Talk Nation Radio for January 20, 2010
Suncere Ali Shakur on Grass Roots Aid for Haiti
For quick updates go to Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
here. Mass population relocation planned for Haiti. See initial BBC report
here. They are moving people now, and told press the intention is to move 400,000 from Port au Prince to relocation centers, tent cities, but the tents are said to hold 10,000 people.. they will not apparently be individual ones, and they are not yet set up. Questions remain about the way this relocation will impact Haitians, but the concerns as explained to press are that 1.) they are trying to prevent an epidemic. 2. security: "Security concerns are also limiting the delivery of aid by road from the Dominican Republic. The BBC's Gary Duffy, who is at the border with Haiti, says only two convoys guarded by UN troops are entering Haiti each day". 3. May will bring the seasonal rains. MORE below..
This week's Talk Nation Radio is a first report from a new group with a history of success in New Orleans as Common Ground. For Haiti they have formed a collective of ad hoc organizations.
We hear about the urgently needed grass roots medical and food aid efforts by some of same people who went into New Orleans in 2005 to help the most poor victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Their first team into Port au Prince is already working to give out aid and provide medical support. A second group is waiting in the wings, and there are more groups preparing to go. They will help the Haitian people through ad hoc people's aid efforts as they network and build solidarity from the USA to Haiti and back.
