13 January 2011
American Muslims Remain Committed to Rebuilding Haiti
Washington — After last year’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, American Muslim relief groups dashed to the quake zone to help victims with food, shelter and medicine. Today, Islamic Relief USA and the Zakat Foundation of America continue to serve the immediate needs of Haitians while developing programs to help them sustain themselves.
Doing so, though, has not been easy.
Asma Yousef, a spokeswoman for Islamic Relief USA, said security concerns hamper relief efforts and U.N. vehicles often shuttle aid workers from one area to another.
“We do understand that this is part of the risk inherent in our line of work worldwide, and in Haiti in particular,” she said.
Along with security, transportation poses challenges that require creative strategies and lots of cooperative effort. Partnerships are key. Khalil Demir, of the Zakat Foundation, described how his organization had to deal with a slowdown at the Haitian border: “Eventually, we had to call churches in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti to open the truck and distribute everything at the border,” Demir said.
In the past year, the American Muslim relief groups have responded to ever-changing needs on the ground. When a cholera outbreak erupted after Hurricane Tomas hit Haiti at the beginning of November 2010, they developed programs to help fight the disease, which has claimed nearly 4,000 lives.
Islamic Relief provides fresh water and training on cholera prevention at its Port-au-Prince and Carrefour camps. A recently approved $100,000 grant through Islamic Relief will support a cholera-prevention education program.
“We provide wash water used for washing dishes, clothes and bathing that is separate from safe drinking water for the inhabitants,” Yousef said. Islamic Relief uses “community mobilizers” to check “tent by tent” for any water-related problems in the camps. “We also distribute hygiene kits to camp inhabitants, which include soap, toilet paper, toothpaste, hand sanitizers and a bucket.”
The Zakat Foundation responded to the cholera outbreak by buying 1,000 water purifiers, made in Haiti, for distribution. However, the manufacturing capacity there is not enough to meet demand: Demir said that it would take months for Haitians to fill an order for 5,000 purifiers. He said he plans to help Haitians form a company to meet the need.
“Why can we not invest in a company, to create a company, which builds all of these? Because the water problem is not going to go away,” Demir said. “The company itself should be a cooperative, with whatever it produces going toward community development.”
Demir’s organization already had operations in Haiti before the earthquake. Since 2008, in coordination with St. Clare’s Church in Port-au-Prince, it has been helping to feed several hundred orphans. After the quake, the Zakat Foundation expanded its programs to help feed up to 200 more children at other orphanages. A report released January 7 by UNICEF said 380,000 children remain displaced.
As they tend to immediate humanitarian needs, both organizations are creating programs that should make it possible for more Haitians to support themselves.
Three months after the quake, the Zakat Foundation purchased a tractor for the Haitian Farm Cooperative in central Haiti and donated thousands of seeds. With Zakat support, the 60-acre cooperative dug a well to supply water during the country’s dry season for its mango and banana trees.
“We are trying to give them the feeling you don’t need to always expect that foreigners come and give you orders and money,” Demir said. “We try to get them out of this circle and start thinking independently from our organization.”
Yousef said Islamic Relief’s contractors and administrative staff are Haitian citizens, which is “our way of helping Haitians become self-sufficient.” A Haitian computer instructor, who provides vocational training to students at one of Islamic Relief’s camps, recently improved his family’s living conditions.
“In the aftermath of the earthquake, he lost his home and university job, as the university building never got rebuilt,” Yousef said. “With wages he generated from his job with Islamic Relief, he was able to move out of Akra Nord camp, and rent a house for his family of five.”
Islamic Relief’s Cash for Work program is helping people earn an income while they clear rubble from their neighborhoods. Most estimates say only 5 percent of the some 20 million cubic feet of rubble has been cleared. To date, the Cash for Work program’s 450 beneficiaries have cleared an estimated 20,000 tons of rubble from the Delmas 33 and Carrefour neighborhoods near Port-au-Prince.
“After a local community mobilizer designates an area for the project, Islamic Relief pays participants cash for clearing rubble from the location,” Yousef said. “This project has employed a lot of women who otherwise had no other means of generating income for their families.”
Partnerships continue to be vital for both American Muslim relief groups in Haiti. Shortly after the earthquake, the Zakat Foundation teamed with volunteer doctors from the Islamic Medical Association of North America to provide medical care for victims, and it continues a relationship with the Catholic Church to feed orphans. Islamic Relief cooperated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to airlift $300,000 worth of medicine, food and supplies just days after the quake, and its staff regularly meet with U.N. agencies to coordinate aid work.
For the work to go on, the Zakat Foundation and Islamic Relief continue to appeal for funding on their websites.
“One important message we try to convey to our donors is that work in Haiti is far from being done,” Yousef said. “Education-centered projects and income-generating initiatives are direly needed.”
More information and opportunities to contribute are available from the websites of Islamic Relief USA and the Zakat Foundation of America.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
