First full day – some observations

Scott posted the strategy of the social impacts team. One of the lasting impressions I have from speaking to vendors and IDP camp residents is the still critical need for basic relief supplies: food, water, medical supplies and larger tents to replace the schools, church, and hospital facilities. While these needs are evident, many people first spoke about the need for jobs. Everywhere we went, people were looking for jobs of any kind. Even the venders who sat on the street said they only came because there was nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. They had few customers. The is a heavy sense of everyone waiting and waiting, but for no one could really articulate for what.

In the afternoon, two members of the team also spoke with a Bishop of one of the country’s major religious organizations. Most of the country’s social services are provided through church complexes – schools, clinics, nutrition sites, feeding sites, cultural activities, and services for marginalized community members. The high percentage of church properties that experienced collapsed or heavily damage, certainly well over half in the Port-au-Prince area, will have significant and long-lasting impacts beyond church parishioners.