On January 12, 2010, our lives changed forever. Our mission – to strengthen existing organizations by facilitating collaboration, creating relationships between individuals and organizations in the U.S. and Haiti, and focusing on Haitian solutions to environmental, social and economic problems – went into overdrive. We, with our colleagues, felt the world come to a stop when the earthquake shook the country to its knees. Only minutes after the news of the earthquake began to spread across the globe, we began to form what has become the Haiti Response Coalition. More than twenty-five non-governmental organizations are now working together to:

1. Meet fundamental needs, such as the distribution of water, food and medical aid, which is still not getting to communities two months after the major quake (there have been hundreds of tremors, up to 4.5 in force, since then).
2. Support our Haitian partners by holding their place in meetings with the United Nations, USAID, World Food Program, and others, until the time that they are invited to participate.
3. Facilitate planning and collaboration on building a new country as articulated by our Haitian partners.

In the first month after the earthquake, KONPAY raised and spent $100,000, managing medical care, and essential aid distribution. We have raised another $60,000 on Haiti earthquake emergency assistance for the communities with whom we have been working for years. Specifically, KONPAY has been:

• Guiding medical teams to the Jacmel area, as well as Petit Goave and Gressier
• Transporting and distributing food and supplies from the Dominican Republic (DR) to Port-au-Prince and Jacmel (independently and in partnership with the Red Cross and Rotary of the DR)
• Transporting and distributing a million seeds, hundreds of tents and tarps, deworming medicine, and PUR water filtration systems
• Receiving in the DR, transporting and distributing two forty foot containers full of tents and tarps from the City of Sydney, Australia
• Continuing our programs in the Jacmel area, including developing a job program in Cyvadier

People in Haiti are still suffering in an emergency stage, yet they are also thinking about the country’s future. Small organizations like KONPAY play a key role at this juncture. Thank you for being there with us!

Please use this link to sign up for updates on how extraordinary people in Haiti are facing the present and building the future: http://www.konpay.org/splash/

Elise Hansen

Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY