UMCOR recommends quick impact support for Haiti and Grenada
03 November 2004
UMCOR relief specialists, recently returned from Haiti and Grenada, are recommending new quick impact initiatives to help both island nations recover from the devastating hurricanes of recent weeks.
Urgent needs in Haiti include a speed-up of food distribution and reconstruction of homes, according to the two member UMCOR assessment team. Grenada needs help restoring its nutmeg industry and in rebuilding community centers.
David Sadoo, disaster specialist for UMCOR, and Margaret Stansberry, an aid consultant, described Haitian roads as "sheared off" by mudslides and covered with boulders - the aftermath of recent tropical storms. To reach the countryside north of Gonaïves in Haiti, where 3,000 are dead or missing and feared dead, the team passed damaged or flattened homes, forded rivers where bridges had collapsed and saw the destruction of garden plots which, in better times, provide a livelihood for many Haitian families.
Sadoo said that in Gonaïves, once a thriving cotton production center, a combination of political violence and desperate hunger were creating a volatile climate. Relief supplies are not always reaching the people they were intended for.
The team proposed stepping up efforts in home construction in the area north of Gonaives and more efforts to distribute food, health kits, and school supplies for children. Restoration of nutmeg farming and production is a priority for quick impact grants in Grenada, where the spice is a major source of income. Longer term recommendations include restoration of housing and community centers. The community centers are vital resources in Grenada, because they substitute for local government institutions, Sadoo and Stansberry explained. Communities use their centers as libraries as well as for day care, training, town hall meetings and shelters.
UMCOR currently is working with ecumenical partners to clear debris, rehabilitate schools and provide fresh water in Haiti and Grenada. The agency will announce additional plans in the coming weeks and months.
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