Our Haitian Family Needs Us

Please read e-mail First before you listen to understand. Interview with me on 102.3 FM KJL

Click Here To Hear Interview

Help us pack donations & Recession Fundraiser:

This Saturday November 19, 2010 and next Saturday November 27, 2010 Mothers for Africa invites you to help pack donations to be sent to Haiti. The donations are clothes, food and medical supplies. Food and drinks will be provided. It will start at 10:00 AM on both Saturdays. Please call us for more information at 626-710-6676. If you would like to bring medical supplies and bags of rice and beans please feel free to do so. Also, if you have any boxes lying around bring those too for packing. If it rains packing will be rescheduled.

Recession Fundraiser:

We at Mothers for Africa & Light Path for Haiti have been offered a really good deal to purchase transportation that we will utilize to transport our staff on the ground in Haiti. We are purchasing a van and a truck that will be used to transport supplies and set up Mobil clinics.

If we could get Six hundred people to go online and donate $10.00 at www.MothersforAfrica.org or mail us $10.00 to P.O. Box 6579, Altadena CA, 91003 we will have enough to purchase the vehicles and ship our supplies, If you can afford to send more money please do so, your donation will be spent wisely. Remember we are a 501 c 3 and it is a tax right off. For the record none of the money donated has been utilized to pay for our staff's airline tickets or our cost on the ground!

Building Housing in Haiti:

We have applied for our first grants to start building housing in Haiti.

Progress from last trip:

On our last trip we were able to feed 4 thousand people, sponsor more children; some of the children were on the brink of death from starvation. Please go online www.MothersforAfrica.org and sponsor a child today for as little as $26.00 a month or more.

Also, on our last trip our Volunteer Jackie started a Micro Loan project for women to rebuild their business. The women have already begun to pay back the money. The money will be recycled to others to help start more businesses. Please contact us if you are interested in this project 626-710-6676.

Letter to USAID:

I have attached a letter I sent to Mr. Porter from USAID regarding a conversation I had with him. I discovered that USAID was not passing out food stored in warehouses because I was invited by Congresswoman Maxine Walters to an update meeting on Haiti. The Congresswoman questioned him why USAID was not passing out food from the warehouses.  Mr. Porter replied because they were waiting to see if there was going to be a hurricane.  I spoke to him after the meeting and advised him that people were starving in Petit Goave Haiti. I got his card and follow-up with him about the situation. He advised me that I was mistaken and that there were no people starving in Petit Goave (which was the epic center of the earthquake).  I sent him the attached letter.  I called him and this is what he stated: There is now food for the people of Petit Goave Haiti to purchase".  I asked him with what money? He stated: "People are now working just as much as they were before the earthquake". I advised him that I did not have statistics in hand, but that would seem impossible with most of the infrastructure destroyed from the earthquake. I also, advised him how I ran into two contractors from the US who could not get through the red tape and where on their way back home, so who is hiring the people.  He then stated: "We (USAID) have food distribution centers in Petit Goave". I asked him were where they so we could send people to get food. He told me he would call me back and let me know. This was two weeks ago.

I followed up with an aid in Maxine Waters's office and she advised me that she spoke with Mr. Porter per my request and he advised her that I was mistaken about the starvation and that I did not know the definition of starvation. I advised her that we went to Haiti with a Medical team licensed to practice in the US and that they diagnosed the people not me. Nothing was resolved.  I will do a follow up with them again next week and keep you posted. Please see video footage I attached of a two in half year old girl that was diagnosed as starving, she has since sponsored by us. Also, go to the website and see the child I sponsored. He is sitting in a chair. He was fourteen years old at the time and was so weak he had to be carried to our Doctor. Since I have sponsored him I received my first picture of him standing on his own and smiling for the first time, holding the money I sent him. This is truly what keeps me going in this business.  Please, I encourage you to see the attached letter address to Mr. Porter and write him with your concerns. For this is your tax dollars not at work!

This is an emergency situation. I beg you for your help. We ran into many good hearted Haitian people that just need a fresh start. Haitian people are very proud people and are not used to these living conditions. All of the government buildings were destroyed; there is no government assistance to help them. Most of the money promised they have not received. There is more Non Profits on the ground in Haiti then anywhere around the world but you cannot see what they are doing. Those of you who know us, friends and family please help us. 

I have also attached an interview I did on 102.3 FM KJLH with host Dominique Daprima talking about the incident with USAID (before I sent the letter).  I have also been on www.LIBradio.com with Keidi Adwadu discussing this issue.

Please join Mothers for Africa and Light Path for Haiti on our next trip:

Please join forces with us on our next trip in March and you can witness firsthand what is going on in Haiti. Please, if you cannot attend the next trip do a fundraiser for us. Thank you for your attention to this serious matter.

Sincerely,

Nehanda (Nana).

Mothers for Africa, The Nana Sekyiaabea Foundation
www.MothersforAfrica.org
626-710-6676

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Asante Sana

Bro Gary Black Power Productions

One Hundred Days to House One Thousand People Boston Activists and MIT Architect Respond to the Haiti Tragedy.

Jan Wampler (left), an MIT professor of architecture, and lead organizer Gerthy Lahens explain details of their Haiti project.

 “The emphases should be placed on building small communities to help with the overflow of people from Port-au-Prince, to act as a center for providing housing as well as a new sustainable model for the future,” said Prof.  Wampler in a recent email.  “This is a sad opportunity to try to help in a new way.”

"Jan wants to provide the underserved with the level of quality that only the rich can usually afford," said Lahens. "It touches my heart."

"The poor have only one house," said Wampler. "They should have the best architecture, not makeshift architecture." 

