June 7, 2010 - Extraordinary Day
Extraordinary Trip
Extraordinary Meeting
Extraordinary Achievements
...written and distributed by PDG Dick McCombe
I wanted to provide a very brief synopsis of our Extraordinary Day today spent in Port au Prince Haiti with our Haiti Task Force. I needed to do so because you have not heard from me in some time. In addition, this was one of the most successful Rotary Days I believe I have ever experienced and want to share it.
The primary purpose of the trip was to have the Donor Advised Fund (DAF) Account Holders go to Haiti to meet the Task Force. The DAF Account Holders are made up of the following Rotarians
-- Rotary Vice President and current Board member Eric Adamson
-- PRID Bob Stuart
-- PRID Barry Rassin
-- RIDE John Smarge
They wanted to listen to, and understand, the needs as defined and expressed by the Rotary Clubs of Haiti and the Haiti leadership Team. They also wanted to understand from the senior people in the Haitian Government, responsible for Education in Haiti, what their plans were and what recommendations they had.
The Account Holders also wanted to reach a consensus on our direction forward based on these discussions.
In addition, it was an opportunity for them to establish the criteria and procedural requirements that will need to be met to receive funding.
There was a VERY productive meeting on that, and PRID Barry Rassin will elaborate in much more detail. A Special Thank you again to Barry for his commitment to our great District.
In addition to that, we were dealing with three other major issues:
(1) Firstly the current status of the Rotary NGO in Haiti, ROTAH,
(2) Secondly The Jaipur Limb Project, and
(3) Thirdly the status and release information on the containers we shipped.
(1) Current status of the Rotary NGO in Haiti, ROTAH. On the First item I must say I am absolutely ecstatic about the news on ROTAH. I was presented with a copy of the document signed by the Prime Minister, etc., as proof that the process has been completed. Within days, the official published certificate will be in hand, and published in Haiti.
This was an enormous undertaking that has taken us three years and through some of the most difficult challenges and obstacles you can imagine. But we believed in it, and it is a reality today.
I want to recognize, and thank, DGN Guy Theodore, Dr. Claude Surena, and PDG Amos Durosier for everything they have done. This approval was in the true sense of the word “raised from the rubble” after the earthquake and it would not have been possible without the persistence of these fine Rotarians. THANK YOU!!!!
(2) Jaipur Limb Project. The second item was the Jaipur Limb project. We have agreed that we would undertake this as one of our primary earthquake relief responses, and are now moving forward with the consensus of all the Haitian clubs and leaders to proceed.
We believe a modified version which includes a mobile clinic will be the best one, and we will immediately begin to define the scope of the project with the new conditions applied. It is likely that the DAF would provide some seed funding for this as well, if it is required, although we do not believe that to be the case.
(3) The containers we shipped. The third item was the status of the relief containers and the release of them. Again we have very good news here. For those who do not know, PDG Amos Durosier heads up the Anti-Corruption unit of the Haitian government. His involvement with the top levels of the Haitian government is daily, so he knows them all personally and well. The release documents have been signed off by the Ministry of Interior and Planning Department (I think I have that right), and will be delivered to the Minister of Finance today as we fly back to
Nassau or tomorrow.
PDG Amos has already presented this to the Minister of Finance, and he assured Amos that he will sign off on it as soon as it touches his desk. He also said he would be sure to ask for it so it reached his desk immediately.
For those of you who know Haiti, we have done the equivalent of moving a mountain here. We went the legitimate process all above board and got it done. A very special congratulations to all the fellow Haitian Rotarians who made this possible, and there were many.
Going forward, our NGO status with ROTAH takes all of the challenges we have had with this shipment off the table, as the shipment goes Directly to Customs with our Status Certificate.
When we left, we felt the Task Force was untied and organized and fully up to the challenges ahead.
We are in flight on the way back to Nassau, (3 1/2 hours each way) and I think I can say that I speak for everyone on the plane. It was a GREAT DAY !!!!
Many more details to follow, but as always,our Supreme Rotarian PRID Barry Rassin will be putting out a comprehensive summary covering everything.
Thanks to Vance Johnson our pilot, and Odyssey for their great support.
PDG Dick
District 7020
Saturday, June 12, 2010
March 30, 2010 - Haiti Action Summary
Another Mini update March 30, 2010
...written and distributed by PDG Dick McCombe
I have been remiss in not updating all of you on the continued progress with our Haiti Relief effort. As I mentioned in the last update, our mid-term focus was going to be
-- schools
-- to complete the consolidation of relief supplies on the way to Haiti
-- to help facilitate that exercise through our Charter from Nassau.
This charter is leaving with 68 20’-Containers or equivalents on it FULL of Rotary supplied or coordinated Relief supplies.
Many Districts and Clubs have continued to send relief goods to be consolidated and shipped through our shipper in the US. Thanks to Larry Labadie and Phil Lustig, this has gone well state side.
