James Addis, a World Vision aid worker, is on the ground in Haiti helping to distribute essential relief items to people affected by the earthquake. He shares a recent experience that took place after World Vision workers heard children at a local orphanage were in desperate need of food and water.
18 Jan 2010 Port-au-Prince
Sometimes the frustrations are so intense that one wonders if anything is being achieved. At other times, when you see help reaching people who really need it and are intensely grateful for it, then the sense of exhilaration knows no bounds.
The exhilaration happened for me yesterday after a visit to an orphanage in Delmas, Port-au-Prince. It came about after a tip off via text message from a CNN reporter. The orphanage had 150 kids with no supplies. Most of them were suffering from diarrhea. There followed a string of hazy instructions of how to get to the place and a GPS mapping co-ordinate of its location.
Then the frustrations began. Could we find a vehicle? The demand for them is huge. Major food distributions are being organized; staff need to get to UN coordination meetings. Almost every hour new specialist staff turn up from all over the world—logistics people, health specialists, child specialists. They need to be transported and accommodated and given space in an office that more and more is coming to resemble a human zoo.
A vehicle is found. Supplies are found. Do we have Oral Rehydration Solution? Critical to treat diarrhea.
No we don’t. We will take a nurse. It’s a simple recipe—sugar and water—maybe she can make some up when we get there.
We load up with food and water and multi-vitamins and set off. Can we find the orphanage? Not in a million years. My colleague Laura Blank, wizard texter, is in touch. More hazy instructions follow. More wrong turns. More frustrations.
We ask directions. We get there. It’s the wrong orphanage. Could children be dying while we pratt about? We find the right orphanage. The diahrrea issue turns out to be exaggerated. But they are running out of food and they have not had fresh water in two days. They’ve been boiling water from a local river.
It’s massively overcrowded. They took in dozens more orphans from another orphanage damaged in the quake. The children are in a terrible state. Malnourished and suffering from scabies. There is no electricity.
The orphans press around us. Holding their arms up begging to be picked up. Their need for affection is intense.
The caregivers are ecstatic as we unload the supplies. As we leave they tearfully, hug and kiss us. We drive home in the dark. Inside my heart is singing.
Please donate to relief efforts in Haiti, to help children in need.
