Today is the first day of distribution for the 80 thousand pounds of food that arrived in St.Marc last week. The logistics of moving the food through the country to various distribution points have not been easy, but today all the planning has finally started to pay off.
The significance of these shipments cannot be overstated. While Port Au Prince and other areas close to the disaster have been a major focus for relief agencies, Anses-a-Galets and most of La Gonave remain largely forgotten. Even though outlying areas like northern Haiti and the island of La Gonave did not sustain major damage from the earthquake the catastrophic effects have rippled out all over the country in the form destroyed supply networks and streams of refugees.
One of the major sources of isolation separating La Gonave from the flow of supplies is the channel that divides the island of La Gonave from the mainland of Haiti. Few relief agencies make plans to cross this channel and opt instead to deliver food to the mainland. The mayor of Anse Galets, Mayor Dahame, explained to us another reason why this area has been struggling to receive aid. He told us that because the town is absorbing its refugees into already full homes instead of building tent cities the major relief agencies are reluctant to give. They are looking for a more concrete and visible need. Even though the need in this area can’t easily be seen from the air, scarcity and hunger here are all too real.
Fortunately there is a plan for bring food to the island and we are just starting to see it pay off. Today pastors from all over the area brought their trucks to the Wesleyan church in town. After these trucks were filled and sent out the remaining food was distributed to a long line of people that had been waiting outside the gate. Rice was carried away in every form of container from water buckets to shirts that people had holding wide open.
On top of the distribution through the church there is another supply of food waiting in depots to be distributed. This channel of food is being funneled through a team of people organized by a local economist. This team has been working hard to pin point the areas of the worst need. A fleet of over twenty trucks is set to show up tomorrow morning to start transporting the food to all of these key areas. The food that we have seen come through here today is only the very beginning. There will be multiple shipments coming across the channel every day for several weeks to come.
