Last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti is drawing help from around the world especially from local leaders and Chicago’s Haitian- American community.
Last week’s devastating earthquake in Haiti is drawing help from around the world especially from local leaders and Chicago’s Haitian- American community.
At New Hope Haitian Community Church in north suburban Evanston, members are preparing to travel to poor island nation this week to deliver supplies.
“Instead of sending it through another organization we want to hand deliver our supplies personally, so we can connect with our Haitian brothers and sisters and let them know we are here for them,” said Nickere Solomon, community relations manager for the church.
Other organizations, such as the Progressive Haitian American Organization on the North Side, also plan to deliver supplies personally.
On Jan. 12, a magnitude-7.0 quake struck Haiti’s capital city of Port-Au-Prince, crumbling structures, burying some people alive and leaving human devastation in its wake that reports have called unimaginable.
But thousands of miles away, here in the Chicago metropolitan area, people, organizations and groups are banding together to offer prayers, money, supplies, shoulders to cry on, hugs, supplies and anything else they feel they can provide.
According to the Haiti American Community Association, there are between 7,000 and 15,000 Haitian Americans living in the Chicago area and 800,000 nationwide with New York and Miami having the largest Haitian American population.
State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-13th, has family in Haiti and said they are safe. His parents are originally from Haiti but Raoul was born in the United States.
“I plan to go to Haiti eventually but my family members there have been accounted for,” he told the Defender. “I would caution people wanting to go to Haiti to wait until medical and military personnel have set up shop and secured the structure first.”
He added that people should embrace this moment as a long-term relief effort instead of seeing relief efforts as charity; they should see it as repaying a debt to Haiti.
“People need to know the history behind Haiti. They need to know that Haiti soldiers fought back 200 years ago on behalf of the United States,” he said. Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, founder of Chicago, was Haitian.
Raoul is a member of the International Child Care, a Chicago organization that helps with health care in Haiti especially for children’s hospitals, such as Grace Children’s Hospital in Haiti.
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger recently signed an executive order allowing a group of nurses from John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital to take a 10-day paid leave so they can travel to Haiti to provide medical help. The group of nurses expects to leave later this week for Haiti.
“I commend our nurses for leading the way in extending a helping hand to the people of Haiti. This disaster is literally right at our doorstep. Haiti is our neighbor and thousands of Haitian Americans call Cook County home today,” Stroger said. “We’re committed to doing all we can to support relief efforts in Haiti.”
Among the group of nurses from Stroger Hospital, three are Haitian – Americans with family living in in the Caribbean nation.
Margarett Dupiton, 58, started screaming when she heard the news about her home country.
“I could not believe the news. I immediately began crying because I have family there,” Dupiton said. “I still have not been able to reach my family so I don’t know if they are dead or alive but I plan to find out once I get there. It is my prayer that they (my family) are OK.”
Dupiton, who lives on the South Side, came to Chicago in 1970 with her family and last visited Haiti in 2007.
Another Stroger Hospital nurse, Marie Noisette, was preparing to accompany Dupiton to Haiti.
“I was just there (Port-au-Prince) a month ago and never would have thought this tragedy would occur,” Noisette, 51, said. “Most people in Haiti are poor with limited resources so I am anxious to get there and help out. I just hope my family is safe.”
Community leaders are also heading to Haiti to provide assistance.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder and executive director of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, is reaching out to Haiti. Jackson is preparing to lead a convoy of Black ministers to Haiti this week to assist with relief efforts.
“It is crucial that we reach out to the Haitian community in Chicago. Already the poorest country in our hemisphere the Haitian people has suffered a catastrophe of biblical proportions,” said the Rev. Gregory Livingston, chairman of the Ministers Division for Rainbow/PUSH.”
International communities have reached out to Haiti, as well.
A week after the quake struck, killing thousands of people, including 28 Americans there, the U.N. Security Council also was expected to approve additional peacekeeping forces.
After the quake, President Barack Obama pledged the Unites States’ support and sent a salient message to the Haitian people that they “wold not be forsaken.”
As of Tuesday, the U.S. has some 12,000 military personnel on the ground in Haiti, according to a White House report.
The major focus of military efforts is establishing water distribution sites, and delivering fuel, food, and medicine.
Distribution of food, water and supplies from the city’s lone airport to the needy are increasing but still remains a work in progress, frustrating many survivors.
“I simply don’t understand what is taking the foreigners so long,” said Raymond Saintfort, a pharmacist who brought two suitcases of aspirin and antiseptics to the ruins of a nursing home where dozens of residents suffered.
The U.N. humanitarian chief, John Holmes, said not all 15 planned U.N. food distribution points were up and running yet. The U.N. World Food Program said it expected to boost operations to feeding 97,000 on Monday. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more government donations.
The U.S. military says it can now get 120 flights a day through the airport, according to the White House, up from 100, but still could use more.
Haiti has been an independent republic since 1804 and is the oldest Black republic in the world. The people of Haiti are primarily of African descent. Creole is the main language spoken with about 10 percent of the population fluent in French. The literacy rate is 23 percent and about 80 percent of the 9.7 million population is Roman Catholic and 10 percent is Protestant.
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