Ananda Marga ... News & Resources

Dear all, this is a slightly updated Situation Report from the field crisis here in Haiti. It is also a Humanitarian appeal to all of you. Spread the word around, and choose to support any NGO, not just AMURT, active in the relief work in Haiti. The need and disaster are SO huge that we all here feel extremely overwhelmed, and especially now your ongoing support is vital to all here - relief workers and local population. The last few days have been so eventful that i have not been able to spend much time on the PC to be able to give you a clear idea of what's going on. Also, every few hrs there has been a major change, and this dynamic environment has been extremely challenging yet motivating.

From humanitarian point of view the Gonaives disaster is one of the most extensive to hit the country, and the relief operation has been proceeding extremely slowly because of the complexities explained in the previous reports i sent. All the elements for an explosive situation that impacts the balance of the entire country are here, and in an overwhelming dose. There is still no transportation link between the impacted area and the rest of the country. Food shortage and spreading psychic and physical pain are spreading like waves of negative microvita throughout the area, and diseases and malnutrition are beginning to take their toll increasingly every day.

Today i entered into the city, and this experience will never leave my mind. I walked through neighborhoods after neighborhoods completely wiped out by the flash-floods. Saw trucks on top of schools, houses buried in mud and debris, animal corpses floating around, kids bathing with water so polluted that its stench penetrated my clothes for hours after i returned. I passed a pitiful dwelling, and inside a little girl was sitting on a little chair, looking at me with big empty eyes. I listened to stories after stories, of survival despite all odds, and of existence so pitiful that it makes you cringe. These stories have to be told, the world has to find out that next to incredible riches and comfort there is a little corner in the world that has slipped below the level of normal human existence in a matter of few days. Meanwhile our little dusty corner of the world has become the hub of a major Relief Effort and PR campaign.

WFP is now about to set up a huge operation's base in the harbor, with helicopters and coordinating center, preparing for a drastic increase of their intervention in the entire NW of the country. Yesterday i saw Mat Damon and Wycliff Jeane in the poor neighborhood next to our depot (work in progress), today the General of the 4th US fleet walked in our workplace accompanied by brass, and camera people are everywhere. This is just to show you how much attention there is right now on Gonaives. After 3 days of non-stop meetings and negotiations, sometimes conducted in corridors, or walking from compound to compound, or in big inter-agency negotiations, AMURT/EL is now about to sign several major contracts, and create several very important partnerships with major organizations. It has not been an easy passage, i can tell you this much. There have been a lot of psychological adjustments and strategies we employed to place ourselves in the middle of all agencies, and convince all that actually AMURT/EL is the facilitator in a game they did not think we'll be interested in entering. When we began a week ago, for e.g., the city was already split amongst 2 org - CARE and CARITAS, and it took some nerve to get to the point of "splitting" the city into three zones (of food distribution) which includes AMURT.

The programs will potentially be long-term, and high profile, and can put AMURT/EL at the front of all actors in the field. From ACDI, who want to give us the lead in a growing disaster relief program for Gonaives, to WFP who are about to sign with s a large (the largest ever) food contract (benefitting tens of thousands of people and being capable of reinforcing us on many different levels, to CRS who want to cooperate even closer with us, to UNICEF who want to choose AMURT as one of the main implementing partners in Gonaives, the list is never ending. In the coming few months we'll see a drastic increase in our projects, staff (possibly growing from 80 to 150), and exposure. The main thing is though that our capacity to spread the message of Universal Neo-Humanism will grow tremendously. Just listen to this - now the Ministry of Interior is asking AMURT/EL to put together a stress-management program, using yoga as a base (our proposal yet their recruitment), and the UN civil affaris office is now inviting us to begin giving yoga and meditation classes, It takes about 5 minutes to negotiate contracts that are 100% PROUTistic, and the emphasis on such things as environmental protection, integrated management, women's programs, etc. has grown. And at the coordination meetings, amongst the UN staff, on the street, everywhere you can feel that people are really inspired to see that AMURT has entered Gonaives to begin work.

The opportunities that this horrible disaster has opened have been equal to the incredible collective challenges ahead of us. Re: activities to report to donors - i'll write it quick, pls have sb paraphrase it and improve it. The conditions in the field have been extremely complicated (quote the report i just sent), and very little relief has actually trickled in. Very few NGOs operate in the city, and there are major hazards and difficulties in setting up relief as of this moment. Most NGOs and UN agencies have focused this first 10 days of the operation on establishing logistics, strengthening the base, preparing the ground for a major and sustained relief operation. This is what AMURT/EL has done as well, establishing an office and a place for volunteers, preparing trucks and gas, and setting up all logistical and other procedures which will actually make possible for a sustained and meaningful relief operation to be launched.

However, beside this very challenging task of setting up the much needed logistical base we have focused on these two approaches: 1. we have conducted very valuable analysis of the Situation from the perspective of the communities - organizing network of community leadership groups that will now begin taking an active role in managing the projects with us. (Note:This put us ahead of the game, as most other organizations are still grappling with how to understand the complex social background.) 2. Completed several field assessment studies which have already began being quoted by both government and UN agencies as reference points for the response. One of them is a detailed analysis of the patterns of food distribution in the city, and the proposal of an alternative strategy of distribution.

This report is on the Resource site. After a coordination meeting amongst all the implementing partners it was decided to adopt most of the recommendations of this evaluation report, and we have already seen noticed marked improvement in the distribution. The other report is an assessment of schools' condition and a rehabilitation plan, which will serve as the basis of a proposal submitted to ACDI for a major effort to build and reconstruct schools. 2. We have been able to begin negotiating with several partners contracts ranging from Rapid Response Relief to Reconstruction and Dev't. n the coming week we'll arrive to the point of starting several major interventions in the following areas: Emergency Food Distribution to priority groups and zones (number of beneficiaries to be specified) - 1-2 months Food for Work Program for both Gonaives and NW, focusing on rehabilitation of school, clean-up, environmental initiatives - 6 months Reconstruction of schools, providing edu materials and supplies, Gonaives - 1 year Long-term economic development initiative, Gonaives - 2 years (this program will enter the negotiation phase after the first 3 month Emergency phase is completed)

VERY IMPORTANT! One thing i cannot emphasize more is the need to begin a very Urgent and systematic fundraising campaign for the general public. The need here is so HUGE, the suffering of the people is SO real and overwhelming, and the conditions of life so difficult, that in order to be effective we have to reinforce our operational capacity tremendously. The programs that we'll be getting would NOT cover many of our operational needs. There will be many ways we can see this fundraising make a big difference, beyond strengthening our organizational capacities. We can create a fund to cover the teachers salaries for our existing and planned Neo-Humanist schools, we can create more ideological initiatives and pracar - sth that funders do not cover, etc... ok for now, have to run now but hope that gives you a good picture of the direction we'll be heading to, and the significant shift that we are entering now. greetings!

dharma -- Demeter Russafov Project Coordinator AMURT - Haiti Operations

Ananda Marga Universal Relief Team

www.amurthaiti.org

"Let everybody be happy; let everybody be free from all physical or psychic ailments; let everybody see the bright side of everything; let nobody be forced to undergo any trouble under pressure of circumstances." P.R. Sarkar