- ATD Fourth World

Our team of Volunteer Corps members in Haiti has been putting all its energy into enabling families who have so far received no international aid to gain access to the support being put into place. Concrete partnerships with other non-profit organizations are being developed.

All our members there are continuing to look for new ways to support one another faced with this crisis. They are visiting all the families who participated in the pre-school and early childhood programs to see how people are doing and to find out who needs medical attention. They are supporting families to be able to cross the city to where there are large-scale distributions of food.

As others are, particularly the FAO, the team is concerned about the rural exodus of so many people from Port-au-Prince toward the countryside and questions: how can rural communities manage to welcome such a large influx of people? What kind of ambitious programs can be created to mobilize and support rural communities?

On February 2nd, a group traveled to reinforce our team in Haiti: Director General Eugen Brand and five other long-term members of ATD Fourth World, including a doctor and an electrician. Some of them have already lived in Haiti for many years. They have joined the team to support its strategies for coping with this new situation:

• being close to families in their efforts to be taken into account and to be able to participate in what is being set up;
• getting access to urgent medical care;
• contributing to the city’s clean up and reconstruction efforts;
• furthering collaboration with Haitian and international partners who share the concern that no one be left behind.

Elsewhere in the world, members of ATD Fourth World are making their utmost efforts to send support: some have donated money, including people who have very little to spare; some have organized fund-raising activities. In Spain a man who has known many years of homelessness said, "It gives me hope that the people of Haiti are still getting up every morning." In Italy, a youth group is looking for a way to support young Haitians to be able to get job training. In Senegal, adults have begun making wooden toys to offer to children in Haiti. Tapori children and children in Street Libraries have been writing and drawing messages of hope to send. For the moment, the team in Haiti cannot receive its e-mail, so the International Leadership Team is forwarding to them all these messages and acts of solidarity from around the globe.

Letter from ATD Fourth World’s International Leadership Team 28 january 2010

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