Orphans International Haiti Survives Earthquake in Jacmel

Sadly, the children of Orphans International Worldwide Haiti are used to natural disasters. Here, they pose near the washed out road near our home outside Jacmel in Cyvadier.

OI Worldwide Haiti's Polish volunteer, Ghislaine, left a few days ago with assistance of United Nations evacuation efforts, through the Dominican Republic, where she took a plane home to Europe.

Our children in the village of Cyvadier, outside the one-beautiful Jacmel, know disaster all too well. They survived a series of four hurricanes last fall. Most of them were orphaned by a hurricane to begin with, Hurricane Jeanne in Gonaives where almost 2,000 people died.

We moved them to outside Jacmel where the air is cleaner, the trees greener, the ocean cleaner. Days after we left Gonaives, the hurricanes there collapsed our former home. Our children were once again spared.

The damage in historic downtown Jacmel is devastating..

The children of Orphans International Worldwide Haiti are sponsored by people from around the world through our website .

I am the founder of Orphans International Worldwide (1999) and we began to organize Orphans International Worldwide Haiti in 2000. Geslet Bordes and Phadoul Amisial were instrumental in its creation.

Direct aid to the children of Orphans International Worldwide Haiti may be made on-line .

Yesterday, Jacques Africot wrote and sent the photographs used in this story:

Hi! These are few pics taken after the earthquake. People in the city of Jacmel are homeless. They are leaving the town to go somewhere else. Where?

Some of them don't have relatives outside the city. It is hard. I presume we will have also plenty of children that will be left orphans.

I am sure we will have to help them. I start receiving people asking for help because they saved nothing from the earthquake.

Unfortunately, we can't help until now, since what we had left is just to survive with our kids.

We might receive some money shortly, but we don't until now 9as the banks have not reopened).

I have electricity but have no internet access. My internet access is down. The company can't work in Jacmel until now. I have to wait.

Now, I am using the internet from a private person clandestinely (without permission). Thanks to God it is wireless. That means I can't be on internet at will.

Orphans International Worldwide is prepared to send adequate funding to OI Worldwide Haiti the moment the banks re-open. The road is closed from Port-au-Prince so we cannot get the money over land from the airport either.

Downtown Jacmel after the first earthquake three days ago.

Luckily, I understand that the USAID and the World Food Program is making food available to our children, for which I am most appreciative.

The damage in Haiti is so devastating that OI Worldwide has agreed in the last three days to partner with both the prominent Toussaint Family coordinated by Jimmy Toussaint, and our existing non-profit (NGO) partner, CharityHelp International ( CHI ).

This project, in Leogane, 18 miles west of Port-au-Prince, promises to be one of the most multi-national. We are in discussions with funders from China, Korea, Japan, Canada, Bermuda, Greece - and may bring in staff from our projects in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Afghanistan.

I have already written about this project, Haitian School to Rise From Rubble Thru Orphans International Worldwide .

Having seen the devastation of the Tsunami in both Indonesia and Sri Lanka, I know firsthand how hard it is to capture the devastation in photographs. It is even harder to capture the fear and horror inside the children in your care.

The new project nearer to Port-au-Prince is to be named the "Orphans International Worldwide Haiti and CharityHelp International Project at Colline Academie Leogane." Additional partners are needed.

Its mission will be to provide post-disaster housing for 12 orphaned children identified by the local community, in addition to education and health care for these and other neighborhood children. The project will also have a communications center.

Advanced, solar-powered communications equipment is to be provided by CharityHelp International.

It will also serve as a beachhead for us to get supplies to our severely traumatized children at OI Worldwide Haiti in Jacmel, as the road over the mountains re-opens.

We need to procure and get to Haiti immediately ten 15 by 15 foot tents. Food, general and medical supplies will be supplied through agreement being forged in New York with aid agencies already on the ground there. I am in seemingly non-stop meetings here.

Our staff will be comprised of existing Colline Academie employees and Orphans International Worldwide officers from around the world.

Please note that we cannot accept donated goods nor volunteers at this point. OI Worldwide does also not offer children for international adoption.

Global funding partners are needed to assist us with financing latrines, water storage tanks, a vehicle, 400 feet of 10-foot high concrete-block fence, 20 bunk beds, and two generators.

Tents will be used temporarily for class rooms, a dining room, a health clinic, and communications center. The tents will compromise a temporary community center, as the Colline Academie is rebuilt.

I trained Orphans International Worldwide Haiti director Jacques Africot personally after the Tsumani in Indonesia. He is incredibly strong and talented.

Former OI staffers in Haiti - now in Port-au-Prince - include a pediatric hospital administrator and child psychologist. I believe all will assist us

I plan to be on the ground in earthquake ravaged Haiti to assist our kids in Jacmel and begin to help in Leogane within the next several weeks. This will be my 20th trip there.

I count on the international community to do their part to allow us to bring direct aid to the children directly affected by this horrible tragedy.

Any global NGO wishing to partner with us - to rebuild Haiti and help her orphaned children - should contact me directly at (212) 755-7302.

Tax-deductible contributions for Orphans International Worldwide's efforts in Haiti may be made on-line. Checks may be made payable to CharityHelp International , memo: Orphans International Haiti, and sent to P.O. Box 1904, Annapolis, MD 21404.

Originally posted in The Huffington Post, January 20, 2010.

Orphans International Haiti Survives Earthquake in Jacmel

About Jim Luce