"Lahens, 56, a former MIT research fellow and mother of an alumna, has a six-year history of partnering with professors and students at the institute for the betterment of her homeland. Past projects include purifying water, building a school, aiding fishing villages, and providing computer training. The scope of this project, though, would seem quixotic without Wampler's record of accomplishment: homes in earthquake-ravaged Turkey; schools in China and Sierra Leone; an orphanage in Ecuador; and community centers in Mexico and Thailand."  Boston Globe

Who Will Lead Haiti's Security?

Who Will Lead Haiti's Security?
by Gabriel Elizondo

There appear to be some rising tensions between countries leading the relief efforts in Haiti.  We know the  US is sending in upwards of 10,000 troops to the country.  But since 2004, Brazil's military has been the commanding force leading the Haiti UN peacekeeping mission, technically referred to as MINUSTAH. 

Brazil has about 1,700 soldiers in Haiti and commands about another 5,300 UN forces in Haiti.

At least 10,000 heavily-armed US troops begin to arrive at Haiti's Port-au-Prince airport. (AFP/ Nicholas Kamm) Nelson Jobim, Brazil's defence minister just came back from Haiti and made a point of that saying Brazil would not voluntarily relinquish any of its command duties. Essentially, what he was saying was that Brazil, not the Pentagon, would continue to lead the UN forces. When pressed, Jobim also admitted that the US military doesn't take orders from foreign forces. So who will answer to whom in Haiti?

There could be a brewing operational command power struggle. I don't see Brazil backing down. They have long considered Haiti a critical part of their foreign policy, and aren't going to bow easily to the US military when it comes to commanding forces in Haiti during these critical times.

This earthquake is personal to Brazil. The country has lost 14 UN soldiers and four civilians thus far, not to mention Luiz Carlos da Costa, the number two UN diplomat in Haiti. Brasilia feels an obligation to be a leader from here on out, no matter how many boots the US puts on the ground.

Brazil - like the US, U.N. and France - is in Haiti for the long haul. Jobim said on Saturday that his country would have a major presence in Haiti for at least the next five years.

Brazil is not only shouldering a big part of the UN role in Haiti, but is also leading the humanitarian efforts, sending cargo planes loaded with supplies to Haiti as fast as they can be loaded. It is also taking aid from neighbouring Uruguay and Paraguay, as well as any other country that wants to donate but can't handle the logistics on their own.

This, too, is a growing issue. Three Brazilian planes loaded with supplies were held up and not allowed to land in Haiti by the FAA (America's agency that handles air traffic, which is now in control of airspace in  Haiti). Amorim Celso, Brazil's foreign minister, apparently was so upset about it that he put in a call to Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and asked that Brazilian aeroplanes be given priority over chartered flights.

I imagine Brazilian commanders were thinking to themselves: "How dare the US hold up our planes - we run the UN forces in Haiti!"

With tens of thousands of people dead and millions in need of immediate help, it might be easy to pass this off as political/military rubbish that doesn't matter.

But it does matter.

With a monumental task in front of them, and no serious Haiti security force available, Haiti's law and order will rest in the hands of the US, the UN, Brazil and maybe France for the foreseeable future.  Military folks usually don't like to take orders from other countries. We all know this. But the bottom line is also this: There is a massive task ahead in the coming days, months and years in Haiti. These command issues must be worked out at some point soon. Because in Haiti, a country on the precipice of absolute collapse, there is simply too much at stake.

Too Little Too Late for Haiti? Six Sobering Points by Bill Quigley

Published on Saturday, January 16, 2010 by CommmonDreams.org

Too Little Too Late for Haiti? Six Sobering Points

by Bill Quigley

Point One. $100 Million - Are You Kidding Me?

President Obama promised $100 million in aid to Haiti on January 14, 2009. A Kentucky couple won $128 million in a Powerball lottery on December 24, 2009. The richest nation in the history of the world is giving powerball money to a neighbor with tens of thousands of deaths already?

Point Two. Have You Ever Been Without Water?

Hundreds of thousands of people in Haiti have had no access to clean water since the quake hit. Have you ever been in a place that has no water? Have you ever felt the raw fear in the gut when you are not sure where your next drink of water is going to come from? People can live without food for a long time. Without water? A very short time. In hot conditions people can become dehydrated in an hour. Lack of water puts you into shock and starts breaking down the body right away. People can die within hours if they are exposed to heat without water.

Point Three. Half the People in Haiti are Kids and They Were Hungry Before the Quake.

Over half the population of Haiti is 15 years old or younger. And they were hungry before the quake. A great friend, Pere Jean-Juste, explained to me that most of the people of Haiti wake every day not knowing how they will eat dinner that day. So there are no reserves, no soup kitchens, no pantries, nothing for most. Hunger started immediately.

Point Four. A Toxic Stew of Death is Brewing.

Take hundreds of thousands of people. Shock them with a major earthquake and dozens of aftershocks. Take away their homes and put them out in the open. Take away all water and food and medical care. Sit them out in the open for days with scorching temperatures. Surround them with tens of thousands of decaying bodies. People have to drink. So they are drinking bad water. They are getting sick. There is no place to go. What happens next?

Point Five. Aid is Sitting at the Airport.

While millions suffer, humanitarian aid is sitting at the Port au Prince airport. Why? People are afraid to give it out for fear of provoking riots. Which is worse?

Point Six. Haiti is Facing A Crisis Beyond Our Worst Nightmares.
"I think it is going to be worse than anyone still understands." Richard Dubin, vice president of Haiti shipping lines told the New York Times.

He is so right. Unless there is a major urgent change in the global response, the world may look back and envy those tens of thousands who died in the quake.
Wake up world!

Bill is Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He is a Katrina survivor and has been active in human rights in Haiti for years with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Quigley77@gmail.com