There has been one disappointment with this exercise but I believe it has been resolved. The ship was to have left 3 weeks ago, but due to the following, it has been delayed and leaves next week.
The first obstacle was that we needed to get approval from the Bahamian Government to transship the ship load of containers through the Bahamas. This was necessary because some of the containers (23) were being filled in Nassau from Relief Supplies sourced in and through Nassau, which meant that they had to be off-loaded
here.
This approval process took a bit over a week. When approval had been received, it took an additional week for ACL to coordinate the container movement to Nassau. The approval unfortunately came after the ship was scheduled for another Humanitarian trip to Haiti that had delays in the offloading. What does that mean? We are running very late!!!!!
We have containers of medical supplies, tents, Xtra Large School tents, building materials for school desks and benches, ambulances, buses, trucks, hospital beds, awnings, beds and mats, clothing, some food and water items, prepackaged meals, and much much more. When the containers arrive in Haiti, they will be distributed to the selected communities that they have been packed for by Chatelain Cargo, a fellow Haitian Rotarian, so we are confident that that exercise will be swift.
On arrival in the communities, the Rotarians will erect the tents and begin to make space for the expanded population of students while local labour will assemble the desks and chairs and get paid for doing so. This should help with the kids in school and add some local employment.
At our Haiti Task Force meeting in Miami, we had asked the Rotary Clubs through the Assistant Governors to submit their needs lists so we could allocate additional resources depending on the latest needs identified. Unfortunately we are still waiting for submissions from some Club Presidents, and have others that are requests for well beyond what our funding capabilities are. We are working through this but it is taking some time.
Once we have all the information consolidated, we will try to make it available to all clubs in Zones 33 and 34.
We are anxiously awaiting the final draft of the PDNA and the scheduled review of the document by all parties. Unfortunately this information has also been hard to come by in any reliable form, so we are standing by for the information and ready to move when we get it.
Finally, the rainy season has begun, and the challenges in Haiti for Shelter and Health issues will only grow exponentially, so pray hard and hope what we do achieve will make a difference to those that need it most.
PDG Dick
...written and distributed by PDG Dick McCombe
I have been remiss in not updating all of you on the continued progress with our Haiti Relief effort. As I mentioned in the last update, our mid-term focus was going to be
-- schools
-- to complete the consolidation of relief supplies on the way to Haiti
-- to help facilitate that exercise through our Charter from Nassau.
This charter is leaving with 68 20’-Containers or equivalents on it FULL of Rotary supplied or coordinated Relief supplies.
Many Districts and Clubs have continued to send relief goods to be consolidated and shipped through our shipper in the US. Thanks to Larry Labadie and Phil Lustig, this has gone well state side.
There has been one disappointment with this exercise but I believe it has been resolved. The ship was to have left 3 weeks ago, but due to the following, it has been delayed and leaves next week.
The first obstacle was that we needed to get approval from the Bahamian Government to transship the ship load of containers through the Bahamas. This was necessary because some of the containers (23) were being filled in Nassau from Relief Supplies sourced in and through Nassau, which meant that they had to be off-loaded
here.
This approval process took a bit over a week. When approval had been received, it took an additional week for ACL to coordinate the container movement to Nassau. The approval unfortunately came after the ship was scheduled for another Humanitarian trip to Haiti that had delays in the offloading. What does that mean? We are running very late!!!!!
We have containers of medical supplies, tents, Xtra Large School tents, building materials for school desks and benches, ambulances, buses, trucks, hospital beds, awnings, beds and mats, clothing, some food and water items, prepackaged meals, and much much more. When the containers arrive in Haiti, they will be distributed to the selected communities that they have been packed for by Chatelain Cargo, a fellow Haitian Rotarian, so we are confident that that exercise will be swift.
On arrival in the communities, the Rotarians will erect the tents and begin to make space for the expanded population of students while local labour will assemble the desks and chairs and get paid for doing so. This should help with the kids in school and add some local employment.
At our Haiti Task Force meeting in Miami, we had asked the Rotary Clubs through the Assistant Governors to submit their needs lists so we could allocate additional resources depending on the latest needs identified. Unfortunately we are still waiting for submissions from some Club Presidents, and have others that are requests for well beyond what our funding capabilities are. We are working through this but it is taking some time.
Once we have all the information consolidated, we will try to make it available to all clubs in Zones 33 and 34.
We are anxiously awaiting the final draft of the PDNA and the scheduled review of the document by all parties. Unfortunately this information has also been hard to come by in any reliable form, so we are standing by for the information and ready to move when we get it.
Finally, the rainy season has begun, and the challenges in Haiti for Shelter and Health issues will only grow exponentially, so pray hard and hope what we do achieve will make a difference to those that need it most.
PDG Dick
March 2, 2010 - Haiti Action Summary
Brief Haiti Task Force Update March 2, 2010
...written and distributed by PDG Dick McCombe
At District 7020’s Leadership Training in Miami last weekend,we had the opportunity to meet with most of the members of the Haiti Task Force at once. What a great opportunity to share our thoughts and experiences through all this.
