PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – We had a productive day with Partners in Health (PIH) at the Parque Jean Marie Vincent camp (pop. 28,000). We met with Dr. Lambert in the morning at the PIH mobile clinic that was packed with patients.

Dr. Lambert introduced us to some of the coordinators at the camp and they took us to see a large cistern in one corner of the site. There is an abundant supply of water but it wasn’t potable. There were many hundreds of people bathing and washing clothes when we arrived, and filthy surface water was everywhere.

To make matters worse, the camp residents have been going to the toilet very close to the water supply. It was the perfect scenario for OBI to make a huge impact. We identified a good site for a water purification unit and got to work setting up the system.

During the installation, the UN came to distribute food and the camp turned fairly chaotic. Several thousand of the camp residents scrambled to get in line for food. They filed through a gate, one by one, to collect rice. Some had pots and pans, others had plastic bags, and lots of children simply held out the rim of their shirts. At times, the crowd surged forward and the UN guards fired off some form of stun grenades to keep things in order.

Our work drew a crowd too, all curious to see what our contraption would do. At around 4 p.m. we fired up the generator and had clean drinking water flowing. The taps were instantly swarming with activity. We were allocated two members of a local NGO, Akson Civic, who were trained to care for the system. We will be back at the camp periodically over the next couple of days to make sure they are managing it well. I’m hoping that PIH will allocate us the next location for a water unit in the morning so we can get another one installed tomorrow.

Our warehouse is well organized and we are ready to receive several more helicopter loads of goods from the ship tomorrow. We have distribution networks in place through a group of proven mission partners, all distributing through local churches. Once our supply chain is fully up and running we will begin site visits and spot checks on the distribution points.

Lots more going on: locking down medical shipments with the hospital director tomorrow. My wife Naomi is coming out to visit and bringing boxes of pencils, crayons and paper for children to draw their quake experiences. Two of the Israeli team are trauma counselors and experts in dealing with child post-disaster psychological care. They have already started playing specific games with a group of children in one of the camps and have been getting them to draw pictures.

Tags: Akson Civic, Caribbean, clean water, Contaminated Water, David Darg, Disaster Relief, Earthquake, Haiti, IsraAid, medical clinic, Medical Supplies, OBI, Operation Blessing, Orphan Care, Parque Jean Marie Vincent camp, Partners In Health, Relief Camp, Tent City, UN, Water Purification, Water Purification System

This entry was posted on Friday, January 29th, 2010 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Caribbean, David Darg, Disaster Relief, Earthquake, Haiti. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.