February 4, 2010
An informal report I received from Dave Mann this morning......

We are having our first overnight guest at UMC. A patient arrived today that the team thought absolutely needed to be monitored constantly for the next 24 hours, at least. They believe she has a blood infection. She lost numerous family members in the quake, included a couple children, and she herself was injured. So we have the generator installed just in time. Hugues plans to go to Santiago tomorrow to purchase replacement batteries. (I don’t know when he sleeps.)

This afternoon, in a Univers administrators meeting, we decided to reopen school on Monday, February 8th, and have a teachers‘ meeting and a new student/parents’ meeting tomorrow and Friday. During the trip to PaP, Hugues, Joe, and Jaccin discovered that school is already open in eight of the ten departments in the nation. So it is time for us to open as well, despite the turf war of the local officials as to who is authorized to make the call.

We will be receiving a minimum of 125 new students, perhaps more as the word spreads that Univers is accepting new students. That is the number of students who have come to us to make a formal written request without us doing any advertising at all. So far, all of these new students can be absorbed into existing classrooms, except for 10th and 11th grade, for which we will need to add an additional classroom each. This will necessitate the hiring of several new part-time teachers to cover those classes. Thanks again to our many friends in the U.S. who helped us get as many desks and chairs as we have to equip these classrooms. These students will be received on a provisionary basis through the end of this school year. Some of them will no doubt move back to the PaP area once rebuilding begins and things stabilize. Those who wish to stay on will need to show this year that they are capable of our academic and behavior standards in order to be received as full-fledged Univers students in the new school year. We will not require these provisional students to wear the full Univers uniform this year, just slacks or a skirt with a Univers t-shirt, which we will provide. We are hoping that Aide et Action will provide the necessary financial support so that we do not need to charge these provisional students anything for the rest of this school year.

Dave

Univers Earthquake Relief Team Returns to Ouanaminthe — Jan. 17th

The relief team from Institution Univers returned early this morning (Sunday, 1-17) around 2:00 a.m. Hugues Bastien’s verbal report can be summed up in the word which was reiterated in virtually every one of his sentences – awful.

The capital city is destroyed. There is no food, clean water, or sanitation. The few remaining medical facilities are absolutely overwhelmed. All of Port-au-Prince is in ruins.

The relief team distributed their supply of food and water, and were almost overtaken by the push of bodies to get the supplies. They witnessed helicopters dropping bundles of food and water from the air. You can imagine the mayhem as survivors scrambled to get at the packages. Our team treated some of the worst victims and then contributed their remaining medical supplies to an established medical center in Leogane.

In terms of percentage of physical devastation, Hugues thought that Leogane, a town about one hour west of Port-au-Prince, was hit worse than the capital. He estimated that 80% of Leogane’s buildings were lying in ruins. The nursing school, where four of our grads were studying, is still standing, but unsafe with major cracks in the walls. Nonetheless, the population of the capital city suffered worse because of the density of population and closely built structures of multiple floors.

Our team left Ouanaminthe Friday morning before dawn with one of our I.U. buses, our pick-up, and a rented bus. Once in the capital, through a miscommunication with the driver of the pick-up, the fuel which the team had taken with them was given away before filling up our vehicle rather than after. So they drove north with just a bit of fuel in the tank, and finally found fuel for sale at an exorbitant price, but considered it a bargain considering the horrible state of affairs.

They brought back over 100 people to Ouanaminthe. The pick-up was stuffed inside and out. The bus was full both inside and on the roof. Many other vehicles were headed north with similar overloading.

Mèt Arne, our high school assistant principal, discovered that his wife is okay, but his 15-year old daughter along with many other students in her school died.

Dr. Riccardo, former employee of UMC, and his mother died in the quake.

The government’s Northeast Department director of education died. Several senators, other top governmental officials, heads of police stations, and many U.N. personnel died – and untold tens of thousands more. I don’t know if we ever will have an accurate count of the dead. Estimates range from 50,000 to 500,000. Some bodies have already been covered in mass graves and many are uncounted under the rubble. But still many, many corpses are lying exposed, bloated, and stinking. People are becoming accustomed to them, sitting next to them, sleeping next to them, for lack of any place else to go.

In the busload and pick-up full of people returning to Ouanaminthe were the four I.U. graduates studying at the nursing school of Leogane – Roberta Altidor, Manessa Lovinska, Emmanuella Ton-Aimé, and Ange-Marie Hyacinthe, none of whom sustained physical injury. Four other I.U. graduates were in Port-au-Prince at the time of the quake. We still have not heard from Pedro Pierre and Aloussie Polidor. Lynne-Vie Dutrevil and Fabienne Fleurant were in a crumbling building together. Fabienne managed to escape but Lynne-Vie fell under a collapsing wall. Her foot was pinned, and needed to be rescued some time later. Nevertheless, her foot was so badly damaged that it was amputated above the ankle. We will be looking for a way to get her a prosthesis. She has agreed to give a testimony of God saving her life in church next Sunday.

