Three Things to Know about Leogane and Why They Will Build Back Stronger than Ever Before

By Melissa Price, Communications Officer

Leogane was the closest town to the January 12 earthquake’s epicenter, and 90 percent of the city’s buildings and infrastructure were destroyed. Every one of Leogane’s 150,000 residents has been affected by this disaster.

IRD has chosen Leogane as its primary response site for relief and rebuilding activities, including shelter, sanitation, water, building reconstruction, and agriculture programs.

Given the magnitude of destruction, you might ask how the people of Leogane will survive and thrive in the years to come. Here’s a short list of things you should know about the people of Leogane. It’s just a peek into the enormous pride, strength, and resilience of these men and women.

1. Proud Royal Heritage
At the time of Columbus's arrival in 1492, there were five Taino chiefdoms on the island of Hispaniola. Leogane was built on the site of the town of Yaguana, the capital of Xaragua province, which was ruled by Queen Anacaona. One of the highest Taino chiefs, Anacaona negotiated treaties with Christopher Columbus’ younger brother, Bartholomew Columbus, and the Spanish in 1496. However, the Spanish turned against the Taino people, and Anacaona was later arrested and hung at the age of 39. She is much revered in Haiti, recognized by many as a founder of their country. More recently, Leogane was also the birthplace of Marie-Claire Heureuse Felicite, the wife of the Haitian revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and Simone Duvalier, a First Lady of Haiti.

2. Strong Agricultural Background
In pre-Columbian times, the Tainos lived a mainly agrarian lifestyle. The people’s connection to the land continued through the Spanish rule of the island. During the 18th century, the French specifically encouraged the growth of sugar cane, tobacco, indigo, cotton, and cacao. With increased planting came increased importation of African slaves to work the land. The success of modern-day Leogane was born in the fields of sugar cane and banana trees, and it is the back-breaking work of those in the field that has carried Leogane through the centuries.

3. Resilient in the Face of Disaster
Slave revolts in the late 18th century and early 19th century led to the Haitian Revolution. While most of the French colonists fled ahead of the defeated French army, Leogane remained as a French stronghold and was consequently burned to the ground in the early 1800s.

Prior to the Revolution, Leogane had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1770. With the near total destruction caused by the January 12, 2010 earthquake, Leogane and her people have suffered three devastating disasters in less than 250 years, all of which have nearly wiped them from the map. Yet, each time, they rise again—prouder, stronger, and more resilient than ever before.

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Anatomy of a Village Shelter Distribution

By Adam Koons, IRD Haiti Emergency Team Leader and IRD Director of Relief

The rains are coming and people are living in tattered, porous semi-covered structures of salvaged cloth, bit of plastic, sticks, wood, metal and whatever. Our priority is to provide protection in the form of “emergency shelter.” Ultimately we will be helping families build “transitional shelter” that should suffice for several years while the rebuild their own homes. For the moment, there is no time for that. It will come later. Since they already have “structures” of sorts, we are providing families with very high quality and strong plastic sheeting with which to cover their shacks. Each sheet is really quite large, about 15 feet by 6 feet, and each family get two sheets, to use, for the moment as they see fit. Later, with the additional lumber and other materials we will supply instructions for how to construct a well-designed and spacious structure. For now, against the rain, the priority is providing the plastic sheets.

Eventually we will provide support to over 3500 households. We are distributing it to 500 families at a time, or about 4000 people. We already distributed to the first 500 families recently. I am sure it is obvious that this is extremely more difficult and complex than it might sound.

First the preparatory work. From thousands of families, ten of thousands actually, how do we chose 500? We have already selected a set of villages to work in. In those our Haitian field staff asked local government leaders to select the 500 most vulnerable, i.e. poorest and in worst need, households, to start. To those households our staff gave vouchers, little squares of color coded and numbered paper. We had to tell the community members again and again and again and again that there would be many other distributions; that this was just the first; that just about everyone would eventually receive the plastic. This process only took two full days time of five staff members.

The staff also needed to select a central location within walking distance to all the villages: a specific spot that was safe and where access and process could be “controlled.” Then there was security. This is essential. With many thousands who are desperate for assistance and only hundreds receiving it, there is always the threat of “problems,” “disturbances,” or much worse – use your imagination. Or check the news reports, since this frustration-based “agitation” happens all the time. And it is perfectly understandable. So, as much as NGOs like IRD and others try to avoid and distance ourselves from direct military association, in this case we could not afford to. Through the UN, our security was arranged with the Canadian Military.

Then there is the transport. And the cutting. The plastic had to get from the UN warehouse (it was donated by the US government, by way of the UN) to our warehouse, for which we needed to request and schedule one of the tremendously overworked and overscheduled UN trucks. The plastic comes in big rolls, not sheets. At our warehouse, we had to arrange for a bunch of workers with scissors to spend two full days measuring and cutting it into sheets. Then we needed to find – a very difficult task right now – and hire and negotiate a private truck large enough for the 1000 sheets of plastic, to load and carry it from our warehouse in Port-au-Prince to the delivery site in Leogane. Only 20 miles away, but with traffic, and poor roads, three to fours hours distant. Hard to imagine but that much plastic sheeting, for only 500 families, mostly filled a large 30 foot long truck. But maybe it was because there were also 500 rolls of duct tape!

Day of the planned distribution. The truck arrived at the warehouse late for the pickup, and then arrived in Leogane three hours late. But that was actually irrelevant. Because the distribution had to be postponed to the next day anyway. We were told that due to a communications misunderstanding there were no security forces available to assist us. So, clearly it was a no-go. So, back to the villages to let everyone know about the one day delay. Already hundreds had lined up waiting at the distribution site.

Next day. Actual distribution day. The truck full of plastic (and its owner and assistant) had stayed overnight at the Canadian Military base, for protection against looting. And we paid for a second day for the truck. After the drive from Port-au-Prince our various Haitian and international staff all met at the Canadian base to collect our escort for the 20 minute dirt road drive to the abandoned school which was serving as the distribution site. Our security detail consisted of 35 soldiers and two trucks.

There were dozens of people in the school yard and many hundreds waiting outside the gate, significantly more than had vouchers. Possibly thousands. Word travels instantly (actually since the previous days when the vouchers had been distributed), and the arrival of a big truck and military escort is not the best way to keep a secret. The Canadians expertly helped remove the people inside, organize the lines. They set up controls that would allow only voucher holders into the line.

Inside the school yard as we started unloading the truck to prepare, a touch of panic set in. We found that the plastic had been rolled in sets of ten. And they were huge. We had to find a large empty area and start as quickly as possible separating out sets of two sheets from the rolls. Remember, there were 1000 sheets, i.e. 100 boxes that had to be unrolled and re-separated. And the temperature was now about 90 degrees. And dusty.

The Canadians started letting voucher holders through the long roped control-way they had set up. Most of the family representatives that arrived to claim the plastic were women. Many of them older women. Invariably the huge, folded plastic sheets went onto their heads, and then we handed them one roll of duct tape also. Some received the goods silently and stoically. Some, mostly the younger women, smiled. And some meekly and quietly in Creole said “merci” or “merci an pil,” thank you very much. And they exited the school yard, walked down the street controlled and guarded by the Canadians, and off to their villages.

And, not unexpectedly, the process was not perfect. The fortunately sharp eyes of the Canadians, and our own staff, started catching counterfeit vouchers, even with the correct shade of green heavy stock paper. We even somehow found some already-used-and-collected vouchers resurfacing. (Our next set of vouchers will be much more difficult to duplicate, with more carefully controlled code numbers, names and signatures, and logos – we’ll see what happens). Again and again and again we, and the Canadian soldiers – every one of them was French speaking, to the credit of the Canadian military planning – had to explain to the masses of non-recipients that there would be other distributions and other opportunities soon again. That our goal, and the goal of the other aid agencies, was to provide every single household in need with the supplies and assistance they needed, but a little patience, as difficult as that was, was needed.

Almost three hours later the truck was empty. We were all totally exhausted, thirsty, soaked with sweat and covered with a thick layer of dust, and happy to be finished, and starting to feel a bit satisfied that we had helped so many families. But with so many more to go. And there was a huge pile of 100 large empty carton next to the truck. What to do with them? No problem at all. Sadly, but understandably, the cartons were in huge demand for the semi-protection. As soon as the school gates were re-opened, there was a mad rush to get the boxes.

For us the only thing left to do, back at the office, after cleaning up a bit, was to diagnose the process, find any weaknesses, discuss together what we could improve and do better next time. And then, plan our “next time” as soon as possible. And there would be many more.

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Back to Normal Life?

By Adam Koons, Director of Relief, International Relief and Development

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- On the streets of Port-au-Prince, everyone who has a few tomatoes to sell, or books of matches, or even cups of flavored shaved ice, is trying to sell them. The streets are alive and bustling with commerce. It sometimes seems like everyone is trying to sell something to everyone else. In tiny little quantities, that do not require much money, enough for today, or the moment. Spilling over into the street. Clogging the already traffic-jammed streets . To those of us who have spent time here before (I lived in Haiti for four years), it seems so very normal………….almost.
Look a little closer and the façade is ruined. Behind, or nearby, or down the street, you will see crushed and ruined buildings. Businesses and homes. A great many of them in which people died. Some have not yet been extracted.

And look again a bit further beyond the commerce, a few feet further back into the chaos. We can see that many people have erected their “temporary” shelters there. They are now living just off the curb, beyond their micro street businesses, in open-sided structures that are lucky to have something partially resembling a roof.

Everyone on the street has most likely recently lost family or friends. So how can they be out talking, and negotiating, and arguing, and sometimes laughing? How can they be acting so normal? Well, what choice do they have really? They have to live, somehow. And so they have to continue doing whatever business they can do. Yes they are still in shock. But that will not change their need for survival. They must continue, and to some extent they must push aside the recent past and focus on the present and the future, and that results in the street scene we see.

And it is truly remarkable, the forced resilience. Even in the teeming shanty-filled soccer stadium we visited in the ground-zero town of Leogane, where IRD is working. Walking along the shadowy three foot wide alleys between the rows of shelters we see tiny little piles of onions, or bouillon cubes, or soap for sale. There is even a solar powered cell phone recharging business.
Watching the street life, and the shanty-settlement life carefully, there is something else.

What’s wrong with this picture? It’s nice to see the kids playing around, and smiling, and trying to cope. But that’s it, there are so many children around. They are not in school. In Leogane all of the schools were destroyed. At the moment, since survival is foremost in the actions of all, there is little capacity, or attention, or ability to address this critical issue. Simultaneous to all of our other activities in water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter, and agriculture, IRD intends to help rebuild the schools of Leogane. We have the technical skills and capacity, and we now need the financial resources to do so.

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Ground Zero -- Leogane

By Adam Koons, Director of Relief, International Relief and Development

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Today we traveled outside of Port-au-Prince and into ground zero. The town, and district, of Leogane, with about 150,000 residents was closest to the earthquake’s epicenter. And it showed. Although, estimates we had heard of 90% destruction were easily visible, the mayor told us that 100% of the population were affected, since even those few whose homes were not destroyed were afraid to enter their still standing and damaged houses. The entire population was sleeping outside, in makeshift shelters of plastic and cloth, in spontaneous settlements within and outside the town center. The police were sitting outside of a damaged police station. When we found the mayor he was camped outside his broken house. Our visit was a “rapid assessment” to understand the emergency needs, gaps, and the types of activities that IRD would be best suited to provide. The mayor, in short, told us they need virtually everything because the population had lost virtually everything.

In one settlement we visited of around 230 families we met a group of young men who immediately approached our vehicle when we arrived. They explained that they were the self-appointed, volunteer, security committee, formed because even in such areas insecurity and theft are a huge problem and far beyond the capacity of the local police. Both the desperation of the population, which has caused mass looting and crime, and the escape of an estimated 4000 prisoners from the earthquake-damaged central prison, has made such community protection a necessity. It was a perfect opportunity for our IRD team to hand out a number of the wonderful solar charged Sunlight Solar Bogo-Light flashlights we were carrying just for such occasions. The flashlights will improve the group’s ability to patrol at night and thereby the settlement’s security. By working closely with the maker of the lights, that were donated, we ultimately hope to distribute thousands of them soon.

Another settlement we visited completely filled the town football stadium with tiny shelter built shoulder to shoulder. We met a few young men who were making wooden frames for additional shelters. They told us they were salvaging the materials from the destroyed homes in town. And amidst it all, we found children playing, as we often do…. and of course, begging us to take their picture, which, of course, we did. One young boy of about five had a home-made kite of salvaged plastic and recovered string. His kite was aloft about 500!

On the way back to Port-au-Prince, after passing a US Marine helicopter landing site and encampment (the helicopters had been passing low and loud overhead all day), we got another sense of the force that leveled an entire town. We came upon a mile long crevasse in the side of the highway that we estimated to be maybe 15 feet deep.

We have chosen Leogane as one of the primary IRD disaster response sites for our activities that we hope will include water repair, sanitation and latrines, shelter, and perhaps agriculture. So, we will return soon.

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Running on Empty

By Adam Koons, Director of Relief, International Relief and Development

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Trying to work here is something unimaginable to the “outside world.” It is being widely publicized that one of the very biggest challenges here in the Haiti disaster response is difficult coordination and poor infrastructure leading to difficult logistics. It for example reported that although the quantity of emergency goods being given to Haiti is enormous, the airport has a backlog of 1400 emergency airlift flights in line for permission to fly to an airport that can handle at most 150 flights a day.

But let’s take it down to the personal level. Today I had an important UN coordination group meeting to attend. Our office/house is in the same neighborhood. The meeting was about two miles away and in “normal times” it takes about 15 minutes. But first, before starting out, it took about an hour to find enough black-market fuel to make the trip. The trip took 50 minutes. Along the way we were exposed to people trying to defy physics. The vehicles were already moving in four lanes on a two-lane road. We were inching along on the sidewalk up against the buildings. Then a UN convoy appeared some distance behind and a UN soldier walked up through the traffic ordering vehicles to move over. The only place for us to move over would be actually inside of a building. So we ignored the UN command. But this is par for the course. Along the way we passed a supermarket that had completely collapsed and the ruins were filled with people climbing around trying to see into and reach into the rubble.

Upon return to our house we found that there was, as usual, no electricity. And the bank of backup batteries were dead. The generator that would normally charge the batteries and provide electricity in absence of a public power grid was not able to run. No fuel. So we used the batteries in our laptop computers and blackberries. Until those batteries died. Then we just tried to do whatever we could do on paper. Three hours later a few gallons of fuel were finally found to start the generator. Now the seven of us can get back to work, and try to share the single internet line we have. I now have 700 emails to deal with. But I will use my precious little time on line to download the dozens of critically important attached files to my hard drive……………and to send this short note (which I first composed off-line).

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Immense Need and Immense Challenges in Haiti

By Adam Koons, Director of Relief, International Relief and Development

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- The scene here is remarkably sad. Throughout the city the parks and every open space are filled with makeshift shelters of bits of plastic, cardboard, and tin side-by-side in instant ghettos. The most remarkable example we saw was a long narrow row of hundreds of such “shelters” crammed in the median of a very busy city street, with cars and trucks passing constantly on either side. Sewage fills the streets. These spontaneous slums contain those whose homes have been destroyed along with those who are afraid to re-enter their damaged or possibly damaged homes, and those afraid to sleep indoors as a result of the continuing and sometimes strong aftershocks. In another neighborhood people were just putting their blankets down along one lane of the road, vaguely blocked off from traffic by a few cements blocks.

In spite of the tremendous outpouring of aid from a huge number of governments, organizations, and agencies, the major challenges now include the immense scale of the problem -- so many people need a full range of support from shelter and sanitation to food and water – that will require immense financial and material resources, and the absence of an adequate infrastructure with which to deliver such aid. At the best of times the existing infrastructure was extremely poor, and now it is stretched way beyond its limits. For example the roads are so poor, so narrow, and in such bad repair and the traffic is so congested that it can takes hours to travel a few miles through the city to transport emergency supplies and staff. But many thousands of such trips will be needed. Another significant challenge is the almost overwhelming task of coordination between many hundreds of different aid groups and many thousands of aid workers; trying to prevent duplication and identify and fill needs and gaps effectively.

That said, IRD is not unfamiliar with such situations and our emergency response team is experienced in succeeding to provide substantial assistance and contributing effectively in this kind of context. IRD has particular strengths and skills that many of the other agencies do not have here, for example with respect to our capacity to obtain emergency commodities and our technical engineering skills in water, sanitation, and shelter, and we are currently conducting strategic plans to best apply these capacities.

The recovery process will be a long-term challenge of many years. It must include rebuilding the infrastructure to better standards, to mitigate future disasters. It will also require that we work not only to restore devastated human needs like health care and employment to their pre-disaster state of total insufficiency, but rather that we take this tragic opportunity to focus the attention and resources needed to rebuild the systems to adequate levels. Of course, IRD will be here for the long term to fully participate in and contribute to this process.

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