The purpose of the meeting was as follows:
-- To understand the most current critical needs that that our Haiti Ground Team feels we must focus on medium-term while agreeing to commit to a long-term sustainable solution for the country to be decided after the PDNA is completed.
We went around the table and got everyone’s input as to what we needed to do next, and how we should approach the future needs of the country. The response was amazingly consistent.
In the short-term, we need to address the overpopulation of the schools in the various regions and do what we can to get as many of the children as possible back to school. That will involve a number of things ,depending on the particular region, but classroom shelters by way of tents or other structures, desks, benches, materials for those items, meals and tuition fees are at the top of the list.
-- We have asked each Club President through the Assistant Governor to identify one school in each Rotary Community that needs our assistance, and to provide us with an exact list of what we can provide for each school to meet our objective of providing a place for schooling and social activity for the refugee children.
It was also suggested that the displaced senior students and university students be used as tutors in the school system to make up for the extra students and limited additional teachers. This will be completed by week’s end, and we will evaluate, based on the magnitude of the requests, and decide what we can do.
We urgently need 20’ through 60’ tents for this purpose, and hope you can all call someone to who might have access to one or two. They do not have to be new or any exact shape or size. Please put the word out.
-- We have agreed that our response for the long-term sustainable recovery will depend on the competition of the PDNA and the recommendations that come from the United Nations' review of that document with the international rebuilding partners.
-- We have agreed to put forward Haitian Rotarian Kyss Jean-Mary as our representative on the PDNA committee in Port au Prince. I will send a letter confirming that to the Prime Minister of Haiti later today.
-- Barry Rassin will be assisting with the Rotary presence at the United Nations when the recommendations are reviewed at that level.
-- We asked each assistant Governor to provide us with a synopsis of their respective clubs' health and to report back to me by week’s end.
-- Barry is following up on our proposed $50,000 contribution for seeds through the UN Agricultural Cluster. I am getting information to clarify the routing of the funds.
-- ROTAH (Regroupement Oeuvrant a Travers des Actions Humanitaires en Hait) will have its NGO status finalized this week and will be used as our primary consignee for the relief aid we send to Haiti.
-- We discussed many options and possible directions for Rotary to go in the rebuilding plan and were quoted a Haitian saying which I want to share with you all.
"A dog has 4 paws, but can only go one place at a time."
...written and distributed by PDG Dick McCombe
At District 7020’s Leadership Training in Miami last weekend,we had the opportunity to meet with most of the members of the Haiti Task Force at once. What a great opportunity to share our thoughts and experiences through all this.
The purpose of the meeting was as follows:
-- To understand the most current critical needs that that our Haiti Ground Team feels we must focus on medium-term while agreeing to commit to a long-term sustainable solution for the country to be decided after the PDNA is completed.
We went around the table and got everyone’s input as to what we needed to do next, and how we should approach the future needs of the country. The response was amazingly consistent.
In the short-term, we need to address the overpopulation of the schools in the various regions and do what we can to get as many of the children as possible back to school. That will involve a number of things ,depending on the particular region, but classroom shelters by way of tents or other structures, desks, benches, materials for those items, meals and tuition fees are at the top of the list.
-- We have asked each Club President through the Assistant Governor to identify one school in each Rotary Community that needs our assistance, and to provide us with an exact list of what we can provide for each school to meet our objective of providing a place for schooling and social activity for the refugee children.
It was also suggested that the displaced senior students and university students be used as tutors in the school system to make up for the extra students and limited additional teachers. This will be completed by week’s end, and we will evaluate, based on the magnitude of the requests, and decide what we can do.
We urgently need 20’ through 60’ tents for this purpose, and hope you can all call someone to who might have access to one or two. They do not have to be new or any exact shape or size. Please put the word out.
-- We have agreed that our response for the long-term sustainable recovery will depend on the competition of the PDNA and the recommendations that come from the United Nations' review of that document with the international rebuilding partners.
-- We have agreed to put forward Haitian Rotarian Kyss Jean-Mary as our representative on the PDNA committee in Port au Prince. I will send a letter confirming that to the Prime Minister of Haiti later today.
-- Barry Rassin will be assisting with the Rotary presence at the United Nations when the recommendations are reviewed at that level.
-- We asked each assistant Governor to provide us with a synopsis of their respective clubs' health and to report back to me by week’s end.
-- Barry is following up on our proposed $50,000 contribution for seeds through the UN Agricultural Cluster. I am getting information to clarify the routing of the funds.
-- ROTAH (Regroupement Oeuvrant a Travers des Actions Humanitaires en Hait) will have its NGO status finalized this week and will be used as our primary consignee for the relief aid we send to Haiti.
-- We discussed many options and possible directions for Rotary to go in the rebuilding plan and were quoted a Haitian saying which I want to share with you all.
"A dog has 4 paws, but can only go one place at a time."
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