On the way to the capital, our I.U. bus broke down on the way to Port-au-Prince and was left in Terrier Rouge, a northern city. The pick-up developed steering and brake problems but managed to complete the trip. So our means of making a quick second trip to the capital is handicapped.

The President has declared the nation in mourning for a month. Therefore all schools will be closed nationwide at least for that time period. We’ll see if schools are permitted to reopen after that.

The good news, if there is any, is that the team witnessed no gang activity or looting, but people are desperate for water and food.

Hugues concluded with, “Awful, awful, awful. No sanitation, no clean water, no food, no medicine. Everyone wants to leave the city. Port-au-Prince is no more.”

Lamentations,

Dave Mann

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An e-mail from Dave Mann in Ouanaminthe Haiti
January 14, Two days after the Earthquake

As you all know by now, Ouanaminthe and all the north of Haiti has been spared the physical devastation of the earthquake. However, there are many effects that continue to unfold. The more we hear about Port-au-Prince, the worse it sounds. All the banks are closed throughout the country. So we are operating with what cash we happened to have on hand. All bank balances are inaccessible for the moment. Wiring money to Haiti will not be a viable option for the foreseeable future. Funds will need to be carried in physically. The cell phone system is non-functional, so communication to and from Port-au-Prince is virtually non-existent.

The need is staggering. We cannot even begin to imagine the extent of this catastrophe. On a personal level, the two I.U. graduates from last June who were enrolled at Quisqueya University in Port-au-Prince (Jean-Gardy Saint-Vil and Ronel-Ange Angenor) were still in Ouanaminthe for their Christmas break when the quake hit. We just learned today that their rented apartment is now nothing but rubble. Two other 2009 I.U. grads were in Port-au-Prince looking for jobs (Pedro Pierre and Lynne-Vie Dutrevil). Both survived, but one has a broken leg. We still have not heard from the four I.U. grads studying at the nursing school in Leogane (just an hour west of Port-au-Prince) – Roberta Altidor, Manessa Lovinska, Ange-Marie Hyacinthe, and Emmanuella Ton-Aimé. Many, many Ouanaminthe residents have family members in the capital city area. Since no phones are working, everyone is extremely anxious. Only bits and pieces of news reach us by word of mouth. We covet your prayers.

“How can I help?” is the question that so many people are asking. Answering this question is complicated by the fact that there is currently no way to communicate by phone in Haiti. Short of actually traveling to the capital, we have no way of partnering with a hospital, school, or church there. Therefore, plans to travel are in the works.

1. Immediate disaster relief (water, food, shelter, medical care) needs to happen now. Giving to reputable organizations that know how to do this (and are doing it) is the best way to address the immediate need. Samaritan’s Purse, Doctors Without Borders, Lutheran World Relief, Catholic Relief Services, and The Red Cross are all good options.
2. On-going relief: We at Univers will definitely be involved in on-going relief work and rebuilding. We are in the assessment stage at this point. Hugues plans to travel to Port-au-Prince to see where we can best be involved. Our good friend Nene Manigat of Aide et Action is in Port-au-Prince currently. We have recently developed a relationship with a school in Port-au-Prince, Univers Frère Raphaël, but no word from them yet. No doubt, a portion of the surviving population of the capital city will be seeking to relocate north. So, it is possible that we will have new refugee residents with us. As you see, we have a number of ways that will help us determine the best avenue to help. Donations can be channeled through www.HaitiCOCINA.org <http://www.haiticocina.org/> . We will also be asking our students, staff, and their families to participate in a collection to assist in the relief work. We have done this in the past for hurricane relief in 2008 and for a special Christmas gift to the Good Samaritan old folks home. We are proud to say that our poor families respond beyond our expectations. We will establish a special fund for donations earmarked for earthquake relief.

Thanks for your on-going partnership in Christ,
Dave Mann, in Ouanaminthe, Haiti

Hugues Bastien forms local Board of Directors for school and clinic (October 20 2009)

This Saturday marked what may prove to be an important date in the structuring of Institution Univers Chrétien d’Haïti.
As many of you know, we have struggled for some time with the seemingly whimsical application of taxation laws in Haiti.  We believe that we are paying our lawful taxes, only to be informed that we have totally ignored the payment of another one.  This is especially true when we seek to pass a container through customs.  When we ask how the tax is calculated we are given arbitrary numbers which do not make sense.  In the end, we are obliged to pay whatever is presented to us.
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