Save The Children - An emailed update from our Country Director in Haiti

A very personal account from Lee Nelson, our Country Director in Haiti. You should feel incredibly proud of the contribution that you've made in helping the team to reach 470,000 people in the past few weeks.

Port-au-Prince, February 12, 2010

To the Save the Children family—

Today, as Haiti begins three days of mourning to mark the passage of 1-month since the earthquake, all of us here are considering the disaster’s terrible toll on this country and its people.

While we are working virtually around the clock to assist surviving children and their families, we must not forget that our national staff is also dealing with extraordinary loss. They are grieving for lost family members — including children — a cherished young co-worker, as well as scores friends, neighbours, and compatriots. Many have no homes to return to at night but rather still sleep in tents or in cars, among ruins. Some have sent their children to the provinces or out of the country to continue their education, adding painful separation to their daily concerns.

Still, they are playing a critical role in our relief effort, helping their countrymen through this crisis. Their strength is a testament to their fortitude and commitment to their nation and to the mission of Save the Children. I am proud to call them colleagues and friends. To assist them we have mobilized over 75 international staff working in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Miami, and have hired nearly 400 new national staff to ramp up critical life saving activities.

The daily victories help us all: The smiling faces of children singing at a child-friendly space, the successful completion of latrines and water points at a crowded camp with no facilities, the relief on a mother’s face when one of our mobile doctors tells her that her child will be okay.

Save the Children is a major player in the initial response, leading efforts in many sectors. We have reached more than 470,000 children and adults in the 30 days since the earthquake. For that, we have the entire Save the Children membership to thank. The resources and expertise that you have provided in the early hours and days have helped us to lead on the ground and make a difference in the lives of children across the affected zones. But there is still so much more to be done.

While families are receiving food and water, hundreds of thousands of people – the majority of them children – are sleeping in makeshift tents and in crowded conditions. Their health, well-being and protection are at daily risk. The education system is crippled. The rainy season looms. Reconstruction of homes, schools, clinics and towns will take years.

Sustained support and assistance over the coming months is critical to helping Haitians recover and rebuild their broken country — and, hopefully, to go beyond simply re-achieving its already vulnerable status quo. A silver lining may be that we can build back better and strengthen systems and institutions that protect children. We should strive for a Haiti that has more to offer its children and youth. A critical part of our strategy will be to work not only in Port-au-Prince but to reinforce outlying areas to ease the enormous population pressures that have built up in the capital city over the years.

So we cannot rest. And we ask for your continued support over the coming months and beyond as we in Haïti cherie — with your help — endeavour to support its vulnerable children and their families move beyond this disaster into a better future.

With appreciation,

Lee W. Nelson
Country Director
Lee W. Nelson / Représentant Save the Children en Haïti


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