Interview: Fredy Rivera, Hilfswerk Austria International

Children are priority

"Earthquake happened on 12th of January, 4:50 in the afternoon. I got SMS from our partners in Port-au-Prince. They tried to explain the situation but they didn't know how big the earthquake was and how vast consequences it had"


By DANICA VLAČIĆ (danica.vlacic@wavemagazine.net)
from Wien, AUSTRIA


Fredy Rivera, Programme director of HWA, has been working for a long time in the field of development and disaster relief, but he evaluates the situation in Haiti as quite different than any other disaster he had come across. Hilfswerk Austria International has been already setting up projects in Haiti when the news arrived.

- After 30 minutes it happened, our partners told us about the earthquake, and we have then followed the news and anticipated that is was a big disaster going on there in Haiti. They tried to describe the situation telling that it was terrible to see thousands of dead people, and lots of bodies on the streets. We have decided to react immediately and to contribute in some way there.

You have recently come back from Haiti. How would you describe the situation there?

I arrived there in Port-au-Prince, four days after the earthquake. First, I arrived to Santo Domingo and there I bought some medicines and food, and I brought one medical doctor and nurses with me. We have arrived in Port-au-Prince after 6-8 hours, and the situation there was terrible. I cannot really describe how ugly it was, this massacre. We went through the city centre, the most affected area called Pétionville, and I can tell you that it was something that you cannot imagine; to see thousands of bodies on the streets after four days. Government has started to clean city, and to bury some bodies, but it was still lots of bodies on the streets and inside these buildings and ruins.

Public buildings were the most affected buildings in the city, because they were of a bad quality. All the schools, the ministries, the police station, Universities, were first to collapse. It was a disaster to see so many bodies outside the schools, lots of mothers and elders; fathers crying and looking for the children, and also the children looking for the other pupils. It was very ugly and desperate situation. People were going around, running, looking for parents, looking for friends. They didn't have anything to eat, anything to drink. The aid was not really coming. The only one who could immediately react and help were the people from Dominican Republic. They made a big job, but it was not enough.

Even before the earthquake, Haiti was the least developed country in Western hemisphere, and you (your organization) already had projects there. What were the problems that you were addressing before earthquake, and what are they now? Have the priorities changed?

Priority number one continues to be the children and malnutrition. It is one of the most significant indicators of the poverty. Part of the population that suffer the most of this situation are the children, and children continue to be our priority. However, we now have different levels of the approaches how to contribute to the emergency response. We help displaced and injured people in Port-au-Prince. We provided them with medicines, with food, and tents and we paid most attention to orphans and very bad injured people.

We are also now trying to attend people who are moving to the north of the country, since everything is destroyed in the capital city. We are working in the field of agriculture, because people have to solve this original problem. But the condition with malnutrition of children will be disastrous in the next months, and in the next year, because in the last two years they had a dry period in the region, and the agriculture suffered. They have very bad crops. And now with even more population under these bad conditions, the situation there will be even worse.

Now you are trying to provide immediate assistance. What about long-term projects that could help Haiti to stand on its feet again?

For the emergency response we have short term interventions from six months to one year, but in the area of malnutrition we have started the last year with the long term integrated approach, and we hope that we can start within next weeks a project that will last for 2-3 years. Connected with malnutrition is also a food security and knowledge. Families could do more if they have had some level of knowledge about this phenomenon. If they know how to combine some sorts of the food, they can make better food preparation for their members of the family. We help them with the small gardens in the field of agriculture, and this is the project we want to implement for long. Hopefully, we'll find friends to help us in this project within local authorities, local people, and local actors, that's our intention.

There are predictions that it will take four years just to return in state one day before the earthquake. What is your evaluation?

Well, they do not have to go back to this first day, they need to redesign and reconstruct the country. It will be different country. It is even now different country. Difference in the minds of the people and disaster is bigger than the physical disaster of the country. They have new ideas and political parties, together with the civil society they are trying to design and define new strategy to identify opportunities and challenges, so that they can make an improvement for the people in sustainable way. And I think it will take years and years, more than ten years. The support of international community also has to continue in the next 10-20 years.

How's the assistance of international community? Are people satisfied with it?

There are different opinions. People are desperate there in these camps, they need water and food, and on the other side international organizations are fighting with the problems of logistics and coordination. Lot of them have no idea about the country, how does it work there, and what do people think. It is not easy for them to deliver help. People are complaining also that Government has been too quiet, and that it did not have the leadership in the whole process. Some people are satisfied and others are not.

I have seen the reports from last night showing that IDPs are now going back to their destroyed houses, because they didn't get anything what they have expected to get in these camps. They don't see the big contribution. For me this could be seen as bad signal for international support. It will be one of the biggest challenges to bring in and invest the money in a better way.

Are there any administrative problems or other issues that could prevent Hilfswerk to deliver help in Haiti?

At the beginning it was chaotic situation, with no regulations, nor coordination. After some days, the international community started to form some coordination within UN agencies. The Government has disappeared, since within Ministeries also lot of people died, so they were paralysed and they couldn't do anything. But now, after one month, the regulations start to be implemented, and it starts to get a little bit complicated. Now I have to ask for some data from Ministry of Health, so that they let us go through with medicines, which was not the case some weeks ago. Things start to get into normality, and this is also a case with the bureaucracy. But we hope that they are also aware of the situation and that they have to support the international community.

Is there a possibility that we'll have large number or refugees after this tragedy? Are people trying to escape Haiti?

I think we have a very particular situation now. At the beginning, the first reaction of people, at least of those who had a little bit money, was to try flying to Dominican Republic, or probably to Miami through Dominican Republic. But after some days, all the people got convinced that it will be necessary to stay there, and the big movement of people outside the country didn't take place. However, they are now moving to original places and townships. Dominican Republic has expected more people to come there, and they had a fear that their health system will collapse, but it didn't happen. Haitians are convinced that the country needs their contribution.

Yesterday I got a call from the colleague, Haitian, and she wants to go back now to Haiti. It's an interesting phenomenon. People now know that there will be opportunities in Haiti, they are going back.

Is there a place for fear that somebody will try to earn on this tragedy? What's the situation regarding crime now?

Reports you can hear and see on TV about the crime and people that don't facilitate the distribution of the food; that there is the fear that Haitians will attack you, are not true. On the contrary, I have seen the big solidarity among them; among mothers who were looking for the children, and also lot of young people looking for missing ones. They are so committed and they have done a lot of work with rescuing people, looking for disappeared and missing people and supporting the children.

I was all the time in the contact with the people from this country, and I can tell you it is not true. I haven't witnessed any dangerous situation concerning crime there, but I have seen solidarity, lots of feelings, lots of heart, and lots of humanity.



(Published: 10.03.2010.)