Right now, in camps spread across Port-Au-Prince, NGO's are providing services to people displaced by the January 12th earthquake. Food is being distributed, health care provided, even schools are poping up in the camps. US Navy Seebies, the engineers of the Navy, alongside JP Haiti Relief Org., Sean Penn's upstart and potent NGO, are running around in a controlled frenzy building infrastructure to protect against flooding and landslides in the camp at Petion-Ville Club. They are trying to beat the coming rains and have built roads, walkways, retention walls, and have even moved people out of would be death pools (places where the water coming down the mountain would rush and eventually collect).
I could not help but notice how the people in the camps were still using the charcoal made from the few trees left in Haiti to cook their meals. You have got 70,000 people in one place feeding themselves everyday and cooking with the single most disasterous fuel for Haiti and her enviroment. Some group should come and educate this captive market about why this is bad. Give away grills and ovens that use gas. Give small gas containers away that can be refilled on a daily basis that are inexpensive to refill and are easily portable. Haiti without it trees is hopeless. Somebody tell somebody to get here and use this opportunity.
Alain Armand
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