HAITI UPDATE: June 7, 2010

Extraordinary Day
Extraordinary Trip
Extra ordinary Meeting
Extraordinary Achievements

I wanted to provide a very brief synopsis of our Extraordinary Day today spent in Port au Prince Haiti with our Haiti Task Force. I needed to do so because you have not heard from me in some time and in addition this was one of the most successful Rotary Days I believe I have ever experienced and want to share it.

The primary purpose of the trip was to have the Donor Advised Fund Account Holders go to Haiti to meet the Task Force, The Account Holders are made up of the following Rotarians, Rotary Vice President and current Board member Eric Adamson, PRID Bob Stuart, PRID Barry Rassin and RIDE John Smarge. They wanted to listen to and understand the needs as defined and expressed by the Rotary Clubs of Haiti and the Haiti leadership Team, They also wanted to understand from the senior people in the Haitian Government responsible for Education in Haiti what their plans were and what recommendations they had. The Account Holders also wanted to reach a consensus on our direction forward based on these discussions. In addition it was an opportunity for them to establish the criteria and procedural requirements that will need to be met to receive funding. There was a VERY productive meeting on that and PRID Barry Rassin will elaborate in much more detail on that. A Special Thank you again to Barry for his commitment to our great District.

In addition to that we were dealing with 3 other major issues, Firstly the current status of the Rotary NGO in Haiti, ROTAH, Secondly The Jaipur Limb Project, and Thirdly the status and release information on the containers we shipped.

On the First item I must say I am absolutely ecstatic about the news on ROTAH. I was presented with a copy of the signed document signed by the Prime Minister etc. as proof that the process has been completed and within days the official published certificate will be in hand, and published in Haiti.

This was an enormous undertaking that has taken us three years and through some of the most difficult challenges and obstacles you can imagine, but we believed in it and it is a reality today. I want to recognize and thank, DGN Guy Theodore, Dr. Claude Surena, and PDG Amos Durosier for everything they have done. This approval was in the true sense of the word “raised from the rubble” after the earthquake and it would not have been possible without the persistence of these fine Rotarians. THANK YOU!!!!

The second item was the Jaipur Limb project. We have agreed that we would undertake this as one of our primary earthquake relief responses and are now moving forward with the consensus of all the Haitian clubs and leaders to proceed. We believe a modified version which includes a mobile clinic will be the best one and we will immediately begin to define the scope of the project with the new conditions applied. It is likely that the DAF would provide some seed funding for this as well if it is required although we do not believe that to be the case.

The third item was the status of the relief containers and the release of them. Again we have very good news here. PDG Amos Durosier for those that do not know heads up the Anti-Corruption unit of the Haitian government. His involvement with the top levels of the Haitian government is daily so he knows them all personally and well. The release documents have been signed off by the Ministry of Interior and Planning Department (I think I have that right), and will be delivered to the Minister of Finance today as we fly back to Nassau or tomorrow. Amos has already presented this to the Minister of Finance and he assured Amos that he will sign off on it as soon as it touches his desk. He also said he would be sure to ask for it so it reached his desk immediately.

For those of you who know Haiti we have done the equivalent of moving a mountain here. We went the legitimate process all above board and got it done. A very special congratulations to all the fellow Haitian Rotarians that made this possible, and there were many. Going forward our NGO status with ROTAH takes all of the challenges we have had with this shipment off the table as it goes Directly to Customs with our Status Certificate.

When we left we felt the Task Force was untied and organized and fully up to the challenges ahead. We are in flight on the way back to Nassau, (31/2 hours each way) and I think I can say that I speak for everyone on the plane. It was a GREAT DAY !!!!

Many , more details to follow but as always our Supreme Rotarian PRID Barry Rassin will be putting out a comprehensive summary covering everything.

Thanks to Vance Johnson our pilot and Odyssey for their great support.

PDG Dick