— Home From Haiti —

Bret McEvoy: There Is Still Much Work To Be Done In The Earthquake Zone

 

By Shannon Hicks

Bret McEvoy has been to Haiti twice since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the region earlier this year. The Newtown resident and AmeriCares employee was in the country within 48 hours of the January 12 disaster for three weeks, and returned to the area in March month to provide additional relief as an AmeriCares manager of emergency response. Now that he is home again, the 28-year old has had some time to reflect on his experience.

Back in January, Bret was at the airport in Port-au-Prince when the first AmeriCares plane with $6 million worth of critically needed medical aid for survivors arrived in the country on January 17. Bret and AmeriCares teammates were responsible for receiving antibiotics, pain medicines and other critically needed relief supplies, as well as bottled water and nutritional supplements. He spent three weeks shuttling supplies from the airport to their intended destinations: hospitals and medical clinics that had been damaged and/or lost a significant amount of their supplies.

When he returned during the first week of March, he continued that work. His trip was in part to offer relief to other AmeriCares employees, a few staff members who had been in the country since January.

“My primary reason for returning was to provide continuity while they took a break,” Bret said recently. “They’d been there eight weeks straight by then and are planning on being there for a few months.”

In addition to receiving more shipments, Bret also worked with others to visit some of the recipients of AmeriCares aid and do assessments of the hospitals and clinics that were receiving supplies. AmeriCares is offering short-term relief by way of the medical supplies that continue to be shipped in, and the organization is also committed to significant long-term planning such as infrastructure rebuilding.

“We wanted to see how they were doing, what they still need, and how best to support their work,” he explained. “Our organization has a lot of experience in this kind of work, and I have the background to provide support. I feel very proud about the work we’re doing as an organization.”

Bret has been working for AmeriCares since early 2006 when he volunteered in the fundraising department of the Stamford-based international organization. He was hired that July as an associate in Middle East Partnerships. He was then promoted to senior associate of gift-in-kind process management in January 2008, and moved into his current position in July 2009.

Haiti represents Bret’s first emergency response work for AmeriCares. Before this he had been to Galveston, Texas, in 2008, following Hurricane Ike. Prior to that he did post-Katrina work in New Orleans, and this was after having already done work in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan, presenting ongoing AmeriCares programs.

A Defense Mechanism

The work in Haiti this year has been, to say the least, challenging. Each organization that went into Haiti had a specific purpose. AmeriCares employees were there to provide medical supplies for those who could treat the survivors; they were not there to do search and rescue, yet they heard of and saw first-hand rescues.

“One of my first interactions was seeing a man who was on top of a crumbled home, trying to find his friend while his wife and son watched,” Bret said. “It’s difficult to witness that without participating.”

Bret and the others with him saw plenty of destruction, and heard many cries of despair. When he was leaving the country in early February, Bret blogged one last time about that first trip, writing in part “I feel for their pain, but can’t truly grasp the enormity of their suffering, nor can I estimate the weight of their struggle still to come.”

In another posting, Bret spoke of the Haitian man who was driving his AmeriCares group when they first arrived following the earthquake. The group was passing a house and the Haitian colleague pointed to the house, telling the Americans that it had been the home of his girlfriend.

“He told us how beautiful she was, but that she had died in the earthquake,” Bret’s note continued. “It came out rather nonchalantly, as if its happening wasn’t something unusual or completely profound. And what’s so sad is that for the Haitian people, it wasn’t unusual. It’s the story for so many.”

The enormity of the situation in Haiti was summed up somewhat when Bret overheard a comment made by a pediatrician at Hospital Saint Frances de Sales (a recipient of AmeriCares medical support, which now totals more than $14 million to date). “Haiti will now have a generation of amputees, both physical and emotional,” the doctor had said.

Bret spoke recently about confronting his emotions, or lack thereof, while working in the earthquake zone where as many as 200,000 people may have died and another three million Haitians were in need of emergency aid after the event occurred.

Whether he returns to Haiti for a third time this year has not yet been decided.

“I think a lot,” he said, “about the emotional part of it, and how I didn’t know what my reaction would be. It was difficult for me to come to terms with that I wasn’t emotional. I think there’s something, a defense mechanism, that stops you from taking in everything emotionally. My mind wouldn’t let me go there.

“My productivity, having to help people, stopped me from fully taking everything in,” he said.

When he did return home, Bret settled back into the calmer pace of life he is used to. He returned to work at the AmeriCares office in Stamford, “had the three meals a day, and began to notice the luxuries we take for granted.

“When you get thrown into [an emergency response following a disaster], you realize how comfortable life is here. You very much want to appreciate things.

“It’s hard, though, to keep from slipping back to where you take things for granted,” he said. “But I think as long as you remember what you’ve seen, and reflect on it time after time, that’s something.”

How To Help, Still

There are a few things the United States, including residents of Newtown, can do to continue to help those in Haiti.

“The biggest need is longevity,” said Bret, “for governments, organizations, and people to keep them in their thoughts and on the radar. People need to follow through with their support, their promised donations. Continue to talk about Haiti and the people there. Remember that the need is not dissipating.

“The rainy season will be here in a few weeks. A lot of people still living in tents will have sanitary issues,” he continued. “Temporary housing is really important.”

AmeriCares is working with organizations, said Bret, to prevent disease outbreaks, offer anti-malaria control, and continue to bring sanitation supplies into the earthquake zone.

Financial donations continue to be key, as well.

“As wonderful as collecting in-kind items is, and as well intentioned as that may be, hand cloths and toilet paper may not be the requests we hear on the ground,” said Bret, who suggests that people continue to make donations of any size to well-established groups that are in Haiti, working directly with Haitians.

“Money can be used to purchase what’s really important, like water and medical supplies,” he offered.

Bret’s blog, along with writings by fellow AmeriCares employees Carol Shattuck and Brian Hoyer, is available at AmeriCares.org.