American Red Cross on Conditions in Haiti

Davar Iran Ardalan , Senior Producer

While residents of the Gulf Coast in Texas are reeling from Hurricane Ike, those living in Haiti have had to deal with Gustav, Hannah, Faye, and Ike. Liane Hansen spoke with Matt Marek, he is with the American Red Cross in Port-au-Prince Haiti.

Liane: What's the situation like right now?

Matt Marek: Right now, we still have numerous towns, villages, and cities that are being inundated with landslides and rockslides. Water is still covering most of the port city of Gonaives, Haiti's third largest city. An immense amount of infrastructure damage is all over.

Liane: What is the most challenging problem that you are facing in terms of relief efforts?

Matt Marek: Logistics. Conditions of the Haiti infrastructure to begin with are extremely foreign. So, it is impossible to do land relief efforts if you can't get on the roads or if bridges have collapsed.

Liane: How are you reaching them? Via air, helicopter?

Matt Marek: Right now, a lot of the aid agencies are using heliops to reach people, as well as by boats.

Liane: By heli-ops, you mean helicopter operations?

Matt Marek: Absolutely, yes. But, you don't have a lot of points in Gonaives where the helicopters can drop in relief supplies.

Liane: You've been working hard, I understand, to reunite children separated from their parents. How'd they get separated? Is this something unique, now, in Haiti?

Matt Marek: Yeah, in the southeast, in a few of the shelters we discovered one of the shelters in Jocmel; there were at least ten orphans. Those particular children had lost their parents during the storms. There were some towns, twenty...thirty or so homes out in rural areas, that were completely taken out by the river taking another direction in the middle of the night. Also, you have children that were street children in the beginning being taken care of by neighbors or distant relatives. With things getting as difficult as they are, children who don't have parents, and have sort of a second guardian or neighbor taking care of them. They don't feel the same responsibility and it makes it more difficult for them.

Liane: Is it possible for you to give a long term prognosis? Can actually recover from all of this?

Matt Marek: Certainly, Haiti will survive, it has, you know, it's been unfortunately labeled as the poorest country in the western hemisphere for way too long. I remember my Haitian friend telling me that Haitians are "infinitely compressible" that is saying something about their resilience and their ability to survive and they are going to have to survive. In order for the country not to experience the same type of devastation there will need to be some major changes all around...holistically, regarding education, environment, economics, politics, and security.

Liane: Matt Marek is head of programs at American Red Cross in Haiti we reached him on the phone from Port-au-Prince in Haiti. Matt, thanks, good luck.

2:31 PM ET | 09-14-2008 | permalink

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