Rev. Tania Guzman of MCC Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) Reports from Haiti Relief Efforts

12 February 2010

We have just arrived back in the Dominican Republic and are exhausted from the events of the day.

The team of five volunteers and three drivers from ICM Santo Domingo departed for Haiti at 4am on Thursday, February 11^th.  From the church were Rev. Tania Guzman, Wilkin and three Haitian church members (Webster, Gregory and Jonel) who are very familiar with navigating Haiti and whose families still live in the areas affected by the earthquake.

We developed a very effective system that involved having the church members contact their families and select one person for us to deliver the food to.  When we approached the drop off points, we contacted the individuals via cell phone.  Once we arrived at each point of delivery the contact person was already there waiting for us and we only had seconds to get all the food out of the bus and leave before we were noticed and crowds would gather.

Each person receiving the delivery was so grateful and happy and blessed our efforts and the journey.

When we arrived, we were greeted by friends of our church members who arranged to met us and helped us make the deliveries.  As it turned out, 2 of these friends are members of POZ, the GLBT organization that was meeting during the earthquake and lost some of their members in the building collapse.  They were so grateful and touched by the church’s efforts to help.  I will provide more detailed information later regarding this organization and ways to help them further.

We wanted to capture photos to share with the world but it was difficult because we had to move so quickly.  We hope that our stories will suffice.  It was bittersweet for our Haitian church members  because they could only see their loved ones for the few moments we were unloading things for them.  Their parents wanted to hold on to them, but we only had what felt like seconds to be with them and then we had to let go.

We were able to make deliveries to 22 families and had more food left which we just handed out to people on the street very quickly as we drove through some of the affected areas.

I have been following the situation in Haiti through the news media since the disaster happened, but it was hard to actually be there and see the devastation with my own eyes.  There were tents everywhere; in public areas, even on the medians of what were once very busy streets.  Most of them are not even real tents but bed sheets and pieces of fabric.  There is still a lot of chaos and unrest and the streets were filled with  thousands of people who were in desperate need of food and relief.

This experience was overwhelming.  Our hearts went out to those that we were able to assist.  This was a life changing experience for each of us.

We still have funds remaining and we were able to do a lot of bargaining for things because we want to continue to help where we can.  It was the consensus of our group that we need to make another trip, this time with tents and tarps so that they can have shelter from the elements.

Thank you MCC for all of your support in making this relief effort possible.  Please continue to hold us and the people of Haiti in your hearts and prayers.

Blessings,

Rev. Tania Guzman

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