Customs, politics, ports all conspire to make it difficult for storm
relief to reach needy locations quickly
Sunday, September 21, 2008
By Jacqueline Charles, Trenton Daniel and Casey Woods, The Miami Herald
MIAMI -- Thomas Sagaser, 4 feet 8 inches of earnest altruism, stands
outside his school with a glass jar and a sign that says, "Please help."
The fifth-grader at Mary Help of Christians Catholic School in Parkland
spends his free time telling friends about the ruin wrought by
back-to-back storms.
"They were, like, really freaked out," said Thomas, 10. "Now, all they
want to do is help."
Finding big-hearted friends may be easier than getting the goods to
Haiti or Cuba, the countries hardest hit.
The path from donation jar to the hands of a needy family is fraught
with obstacles on both ends of the journey.
The two disaster-ravaged countries present very different challenges.
The long, confrontational history between Cuba and the United States
creates a uniquely delicate political dynamic, although the distribution
of aid is generally well run once it arrives on the island. With Haiti,
the biggest problems are shipping delays and roads and bridges now swept
away by flooding.
With Haiti, it often takes five weeks or more for an aid shipment to
reach those who need it. With Cuba, once the bureaucratic hurdles are
cleared, it can take as little as five days.
The crisis in the Caribbean has hit a nerve in South Florida, where many
have ties to the countries that are just now beginning what promises to
be a years-long process of recovery. The outpouring has drawn a
cross-section of South Florida society, with everyone from the
Miami-Dade state attorney's office to a South Florida Muslim group
pitching in.
Many were moved by the images of dead children and crushed homes.
Linda Mae Stubbs, a first-time donor from the Bahamas, was so shocked by
what she saw that she hurried to Notre Dame D'Haiti church in Little
Haiti to drop off bags of water, shoes, and clothes once worn by her and
her husband.
"I feel sorry for the people over there," said Ms. Stubbs, 60, of North
Miami.
But donors like Ms. Stubbs rarely understand the complicated and
time-consuming process of providing relief.
"Everybody's gathering stuff and putting it in boxes and assuming
everything will go well," said Carolyn Rose-Avila, a former relief
worker for World Vision, which has offices in Washington, D.C. "You have
to have distribution channels that work."
Sending goods to Haiti without the proper paperwork or someone on the
other end to pick it up can mean months in storage -- and thousands of
dollars in private storage fees.
The most straightforward, selfless missions can become a hassle.
Consider what awaited Joe Hurston, president of Air Mobile Ministries of
Titusville, Fla., when he flew into Port-au-Prince eight days ago. His
cargo: nine purifying machines, each capable of transforming 20 gallons
of muddy glop into drinkable water.
His destination: an orphanage in Gonaives.
Airport customs agents delayed him for six hours and made him pay $200,
he said.
Jean-Jacques Valentin, Haiti's director of customs, said the country has
in fact waived the normal import duties for hurricane relief items. But
those items must be routed through the civil protection office.
He said Mr. Hurston was given the option of not paying a fee and handing
over the goods to civil protection. Mr. Hurston chose to pay the $200
and make delivery himself.
"He did not accept what we asked him to do," Mr. Valentin said.
Groups such as World Vision send supplies before the hurricane season
starts in anticipation of disasters that might require an immediate
response.
One bottleneck is dealing with Haitian ports. Cross International, a
Christian relief agency in Pompano Beach, Fla., said a container can sit
in a Haitian port for more than three weeks before it clears customs --
an eternity in the disaster situation now facing the impoverished
Caribbean nation.
The problems at the ports are only the beginning of the gauntlet.
The World Food Program is struggling with trying to move thousands of
pounds of food from Port-au-Prince to storm victims outside the capital.
The program hitches a ride on U.S. and U.N. helicopters to transport
food and water to the hardest hit areas.
But there aren't enough landing pads in the remote areas that suffered
some of the worst devastation. And even if you could land, there are few
passable roads for distributing the goods from there.
"It's difficult to explain to people the logistical constraints," said
Riad Lodhi of the WFP.
Moving through the Haitian countryside presents added hardships.
Recently, shipments were delayed because officials were trying to figure
out which of the eight collapsed bridges to replace with a temporary
100-foot bridge provided by the United Nations.
Suzanne Brooks, director of the Center for International Disaster in
Haiti, said the impassable roads and damaged ports are among the reasons
her group encourages those wishing to help "to select one of the many
experienced relief agencies on the ground in Haiti and make a monetary
donation."
With Cuba, the complications in getting aid to the affected come on the
front end, with the sometimes complex process of securing permission to
send supplies or money to the communist country. Because of the U.S.
embargo on Cuba, aid organizations must be licensed to send money or
goods or to travel to the island.
Many organizations were turned down in the past. Others have fought
legal battles to keep licenses that the United States declined to renew.
"This administration has put every obstacle it can in front of people
like me," said Eddie Levy of Jewish Solidarity in Miami, which is
licensed to send cash donations and powdered milk to the Sephardic
Jewish community in Havana.
As damage estimates continue to mount in Cuba -- on Tuesday, officials
said damage would top $5 billion -- the U.S. government has responded
with expedited licenses for agencies that provide humanitarian aid.
Several local groups reported getting new licenses in recent days at a
faster pace than usual.
The U.S. government also increased the amount of cash that groups with
existing authorizations could send to Cuban storm victims.
Several aid groups say that once goods reach Cuba, they move through a
relatively swift distribution system.
Catholic Charities, for example, is using local donations to purchase
40,000 pounds of beans, rice and canned goods for the island. The goods
are turned over to Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. church's
international relief and development arm. That agency has a license to
ship humanitarian items, and is currently preparing at least five
containers for Cuba.
For hassle-free delivery of aid, the Haitian government suggests donors
send an e-mail to cyclonemefhaiti.gouv.ht.
First published on September 21, 2008 at 12:00 am
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