took part in a cholera clinic.

The cholera clinics, one of CFTC’s programs, have been very successful. It was interesting to note that it was the men who were asking the questions. The crowd was very engaged. The clinic focused on things like how to effectively wash your hands and boil water so that it is drinkable, and also prepare dehydration solutions at home, which are all ways to avoid the spread of cholera.

There was a complete lack of understanding of the disease – a disease the Haitians have never seen before in their country. They don’t know how to protect themselves from it or how it is transmitted. That’s why the clinics and information sessions, which are part of Canadian Feed The Children’s Combat Cholera program are so important as a way to stop the spread of cholera. We are already seeing that where we are running clinics like these, the incidence of new cases of cholera has leveled off, whereas it’s still on the rise elsewhere.

FB: Crossing the river in Cameau was quite the experience. It felt like a monumental moment, because all CFTC staff that travel to Haiti must roll up their pant legs and wade across this river. Our Executive Director, Debra Kerby, crossed this river just this past August while visiting our partners in Haiti, and before her, past Program Managers did the same.

Once I got across the river, I followed a man into a field where he proudly showed me his banana plants. These farmers are incredibly proud of their banana trees and they also grow corn, beans and tomatoes, which means they are able to double their income because of this crop rotation – food production can double and triple just by ensuring that multiple crops with different growing season are planted.

It was also fascinating to see how Haitians practice the “business” of farming. In Haiti, lots of farmers sell their fruit and vegetables by the road. They’ll take their crops down to the road, and hope that traffic comes along. If it doesn’t, they carry it back to its origin and eventually, if no one comes along to buy it, the food spoils. With just some basic support, the farmers learned about “marketing” their produce. The majority of Haitian people are farmers and vendors, with a small percentage making up the middle class. It’s the middle class that are the people purchasing the farmers’ goods in Haiti.

The problem is that there is no regulation for the prices or even the weights and measures of produce in Haiti. So a person purchasing these goods must barter for them. The small middle class, the ones buying the food, wants regulation of these food prices and regulation of the weights and measures – again, a part of the infrastructure that is missing in Haiti that will benefit both the buyers and the sellers.

CFTC: What is the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) grant project that CFTC is currently working on?

FB: The CIDA grant project is a nine-month project to provide an irrigation system in Leogane, Haiti. Leogane was near the epicentre of the earthquake and the area is still largely rubble. There are many different canal systems in that area and CFTC will be working with Service Oecumenique d’Entraide (SOE) and the University of Notre Dame d’Haiti (UNDH) to help complete the project. Our part is to focus on the siphon that is blocked and can no longer carry water needed for irrigation in the area. We will work closely with the local farmers to develop new farming activities, mostly to produce vegetables. These farmers have seen a drop in quantity and quality of their produce over the past 10 years as a result of their water supply slowly drying up. We are very excited to create positive change in this area.

CFTC: What are some of the key successes you saw while on the monitoring trip?

FB: I was very moved when I visited the children at the House of Hope Orphanage in Gressier. There is a strong emphasis on learning at the orphanage and this contributes to their level of success academically. They are all incredibly bright children. I realized while visiting that they are going to need help achieving their career goals. There is a great environment in this orphanage, one that lets the children aim for goals including higher education and professional careers. The challenge is to help the orphans at House of Hope to achieve these goals. It was these children that made the largest impact on me during my trip.