Security hampers aid in Haiti

Tight security requirements are interfering with efforts to dispense aid in Haiti according to a returning rescue worker.

Vince Bishop is back from Haiti. The logistic chief for the Northwest Florida FloridaOne Disaster Medical Assistance Team was deployed on Jan. 13 and returned home on Jan. 29.

FloridaOne, established by the federal government, is under the US Department of Health and Human Services, National Disaster Medical System Section. This system provides a cooperative partnership between public and private entities that work with communities to provide emergency health and medical services in times of a crisis.

Bishop said his team arrived in Haiti with insufficient equipment but ready to work, and were frustrated to find their efforts thwarted over and over again by security and transportation requirements imposed by the US government.

FloridaOne workers are volunteers until deployed and then become paid federal employees for the duration of the mission.

Bishop and his colleagues were deployed in the US Embassy, which he described as one of the very few undamaged structures in Port au Prince. He described the recently constructed embassy as “almost decadent in view of what surrounded it.”

He said he believes much of the damage to buildings was due to poor construction practices, with many buildings consisting of stacked block, some without mortar.

“They haven’t had an earthquake in 200 years, so I guess nobody expected it,” Bishop  said.

He expressed disappointment in the US government’s rescue mission in Haiti.

“I felt it was all a big press show for the military. They brought in all this stuff and treated like it was an armed mission,” he said.

“The soldiers were great, they helped move rubble and in other ways, but, I felt bringing in all of those armed people sent the wrong message. I don’t believe we needed the kind of security they provided,” he said. “I was more afraid in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.”

Bishop said that contrary to media reports, he never saw any rioting or aggressive behavior among Haitians.

“We’d hear gunshots at night sometimes,” he said. “We’d hear people chanting in the streets outside the embassy walls at 4:30 a.m. but it wasn’t a riot. The Haitians are very spiritual people. The chanting is part of that.”

Bishop said his team found it impossible to coordinate both transportation and security to reach out to the people in need.

“There was no one organization in charge,” he said. “It was chaotic. There were helicopters coming and going constantly at the airport but we were transported in dump trucks belonging to a US construction firm or state trucks belonging to the embassy, when we could get transportation at all. I saw a US helicopter land to deliver a note to an officer with no other cargo.”

He said most North American cell phones did not have a signal, but the Haitian cell phone system was operational.

Bishop said his team was directed to set up a clinic outside the embassy walls to provide care for the 700 embassy employees, mostly Haitian nationals and their families. FloridaOne erected their tents one morning and broke them down the same day when the effort was called off due to lack of available security forces.

“Eventually, frustrated because we had no mission, we made our own,” Bishop said. “We began treating people who came to the embassy seeking visas to the US. If you wanted to leave the country and you had a US passport, the US State Department would fly you home.”

Bishop said processing people who wanted to leave was complicated because citizens were often accompanied by non-citizens who had to obtain visas to enter the US.

He said that when pregnant women are near delivery, they try to visit relatives in the US to deliver, so that the child will be a US citizen. Now some of those women are attempting to return to the US with their children, but the mothers are not citizens and must obtain visas.

He said other Haitians are lying about citizenship in an attempt to reach safety. “There were thousands of people in line waiting to get visas trying to leave the country,” he said. “They waited in line for up to four days and some of them spent two more days in the building.”

Bishop said the long wait was because embassy employees, many of whom had lost their homes, were not available to process forms. Eventually, the embassy set up tents on embassy grounds for employees and the visa processing operation was moved to the airport.

Bishop may return to Haiti for a second deployment next week.

“I will go if they ask me. I’m worn out and I’ve got some kind of respiratory issue. There was stuff burning constantly, debris and bodies. We were constantly inhaling smoke. We were issued a months supply of antibiotics as a prophylactic against malaria,” he said.

Bishop said the Haitian people are very strong and they are survivors.

“You have to remember that half the population is under 18. There are almost no old people and no fat people.”

Bishop said, if you want to help the survivors of the earthquake, send money. He advises donating to one of the long standing faith based missions.

Organizations you may wish to investigate include the Baptist Haiti Mission founded in 1943, Haiti Medical Missions founded 2002, Children’s Medical Mission of Haiti founded 1945, North West Haiti Christian Mission founded 1977 and Haiti Christian Mission founded 1983.

Bishop also recommended donating to Doctors without Borders, an international team of medical professionals who volunteer to work in disaster areas around the globe. He said nobody should attempt to visit the disaster on their own.

“If you don’t bring your own fuel, food and water, you will become an additional burden,” he said.

He also said that donations of food, clothing and toiletries are not useful at this time because they cannot be distributed. He said these items are already available in street markets.

“Food is available,” he said, “but people have no money to buy it.”